Preview:
Tennessee comes to Maples in a historic series that goes all the way back to Tara's first days on the farm, competing against her old rival and then friend Pat Summit, after Tara snatched Jennifer Azzi out from under Tennessee's notice to start its climb to prominence. Tennessee's coach is former player Kelli Harper who has worked for 4 years to return Tennessee to its glory days and has not quite succeeded.
Tennessee is a dangerous team, filled with superb players who have somewhat underperformed this season. They will be highly motivated to get a win on the road against their old rival. Tennessee is 7-5 so far, and have fallen to 32 in Massey's rating, 23rd in NET, after starting the season ranked in the top 5. They have beaten Colorado but lost to UCLA, lost to Gonzaga by 1 point, lost to Virginia Tech by 3 points, and have more recently gone on a 3 game winning streak against weaker teams. It seems they are getting things sorted out, and we have to hope they do not complete the job until after we play them.
Tennessee has some of the best talent in the nation. They are a strong defensive team with great athletes. On offense they are usually led by 6'2" senior forward Rickea Jackson and 6'2" senior guard Jordan Horsten. Each is averaging around 16ppg.
Horsten is a matchup problem. She loves to drive to the basket where she makes acrobatic layups, but at 6'2" she is taller than most of the guards she matches up against. She also shoots 39% of her threes, although she doesn't always take a lot of them.
Jackson is hitting 54% of her shots, but she plays alongside one of the great true centers in WBB: Tamari Key. Key is a 6'6" senior making 67% of her shots. Key, Jackson, and Horsten ALL get multiple O-boards a game, which is critical to Tennessee's success. Tennessee is +10 rebounding per game over its opponents this year.
Jasmine Powell is Tennessee's little 5'6" senior point guard, with 48 assists to 20 turnovers on the year, and she keeps defenses honest with 7 ppg.
Tess Darby has gotten most of the remaining starts. She is a 6'1" junior G/F who is making 42% of her three point attempts. We will also probably see quite a bit of grad transfer Jasmine Franklin, a 6'1" forward hitting 58% of her shots, all from inside the arc. Also Jordan Walker, a 5'8" grad student guard who seems to be the back-up point.
Tennessee has always emphasized defense and rebounding, and this team is no exception. In their Gonzaga game, two Gonzaga players went out with injuries, and they have generated as many as 28 fouls in a game. I'm not suggesting that they play dirty--just that they play very aggressively going for rebounds in particular and the other team gets of few bruises along the way, as happened to Kayleigh Truong who took a forearm to the face and was out for multiple games, including against us.
They also are a deep team, and very experienced, so they will be competitive to the end of the 4th quarter. We will need to do a better job using our own depth than we have in some other contests.
Tennessee comes to Maples in a historic series that goes all the way back to Tara's first days on the farm, competing against her old rival and then friend Pat Summit, after Tara snatched Jennifer Azzi out from under Tennessee's notice to start its climb to prominence. Tennessee's coach is former player Kelli Harper who has worked for 4 years to return Tennessee to its glory days and has not quite succeeded.
Tennessee is a dangerous team, filled with superb players who have somewhat underperformed this season. They will be highly motivated to get a win on the road against their old rival. Tennessee is 7-5 so far, and have fallen to 32 in Massey's rating, 23rd in NET, after starting the season ranked in the top 5. They have beaten Colorado but lost to UCLA, lost to Gonzaga by 1 point, lost to Virginia Tech by 3 points, and have more recently gone on a 3 game winning streak against weaker teams. It seems they are getting things sorted out, and we have to hope they do not complete the job until after we play them.
Tennessee has some of the best talent in the nation. They are a strong defensive team with great athletes. On offense they are usually led by 6'2" senior forward Rickea Jackson and 6'2" senior guard Jordan Horsten. Each is averaging around 16ppg.
Horsten is a matchup problem. She loves to drive to the basket where she makes acrobatic layups, but at 6'2" she is taller than most of the guards she matches up against. She also shoots 39% of her threes, although she doesn't always take a lot of them.
Jackson is hitting 54% of her shots, but she plays alongside one of the great true centers in WBB: Tamari Key. Key is a 6'6" senior making 67% of her shots. Key, Jackson, and Horsten ALL get multiple O-boards a game, which is critical to Tennessee's success. Tennessee is +10 rebounding per game over its opponents this year.
Jasmine Powell is Tennessee's little 5'6" senior point guard, with 48 assists to 20 turnovers on the year, and she keeps defenses honest with 7 ppg.
Tess Darby has gotten most of the remaining starts. She is a 6'1" junior G/F who is making 42% of her three point attempts. We will also probably see quite a bit of grad transfer Jasmine Franklin, a 6'1" forward hitting 58% of her shots, all from inside the arc. Also Jordan Walker, a 5'8" grad student guard who seems to be the back-up point.
Tennessee has always emphasized defense and rebounding, and this team is no exception. In their Gonzaga game, two Gonzaga players went out with injuries, and they have generated as many as 28 fouls in a game. I'm not suggesting that they play dirty--just that they play very aggressively going for rebounds in particular and the other team gets of few bruises along the way, as happened to Kayleigh Truong who took a forearm to the face and was out for multiple games, including against us.
They also are a deep team, and very experienced, so they will be competitive to the end of the 4th quarter. We will need to do a better job using our own depth than we have in some other contests.
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