Texas coach Vic Schaefer shared his thoughts on the difference in substitution patterns ahead of the Longhorns‘ Sweet 16 matchup with Lady Vols basketball.
No. 5 seed Tennessee (24-9) squares off with the No. 1 seed Longhorns (33-3) in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.
The way Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell makes substitutions has been discussed on nearly every television broadcast this season. Caldwell’s system of pressing full court for 40 minutes requires a lot of substitutions, and she typically subs full lineups every two minutes.
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Schaefer addressed what he called a storyline of Tennessee’s subbing on Wednesday in a radio interview.
“My kids take a lot of pride in their toughness, their conditioning,” Schaefer said. “We as a staff take great pride in the job we do with these kids. So whether you play like we do and certain kids play a lot of minutes and some kids, in their case, they’re always subbing in and out. If that wants to be the storyline, it can be, but at the end of the day, for us, we feel like we have great chemistry with certain players, certain lineups. So we don’t really make that big a deal about it.
“Quite frankly, I’ve got some competitors on my team, if I was yanking them out of the game, they’d be (ticked) off at me. They like to play.”
Schaefer brought up one of his former players at Mississippi State, 6-foot-7 center Teaira McCowan, who played for Schaefer from 2015-19. He said when he used to sub her out of games, even if they were leading by 30 points, she’d ask him why she was getting pulled from the game.
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“I’ve got some competitors like that on my team now, they love playing the game,” Schaefer said. “So for us, we feel really good about our conditioning and where we are.”
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SEC Player of the Year Madison Booker averages 31.1 minutes for Texas. Senior point Rori Harmon averages 29.4, senior guard Shay Holle averages 26 and senior forward Taylor Jones averages 21.3. The rest of the team averages under 20 minutes per game.
“I know it’s a big storyline for them and how they play and their philosophy,” Schaefer said. “And it’s great, it’s really worked out well for them. But for us, when we go into this game … the hockey substitution deal’s not really a topic of conversation – other than when the horn sounds, you need to pay attention. You need to find a coach, we’ll have your matchups, that kind of thing.”
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Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Vic Schaefer: Kim Caldwell’s sub approach would upset Texas players
