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No. 1 UConn Huskies No. 18 Tenn Lady Vols
22-0 (10-0) 15-3 (7-0)
UCONN LEADS 17-10
Home: 6-4
Away: 6-4
Neutral: 5-2
01/16/95 #2 UConn 77, #1 UT 66 Storrs, Conn.
04/02/95 #1 UConn 70, #3 UT 64 Minneapolis, Minn.
01/06/96 #2 UConn 59, #4 UT 53 Knoxville, Tenn.
03/29/96 #4 UT 88, #2 UConn 83 (OT) Charlotte, N.C.
01/05/97 #1 UConn 72, #8 UT 57 Hartford, Conn.
03/24/97 #10 UT 91, #1 UConn 81 Iowa City, Iowa
01/03/98 #1 UT 84, #3 UConn 69 Knoxville, Tenn.
01/10/99 #2 UT 92, #1 UConn 81 Storrs, Conn.
01/08/00 #1 UConn 74, #2 UT 67 Knoxville, Tenn.
02/02/00 #4 UT 72, #1 UConn 71 Storrs, Conn.
04/02/00 #1 UConn 71, #2 UT 52 Philadelphia, Pa.
12/30/00 #1 UConn 81, #2 UT 76 Hartford, Conn.
02/01/01 #3 UT 92, #2 UConn 88 Knoxville, Tenn.
01/05/02 #1 UConn 86, #2 UT 72 Knoxville, Tenn.
03/29/02 #1 UConn 79, #6 UT 56 San Antonio, Texas
01/04/03 #3 UConn 63, #5 UT 62 (OT) Hartford, Conn.
04/08/03 #1 UConn 73, #5 UT 68 Atlanta, Ga.
02/05/04 #4 UConn 81, #1 UT 67 Knoxville, Tenn.
04/06/04 #6 UConn 70, #2 UT 61 New Orleans, La.
01/08/05 #10 UT 68, #15 UConn 67 Hartford, Conn.
01/07/06 #1 UT 89, #7 UConn 80 Knoxville, Tenn.
01/06/07 #4 UT 70, #5 UConn 64 Hartford, Conn.
1/23/20 #3 UConn 60 #23 Tennessee 45 Storrs, Conn.
1/29/21 #3 UConn 67 #25 Tennessee 61 Knoxville, Tenn.
02/06/22 #10 UConn 75, #7 Tennessee 56 Hartford, Conn.
01/26/23 #5 UConn 84, UT 67 Knoxville, Conn.
02/06/25 #19 UT 80, #5 UConn 76 Knoxville, Tenn.
At first glance Tennessee appears to be having a very good season. They are 15-3 and undefeated in the SEC at 7-0. Great numbers. However, their opponents haven't been the best.
They lost to then ranked No. 9 North Carolina State 80-77 to start the season. NCST is now unranked. The next five games were against pretty weak opponents. Massey rating in parentheses.They beat ETSU (256) 97-47, UT Martin (223) 72-61, Belmont (84) 68-58, Middle Tennessee (109) 85-41and Coppin State (302) 88-35.
I would say that the UT Martin and Belmont games were way too close against pretty weak opponents.
The next game was against No. 2 UCLA and they were hammered 99-77. Tennessee bounced back against unranked (unusual) Stanford 65-62. A good win but this was not the typical Stanford team.
They followed that with an east win against Winthrop (311) 112-40. However, No. 8 Louisville destroyed the Lady Vols 89-65. That was three games against top 25 teams at the time they played and three loses by an average of 17 points per game.
Tennessee played their final OOC game against Southern Indiana (141) winning 89-44. They rolled through their first 5 SEC conference games beating the bottom teams. They beat Florida 76-65, Auburn 73-56, Mississippi State 90-80 and Arkansas 85-50. They then beat at the time No. 21 Alabama and at the time No. 11 Kentucky 70-59. In their final game before meeting UConn they lost to Mississippi State in their rematch 77-62.
Their best win was against an overranted Kentucky team, who lost their prior game to Mississippi State 71-59 and Georgia 72-67. Both unranked.
