Tennessee’s Evina Westbrook scores two of her 20 points against Belmont during the Lady Vols’ win on Sunday in Knoxville.KNOXVILLE – Tennessee women’s basketball coach Holly Warlick will have moments this season when on-court experience is the best teacher for her underclassmen-laden team.
Going into the 10th-ranked Lady Volunteers’ Southeastern Conference opener at 7 EST tonight at Auburn, there’s just not a lot Warlick can explain to them about what lies ahead – only action can do that. And there will be times when the Lady Vols (11-1) have to adjust to what is working or isn’t.
Their previous game provides a good example.
Tennessee knocked down nine 3-pointers in the first half of Sunday’s 84-76 home win over Belmont, and for a team that has averaged seven 3-point baskets per game and doesn’t have more than 10 in a game this season, it appeared to be an aberration. The Lady Vols regressed to their mean in the second half, missing on all eight of their attempts from 3-point range, including seven in a third quarter in which they were 3-for-19 overall from the field.
That setback allowed the Bruins to cut Tennessee’s 16-point halftime lead to one, but after the Lady Vols went back to their more familiar style of play by attacking the basket, they outscored Belmont 25-18 in the final period.
“If we’re hitting 3s, that’s great,” Warlick said Wednesday. “When it’s not working, that’s when we’ve got to adjust, we’ve got to adapt, but they’re smart basketball players. They understand when the 3 isn’t working, they’ve got to get to the basket. Meme (Jackson), Zaay (Green), (Evina) Westbrook, all those guys that shoot 3s have capabilities to get to the basket as well, and they understand that when they’ve missed three or four straight 3s, they’ve got to get to the basket.”
For Warlick, who’s in her seventh season leading the program, that’s a message that isn’t so hard to convey. It’s other lessons, including adapting to what lies ahead in SEC competition, that will be more difficult for Lady Vols such as those in the four-player freshmen class: Green, guards Rae Burrell and Jazmine Massengill and especially forward Mimi Collins, who will spend more time in the interior.
That group has exceeded Warlick’s expectations so far, averaging a combined 25.3 points, 15.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
“I don’t know that I expected it,” Warlick said. “I expected them to come in and contribute. That’s awesome. We need them to do that in league play.
“Look at us: We’re young. We’re a majority of freshmen and sophomores, and that group is the main group we’re playing. They’ve just got to use what we’ve put them through. They’ve got great experience. We’ve got 12 games under our belt. The majority of them played good minutes in them, so we need them to step up and rely on what we’ve done to help us going forward.”
After tonight’s game against Auburn (12-1), an experienced team with juniors and seniors in the starting lineup, Tennessee is home next week with games against Missouri on Sunday and Kentucky on Thursday before going back on the road the following week to face Georgia and Alabama.
“I’d love to start at home,” Warlick said. “I’d love to play every game here. It is difficult, but we’ve played some tough games on the road. We played at Texas; we played at Oklahoma State. It’s going to help us. It’ll be a tough environment (at Auburn), but we seem to be a little more focused on the road, so we’ll take that. We’ve struggled down there at times, but we’ve played really well down there at times.
“I hope the team that plays really well shows up.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.