Lady Vols basketball came out flat and never recovered when things swung against them at home against Mississippi State on Thursday. The result was a 77-62 upset loss to the Bulldogs, marking their first defeat of the SEC slate.
Why did things crumble apart so quickly after a 6-0 start to the conference schedule? Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell points to how the team acted heading into the game. She listed a number of things she noticed, including tardiness to warmups.
“I think the prep leading up,” Caldwell said. “People not wanting to play, not listening, having to go back to repeating ourselves, and being late to warmups. So, things like that just were kind of a slap in the face. This was a game I knew we really needed to win. We talked about that. We talked about it’s SEC night, you have to show up every single night and play. And I think their heads got a little bit big. They thought they beat them once and that they were gonna walk in and beat ’em again, and they put it right to us.”
More From RTI: Everything Lady Vols Basketball HC Kim Caldwell Said After Losing to Mississippi State at Home
While Caldwell wasn’t pleased with how the team prepared for the game, she does realize that it falls back on her shoulders. She’s the head coach, and she needs to correct that behavior as soon as she sees it. However, when she did identify it and speak up before the game, she said it was too late.
Now, the next test is against the No. 1 team in the country, UConn, on the road. Will this bad performance snowball into the next game? Caldwell said it very well could, but it’ll be up to the team to fix it.
At the top of the list is seemingly rebounding, an area they lost 50-31 against MSU, but there’s a long list they’ll need to go through. On Friday, it’ll be dedicated to fixing those issues. Then, Saturday will be more of a dive into what UConn does.
“You gotta fix us first,” Caldwell said. “And if it looks like it did today, we’re gonna get ran out of the gym in the first quarter. And so, we gotta fix us first and then start our prep for them.”
Tip-off is scheduled for noon ET and will air on FOX. Tennessee won the matchup a year ago, but now the Huskies hold homecourt advantage and will be looking for revenge.
One Response
One player doing most of the shooting doesn’t appear to be a winning strategy, especially when that player is struggling to score. As much as the Lady Vols substitute during a game another talented player should be shooting and scoring. Go Lady Vols…..