Dan Fleser
The first impressions made by Tennessee’s two basketball teams in their regular season openers were as different as the results they experienced.
While the Vols worked their way to home victory over Tennessee Tech on Monday, the Lady Vols threw away any chance of doing likewise in a late tipoff Tuesday night at Ohio State.
Here’s some overview of what transpired on both fronts:
Pressing matter: Ohio State’s full-court pressure defense was bothersome from the start and created a full-blown Lady Vols crisis in the third quarter. In that 10-minute span, they committed 11 turnovers, three more than their total field goal attempts. It was quite the variety show: backcourt violations, an over and back courtesy of an ill-advised pass, a traveling violation, double dribbling, etc.
Overall, the Lady Vols piled up 29 turnovers in the 87-75 loss. Nine players contributed at least one turnover to the mess. The three primary ball-handlers – Jordan Horston, Jasmine Powell and Jordan Walker – accounted for 15. Horston had a team-high seven, which detracted from her 20 points and 13 rebounds. UT’s turnovers corresponded with 37 Ohio State points.
“You never know how aggressive a press is until you actually are playing against it,” Horston said. “We knew they were going to press the whole game, but we just couldn’t execute.”
The irony is the fifth-ranked Lady Vols entered the season believing that playing at a faster tempo suited their purpose. But faster was better for No. 14 Ohio State.
“The game went kind of the way we wanted,” Buckeyes coach Kevin McGuff said. “We wanted to make it very much up-tempo. We wanted to press them, to speed them up and not let them get comfortable in the halfcourt.”
Good shots: The Vols attempted 44 3-pointers in their 75-43 victory over Tech, six short of the school single-game record. They missed 17 of the long-range attempts in the first half and missed 20 shots overall before the break. And coach Rick Barnes didn’t seem bothered by it.
“We’re going to shoot the ball,” Barnes said. “We’ve worked too hard not to do that. I’m not sure we had many of them that were what I would call a bad shot.”
The accuracy aligned better with the selection in the second half, when the Vols shot 43.5 percent from long range (10 for 23).
“We shoot it,” Barnes said. “We work hard at it. Players are the reason. They are the reason we are playing the way we are playing right now. Just watching them play, it is up to us to give them confidence.”
Also noteworthy:
-The Lady Vols’ depth was compromised by foul trouble involving Tamari Key, Rickea Jackson and Jasmine Franklin. They also were without Kaiya Wynn (injured) and Justine Pissott (concussion protocol).
-In his Vols’ regular season debut, transfer guard Tyreke Key made four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 17 points off the bench.
-The Lady Vols didn’t ease into their season by playing at Ohio State. The Buckeyes advanced to the round of 16 in last season’s NCAA tournament. It was the first time in 13 years that the Lady Vols had opened against a ranked team and the first time ever in a true road setting. Two more teams from last season’s NCAA field, UMass (Thursday night) and Indiana, are next on the schedule.
-Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper on Tuesday’s third-quarter meltdown: “We became really passive. And the more passive we became, the more aggressive Ohio State became and we just couldn’t get it back.”
* * *
Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a 2022 inductee to the Tennessee Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.