Every coach has their own approach to motivating players, and every player responds differently to a blowout loss and a public call-out from their coach. So, Kim Caldwell’s frustrated comments after her team’s 93-50 loss to South Carolina will either fuel Tennessee to finish the season strong or cause players to get in their heads and lose more games.
No coach will ever be happy if their team loses by 43 points. So, Kim Caldwell’s frustration after the Gamecocks won against the Lady Vols in a brutal beatdown was understandable. She didn’t mince her words in the postgame press conference, calling out her players’ lack of effort and leadership.
“We just had a lot of quit in us tonight, and that’s been something that’s been consistent with our team if we’re not comfortable and things don’t go our way,” Caldwell said. “I have a team that’ll just quit on you, and you can’t do that in big games. You can’t do that anytime in the SEC, but you certainly can’t do that at a program like this.”
She also called the loss “embarrassing” and said, “I do know we don’t have the leadership we need player-wise.”
Tennessee has a lot of young players. Five players on the roster are freshmen, but there are also five seniors on the team, including Janiah Barker, who went on a deep tournament run with UCLA last season, and Jersey Wolfenberger, who helped LSU get to the Elite Eight. But none of this is entirely on the players. Yes, the players decide how much effort they give and when they quit, but coaches can help instill the right mindset and push players to work through adversity.
Dawn Staley was asked about Caldwell’s comments about Tennessee’s quit and what advice she had for the younger coach in her own press conference. She said, “I probably wouldn’t say it publicly. That’s one. Two, you just got to get your team to buy in, and sometimes, it’s tricking them…They know they played like ish. They know they did. Sometimes, you need to bring up what good happened.”
South Carolina beat Tennessee in every aspect of the game
While it was a rough game overall, the second half was especially bad. Tennessee only scored 18 points in the third and fourth quarters combined. South Carolina scored 46. The Lady Vols also shot 28% from the field and 23% from three. South Carolina’s zone defense really bothered them. The Gamecocks also scored more points in the paint, more fast-break points, and more points off turnovers.
On the bright side, Tennessee grabbed 13 offensive rebounds and went 4-5 from the free-throw line. Neither was enough to make up for the many missed shots and the free-throw discrepancy, though.
If Tennessee doesn’t clean up those areas, the final stretch of the season could be tough. The Lady Vols’s schedule doesn’t get much easier. They still have to face Texas, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, LSU, and Vanderbilt.