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Summitt says work needed on defense
'Not sold' on Johnson technical
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Virginia gave Tennessee 83 reasons to be worried about its women's basketball defense Monday night.
And that was reason enough for Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt to cancel a recruiting trip Tuesday and concentrate solely on the team's practice in advance of Friday's game at Chattanooga.
By the time the team convened to watch a video review of the 83-82 loss to the Cavaliers, Summitt had watched a replay three times.
"We just did not step up defensively,'' she said. "I think we thought we were going to have a shootout."
Virginia guard Monica Wright did most of the shooting, torching UT for a career-high 35 points on 14 for 26 shooting.
The day after, the Lady Vols were still sorting through their share of the blame for Wright's heroics. Summitt was second-guessing decisions relating to designating and rotating defenders on Wright. She said the Lady Vols' inability to control the player with the basketball also worked to Wright's advantage.
"We had so many lapses on defense,'' Summitt said. "We didn't stop the ball. The ball got deep and (Wright) got a lot of touches."
In some cases, Wright had the ball. In other instances, she benefitted from the resulting chaos.
Summitt said a "miscommunication" contributed to a key possession in which the 5-foot-11 Wright swished a jumper over 5-2 Briana Bass, tying the score at 82-82 with 39 seconds left.
Summitt's video review also included multiple looks at Glory Johnson's technical foul with 3:38 left. Summitt sounded skeptical about whether the call was warranted after Johnson got tangled with Virginia's Whitny Edwards.
"My staff believed it did, I'm not sold on it,'' she said. "I think there had been a confrontation in the backcourt before that.
"I have looked at it three times. I just thought she was frustrated."
Summitt said that she wasn't planning any disciplinary action for the freshman forward. Summitt wants Johnson to be aggressive but not overdo it.
"I don't want to take that away from her but we're not the type of team that's going to be a dirty team,'' Summitt said. "We're going to be an aggressive team."
© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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