BASKETBALL MIDDLE TENNESSEE vs TENNESSEE, Tues. Nov 12, 5:30 pm. Thompson-Boling Arena, SECN+

[MTFAN61]

The Middle Tennessee Lady Raiders play the Lady Vols in match-up #2 of 3 in Knoxville this Tuesday night. UT carries an overall record of 521-60 (.89% winning margin) in home games at TB Arena. Kim Caldwell's team is undefeated having played all their games at home thus far. Caldwell's high pressure D has caused 30+ turnovers in their 2 early season wins over considerably weaker competition. UT will be led by junior transfer guard Ruby Whitehorn, & senior guard Jewel Spear.
The game can be streamed through SECN+, or also working in conjunction with the ESPN streaming app.

 

[SpaceRaider]

​

at Tennessee
11/12/2024 | 5:30 p.m.
SECN+
WGNS (101.9 FM | 1450 AM | 100.5 FM)

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[SpaceRaider]

Hoops Central: RV/RV Lady Vols vs. RV/RV Middle Tennessee - University of Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee (2-0) is back at Food City Center on Tuesday night, as Middle Tennessee (2-0) comes to Knoxville for a showdown of undefeated teams who received votes

utsports.com

 

[MTFAN61]

Extremely confident Vol Nation message board.
Score predictions such as Vols winning by,
84-64
94-53
84-55
89-62
101-57
Comments: Eggs & Raiders for breakfast.
MTSU & Insell are an ideal opponent.
MT is not as good as last year, & anticipate an easy 25-30 point win.

You can tell Caldwell, Tennessee, & their fans are already developing a sense of arrogance early on. I know we'll come to play.
If all of our starting 5 can put together a good offensive effort like we can on defense we can hang with a lot of teams.

 

[tyler90wm]

Coach Insell made a comment in the post game alluding to UT's arrogance, at least that's how I interpreted it.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Blue Raiders, Lady Vols set for in-state showdown - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee is set to take on the Tennessee Lady Volunteers on Tuesday, November 12, at 5:30 p.m. (CT) at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City

goblueraiders.com

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[MTOleBlue]

Are we really surprised by their arrogance? It’s the same thing they displayed last year - even after we beat them pretty clearly in what was not a fluke, they continue to insist there had to be some alternate reason why we won. I think we steal the win today. We’ve been prepping for this game all year and need some players to hit some big shots but I think that happens. Will also be nice having a big cheering section in Knoxville.

 

[ewglenn]

Coach Insell made a comment in the post game alluding to UT's arrogance, at least that's how I interpreted it.

View embedded media

Rick’s got me ready to run through a wall, let’s go Blue!!!

 

[jakeboldenbrp]

If they can be arrogant, I’ll be for just a second. After watching back their two home games, very little impressed me. Their half court defense is sloppy and they’ve relied on teams trying to match their pace. If MT plays their brand of defense, I see this as a road win.

However, you cannot play their game. UTM tried to run the floor, make skip passes and it hurt them on turnovers. Tennessee will play a full court trap as much as possible, even after a miss. Take care of the basketball and make them play straight up defense which they have been bad at.

Offensively, no one really impressed me. Their shooting numbers aren’t great and they stand out on a scoreboard because they generate 20+ extra possessions a night because of their trap D. I counted 1 possession in their first half against UTM in which they shot the ball under 10 seconds left on the shot clock. They want to get a shot off as quickly as possible and rely on a rebound, kick three. I think Sarah Puckett is their wild card, she is a three level scorer that hasn’t found her stroke quite yet. They have 2 players over 6’2” making this a smaller lineup than we are used to seeing at the SEC level. They will play a lot of bodies, but tonight Caldwell may hone in on her starting five more playing up an opponent.

The keys to victory tonight is win the rebounding battle. UTK will win if they dominant the boards and in turn put up a lot of second chance points. You have to control the pace of the game. They put up points because teams get rushed and turn the ball over and allow a score within 20 seconds. It can get out of hand fast if you don’t take care of those two key components both of which happened in UTK’s first two games.

I fully expect to be SEC’d by officiating tonight. Play sound defense and shoot the ball undeniably. They can’t take points off the board.