Comparative Team Statistics
Leader in Bold
UConn Tennessee
90.2 PPG 78.4
50.5 Defensive PPG 61.2
39.7 Scoring Margin 17.2
52.7 Field Goal % 41.2
33.7 Defensive FG% 38.7
39.3 Three Point % 30.0
26.8 Defensive 3PT% 29.4
75.7 Free Throw % 65.9
37.2 Rebounds/game 42.1
5.8 Rebounding Margin 3.3
24.4 Assists per game 14.3
13.1 Turnover per game 15.1
1.9 Assists/TO ratio 0.9
16.0 Steals per game 11.8
4.9 Blocks per game 4.3
UCONN
The player and coaches names for both teams
are clickable to see their Bios
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
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Tennessee Lady Vols
Tennessee Starters
Tennessee Bench
Game Analysis
Well, here we go again. Playing one more game in this rivalry. It just doesn't have the same oomph it has had in the past. But after last years loss to the Lady Vols, this game has a little more meaning to it. I know fans and pundits all say that loss propelled them to the championship. I don't buy it. I believe they would have won it all win or lose that game. Prior to last year the Huskies had the Lady Vols number. UConn had beaten Tennessee the last four times they had met. The series lead is now 17-10.
Tennessee is missing three starters from last year. And at times they miss those players experience.
Gone are Ruby Whitehorn, who was dismissed from the team with issues with the law. I won't go into details. She was second on the team in scoring at 13 PPG, her biggest contribution is on the press. She was quick and has long arms to disrupt teams from bringing up the ball across half court.
5'11" fifth year guard Jewel Spear came from Wake Forest two seasons ago. She averaged 12.1 PPG and was able to get hot from the outside at any time in a game, especially late in close games. With this teams poor three point shooting they sure miss her.
Samara Spencer was the point guard on this team. She was the fifth double digit scorer at 10.1 PPG. Her biggest contributions were two fold. She led the team in assists by far with 5.1 APG and she was the best three point shooter at 40.5%.
This is the second season of the brand new version of Tennesee. Kim Caldwell, who came after one season at Marshall to this high profile job to be a savior of the program. A tough position to be in. Last season was a mixed bag of success. My overview of Tennessee gives you an indication of their season to date.
She brought with her a system that you just don't see at the highest level of Division I basketball. No matter how the team is performing she will replace the starting five with five new players after only a couple of minutes on the court. And then continue to replace players after a few more minutes over and over again. That is why she has no one over 26 MPG and eleven players with double digit minutes.
Coach Caldwell makes quick substitutions because the Lady Vols press on almost every possesion. Full court pretty much from opening tip to final buzzer and she wants to keep them fresh. However, she appears to be changing her style a little. She still makes quick early substitutions but the last few games she hasn't replaced the players as often and looks to have shrunk her rotation to 8 players. And the pressing seems to have slowed down a little. Maybe the constant pressing was wearing out the Lady Vols.
I'm pretty sure that Tennessee is the only team where ten different players have started at least one game. Crazy, huh. But they have five players that started the majority of their games. It doesn't mean those five will start against UConn but I'll go with that for this analysis.
South Carolina transfer, Talaysia Cooper is the star of the team. The 6' red shirt junior guard is averaging a team leading 14.4 PPG, first in assists with 4.1 APG and by far a team leading 3.5 steals per game. She is shooting a poor 42.3% from the field and 32.6% on three pointers. Although she can get hot for a short period of time. Oh, she is also second on the team lead in rebounds at 5.7 RPG. A stat filler good and bad.
Janiah Barker is a 6'4' forward that transfered from UCLA. UConn faced her last year in the final four where she played 17 minutes and scored 3 points. She has had some really good games this season scoring 25 points against UCLA in a loss and 20 points against Mddle Tennessee and Winthrop. Barker is second on the team in scoring at 14.3 PPG and tied for 1st in rebounding at 6.9 RPG. She is second on the team in blocks.
Tennessee has brought in a terrific freshmen class including the Pauldo twins. Both 5'6" guards, Mia has moved into the starting lineup and has some really good games. She does make some freshman mistakes but she is third on the team in scoring at 12.1 PPG. She is also second in steals with 22. She is shooting 40.4% from the field and 33.3% on threes.
Zee Spearman, Miami transfer, is one of two bigs on the team at 6'4". Listed as a forward, Spearman is tied for 1st on the team in rebounds at 6.9 RPG. She is only shooting 39.5% from the field. Poor shooting for a forward/center. She is averaging 11.7 PPG and leads the team in blocks with 26.
