Tennessee at Stanford: Coaches size up the competition and a team stat comparison

Coach Quotes || Team Statistical Comparison

• No. 23 Tennessee (8-1) at No. 1 Stanford (9-0)
• Dec. 18, 2019, 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET
• TV/Stream: Pac-12 Bay Area/Pac-12.com (Krista Blunk, Mary Murphy)
• Audio: Stanford: TuneIn, Tennessee: UTSports.com
• Series: 25-11 Tennessee, but Stanford has won five of the last eight
  • Last two meetings:
  • 12/21/17: Tennessee 83, Stanford 71, Stanford, CA
  • 12/18/18: Stanford 95, Tennessee 85, Knoxville, TN

Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer

On taking care of the ball better after playing Ohio State (Stanford had 21 turnovers against OSU on Sunday: Haley Jones had 7, Fran Belibi had 4 and Lexie Hull committed 3)

“I just had one kind of bone to pick with our team and that was we turned the ball over too much. And, you know, I think that we can do a lot better but I’m going to attribute that to a little rust and hopefully I’m right and we’re going to do a much better job against Tennessee.”

On learning lessons from wins and finishing

“It’s fun to be able to learn when you win, you know, it’s frustrating and hard and it can be real disappointing to lose. But to win and keep learning and getting better, I think that’s a great situation for our team to be in. So, I don’t think Haley or Lexi are satisfied with today’s game. If you were to do it over you would want to say, ‘hey, I want to Take care of the ball better or, you know, I want to, you know, finish on some shots, whatever.’ So they’re not satisfied. And neither am I.”

Tennessee’s Kellie Harper

On what makes Stanford so good

“Stanford is extremely efficient. Offensively, they can pass, dribble and shoot. They do a great job with their spacing in their offense. It suits them well. They have always been really good in transition. You have to get them in a half-court set, and then you have to try and guard them in a half-court set.”

On rebounding vs. Stanford

“I think any time you are playing an elite level team like Stanford, your rebounding is tested. One of the things I expect Stanford to do a great job of is boxing out. I think they are really disciplined, and they will do what they need to do to keep us off the boards, and that is a big part of what we do. Obviously, for us, at some point, you have to get around some box outs.”

On playing the top-ranked team

“I am excited about the opportunity. That is the way I look at it as an opportunity to go out and play a great team. We will see where we are at and also give us an opportunity to compete. I think it is coming at a good time for us, and hopefully, our players will be ready. I think the scouting report has been a little bit different for them with how good Stanford is. I think it is fun. This is why they came to Tennessee. They want to play elite-level competition like this.”

On defending against Stanford’s three-point shooting

“We have definitely talked about needing to get out behind the three-point line. Although we have not played bigs that can shoot, we have played five guards. I feel like, other than Texas, we have only played guards. I am hoping that our post players have had enough experience of stepping out to guard because of some of these other teams. Obviously, it is a different caliber player that is stepping out behind the three-point line now, but they should be comfortable in stepping out. It is just if they are stepping out with the urgency they need to step out when you are guarding Stanford. That is something we have been practicing.”

On game prep vs. Stanford

“Actually, I pulled up my old scouting report from Stanford last year at Missouri State. It is not the same team, and I am not coaching the same team, but it gives me an idea of some teaching points and maybe some wrinkles that we used that were positive for us.”

Team Comparison

Team	Tennessee (8-1)	Stanford (9-0)
Rank	Hoopfeed: #23 AP: #23 USA Today: #24	Hoopfeed: #1 AP #1 USA Today #1
Points Per Game	74.1	82.3
Scoring Margin	+22.1	+24.1
Field Goal %	0.449	0.478
3-Point FG %	0.283 (43-152)	.344 (74-215)
Free Throw %	0.635	0.682
Rebounds Per Game	52	45.8
Rebounding Margin	+17.1	+11.1
Assists Per Game	18.3	17.0
Turnovers Per Game	17.6	14.3
Turnover Margin	-4.0	-0.2
Steals Per Game	6.4	8.6
Blocks Per Game	6.7	6.0
Leaders	Rennia Davis (16.7ppg/8.7reg/2.6apg Zaay Green 13.0ppg/4.5rpg Jordan Horston 8.6ppg/6.2rpg Kasiyahna Kushkituah 8.6ppg/5.8rpg	Lexie Hull (14.6ppg, 5.2rpg Kiana Williams 11.7ppg, 3.7apg Haley Jones 10.8ppg/4.0rpg/2.5apg Fran Belibi 7.2ppg/5.8rpg)