 

[MTFAN61]

One of last year's keys to victory was our 3 point shooting. Especially helpful was Gregory coming out of her slump. Will be a similar situation this year. We're shooting only 24% from beyond the arc right now & I believe Gregory is 0-12 after our 1st two games.
When playing UT last year we hit 12 3-pointers. We don't necessarily need that many tonight, but shooting an improved 35% from 3 & hitting 7 or more from deep will play a big time role tonight.
If we can do that while also boxing out on the boards better, MT should be able to frustrate them. Tennessee is a newly put together team that has yet to feel frustration on the court. I've seen from interviews where players have practically admitted their occasional frustration with Caldwell & vice versa. Hopefully we should be more sound when it comes to maturity level. If we can get Caldwell upset it will bleed over to the team, & that can produce even more turnovers & bad shot selection for Tennessee. All keys to getting a road victory in Knoxville.

 

[MTTim]

I think we will miss Wheelers scoring when up against good competition.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[jakeboldenbrp]

View embedded media

8 made three pointers and 6 made 2s. UT is currently living by the 3.

Legs are tired on the defensive end. Losing the rebounding battle currently 23-19. 10 of UT's 23 boards are offensive.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Team Comparison

STATISTIC	MT	utk
FG%	46%	37%
FGs	13-28	14-38
3FG%	17%	35%
3FGs	1-6	8-23
FT%	50%	63%
FTs	3-6	5-8
TOs	12	6
PtsOffTO	3	16
TotReb	19	23
DefReb	15	13
Off Reb	4	10
2ndChPts	6	7
BenchPts	0	16
PtsPaint	20	10
FstBkPt	4	8
Blocks	1	0
Steals	0	7
Assts	6	7
Times Tied:	1
Lead Chg:	1
LeadTime	6:29	13:02

 

[MTTim]

Turnovers and lack of a 3 point shooter. If this keeps up they will blow us out.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Officiating defintely sucks, even utk fans were complaining on twitter about some bad calls on Raiders.

 

[jakeboldenbrp]

UTK with 23 points off 17 Lady Raider TOs, has made all the difference. Especially giving them 6 points right out of halftime on 3 quick turnovers.

 

[MTOleBlue]

Officiating defintely sucks, even utk fans were complaining on twitter about some bad calls on Raiders.

Officiating was horrible. But we had way too many turnovers and so many open 3s given up. I thought it was a good learning experience and will pay dividends when we face teams like Iowa State and Kansas State.

Also this game should show the WBB community that Anastasiia Boldyreva is a serious, first round caliber WNBA prospect.

 

[MTFAN61]

Many folks predicted a 25-30 point blowout. It was far from that. This was a competitive game on the road against a tough SEC team. It may hurt our pride some, but as Blue pointed out this gives us a lot to learn from going forward. We still have much to gain this non conference season, & some of our upcoming games will be on all important neutral courts.
Keep your heads up Lady Raiders. You gave great effort, & we as fans are always proud of that!

 

[MTFAN61]

Great to see Gregory getting back in form. One thing that could have helped immensely last night would have been better production from the #4 spot. Almost nightly Whitson was a consistent 10-12 point scorer, & was always a fighter on the boards. Was definitely expecting similar if not better offensive production from Arike, but not only has it not been similar production it's gotten worse. It's been most noticeable against higher quality competition recently. Against GCU she had only 4 points, but she did have a decent rebounding evening. However against Tennessee she didn't score a single point, & only had 3 rebounds all game.
If someone of Whitson's persistence had been in the game against UT we would be looking at a much closer game at the end. Arike is a good role player, & has excellent size. I'm not saying she should be totally benched, but it's time to give Monson more of a shot.
I know coach says if you want time on the court you have to show it in practice. But the few times I've seen Monson on the court she may not be perfect, but she appears to show fine effort. Would really like to see us start swapping her more with Arike. At least give her 10-15 minutes to prove her value. After all, if her production isn't great it still couldn't be any worse than 2 points per game. Which is what we're getting now.
Against Purdue, Iowa St, K-State, & Princeton we have to get more from the 4 spot, & if we don't we can be experiencing similar losses. And this team is too good for that to continue.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Blakely Scores Career-High 25 Points, Blue Raiders Fall 89-75 at Tennessee - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In a battle of in-state foes, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (2-1) fell to 2-1 on the season in their first Power 4 matchup of 2024 in an 89-75

goblueraiders.com

 

[Hop45]

Completely agree about Monson.

 

[ewglenn]

We have the starting 5 to play with anyone. We just don’t have the depth. We should be able to easily handle our conference but that will be an issue in the NCAAT

 

[MidTennFootball]

We have the starting 5 to play with anyone. We just don’t have the depth. We should be able to easily handle our conference but that will be an issue in the NCAAT

We don't play the depth that we have. If Rick wanted to, we could go 8-9 deep. Never gonna go beyond the 2nd round until he trusts his bench

 

[ewglenn]

We don't play the depth that we have. If Rick wanted to, we could go 8-9 deep. Never gonna go beyond the 2nd round until he trusts his bench

That’s essentially where I was going with it. Not having the experienced depth because they don’t play.

