Defense and rebounding always have been the motto of Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. This season the Lady Vols are doing fine on defense, but rebounding has not been up to their standards.
This year's team could end up having the worst rebounding average in school history, taking over the spot the 2005-06 team had at 39.4 rebounds per game. Last year's average was the worst in 28 years.
The Lady Vols were ranked 11th out of 12 Southeastern Conference teams at 37.1 rebounds a game heading into Thursday's game against Mississippi, the top rebounding team in the league.
Summitt said she was going to emphasize rebounding even more during games.
"We'll have to hold people more accountable. One thing that has certainly come to my mind that we're going to do is to keep specific stats and talk at halftime about who is rebounding and who is not,'' she said.
Individually, Candace Parker ranks fourth in the SEC in rebounding at about nine a game, and Summitt believes the other players might be waiting for Parker to rebound. Tennessee's next-best rebounder is Nicky Anosike at 5.5 a game.
"I do agree with the philosophy that it's not so much what you teach but what you emphasize,'' Summitt said. "I don't think that's worked as well with this group, we've always emphasized rebounding.''
No comments:
Post a Comment