Tennessee’s high-octane offense stayed in gear to keep the Lady Vols perfect at 4-0, but the defense got detoured and will be an emphasis between now and the next game.

The Lady Vols scored 109 points against Liberty on Saturday, November 16, 2024. That will beat anyone. The Flames put up 93 points. That can get you beat.

“Definitely not our best defensive game, but our offense got a little bit better, and thankfully we have a break here that we can try to get back in the gym and fix things,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said.

That break refers to a gap between games. Tennessee has 10 days between matchups with the next game against Western Carolina on Nov. 26. Following that, the strength of schedule jumps considerably with Florida State on Dec. 4 and Iowa on Dec. 7.

“They have to kind of change the lens a little bit and say, ‘Hey, we get to fix this. We get this break, now we have this long period of time without a game,’” Caldwell said. “Because if we have a good opponent in the next four days, we probably don’t win. We have things we have to fix. We can fix them.”

The practices this week are going to be even more intense than usual. Tennessee doesn’t have to prep for an opponent this week, so the focus will be fully on the Lady Vols. Players prefer games to practice.

“It’s going to be hard, and they’re going to get frustrated, and they’re going to be fussy toward day seven, eight, nine, but I think they know that they need it, and we even talked about it pre-game,” Caldwell said. “You guys have 10 days of practice after this. So, let’s make it we’re leaving on a high note.

“I don’t think we did that, but it’s good that we can fix it after a win.”

After the game, three players came to the post-game presser. Not a single one was smiling. When Caldwell arrived, she was smiling. She knew she got her players’ attention, which usually takes a loss to really reach them.

“We have a defense, and that doesn’t look like anything you guys have seen,” Caldwell said. “This is not what we practice. We just need to do what we practice.”

Talaysia Cooper led Tennessee against Liberty with 33 points and leads the Lady Vols with an average of 19.0 points per game. Ruby Whitehorn tallied 13 points and is second on the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game. Both players understand the assignment going forward in practice.

“It’s going to be very crucial,” Whitehorn said. “It’s going to be important that we come in there and give our all in practice for the whole 10 days that we aren’t playing. Practice is typically harder than games, so just taking advantage of this time that we have to be competitive, to get some good work in and to grow the chemistry on the court.”

The offense was ablaze to open the game and then steadily declined from 35 points in the first quarter, to 30, 25 and 20 in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively.

“I saw us sharing the ball a little bit more,” Whitehorn said. “I think when we share the ball, we look really, really good. When we get a lot of in-and-out, paint touches, kick-out threes, I feel like it looks really good, and it gives everybody on the court energy from the person passing the ball to the person making the shot.

“I feel like if we continue to start the game like that, offensively coming out hot and just playing together, then we’ll do better down the line.”

Coach Kim Caldwell and Ruby Whitehorn smile during an early season game. (UT Athletics)

As far as defense is concerned, it seems to be a matter of transferring practice to games and increased communication to correct the positioning and rotations on the court.

“My philosophy is always let’s get a couple vocal leaders that are confident in what they do, and people listen to and then bring people along with you,” Caldwell said. “It doesn’t have to necessarily be all five. We play hard, we play up and down, so there’s going to be times you don’t have breath to talk.

“But if three people are talking and two people are pointing, then we can usually figure it out. Right now, we don’t talk preventively, we talk when it’s too late, and we just need to get ahead of it.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press.