Everything Lady Vols Basketball HC Kim Caldwell Said After Loss to Alabama in SEC Tournament
Tennessee HC Kim Caldwell. Photo By Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols basketball dropped its opening game of the SEC Tournament, losing 76-64 to Alabama on Thursday. This marked the seventh-straight loss of the season for Tennessee.
After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media. She was asked about Talaysia Cooper’s status, Deniya Prawl’s injury, what’s going wrong and more.
Here’s what she said.
More From RTI: Kim Caldwell Updates Status of Lady Vols Freshman Deniya Prawl
Opening statement
“We had too many turnovers tonight. I think we got outworked, outplayed, outcoached from the very start.”
On why she felt like her team deserves to make the NCAA Tournament
“Yeah, I do. I think we’ve played the hardest schedule in the country. I think the majority of that came in February, but we have significant wins, and I think that – we hope to get in and continue to try to be a different team.”
On Talaysia Cooper leaving the arena early, not playing much in the second half
“It was a coach’s decision, and we just wanted to give her some air. I think your emotions can get running and just wanted to get her outside and with the staff members, so she could breathe.”
On why she made the decision to bench Cooper
“Again, it was – who knows if it was the right call, but trying to find combinations that work.”
On Deniya Prawl’s injury status
“Lauren clocked her in the head, the first day back of practice, so she’s in concussion protocol and couldn’t travel.”
On if she’s starting to figure out lineups that work
“I think that tonight, yes, but I think we’re so inconsistent in games that you just never really know what you’re gonna get.”
On if she’s running out of ways to flip the season
“We definitely need some time. Our February back half has been absolutely brutal, and really need to regroup and get back to who we want to be and move forward from there.”
On what gives her confidence the team can win in the NCAA Tournament
“Yeah. I think when you’re in this profession, you don’t get too high, you don’t get too low. I mean, nobody was sitting here talking about us winning a national championship when we won six in a row, seven in a row. We didn’t do that. And so you try to stay consistent. We were hopeful that we would play better today and have some juice going into it. I think we did, we had great energy in warm-ups. We had a great energy in the locker room before. Probably the best energy I’ve seen, so I was a little bit surprised that we came out flat and then got in a hole we couldn’t recover.”
On why there were so many turnovers
“We’re trying to dribble through the zone, dribble through gaps that weren’t there. I think at their place, we did a really good job of swinging it side to side, making it move, and then we could attack it. We didn’t have the patience to do that tonight.”
On if the team is responding to her during games
“Not the way we’d like.”
On Nya Robertson
“She’s one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached because the version of her that you see, she’s energetic, she laughs, she plays hard every single day in practice. And I’m really proud of her because she really did go through a slump there mid-season. And the people that work the hardest, I think they deserve what comes, and she’s playing really good basketball right now because she didn’t put her head down. She just kept working, showed up every day.”
On the frustration of turnovers
“I think it’s patience, and we did talk about patience. We talked about it pre-game of if you’re patient enough, if you swing the ball around enough, and everyone touches it, then you’ll have a much cleaner look. And then I think just the moment, and we have players that wanna do it all at once, and it is frustrating. But again, we just have to continue to try.”
On how the defense can improve
“We gotta fix our one-on-one defense. We gotta fix our help side. That’s again, been a situation where we haven’t had two days of practice max going into games, and so that’s where maybe some time to put things together to really get back after it will help.”
Follow More: Kentucky Basketball NCAA Odds
