Lady Vols basketball looked to bounce back in a road game at Oklahoma, but instead dropped the matchup 100-93. This now marks four-straight losses for Tennessee.
After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media. She was asked about the status of Janiah Barker, the rebounding margin, the amount of fouls and more.
Here’s what she said.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways: Lady Vols Basketball Drops Fourth Straight, Loses to Oklahoma
Post Game Press Conference
Opening statement
“I thought we played hard tonight. We fouled way too much, got killed on the glass. I think it really came down to those two things.”
On losing on the glass, the impact of Oklahoma’s Reagan Beers
“I mean, it’s so hard to, one, get her to miss, and then once you get her to miss, you’re already not in rebounding position to box her out. And she just has so much heart, and she continues to go right back up, and it’s up right before we even can turn around. And so it takes multiple people to get on her, and I think that’s what makes this team so good, is alright, if you put two people on her, they have somebody else that’s gonna go crash, as well.”
On the status of Janiah Barker
“She didn’t meet team standards. Didn’t make the trip. We’ll fix it when we get back. She’s got a bright future and she’ll be fine.”
On what she says to the team during the losing skid
“Yeah, that’s SEC, isn’t it? You’re gonna have patches where you look really good. You’re gonna have patches where you have a tough stretch. We’ve had an incredibly tough stretch. I think you just be honest with your team and they can handle it or not, and sometimes the honesty is not good, and sometimes the honesty is good. And tonight, honestly, our team was fun to coach. We definitely made some basketball errors, but the people that were on the floor played hard. They played together. Not a good third quarter for us, but again, we can make some adjustments from today’s game going forward and be okay.”
On the play of Jaida Civil
“We need it every single game. We need it every single game. And I think hopefully, this was a game where it clicked, and we need that all the time, and she can’t wait. She has to do it from the beginning.”
On Oklahoma’s Zya Vann, her playing with Aaliyah Chavez
“I think what this team does so well is they share the basketball. On any given night, somebody’s gonna step up. And Zya is just such a player that plays hard. She just plays hard. She’s always moving, hard to find. And so they play very well off each other with a dominant center. It’s a great team.”
On 51 fouls being called, playing through stoppages
“It’s a lot of fouls. It’s a lot of fouls, and I think us and Oklahoma like to play fast. We don’t want the game to stop and they don’t miss foul shots, and so you definitely don’t want it to stop. That’s been a common theme in our past couple games, though, and if the officials blow the whistle, then it’s a foul, and so we have to make the adjustment.”
On how they won’t foul going forward
“Again, it’s not an excuse, but we haven’t been able to practice. We’ve had a one-day prep, game, one-day prep, game, one-day prep, game, so we need to put some penalties on fouls in practice. We need to call them tight and they need to have a consequence every single time they foul.”
On if there’s a positive of having this busy stretch
“Yeah, I think so. I think as long as we can stick together and continue to get better each game, then the goal is to be there in the NCAA Tournament. And we’ve played one of the hardest schedules in the country, and then we’ve had some tough ones. We’ve had some close ones. We’ve had some where we’ve won and just continue to learn and grow each game. And that kind of sounds corny, but that really is what we’re trying to do right now, is get our freshmen developed and make sure that we’re all ready and we’re all on the same page, playing together, playing for Tennessee, when it’s all said and done.”
Lady Vol Network Postgame Radio
On evaluating how her team played
“I’m really mad about the 36. That’s the foul shots they made. I’m mad about that. That’s just been trending for us. When we can put some practices together and really penalize them for fouls – they know it, they see it, we just got to stop doing it.”
On Jaida Civil
“She can do that almost every single night, and she needs to continue to do it.”
On Deniya Prawl, Talaysia Cooper
“I thought we played harder tonight. I thought we looked more like what we’re trying to do. Had some fight into us. Again, can’t foul that many times and win anywhere in the world.”
On Nya Robertson
“She went in a little slump and I think she was maybe thinking that was what the rest of her career was going to be. We had a conversation about, ‘Hey, this is a slump. This is not who you are.’ I think that she’s really turned it on since and that’s going to be really important for us going forward. She does everything right every single day and so when you have a kid like that in your program, you’re always rooting for them.”
On if she’s proud of how the team played without Janiah Barker
“I am.”
On taking this offensive showing to LSU
“We got to fix our third quarter and play better defense. They only continue to get harder.”