Deniya Prawl is a 6' freshman guard who appears to have moved into the starting lineup the last few games. She is a solidly buit guard who loves to play a physical game. She is only averaging 3.9 PPG and 3.2 RPG but Coach Caldwell loves her defense. UConn won't mind her she shooting some three pointers as she is only 3-24 on the season.
I believe the bench has shrunk to three maybe four players that will see significant minutes.
6'2" junior forward Alyssa Lathem is a transfer last season from Syracuse. She averages 4.7 PPG and 3.1 RPG. She is a big contributor to the full court press. Lathem is the only player on the team shooting better than 50% at 51.1.
Jaida Civil is another freshman seeing playing time. The 6' guard is averaging 5.6 PPG and 3.7 RPG. Another good sized guard, she does a goodt job on the press.
5'7" Senior Guard Nya Robertson is a transfer from SMU. She will see plenty of minutes. She is averaging 8.4 PPG and is only behind Pauldo in number of three point shots. She is hitting them at only 31.7%. Even that number is misleading. She had one game where she set a Tennessee record with 10-16 on one game. Without that game she would be shooting 25.8%.
The final homegrown talent in the rotation is 5'9" freshman Kaniya Boyd. Coach Caldwell put her in the starting lineup in their last game against Missouri. She is maybe the quickest Lady Vol and loves to drive to the basket. She is averaging 3.9 PPG. Boyd is only shooting 4-19 on threes.
Well, there ya go. A look at all 9 players we should see in this game with significant minutes. And you will see all of them coming in and going out. It will make your head spin although not as much as earlier in the season.
The Lady Vols also take a ton of three pointers average 32 per game. However they only make them at a 30.0% clip. Last season their entire offense was taking more shots than the other team. And they did that on average by 17 per game. Not so much this season. Their scoring is down because they only take 9 more per game. And most of those were against the weaker teams in their schedule.
Player to player comparisions are straight forward.
Mia Pauldo vs KK Arnold. This one is easy. Pauldo trys too hard and makes a lot of mistakes. KK is a great defender and will force Pauldo into quick shots and bad turnovers. Pauldo is quick and will make a few good players but....advantage UConn.
Zee Spearman vs Serah Williams. Spearman is really important for Tennessees success. She was in last seasons win against UConn scoring 16 point on 6-9 shooting. Williams game has improved the last few weeks looking a lot more like her Wisconsin self. Advantage UConn.
Janiah Barker vs Sarah Strong. Barker is a good player, emphisis on good. Strong is, well, the best player in the country. Need i say more?? Advantage UConn.
Talaysia Cooper vs Ashlynn Shade. I have Shade on Cooper, but you can bet that burden will be shared. Cooper can disappear in games, but if she is on, the has the advantage over Shade. I'll throw Tennessee a bone. Advantage Tennessee.
Deniya Prawl vs Azzi Fudd. I have a feeling that Azzi will be teaching the freshman a lesson. It's not close. Advantage UConn.
Tennessee bench vs UConn bench. Tennessee has no one to compare to Blanca. Right there you have a UConn advantage. Add in Heckle, El Alfy and Ziebell? It's not close. Advantage UConn.
Geno vs Caldwell. Advantage UConn.
Intangible. Home court advantage. UConn. Revenge factor. UConn.
All these items lead me to my final prediction.
Final Prediction
These two teams are different in some ways and the same in others. Both teams love to press and force turnovers. UConn forces 24 per game, Tennessee forces 21 per game. And the outcome will depend on which team can play their game better than the other team. Both teams take a lot of three pointers but UConn shoots 39% and Tennessee shoots 30%. Shoot away!!
If Tennessee can't turn UConn over and a high rate and if Tennessee doesn't turn the ball over at a hight rate and if Tennessee can shoot a lot better than their season average on three pointer shots......if, if, if. I just don't see it happening. UConn is too talented, too smart and well coached. These freshmen haven't seen a defense like UConn's.
My friend TonyC said that it would take a team holding UConn to less than 60 points because of how good the Husky defense is. No way this version of Tennessee can do this. And this version of Tennessee is a really poor shooting team.
I had my prediction a bit lower before watching the Lady Vols get slapped around by Mississippi State. And MSU is no UConn. And Tennessee was at home. It could get ugly.
UConn by 32+.
