KNOXVILLE – Although opponents are shooting just 21% from 3-point range against the Tennessee women’s basketball team, that hasn’t stopped them from launching nearly 40% of their attempts from there as they try to combat the Lady Volunteers’ size.
Wednesday’s opponent will be a lot different in that aspect. A lot.
Top-ranked Stanford’s approach features versatile bigs who can knock down shots from 3-point range, which is different from the other teams that have tried the long-range approach against the 23rd-ranked Lady Vols (8-1). Opponents have made only three more 3s than Tennessee despite trying 62 more.
Colorado State in the last game hoisted 44 3-pointers yet lost by 38 points.
Stanford (9-0) averages just under 24 3-point tries per contest, but it’s not doing so because it can’t compete from a size perspective. That’s just part of the Cardinal’s complete offense.
The challenge for visiting Tennessee is that Stanford has a roster that, like the Lady Vols, is full of versatile 6-footers. Only Stanford’s are much better on 3-pointers, which will make things harder not simply for the Tennessee guards but for the bigs as well, trying to defend shots from long range.
“We have definitely talked about needing to get out behind the 3-point line,” Tennessee coach Kellie Harper said Monday. “Although we have not played (against) bigs that can shoot, we have played five guards. I feel like, other than Texas, we have only played guards. I am hoping that our post players have had enough experience of stepping out to guard because of some of these other teams.
“Obviously, it is a different caliber player that is stepping out behind the 3-point line now, but (our big players) should be comfortable in stepping out. It is just if they are stepping out with the urgency they need to step out when you are guarding Stanford. That is something we have been practicing.”
Four of Stanford’s five projected starters stand 6-foot or taller. One of its two starting forwards, junior Alyssa Jerome, has made 41% from 3-point range.
But Tennessee feels confident heading into the game. Its bigs have been challenged in that they can’t just automatically defend the paint, something most have been programmed to do. Last season Stanford spread the Lady Vols out and made 14 3s in a 10-point victory in Knoxville.
But Harper has had success against the Cardinal; her previous school, Missouri State, limited Stanford to 3-for-29 from 3-point range in the 2019 Sweet 16, but the Cardinal won 55-46 in Harper’s final game at the school. Harper noted Monday that she found a few of her notes from that game that she was using as “teaching points” and she thought about using as “maybe some wrinkles that were positive for us.”
But even if she chooses not to use them, Tennessee has been challenged from deep. Just maybe not to this extent.
“We knew Colorado State was going to come in and shoot 3s, but the quality (of shots) was what we were trying to alter,” junior Rennia Davis said last week. “We didn’t want to give them so many open shots, but make it tough for them. If teams shoot 3s, all we can do is contest them and make them put the ball on the floor, and when they put the ball on the floor, we have to be able to guard it.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.