Women Still Playing Well, But Losing The Big Games

While the men's team has done an incredible job in conference play against top 25 teams, the women's basketball squad has had a tougher time. The Dores have dropped three games this month to fall to a 17-4 record, the most recent loss being to a 67-57 Tennessee squad which was ranked 4th in the country. By far the toughest loss this month was to unranked Ole Miss, who upset the Commies 76-66 early on. Losing to #16 Georgia was also difficult as the game was not very close. The schedule down the road is not intimidating, the only ranked teams on the horizon are LSU and Tennessee in late February. Coach Melanie Balcomb and the Lady Commies will no doubt finish up well, but they'll need a big effort and hopefully a couple of wins against ranked opponents in order to get a high seed in the Tourney.

To this point in the year, Vandy is currently ranked second in the SEC in Scoring Offense but 11th in scoring defense. They lead the SEC in field goal percentage and (not surprisingly) 3-point percentage. In addition, the Commies are ranked 10th in rebounding margin, meaning that they are getting it done on one side but not on the other. There aren't a lot of second chance opportunities for this team, which is what most good 3-point shooting teams need to be complete. They do play tremendous team ball though as they currently lead the SEC in assists and are second in assist/turnover ratio.

Carla Thomas is fourth in the SEC in scoring, averaging 16.9 points a game. Dee David is leading the SEC in assists/game with 6.29. Meanwhile, Caroline Williams continues to light up the net shooting .475 from behind the arc, good enough for second in the SEC.

Hopefully the Lady Dores can get a stretch of wins against SEC opponents they should beat. Like we always say here at the VSL, you can't look past any one you play. But, garnering some momentum heading into the LSU game would be quite nice.