Tennessee Pressure Handled by South Carolina Gamecocks

by | Jan 28, 2025

Analysis of Tennessee Lady Vols vs South Carolina Gamecocks

Tennessee pressure forced South Carolina in 17 turnovers but South Carolina handled the pressure in the 2nd quarter to pull away.

Tennessee pressure philosophy requires that the lady vols substitute in waves. The objective is to wear teams out in the 4th quarter and the lady vols nearly accomplished this goal.

South Carolina pulled away in the 2nd quarter despite being down by multiple possessions. South Carolina outscored Tennessee 22-12 in the 2nd quarter and 22-13 in the third quarter but it was in the 2nd quarter when the game got away from the lady vols.

In the 2nd quarter it was Tennessee’s shot selection that was the issue. Tennessee finished 3-16 from behind the three-point line and a lot of their problems in the 2nd quarter stemmed from limited ball movement. Tennessee took shot after shot with possessions that consisted of 0-1 passes. The lady vol players had the weight of the world on their shoulders and were determined to win the game with every shot they took even if it meant that the South Carolina defense was static due to lack of ball movement.

Tennessee took plenty of close shots and the shots were good looks but unfortunately, Vol players drove with their heads down and took shots while identifying where the rim was in mid air.

South Carolina finished on the rim and hit corner three-point shots off dribble penetration. South Carolina did not shoot the ball well from behind the arc 6-21 (28.8%). Both teams were below the 33% threshold for acceptable expected value behind the three-point line.

Joyce Edwards led the Gamecocks with 18 points and Chloe Kitts contributed 10 points.

TOP 25 Women’s College Basketball Rankings and Tennessee’s Future

South Carolina remains ranked number 1 in our 3riplethreat women’s college basketball rankings.

Tennessee’s style can pay dividends in the SEC tournament and in the NCAA women’s tournament. Tennessee can wear teams out with their defense and if they hit the three-point shot, they will be a dangerous opponent to deal with.

Tennessee pressure, substitution, and offensive philosophy are driven by analytics. Substitution patterns are determined by analytical factors. The problem however is that there are teams when the feel of the game should be more of an indicator of the outcome than the analytics. Yes, I say this as someone who works in basketball analytics. It was clear that Tennessee was pressing too much on the offensive end and the problem with substituting in waves is that the same mistakes were being made by the new substitutes.

Wave substation can wear at team out but it can also be problematic when you are having a cold shooting night. Being pulled on and off the court makes it difficult to gain your footing and to stabilize your shooting. Tennessee’s problem was the math. The Tennessee coaching staff and players did not follow the math. 11.5% from the three-point line has an expected value of .345 points per possession. The objective is to be as close to 1.0 ppp and when you are shooting at .345, the best solution is to take another shot or stop shooting that shot.

Tennessee was 20-49 from two point range which has an expected value less than 1.0. .40 * 2 =0.8

The lesson for Tennessee is to use the math to identify better shots and to emphasize bal movement and player movement to break a defense down and to get a better quality shot.

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