Dan Fleser
Some form of the question: “What do you think of the new Tennessee women’s basketball coach?” has come my way a few times since Kim Caldwell was hired last April. Well, maybe more than a few.
I initially rebuked myself for replies that amounted to some form of “I don’t know.” I wasn’t dodging comment but rather wrestling with what I considered to be the gist of the inquiry, namely what kind of a team will she put on the court and how well will it perform. This wasn’t a casual exercise. Caldwell advocates positionless basketball and is implementing multiple full-court pressing alignments. Those changes alone constitute a dramatic overhaul. I doubt that the new coach herself grasps yet how this season – her first at a program of this stature and second overall at Division I – will unfold.
Over time, I’ve buttressed my uncertainty with a thought of which I am supremely confident: “One way or another, it’s going to be interesting.”
Popcorn sales ought to be brisk at Thompson-Boling Arena. Perhaps beer sales will be boosted as well. Here’s a few Lady Vols subjects that, for now, hold my interest:
-Sara Puckett: Caldwell said this about the senior guard earlier in the preseason: “I think Sara Puckett is going to be great at this. I think she is going to thrive. She can shoot, she can drive. She’s mean. It’s a mindset to play this way and so she’s going to play hard every night.”
This is the same player who I watched running wide open on a fast break two seasons ago during an NCAA tournament game against Virginia Tech. Puckett was just running, however, looking straight ahead. Since she wasn’t looking back over her shoulder for teammate Jordan Horston’s pass until it was too late, a possible two points instead became a turnover during the season-ending loss. It was one of the strangest scenes I’ve ever seen play out in a game.
And now I’m being told Puckett will be great at playing a defense in which your head presumably needs to be on a swivel. Sorry, I need to see some game examples of Caldwell’s optimism before unseeing that NCAA memory.
-Defense: For now, I’m less interested in what type of pressure the Lady Vols utilize and more encouraged that defense is being prioritized, period. The program’s trademark staple – the bedrock of eight national championships – has become an old bridge in need of a basketball version of the Inflation Reduction Act to refortify its functionality. Perhaps Caldwell and her style of play will help. It couldn’t hurt, could it?
-What to think: Caldwell also said this during a media interview on Monday: “Everything that we do is a little bit different. (The players) have to unlearn a lot of things that they spent 18-20 years learning.”
If I were a fan, I wouldn’t know whether to reach for the popcorn or guzzle a beer over that comment. If the Lady Vols are trying to reinvent the wheel with their play, well good luck with that approach. I’m assuming that they don’t have something so all-consuming in mind.
One way or another, they need to be playing basketball this season more so than thinking about it.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters, U.S Basketball Writers and Greater Knoxville Sports Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.