KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee senior Jaime Nared and Head Coach Holly Warlick each met with the media on Tuesday afternoon prior to the #12/13 Lady Vols’ practice in Pratt Pavilion.
Nared was named MVP of the Cancun Challenge after averaging 19.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists over the three games. Answering questions from the media, she shared her thoughts on the freshmen and how the team as a whole performed on the road. Warlick’s answers included discussion about UT’s defensive formations and the fan support the team had in Cancun.
Tennessee will host Central Arkansas Thursday at 7 p.m. ET in Thompson-Boling Arena. The game will be carried online by SECN+ (WatchESPN).
After defeating No. 20 Marquette, Oklahoma State and South Dakota at the Cancun Challenge, Tennessee is looking to improve to 7-0 on the season. The Lady Vols are 1-0 all time against the Sugar Bears, winning 102-47 on Nov. 15, 2015.
Lady Vols Head Coach Holly Warlick
On her checklist of things the players need to work on:
“One-on-one defense, consistency and rebounding. It was great competition (Cancun Challenge), great energy for us, great wins, so I know we got what we wanted out of it, but there’s always room for improvement.”
On if one-on-one defense is one of the hardest things for new players to learn:
“One-on-one is difficult because you aren’t allowed to touch the player, and there’s better athletes who are quicker. It’s hard, and it’s just getting down, getting in the stance, knowing where you are, playing angles. We’re good. We’ve gotten better, but we’ve got to be great at it. We’ve done a lot better job of helping (one another). We’ve just got to learn to keep people in front of us and (force them to) make shots over us. The Marquette game was a little different because they had great three-point shooters, so we limited our help. I’ve been pleased with our help-side defense. We’ve just got to get better on one-on-one, and that’s all year, and you can always get better at that. We have the capability of doing it, but we’ve just got to be more disciplined.”
On if this needs to be a good multiple defense team all season:
“I think it can be a great multiple defensive team. We use it to disrupt. Our man defense has gotten better, our zone defense is getting better. We’ve done a 2-3, and we’ve done a 3-2, so it matters with who we play and who we’re going to use. We’re athletic so we cover a lot of ground.”
On communication within the defense:
“We’re playing with each other and getting used to each other. Communication is huge – knowing that I can defend a little tighter, knowing that I have help behind me is our communication, and knowing what we’re doing on the defensive end. Basketball is really five people guarding one ball, if you do it correctly.”
On if missing free throws is a mental thing right now:
“It’s mental for us, and we’re very capable of making free throws. We’ve just got to get up to the line and focus. We’re doing a lot in practice, but we probably need to be more focused in practice, but we work on it everyday. It’s repetition and muscle memory.”
On rebounding numbers:
“We’re giving up too many rebounds. We’ve got to keep our opponents off the boards. We’re doing better with rebounding, but we can do better.”
On what she learned about the team after spending a lot of time with them during the Cancun Challenge:
“Our resilience was huge, and how they worked and played together. We were around each other quite a bit, but we really needed to lean on each other for three games. Three games is tough against the opponents that we had. I thought we rose to the occasion and stood up to the challenge, and it took all of us. Our coaches were outstanding. (It was) a different environment, but the younger kids handled it with the great leadership of our upperclassmen.”
On if you learn more about a team during these destination tournaments:
“We try our best to keep them focused, but we want them to enjoy the trip. We swam with dolphins, and then we went back and had practice. Then the next three days we played. Our freshmen have a maturity about them. They’re still young and don’t know certain things, but I’m really proud of them for getting focused. You go back to the upperclassmen making sure these guys are on the same page, are ready, and know what’s expected of them. We, as coaches, talked about that a lot as well.”
On the fan turnout at the Cancun Challenge:
“We had a great turnout. We always have a good following, and our fans want us to go overseas or somewhere warm every year. A lot of our fans that went to Italy with us came (to Cancun), so we kind of reunited with some of them. It was a great turnout, loud… just typical Tennessee fans. They loved it.”
Senior Guard Jaime Nared
On team’s play in Mexico:
“I just liked how we competed. I think in our first game, it was a tough game. I think (Marquette) was our first game where we really had to compete. I just like how we played down the stretch and battled, even when things weren’t going our way or maybe we weren’t playing our best, we still found different ways to win the game.”
On if she learned anything about team being on the first road trip:
“It was strictly basketball. I thought everybody did a good job of staying focused. Obviously we’re in Cancun, so there’s so much to do. It was nice to see how everybody stayed focused and really paid attention to the task at hand, and that was winning games. I thought that was just great to see – the level of maturity, especially from the freshmen. I mean, your freshman year, especially in Mexico, it’s overwhelming. There’s so much you can do and see. I thought they handled themselves really well.”
On how the freshmen are playing and her role as a leader:
“One of them just got (SEC) Freshman of the Week, so I mean, they’re doing pretty good. I think it’s obviously an adjustment, but I think they’re doing really well adjusting to it. Evina (Westbrook) is doing great at the point guard position. Annie (Anastasia Hayes) is doing great at the point guard position. With so much to learn there, they’re just doing great with it. You have someone that’s that athletic in Rennia (Davis), and Kasi (Kushkituah) just keeps on getting better. I like how they’re just adjusting into the new team and different things we’re kind of teaching them, and really following after Mercedes (Russell) and I, and trusting that the situations we’ve been in before, we don’t want to be in again. I think we’re just working really well together.”
On whether freshmen have exceeded her expectations:
“I knew they were going to be great contributors. I mean, we have 10 people on our team. They are highly touted freshmen. I didn’t really know much about them in high school, or anything, really. I played with Evina (Westbrook) my senior year, her freshman year, so I’ve seen her play a little bit. I didn’t really know what they were going to bring. I didn’t know what to expect, but practices in preseason and seeing what they each could do, I think they have done such a great job and really helped us. I think their maturity level and them just helping us in different ways, they keep getting better. They’re in the gym still, and it’s nice to see them improve.”
On how freshmen handled ups and downs of Marquette game:
“That was obviously their first game that was competitive like that. I think they understand how much we need each other. I think that’s something you kind of learn, especially as games get tougher. You really need to rely on each other. Especially when games are close, and toward the end of games. I think they kind of learned that in that game. When Annie (Hayes) maybe was struggling making free throws, and our team was picking her up, and maybe another team was trying to get in her head, you really have to rely on your teammates… defensively, especially with getting stops, and offensively with just working the ball around and just being smart. I think they really saw that, and they’re going to continue to see that in the course of the season.”
-UT Athletics
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