Lady Vols travel to Kentucky with tournament seedings on the line

No. 11 The Tennessee Lady Vols head to Lexington Thursday night to take on No. 15 Kentucky (7pm ET, SEC Network) in a key SEC showdown. 

SEC tournament seeding and NCAA Tournament seeding are in play at sold out Memorial Gym. 

“I think Thursday is a big game for us, because it’s going to be a championship type game,” head coach Kim Caldwell said. “There’s not necessarily a lot on the line. I haven’t really looked at our SEC seeding in depth, because I think you can’t, but the game matters. It matters for us. It matters for them. I think that it’s a sold-out game. We’re a team that’s been talking about maturing and coming together playing as a team, being resilient, and our resilience is going to be tested on Thursday.”

For Caldwell and Kentucky head coach Kenny Brooks there won’t be a ton of unknowns between the two. Of all the coaches in the SEC, Brooks has the best feel for Caldwell’s style of play of anyone. 

Caldwell and Brooks squared off in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year with Brooks’ Virginia Tech team blowing out Caldwell’s Marshall team 92-49. Caldwell’s squad trailed by 15 at the half and were outscored 36-9 in the third quarter. Obviously, Caldwell’s Tennessee squad is more talented than her Marshall squad from a year ago. As for what the head coach sees out of Brooks’ first team at Kentucky, she said it looks very familiar. 

“They’re a very good team. They play similar (to Virginia Tech last year),” Caldwell said. “They have two of their key pieces. They are led by the same player. Obviously, Kenny Brooks is a great coach, and he has that program doing exactly what he wants them to do.”

Those two key pieces are Clara Strack and point guard Georgia Amoore who followed their coach to Lexington.

“I think that her and Clara, we have a little PTSD from both of them, I don’t think Clara missed a shot when we played,” Caldwell said. “So, just phenomenal players that are already established, and we’re going to have to put our foot on the gas a little bit more with our pressure.”

Strack went 7 for 7 against Marshall last year for 17 points while Amoore added 9 points and 4 assists. Moore has only improved in her move to Lexington. The leads the Wildcats in scoring at 18.9 points a game. 

“She’s one of, if not the, best point guards in the country,” Caldwell said. “I mean, she makes her team go. She’s the head of the snake for them. She can score, but she also creates shots for other people in ways that you don’t see very often. She will put it to them exactly where they need it to score, and so she definitely makes their offense go.” 

For Caldwell’s team it’s about getting off to better starts on the road. Tennessee trailed by nine at Florida on Sunday. In fact, the Lady Vols have not had the lead at the half in their last five road games. An area of improvement that Caldwell has been imploring for the last month. 

“We have talked about that at length, we need to have a good game on the road,” Caldwell said. “We haven’t had a good game on the road since Arkansas. We have to do a better job. We have to mature a little bit as a team down the stretch.”

One of the keys to doing that will be play in the paint. Tennessee is at their best when everyone is involved and for that to be the case Tennessee must avoid early foul trouble particularly against the inside size of Kentucky. 

“It will be tested again,” Caldwell said of post defense. “It’s got to be tested in a manner where we don’t foul. We’ve got to be strong and physical on the inside. We’ve got to do our work early without fouling. I do think our defense has gotten better from the days we were playing Middle Tennessee and Liberty early, when their post players were getting whatever they wanted. There’s always room for improvement.”

The Lady Vols return home Sunday for senior day as the wrap up the regular season against Georgia.