A glimmer of hope that Tennessee saw following the blowout win over Missouri didn’t last long. Kim Caldwell’s Lady Vols fell again, 65-63, to the Texas Longhorns at the Food City Center, a result defined by their disappointing ball security and discipline with the fouls. And quite naturally, Caldwell didn’t hesitate to share a wake-up call with her team after the game.

The Lady Vols’ head coach’s assessment came to light at the post-game press conference. Caldwell highlighted that her team gave the opposition a fair advantage on two metrics, which, in her opinion, is the crux of basketball. “We fouled them too many times, the Lady Vols’ head coach said. “We gave them 23 foul shots, and we turned the ball over 22 times. To me, that’s what the basketball game is.”

Caldwell’s statement was clear. It framed the Lady Vols’ struggles with persistent turnovers in the game, where they conceded 17 points to Texas, which feasted on fast-break points. Tennessee also sent the Longhorns to the free-throw line 23 times. Texas capitalized on it well, converting 17 of them in a game where margins were narrow and the game was tightrope. The Lady Vols’ head coach doubled down on these errors further, stating that her team needs to eliminate them with an aggressive mindset, starting with their game against No. 14 Ole Miss (the postponed game scheduled for January 27).

“We need to be mad about it,” Caldwell said. “We don’t need to be sad, we don’t need to be pouting, and we don’t need to listen to anything other than, hey we’re mad. This is what we need to fix. We need to take our anger out in our next game.”

The Lady Vols’ head coach is aware of the challenges that a road game against the ranked Ole Miss team will present on Tuesday, despite the Rebels’ defeat in their last game against Kentucky. “I think Ole Miss lost today, too,” she said. “So, it’s a quick turn; it’s a really tough situation to have this game right now. But that’s what the league is about. We’re trying to build toughness right now. So, we got it and hopefully bounce back on the road.”

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In the Texas game on Sunday, Kim Caldwell’s team showed character when it mattered. The Lady Vols came back from a 14-point deficit at the start of the second quarter (16-30), and drew the score at 34-34 at the end of that quarter. Individual moments do add up in this regard. Their talisman, TaLaysia Cooper, scored a team-high 29 points but also turned the ball over 9 times, a figure that cost them dearly.

It included a crucial moment in the fourth quarter, when the score was 65-63 with 6 seconds remaining on the clock. A two-pointer was all it needed for Tennessee to draw the game, and Cooper was driving towards the basket to send the game to overtime. But as fate would have it, she rolled over the ball courtesy of a bad pass. Texas’ Bryanna Preston inflicted a steal as the Lady Vols conceded a back-and-forth defeat to the Longhorns, an early warning sign for Caldwell’s team.

Yet despite that, Caldwell is quite optimistic regarding a trait of her team that she has been demanding since the last stretch of games.

Kim Caldwell Heaps Praise on Her Team’s Leadership From Her Players

Following blowout defeats to UConn and South Carolina, Kim Caldwell demanded one element from her players: Take responsibility on the court and develop a sense of leadership. And to some extent, her experienced players, TaLaysia Cooper and Janiah Barker, have resolved it for her to some extent. Both Cooper and Barker have managed to step up in their last couple of games, with Barker leading the scoring in the Missouri game (22 points) and Cooper in the Texas game.

“I think we had that one little meltdown there, and we called a timeout, and we had some leadership,” Caldwell said. “They didn’t hang their heads, they moved on from it. And I think it’s a giant step forward.”

Yet, despite this newfound trait, Caldwell’s team still needs to overcome its turnover issues to sustain its March Madness ceiling. But from a broader perspective, the Lady Vols have faced this threat throughout the season. They have rolled over the ball 333 times this season, averaging 15.1 per game, ranking 106th in the metric, excessively high for a top-ranked team like the Lady Vols.

This is something the seniors on the Cooper and Barker teams will have to be wary of in their upcoming stretch of games, especially the ranked game against Ole Miss. For now, Kim Caldwell and co. can’t afford anything but a win against the Rebels to maintain their rankings in the AP Poll.

The Lady Vols entered the Texas matchup ranked 22nd. With the loss, they currently boast a record of 16-7 and 8-3, and the Texas loss can further bring them down in the AP Poll pecking order.  That being said, the Ole Miss game becomes a must-win for them. With the game scheduled for Tuesday, do you see Tennessee making a comeback this season? Do let us know in the comments.