LEXINGTON, Ky. – There was never truly a feeling in Memorial Coliseum that Lady Vols basketballwould make a comeback Thursday night.
The fans at the sold-out arena knew it. Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell saw it. Even Kentucky point guard Georgia Amoore felt it.
“We tried to get a focus on, get them down, keep them down,” Amoore said. “Sometimes you just get a vibe. Sometimes you feel it, you see it on body language and faces, and you know you have them right where you want them.”
Near the end of the first quarter of the 82-58 blowout loss at No. 14 Kentucky, Caldwell saw something new in her team. They looked defeated. There was no resolve, no fight.
“I looked at them, and they didn’t really look like they had a whole lot to give back,” Caldwell said. “(That’s) the first time that I’ve really seen that out of them.”
Tennessee (21-7, 8-7 SEC) has fallen behind by double figures multiple times and come back. But it didn’t do it against Kentucky (22-5, 11-4). For the first time all season, it felt like the game was over at halftime for the No. 11 Lady Vols.
They got outrebounded at every turn and didn’t even crash the boards at times against the tallest frontcourt in the SEC. They couldn’t defend in the half court, they couldn’t defend in transition, and Kentucky picked apart the press. They showed more quit than they normally do, and it snowballed into the largest margin of a loss to the Wildcats in program history.
Tennessee didn’t have consistent effort all game. In an effort-based system, that’s a recipe for a loss every time, especially when Caldwell saw players take plays off when things didn’t go their way.
“Kentucky wanted that game more than us, and it wasn’t even close,” Caldwell said. “We will not burn the tape. We will watch it in slow motion.”
Senior point guard Samara Spencer didn’t feel like the team was connected. She struggled to uplift her teammates, because they were letting mistakes affect them. No matter what anyone said to them, they couldn’t turn it around.
Tennessee has struggled on the road in the SEC, but even Thursday’s performance was shocking after the way the Lady Vols have played recently. They carried a four-game win streak into the game, and they climbed to No. 12 overall in the NCAA Tournament committee’s top-16 seed reveal 30 minutes before tipoff.
But Tennessee squandered an opportunity to secure its place among the top 16 seeds with hosting privileges. It crumbled on the road before it even gave itself a chance to win.
Caldwell’s concern about the performance isn’t anymore more than her normal level of concern with her team. But she made it clear — it’s up to them what the rest of their season looks like.
