KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Assistant Coach Dean Lockwood met with members of the media before practice on Wednesday in Thompson-Boling Arena.  The No. 11 Lady Vols (21-4, 9-3 SEC) will close out a two-game home stand Thursday, welcoming Alabama (15-10, 5-7 SEC) for another SEC clash.

Answering questions from the media, Lockwood talked about the series against the Crimson Tide and how the Lady Vols match up.

Tennessee vs. Alabama will tip off at 6:32 p.m. ET and be televised on the SEC Network.

Assistant Coach Dean Lockwood

On Alabama out-rebounding Tennessee in the last two games:
“I think rebounding is an area that goes down to competing. They out-competed us. Rebounding is one strain of the virus, and the virus was they out-competed us. They just played harder, and they worked harder. Again, that was last year, so I don’t want to dwell on it, but if we go back and look at the tape of those games, you can see clearly for the full 40 minutes Alabama is playing harder in most of those minutes. That’s something we want to correct and, believe me, it is stuck in the mind of the veterans too.”

On how the returning players feel about losses to Alabama:
“They are not happy. We are playing a team that is not a final four team, or hasn’t been, but they beat us three times consecutively. Just being competitors, and the way we are this year, I think we’re wired a little bit more competitive and mature that way. It’s not lost on them.”

On having beaten Alabama 30 times previously and if that still gives Tennessee an advantage:
“I’ll tell you this, Kristy Curry is a heck of a coach, and what she has done in a relatively short time… Our public today thinks a new coach flips a switch, and in two years, we are going to win. It usually takes longer. Kristy Curry, in the time that she has been there, has made significant improvement in that program. They have gotten better. They play harder. They’re defending better. They have more people on the floor that can attack in different ways. We have a very healthy respect as coaches for them. We didn’t ever feel like, ‘Oh gosh, we have this.’ Because last year is last year. It is nice to have a string like that, but that speaks to the players, the maturity of the players, and how well we prepare. We didn’t look at that as nearly as big of a factor as the fact that we had a team that was good, and we had to respect them. We just didn’t get the job done.”

On Alabama coming into the game with more confidence:
“I can’t answer for them, but if I’m in their shoes, I’m going to say (the 30-game losing streak) is ancient history. The mystique is gone. They won the last three games, so I think those players come in here with a mindset of saying, ‘We’ve done it the last three games, forget about ancient history now. We just know recent history, and we’ve tackled this team three times.’ They have to have a certain amount of confidence knowing that they have beaten Tennessee. I think that’s in the history books.”

On the level of concern on the amount of turnovers:
“There is a certain amount that is acceptable. What I mean by that is one time we had two charges. That’s okay. We can live with that. Mercedes (Russell) one time was posting and kind of got a foul with the left arm trying to clear someone out. We can live with those. We had a couple jump balls, so any time you lose the possession, that’s a turnover. We can live with some of those. The biggest thing that we are focusing on is the decision making and the careless, sloppiness of our play – dragging your feet on a drive, not coming to a good jump stop, not pivoting correctly, and some of our forced passes. Holly (Warlick) has said repeatedly, ‘We try to hit a home run, but singles and doubles win games too.’ We are trying to kind of hit more singles and doubles, as opposed to throwing the home run… It is a lot safer to make one, two, maybe three passes, and it gets to the hole, versus trying to go for it right away. (After) showing our players that on video, (we’re) understanding the simpler we make the game the more solid we become.”

On Kasiyahna Kushkituah seeing increased minutes against Georgia:
“The reason she got in, and certainly that she got in as early as she did and got the minutes she did, was her work in practice. One of the core values of this program has always been that you earn playing time. You earn it. There’s only one way to get on that court, and you earn it. Her practices, specifically her tempo, her intensity and her focus, those three things were significantly better in practice during the three or four days leading up to that game. She’s also been putting in a little bit of extra work, so those two things combined to make us, and specifically Holly (Warlick) say, ‘Hey, we need to put her in.’ Because she’s going to be a good player for us down the line. Kasi is going to be a very good player. We’ve believed that from day one, she’s just been a little bit behind with the conditioning piece and then some of the focus. Like a lot of freshman she’s had to learn how to work hard and learn to practice hard, but when she did that, she showed us that she was moving ahead and she earned that opportunity.”

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