On Senior Day, the Lady Vols fell into an early hole and lost to Georgia, 72-69.
After the game Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell met with the media.
Here's what she said.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Opening statement
Hard to make an opening statement after that performance because you still want your seniors, you still want to give them the recognition that they deserve. I love them. I appreciate them. I'm thankful for them changing my life and being around them every single day. So, you have to just move on from the game and enjoy the last time at home you have with them.
On Talaysia Cooper's injury
I don't know anything more than you know. I know she rolled her ankle and I haven't seen her since.
On the quick turnaround to postseason
We're gonna have to come up with something because we have one day of prep. We have one day of practice before we hit the road and have to try to play ourselves out of this.
On why she held Senior Day after the game
Senior Day, I wanted the focus to be the focus. I wanted the focus to be on the game. I didn't want too many emotions going into it and I wanted to give our seniors what they deserve, which is a little more time. You're crammed into five minutes pregame if you do it before the game. And when you have eight seniors, you don't really get to do it the way you want to do it.
On if their performance surprised her
It did. It's very disappointing that we came out the way we did today. Incredibly disappointing that was our response.
On what happened in the first quarter
I think it was a combination of things and it's kind of the same old story. We weren't able to score, but we weren't getting stops. We would have been all right if we were just getting stops but we let them off to a hot start and just couldn't score on the back end.
On what went right in the third quarter, went wrong in the fourth
We started to play like us in the third. The ball was going in the hole a little bit better. Still not great, but we just had better effort. We had players on the floor that were going to give us effort. We're going to do what we needed to do. And then in the fourth quarter, back to just making plays. And we just, we couldn't, we would make plays, but we wouldn't get stops and some blown coverages right there down the end that really hurt us.
On the system helping when a player goes down
I think it's really good when you trust your team and you have a deep team. And I thought Avery (Strickland) did a really good job of just stepping up, giving us something, played hard and that was huge for us because I don't even know that the game is close without her today.
On if the team is regressing
It feels like a regression. I don't necessarily know we're seeing anything different. I just think that we maybe look kind of like the old us. The us from the early part of the year.
On the difference between the team that beat UConn and team that lost to Georgia
I think it has to do with focus. I think it has to do with our prep for that game, we were all locked in. It was all of us were focused on that. And I think when you get towards the end of the year, maybe people start focusing on the wrong things.
On the SEC Tournament
I mean, this is another situation where the players know what to expect more than I do. And that's where your seniors and the players that have been here before are really important.
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