Lady Vols basketball got back on track in a big way on Thursday. Tennessee dismantled Missouri 98-53 at home in Kellie Harper’s return to Knoxville as the Tigers’ head coach.
After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media. She was asked about the response from the South Carolina loss, playing for 40 full minutes,
Here’s what Caldwell said in her press conference.
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Opening statement
“We wanted a response. I think this is a good start. We have to continue it. It’s going to just keep getting harder and harder, too.”
On how proud she is of her team
“Yeah, they absorbed it pretty, pretty quick. I mean, we had an off day, and by the end of the next day, we were moving on, we were moving forward. I think that they did a great job with it and said, ‘Hey, this is what it looks like. This is whether you feel like you’re doing it or not, this is what it looks like. We’ve got to stop it.'”
On the first half offense, playing for a full 40 minutes
“The forty minutes was really important, that we didn’t come out and get lax and see the score and then start taking shots that are not within our offense, people trying to get theirs. I didn’t see any of that tonight, not one second of it, which was really important to me. It meant something to me. I think we did take our foot off the gas a little bit different. And then I think offensively, at the beginning of the game, when we’re sharing the ball, we were going to the rim strong, we were taking good shots, and again, our defense was pretty good, and when our defense is solid, our offense usually follows along.”
On practice this week
“I think what stuck out to me was we had people that really responded to trying to lead and attention to detail, and it was a wake-up call, I think, across the board. And I think every person just was a little more on edge and a little more, ‘Hey, we do have to fix this. This is not acceptable.’ And the attention to detail, the keeping things, eye contact, body language, all of it, was better. And then again, we’re not going to check this box. This box is going to remain unchecked. We’re going to continue to work on this all year.”
On what Janiah Barker gave to the team
“I think she played really hard. I think she didn’t take a second off. She played hard. This was one of her best defensive nights. She was talking. She always rebounds really well for us, and I think her takes to the rim were the best I have seen. She was strong, taking the ball to the rim on offensive rebound putbacks, just going up and getting it and putting it back up with confidence, not afraid of contact. Just willing her way to the rim, which was good to see, because she has so much size and so much kind of power. She should do that every night.”
On if she has an update on Mia Pauldo
“I don’t, no.”
On if the injury happened at South Carolina or in practice
“I think it was South Carolina.”
On Deniya Prawl saying she believes in the system
“I think, again, as I told you guys last time we met, it was, do you think you can do this? ‘Absolutely.’ That’s not the question. It’s the how, it’s the why. It’s why do these things keep happening? Why do we keep having games like this? And we’re still trying to get to the root of that.”
On the positive rebounding differential
“Yeah, I think that when we push pace in transition, it diverts people from trying to go get their rebounds. So I do think pace was really good at the beginning of the game. It was probably the best it’s been in a really long time. And then we talked a lot in the second half about we’ve got to go get offensive rebounds. We have to go get them. If we want to continue to score, we want to continue to trend this way offensively, we got to go get second-chance points, and they did.”
On helping the team keep doing what they did vs. Missouri
“I mean, there’s not very many days left when you think about it. You think about how long we have been working, how long we’ve been together. We’re towards the end of it, so there’s a sense of urgency with all of us now. And it’s not going to be perfect every single night, it’s not going to be perfect every single quarter, but being able to play through that together, I think, for us, is the most important thing.”
On Deniya Prawl’s performance
“Well, she played with confidence. I think she took great jobs to fit our offense and her and Jaida did a great job as forwards going to get rebounds.”
On leadership from players
“It’s interesting when you have a mix of young ones. I think everyone provided something. I think Alyssa was really good. Zee was really, really honest. I think it was one of my proudest moments of Zee, her response to this. So that was good to see. Coop was really good, vocal, which was nice because I’ve wanted our returners to be more vocal all year.”
On establishing a presence in the paint
“We did know we had the size advantage once we found out that their post was out.”
On who surprised her the most in game as a leader
“I think tonight, I don’t know that it would be a surprise, but the person I heard consistently was Alyssa, and it’s just so quiet. She’s just teaching, she’s just telling people what she sees, she’s saying it on the sideline. It’s something that doesn’t show up. It’s not flashy, it’s not loud, but she’s doing it in her own way.”
On offense against the zone
“We talk about sharing the basketball, we talk about moving the ball sideline to sideline. Ball can’t stick, ball sticks with us a lot. I don’t really think we had very many plays where that happened.”
On the moment of leadership with Zee Spearman
“To be fully transparent, she basically said, she’s the one that said, ‘This is what it looks like. This is what it looks like, whether you think you’re doing it or not, this is what it looks like. We have to quit doing it.’ And she thinks we quit, and it looks like we quit. We’re gonna have to fix it. And she had gone back, and she watched the game, and she took accountability for everything. And I think for her, it was a really big moment that everyone looked up to. And as her growth here on the floor has been great, but that moment for me was a great moment for her really to step up and say that, and say, you know, she wants to win as a senior down the stretch.”
On getting her team ready for Texas
“It’s going to be very different. We are going to be physical. We got to be big inside. We got to really, really, really work on box outs and going to get offensive rebounds and taking care of the ball. I’m worried about turning the ball over versus them, and hopefully we can get Mia back on the floor, but we still don’t have an update.”
