Tennessee Lady Vols Overcome Mistakes and Beat Louisville 63-50 on the Strength of a Freshman

So far:
- Tennessee hasn’t been attacking the basket from inside the post.
- Simmons doesn’t move much without the ball, but nobody’s on her.
- Simmons is that aggressive when she’s near the ball.

::headdesk::

She looks like a leader, for lack of better wording. It’s not that everyone else is deferring to her; it’s that she’s strong enough to get everyone behind her. This is uncanny.

It’s way over her head – not quite like a classic men’s shot, since it’s more shortarmed than that – and it doesn’t seem like she’s under control. But she’s also a dead shooter. Not a ton of passing; she believes she’s the best shooter on the floor from what I can tell, and that may be true tonight. But I wonder what’ll happen when Bjorklund is hitting 80%.

23-21 Tennessee, Louisville on a roll with the ball – shot’s missed, and Manning picks up the board. Simmons was slow getting back, so she lands the outlet pass. Simmons’ behind-the-back hesitation move was great; I don’t know if she would’ve made that shot, but drawing the foul there was the smart play to kill momentum.

It’s not an Iverson-esque “this game is mine and you’re just coming along for the ride” control, but it’s there. It feels …a little like Wade, for lack of a better comparison.

Bjorklund and Stricklen went in on a combined trap; once Simmons turned around and realized what happened, she went to cover the closest open Louisville player (in essence forcing a TO if the jump wasn’t called).

Got her defender – who had moved to defend the drive – completely out of position. Open jumper with nobody around at all.

She’s also constantly calling for the ball. I think there’s a bit of an overemphasis on shooting (she’s had a couple of catch-and-shoot threes that probably weren’t the best idea), but since everyone else has let her have the run of the court there’s not much else anyone is going to do about it.

- The game’s been called consistently, I think (aside from a weird jump ball call and one foul I can’t recall offhand).
- I didn’t see what happened exactly with Cain and Baugh. I think they were both a bit too physical for this game, but this goes back to what we saw last season; they need to adjust their games if the refs are calling it tight.
- Inconclusive on Kamiko. I’m thinking you’re right about Stricklen, Hoop.

“Put your heart and soul into defense. I don’t care if you don’t make a shot if you do that. And you’re not doing that.” One guess who said that.

She straight-up stood up Reid on a couple of occasions and has had some decent off-the-ball movement. Not exactly what I expected from her coming into the season, but she’s always had the IQ.

Simmons, of course, is an exception to that, but she shouldn’t be the only one penetrating.

She receives a pass and immediately starts dribbling. Fast.

Simmons had a great inlet pass to Cain, rips down a rebound, and had Bjorklund close behind her for a brief 2v1, but pulled up for a mediocre jump shot opportunity instead.

Simmons was doing some man-on-man trading almost instinctively, picks up a steal, then splits a 1v2, but her steps are a bit too big so she’s in too deep. Then, following a Bjorklund miss, she pulls the board over a 6’2" Reid (I think).

Raw energy all around.

(in other words, what I’ve been waiting for)

Drive in, brought a defender in, leaving Simmons with an open look. She then beat three Vols to the board.

Simmons cut down by the back, found by Bjorklund again.

Simmons sets up on the right side, 3/4 up outside the three-point line. Calls for it. Nails it from 21’ out.

I think she likes that spot.

Between those and the offensive fouls (tightly called game), that was half Tennessee’s problem. There was a good chunk of sloppiness, true, but it wasn’t all slop.

No stats yet, but I would bet that Devrin was at the heart of it.

I hear they’re having a drawing in the Boise student section to see who gets to play qb in the 4th… ;-)