The message was loud and clear: Flip the script.
Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt thundered the theme in her usual fashion at halftime after the Lady Vols meandered through the first half against East Tennessee State Wednesday night.
“I’m not going to tolerate that,’’ Summitt said. “(Athletic director) Joan Cronan would fire me if I did that.”
To their credit, the players got the sermon started, scolding each other before their coach entered the locker room. This wayward team, as much as many UT squad, knows the drill.
“Our defensive intensity wasn’t there,’’ UT senior guard Angie Bjorklund said. “We weren’t playing together. We weren’t getting the ball inside to where our strengths were.
“After halftime, we made sure it was a different story.”
Did they ever.
Led by Bjorklund’s 16 points, Tennessee fashioned an entirely different performance after the break, storming to a 102-53 rout of the Lady Bucs before a crowd of 11,571 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
A 13-point scoring run within the first seven minutes erased any memory of a shaky 46-32 halftime lead. At one point, Tennessee was shooting 16-for-19 from the floor.
When the onslaught was complete, Bjorklund had swished four 3-pointers for No. 5 Tennessee (11-2), matching former guard Shanna Zolman’s career record with 266.
“I’ve always looked up to Shanna,’’ Bjorklund said. “I have a lot of respect for her. Just to be tied with her is a huge honor. We’ll see what happens next game.”
Bjorklund will take aim at a new record Dec. 30 against Rutgers at the arena.
Five other Lady Vols scored in double figures. Glory Johnson, who was yanked from the starting lineup to start the second half, and Taber Spani each scored 15 points. Spani had a career-high 12 rebounds — doubling her previous high — and recorded her first career double-double.
Meighan Simmons scored 13 points, reaching double figures for the 13th consecutive game to start her collegiate career. She’s one game short of matching Chamique Holdsclaw for the longest such streak
Kelley Cain had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Alicia Manning scored 11.
“We have a deep bench,’’ Summitt said. “With that said, we can rotate a lot of players as long as they’re coming in and maintaining what we need to do. We definitely picked it up.”
Destiny Mitchell and Gwen Washington each had 10 points for East Tennessee State (3-6).
The only feat resembling a fast start for Tennessee was forward Shekinna Stricklen scoring three points within the first four minutes to become the 35th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point career milestone.
The Lady Bucs still were lurking within nine points (34-25) with about six minutes left in the first half.
“At the end of the game in the locker room, the one thing I said to (the players) was I can’t wait to get back home and watch the tape because I think we did a lot of good things against one of the best teams in the country,’’ ETSU coach Karen Kemp said.
The Lady Vols’ closing act made their start even more puzzling. Johnson didn’t think the Lady Vols were preoccupied with their impending Christmas break.
“If that was the case, we’d be really excited to finish the game and get off the floor,’’ she said. “I think we just need a lot more energy at the beginning of the game. We need to start talking to each other and getting each other excited while we’re on the floor.”
After the final 20 minutes, the holiday will be better for coaches and players alike. Summitt was looking forward to visiting her mother, Hazel, and enjoying her cooking.
Bjorklund’s player perspective took into account the moral of Wednesday’s final storyline.
“Everyone will have a nice break,’’ she said, “but be ready to work when we come back.”
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Comments » 19
SummittsCourt writes:
Go Lady Vols! Nice way to go into the break.
bigkahunaxxxx writes:
A breath of fresh air after the Men's program has collapsed..... Go Lady Vols!!!!!
UTVOLSRROCKN writes:
Way to spread the ball around! Six players in double figures, fewer TO's, did not play down to competition.
Finally got the ball in the post to Cain, who had a great game, along with Spani, Johnson, Simmons, and Bjorkland. Also was great to see Manning back and in rare form, rebounding, hustling, and scoring.
Nice win, Lady Vols and Merry Christmas!
LADY VOLS......TCB......KOKO.......GBO!!!
PINK_CHAMPAGNE writes:
Watched the game tape delayed! I was happy to see the bench get some time in this game. Once Avant gets comfortable on the floor, I think she will be another good player to bring off the bench. Kelly needed this game to shake the rust, and played pretty well. Hopefully she continues! Good game ladies!
Tester423 writes:
Im a student at ETSU....with that said GO VOLS!!!lol
xvolx writes:
I agree with Summitt. This team is not committed to excellence. The team up north is. If they don't invest in the program better than this, they will be an early exit in the NCAA tourn. With the SEC being so weak this year, we won't be prepared in March. The coach shouldn't have to beg players to show up at Pratt. Right now I don't see these ladies having what it takes to be national champions. They should have crushed ETSU and did. The first half team is the same team that lost to Georgetown and Baylor. That won't get it!
richvol writes:
The passing was much improved as was the shot selection. Cain was energetic.
