Lady Vols face tough road test with Sweet Sixteen on the line
The Tennessee Lady Vols look for a trip to the Sweet Sixteen Sunday night as they take on Ohio State on the Buckeyes home floor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Friday night, Kim Caldwell’s team looked refreshed from a 13 day lay off as they routed South Florida 101-66.
“It was a good step for our program. We were hitting shots. It was good to see the ball go in, and hopefully we can do it again. I’m thankful for the day in between.”
The Lady Vols shot 50% from the floor and made 16 three pointers, second high total of the year.
Game two of the tournament will be a very different match-up starting with the fact that it will be a true road game.
“We are definitely on the road. Making sure that we keep our bench energy up, and our huddles tight, and we stay focussed when Ohio State goes on a run. They are going to go on a run. It’s going to be streaky, and you can’t too high or too low.
“When you have a fan base that’s loud and passionate you have to lock in and just look at your teammates in the eye and play through those runs.”
Playing through lulls and mistakes has been one of the biggest challenges for Caldwell’s first team. She liked what she saw on Friday, but knows the adversity in this match up will be different.
“We had more assists and played through mistakes a little bit better,” Caldwell said. “Our next-play mentality was an improvement of what we have had probably the back half of the season.
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“But again, you have to see what it’s like when you’re in the middle of a run of another team and the crowd is into it and see how tough you are then.”
Road venues have not been very kind this season. The Lady Vols are 5-4 in true road games. And playing through mistakes and lulls have been a problem. As offensive struggles have led to poor defense, something Caldwell has been preaching all season.
“I has to come from them,” Caldwell said of having a next play mentality. “It has to be player led. I’m not out there. I can only just say it. I am not the one out there getting stops, so they have realize they can beat anyone. We can be down 10-12 and we just have to keep playing. Hopefully we have learned that lesson. I feel like we have learned it 8 or 10 times this year.”
While Tennessee cruised on Friday so did Ohio State who beat Montana State 71-51. Both teams like to press. Both teams are comfortable in transition and up tempo basketball.
“It’s going to probably be somewhat entertaining,” Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff said. “Their team is built for it. They have got a lot of depth and they have a lot of athleticism and they have got a lot of length, and so they are difficult from that standpoint to play against. And so we know, one, we are going to have to stay extremely organized against the press; when we do break it, make really good decisions at the back end of it. And at the same time, we have to put some pressure on them; that they just can’t — part of the thing yesterday is they got the ball up the floor and kind of did whatever they want. Hopefully our press can have some effectiveness of not just letting them walk it up and do whatever they want.”
Ohio State is 16-0 on their home floor this season and 5-3 on the year against ranked opponents. Tip off is set for 8pm, ET and it will be televised on ESPN.
