Terrific Tennessee Tuesday: Talaysia Cooper, Guard
The Lady Vols are No. 18 in the AP Poll and a lot of that has to do with the South Carolina transfer.
Every Tuesday, we here at VolsHub are going to highlight one Tennessee Volunteers athlete who we think had the best week throughout football, basketball and baseball season. It’s one of the many different daily staples here at VH that we very much hope you enjoy and check back for each Tuesday through the year.
Without further ado, let’s dive into which athlete we are spotlighting for today’s Terrific Tennessee Tuesday column.
Tennessee basketball fans have seen 18 combined games from the men’s and women’s teams this season. They have also only seen 18 victories from the men’s and women’s teams this season. Both the men’s and women’s teams are three and four victories away, respectively, from entering 2025 without a loss. For the men’s team, they’ll be heavy favorites in their final three nonconference games this month. For the women’s team, they’ll have to win two difficult road games at Memphis on Wednesday night and at Richmond on Friday afternoon before welcoming Tulsa and Winthrop in two final home games before starting SEC play in College Station vs. Texas A&M. It can certainly be done, for both teams, but the ‘why’ is very different for both teams, too.
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I wrote in-depth about the head men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes’ team in my column yesterday. His Volunteers are No. 1 in the AP Poll, and will likely remain in that spot for at least a few more weeks after escaping Champaign with a victory on Saturday night. Barnes and his staff have done an incredible job assembling the right roster around star point guard Zakai Zeigler in his final season on Rocky Top. While it is a bit surprising to see the Vols at No. 1 in the nation in mid-December with three first-year transfer starters, it is not a stunning development. BartTorvik did project Tennessee to be the best team in the SEC this preseason. Combine that with the fact that the Vols, Auburn and Alabama have played musical chairs atop the conference for nearly half a decade now and the conference is undoubtedly the best in men’s college basketball this season and it all kind of checks out.
It’s different for the Lady Vols.
There was obvious excitement for first-year head coach Kim Caldwell when she arrived from Marshall. Her style of play drew instant comparisons to Tennessee head football coach Josh Heupel’s. Fans had a hunch this team was going to be fun and be fun right away. That has certainly been true for the Lady Vols through eight games. Caldwell’s team has dominated the teams Tennessee should dominate. However, where the Lady Vols have already exceeded expectations about what this team can be in Year 1 is what happened in Brooklyn vs. Iowa.
Tennessee took down one of the premier programs in women’s college basketball last Saturday night in the biggest win of Caldwell’s early career at Tennessee. Yes, fighting back to hold off Florida State in the previous game was extremely impressive, too, but the win over the Hawkeyes looked and felt different. A lot of that has to do with the ascension of guard Talaysia Cooper. The South Carolina transfer put that game away for the Lady Vols late in the fourth quarter with key buckets and key defensive possessions.
While a lot of folks have been fascinated by Caldwell’s early rotation strategies, Cooper’s clear comfortability and fit in Caldwell’s scheme is maybe the most important development through eight games. With such a different style and so many new faces on this year’s Lady Vols team, it was hard to pinpoint one player in particular as the best breakout candidate at Tennessee this season. Cooper, along with Jewel Spear and Tess Darby all looked to be good fits for Caldwell’s scheme, but you wanted to see how it all looked, too.
Well, Cooper has been the clear breakout star for the Lady Vols. She leads the team in PPG (20.2), RPG (6.1), SPG (3.1), and BPG (1.2). She’s one assist more a game from averaging a line of 20/6/5 while shooting 40 percent from three. Zero Lady Vols shot forty percent or better from deep last season. It’s not all Cooper, as the Lady Vols are 14th nationally in offense, per BartTorvik. As a team, nearly 50 percent of their shots have been three-point attempts with Cooper, Samara Spencer and Tess Darby all hitting 36 percent or higher from deep this season.
If the Lady Vols get through December unscathed, a lot of that will likely be due to the all-around dominance from Cooper who has become the leader and star for Caldwell’s first team on Rocky Top.
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