98reax writes:
Not a lot of interest here on the game. I suppose most have grown weary of the gals' lackluster performance. I wouldn't mind kicking some behinds if I thought it would help, but we should be able to see that Pat and staff are doing all they can do, to no avail.
I was speaking with a friend who's not all that women''s bball savvy, who made the remark that the team seemed to be disinterested and preoccupied. Quite a sagacious comment, I thought. I'm all for taking their toys away and making them live together in the locker room with no techno amenities, except game tape, until they can show proper respect to The Orange & White. Is that an NCAA violation?
The guys must be drinking the same tainted gatorade. Perhaps they could swap uniforms/schedules with each other.
wigmeister writes:
Too bad they can't bottle how they played in the second half and bring it every game for the whole game.
RLL59 writes:
I don't think you can take much either way from a game against such a weak opponent. Let's face it. Had the Lady Vols made 13-16 at the beginning of the game instead of missing all those similar shots, the first half criticism would have been muted or non existent. Good shooting covers up a lot of offensive mistakes or intensity issues; bad shooting amplifies them. I'm not saying they didn't play better in the second half; just that I wouldn't draw any conclusions from it.
Is it too late in life for college basketball players to alter their free throw shooting style? It seems like the vast majority of high percentage FT shooters use a smooth arm motion while the 50% shooters use mostly their wrist with little follow through. No one seems to change their technique though.
EMBuckles writes:
I attended both ETSU and UT at Knoxville, however, I grew up a "Vol" and, when ETSU and UT have met in athletics, sorry "Bucs", gonna cheer for for the "Vols". During those times I was at ETSU, the vast majority of the student body really didn't care about the "Buccaneer" athletics teams, they cheered for the UT Vols! I remember one class in which English professor Dr. Anne LeCroy(an excellent professor) started class talking about how she'd heard everybody talking about the UT game, the day before, and NOBODY was talking about the ETSU game. She humorously said she expected to come to campus, someday, and learn that ETSU had become UT at Johnson City and see everything painted orange! Ha, ha! Looks like things haven't changed much at ETSU!
BigOrange_supporter writes:
Collasped, really, 3 losses and we are doomed, I say fire CBP....
tonyvick#213307 writes:
uhhh, they won by almost 50. Heaven forbid what you would do to them if they had won by 40 are less.
JayGee writes:
Grow up ladies. Your momma should not need to tell you to hustle and play with intensity.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
It IS hard for a player to change his or her basic shooting style as a college player or beyond, but it is NOT impossible. It just requires an absolute determination on the part of the player to find a fundamentally-sound shooting style he/she is comfortable with and then practice it until it becomes second-nature. Just think about how hard it is to fundamentally change a golf swing, if you happen to play golf.
The best example I know of a mature player who greatly improved at free-throw shooting as an adult was Karl Malone, the many-times all-pro with the Utah Jazz. When he came into the NBA, he was a 30-40% free-throw shooter. By the time he retired, he was in the mid-80's. He knew with his physical style, he would be getting fouled a lot, so he worked CONSTANTLY on improving his shot and did so, BIG time.
RLL59 writes:
Yeah, I think you're right. And repetitiously practicing them in a ineffective style may slightly increase the percentage, but it won't make a poor free throw shooter into a good one. But we'll take what we can get.
I think that's also the problem with Glory's shooting overall. She never really learned how to control and shoot the basketball, and even coaches as strong willed as Sexton-Collier at Webb, and Pat Summitt haven't been able to improve on it. However, she still is a strong contributor with her defense and rebounding.
martinvol34 writes:
Go jump in a lake and take a deep breath with your head under water. Don't watch if you don't like them, but don't be so negative. Jeez.
xvolx writes:
98 has never been negative. I think he was just giving his opinion about a perception.
98reax writes:
No problem here. I knew I would get some knee-jerk comments in response to my post. If the posters know me, they know I am a glorified optimist. I just had to say what I did. At the time, I was frustrated by their nonchalant demeanor as they half-heartedly contested ETSU. It doesn't matter the score, Lady Vols calibre ball is play focused against EVERY opponent, stop turning the ball over and knock down their shots buzzer to buzzer.
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