Tennessee Coach Still Has PTSD From Amoore And Strack

Georgia Amoore will lead UK against Tennessee tonight. (Vicky Graff Photo)

By LARRY VAUGHT

Tennessee has four straight games and six of its last seven, including an upset of No. 5 Connecticut, going into tonight’s game at Kentucky, which had a 16-point first-half lead over No. 6 LSU before losing Sunday.

Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said UK is a “big game” and that she expects to have a championship-type atmosphere.

“The game matters. It matters for us. It matters for them. I think that it’s a sold-out game. We’re a team that’s been talking about maturing and coming together playing as a team, being resilient, and our resilience is going to be tested on Thursday,” Caldwell said Tuesday.

Texas and South Carolina lead the SEC at 13-1 with LSU next at 12-2. Kentucky currently is 10-4 and in position to earn the final double bye at the SEC Tournament but Alabama, Oklahoma and Ole Miss are all 9-5 and Tennessee is 8-6.

The Vols are led by redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper who is averaging 17 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game and shooting 45 percent from the field. She has 10 games with 20 or more points.  Fifth-year guard Jewel Spear adds 13.4 points per game and has made 66 3-pointers while junior guard Ruby Whitehorn (12.5), junior forward Zee Spearman (11.8), and senior point guard Samara Spencer (10.5) also average in double figures.

Kentucky is led by All-American Georgia Amoore who leads the team in scoring at 18.9 points per game. She also leads the team in assists, 3-pointers made, and free-throw percentage. Sophomore center Clara Strack (14.7), redshirt senior guard Dazia Lawrence (12.8), and junior forward Teonni Key (11.5) also average in double figures.

Caldwell coached at Marshall last year and faced Virginia Tech in the NCAA Tournament. She remembers Amoore very well.

“She’s one of, if not the, best point guards in the country. I mean, she makes her team go. She’s the head of the snake for them,” Caldwell said. “She can score, but she also creates shots for other people in ways that you don’t see very often. She will put it to them exactly where they need it to score, and so she makes their offense go.

“I think that she and Clara, we have a little PTSD from both of them. I don’t think Clara missed a shot when we played. So, just phenomenal players that are already established, and we’re going to have to put our foot on the gas a little bit more with our pressure.”

Caldwell believes there are similarities between coach Kenny Brooks’ team at UK this season and the one he had at Virginia Tech last season.

“They have two of their key pieces. They are led by the same player. Kenny Brooks is a great coach, and he has that program doing exactly what he wants them to do,” Caldwell said.

Kentucky has struggled at times rebounding against big, physical SEC teams but Caldwell worries about keeping Strack, Teonni Key, and Amelia Hassett off the boards.

“I think the size is going to be an issue for us. That is something we’re going to talk about,” Caldwell said. “And we’ve talked about it at length over and over and over/ But I think their first quarter against LSU, they were incredibly dominant on the glass, and that’s something that we can’t let happen to us.”

The Tennessee coach said her team has missed shots at the rim in recent games despite its win streak and she says her team has to “hit the shots” it has around the rim tonight.

“And that kind of comes back to maturity of when we hit shots, we’re pressing. When we’re pressing, we’re getting stops and when we’re getting stops, we’re running, and it’s all kind of connected,” she said.