KNOXVILLE - Kellie Harper sounded like a person who simply didn't have many answers Sunday afternoon.
The Tennessee women's basketball coach had just watched her team lose 73-71 at home to 16th-ranked Texas A&M, a potentially dangerous outcome for the NCAA tournament hopes of the Lady Volunteers (17-8, 7-5 Southeastern Conference), who return to competition at 7 p.m. EST Thursday at No. 22 Arkansas (20-5, 8-4).
SEC Network will televise the game. It's an important one for the Lady Vols, who in Harper's first season in charge have just one win against a team currently projected to make the NCAA tournament - a 63-58 home win against LSU on Jan. 26 in Knoxville.
The Lady Vols, who went from 25th in the Associated Press poll to out of the rankings this week, committed 16 turnovers Sunday, and sophomore wing Rae Burrell and freshman guard Jordan Horston combined for 11 of those. Turnovers have hindered Tennessee often this season, and coaches may have done everything they can to fix the problem, with it now up to players to execute.
"There's not a whole lot (to do), I don't think," Harper said Sunday. "We watch film. We try to help teach. We run for every turnover in practice. We try to focus on it, do a lot. At some point, it's just stepping out there and taking care of the basketball. I get that we're never going to be spot-free. We're not going to have zero, but we've just got to cut down two apiece (for Burrell and Horston). It's a big deal."
AP photo by Saul Young / Tennessee sophomore Rae Burrell tries to maintain control of the basketball while guarded by Texas A&M forward N'Dea Jones during Sunday's game in Knoxville. Burrell had five turnovers in the loss.Horston is one of two primary ball-handlers on the team, along with sophomore Jazmine Massengill from Chattanooga. The only other pure guard is freshman Jessie Rennie, who is more of a spot-up shooter, with the loss of sophomore Zaay Green to a lower-body injury a big blow to the Lady Vols' ball-handling.
Tennessee has turned the ball over on nearly 20% of its possessions this season, according to Synergy Sports. Regardless of talent or size, it's going to be hard to win under those circumstances. Only four SEC teams - Missouri, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss - are worse in that statistical category, and they're all in the bottom half of the league standings.
"That has been our problem all year," junior Rennia Davis said. "The turnovers in particular. I think we have cleaned up a lot of them. Sometimes it's just a disconnect between player to player as far as turnovers."
Despite its flaws, though, Tennessee has been able to hang around. How?
Here are three reasons:
1. Better defense: Tennessee opponents last season shot 41% from the field and averaged 0.812 point per possession, scoring on 39% of their possessions; this season those numbers are 33%, 0.697 and 33%. The Lady Vols have played solid defense while avoiding gambling on that end of the court. So they force far fewer turnovers than they did a year ago, but they are third in the SEC and 25th nationally in points allowed per possession.
2. Better shooting: Tennessee doesn't have much in the way of a pure shooter, but it does have players who make shots. Last season opponents played zone defense against the Lady Vols 41% of the time, with Tennessee making just 39% of its shots. This season the Lady Vols are seeing less and less zone (25%), due in part to shooting 46% against that type of defense as opposed to 42% against man-to-man. They are better on jump shots, around the basket and on post-up moves, so if they can just limit their turnovers, it will make a huge difference, because they make shots - when they take them.
3. Better situationally: There are little things that matter, such as offensive execution out of timeouts. Last season, Tennessee wasn't good coming out of timeouts; now the Lady Vols are close to average. They've improved on out-of-bounds situations - when execution matters - and on defense, they're better across the board. That's a product of being better prepared in those situations, and it's something that will continue to improve over time if the roster does as well.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.