What Is Tamika Catchings Experience At University Of Tennessee

Discussed in the chapters read, was Tamika Catchings experience at University of Tennessee including how she got along with her teammates, how she was finally getting corrected and there season game success.

Tamika was prepared for a challenging future, she wanted to play with the best players and against the best players because she knew it would make her better. It was still preseason and there had been talk about Tamika, the incoming freshmen and her teammate, Chamique, a junior. People suggested they wouldn’t get along due to the competition with the same position and jealousy over who plays more. But, it turned out they got along very well because they had many things in common Besides basketball. She didn’t just have one best friend,

During a defensive drill, Tamika defended her usual way, standing straight up, super-aggressive, going after the ball. But, coach Pat had stopped the drill and suggested, “Bend your knees, arms out and move with the player.” The coach even came over and positioned her in the correct way and said, “slide.” Then, after that Tamika did the drill again, exactly the same way she had defended last time. As a result, the coach stopped the drill and told her to fix the same thing, only this she was starting to look stern. Tamika was starting to get frustrated because this has kept her successful all throughout high school. So, Tamika being stubborn, she did the drill for a third time only this time she did what she thought was going to be more successful. Consequently, the coach stopped the drill again and by now she was irked, she hollered, “Catch! How many times do I have to tell you?” After that, Tamika shouted back, “but it doesn’t work that way!” Coach was furious because she was only trying to coach her, so she told Tamika, she would send her right to texas, if she doesn’t stop being stubborn and thinking about the team. After practice Tamika apologized, she realized all throughout high school, she had never been told nothing wrong because her technique was

After that, for their second game, they played Louisiana Tech, which was about to be the toughest competition of the year and Tech was favored to win the game. But, in the end, Tennessee won 75-61. Then, they traveled to Vermont, whooping them by 40 points. Few days later, they played Stanford and they were ranked eleventh. They wound up beating Stanford 88-70. Now, they were going to play University of Illinois, the school her sister Tauja was pursuing her basketball career at. Tamika never wanted to play against each other, her dream was to play with her sister in college.She even ask her coach not to assign her to guard her and coach agreed, however, she reminded her, “ she may have to guard her at some point.” Tennessee was down by twenty points in the first half and somehow they forced ten turnovers in ten minutes and with nine minutes left, Tamika was fouled and managed to make both her free throws, then they took the lead. They ended up winning 60-45. After that they defeated Akron, Texas A&M, and Wisconsin. After the first half of the regular season, at christmas break, they were 13-0. On January 3rd, they faced UConn, which they were ranked number three. The great rivalry game ended with Tennessee on top,