 

[MTOleBlue]

At least it’s been more use of the bench earlier as compared to previous years. Or so it seems. And that needs to continue to build as this season goes along.

 

[MTFAN61]

Looking at box score. 4-13 from free throw line for Blakely & Boldyreva combined?? 15-28 from the charity stripe for the whole team?? Good grief.
Weren't we close to a 75% free throw shooting team recently?
We have very correctable things that are hurting us, & have to be addressed.
BTW- The men just went 20-23 from the line yesterday. Maybe there's some folks around here who should take a hint.

 

[MTOleBlue]

Definitely something to work on. Wouldn't have salvaged the game for us given all our TOs and open 3s given up, but would've made it a lot closer...

 

[crassyblue]

We had 3 high percentage free throw shooters - Wheeler, Gregory, and Whitson. Whitson was medium high. Gregory has been off so far, but Wheeler shot around 90% for a lot of free throws she would manufacture. She was an expert at leaning in on drives to the basket. We do need to work on free throws, but sometimes it is just who shoots them.

Blakely handled the press from Tennessee pretty well in the first half by herself. When Tennessee started pressuring more, it seemed to take the team and or the coaches some time to realize they needed more than Blakely to bring the ball up the floor. When Blakely went out, we really had trouble. Jalynn can handle it, but just barely. Savannah Davis and Jada Harrison need to grow up real fast to provide a solid backup to Blakely

I am glad Jalynn broke out of her slump some. I agree, we need more production at the 4 spot and Monson is good, but against UT, we needed rebounding so I think that is why Insell went with Boldyreyva and Grannum. If he needed more threes, he might have put Monson in. After Grannum got some fouls and Arike went back in, she had more fire, but it wasn't enough.

I think TaMia Scott is taking too much on herself right now trying to be the big dog. She can be, but she is pushing too much right now. She is still doing a great job, but when she learns to be the rock she will be even better.

 

[tyler90wm]

FTs were bad, but I think that has a lot to do with fatigue. Both UT and GCU play a pressure defense which is more tiring and we shot 53% (15/28) and 57% (12/21), respectively. The only other game to look at is NKU at 80% (16/20). I think FT% will improve as we go along.

 

[MidTennFootball]

Great to see Gregory getting back in form. One thing that could have helped immensely last night would have been better production from the #4 spot. Almost nightly Whitson was a consistent 10-12 point scorer, & was always a fighter on the boards. Was definitely expecting similar if not better offensive production from Arike, but not only has it not been similar production it's gotten worse. It's been most noticeable against higher quality competition recently. Against GCU she had only 4 points, but she did have a decent rebounding evening. However against Tennessee she didn't score a single point, & only had 3 rebounds all game.
If someone of Whitson's persistence had been in the game against UT we would be looking at a much closer game at the end. Arike is a good role player, & has excellent size. I'm not saying she should be totally benched, but it's time to give Monson more of a shot.
I know coach says if you want time on the court you have to show it in practice. But the few times I've seen Monson on the court she may not be perfect, but she appears to show fine effort. Would really like to see us start swapping her more with Arike. At least give her 10-15 minutes to prove her value. After all, if her production isn't great it still couldn't be any worse than 2 points per game. Which is what we're getting now.
Against Purdue, Iowa St, K-State, & Princeton we have to get more from the 4 spot, & if we don't we can be experiencing similar losses. And this team is too good for that to continue.

I'm all for Monson getting a bigger role, but the reason Whitson averaged 10-12 is because she's a volume shooter, she nearly shot us out of a few games during her career as much as anything

It's not like we didn't know what Arike was when she transferred here, she's never been a big scorer, but she's a veteran presence that is a really good defender. On a team that doesn't lack for scoring options, good defense is plenty enough. Let's give it more than 3 games so she can settle into her role

 

[MTFAN61]

I'm all for Monson getting a bigger role, but the reason Whitson averaged 10-12 is because she's a volume shooter, she nearly shot us out of a few games during her career as much as anything

It's not like we didn't know what Arike was when she transferred here, she's never been a big scorer, but she's a veteran presence that is a really good defender. On a team that doesn't lack for scoring options, good defense is plenty enough. Let's give it more than 3 games so she can settle into her role

I can see your point