One step forward. One step back. Such is basketball life in SEC play.
After a bitter loss Sunday to in-state rival Vanderbilt by one point, the Lady Vols will get back on the road for a game at No. 7 Texas in Austin on Thursday, January 23. Tip time is set for 9 p.m. Eastern with the broadcast on the SEC Network.
The Lady Vols team is likely to be without head coach Kim Caldwell, whose baby is expected at anytime so a flight to Texas doesn’t seem likely to be on the table. As far as when Caldwell will return to the sideline – Tennessee plays at home Monday, Jan. 27, against South Carolina – that will depend on how it all goes. In sports parlance, Caldwell is day to day. Assistant coach Jenna Burdette is expected to steer the team in Caldwell’s absence.
While Caldwell went to the post-game press conference with media after last Sunday’s game, Burdette handled the radio spot with Voice of the Lady Vols Brian Rice and was asked about Tennessee’s comeback in the fourth quarter that came up short and the lack of production at five points in the second quarter.
“Valiant comeback, but we’ve got to put four quarters together,” Burdette said. “We’ve been stressing it, especially when you’re on your road, you can’t come out flat in the second quarter.
“Usually, our offense fuels our defense, and we’re trying to switch it to be the other way around. We’ve got to let our defense fuel our offense, and we weren’t getting stops. We obviously weren’t scoring the basketball and settling for shots that we don’t normally take.”
Roman Tubner, Lexie Barrier, Kim Caldwell, Jenna Burdette, Angel Rizor and Gabe Lazo are all smiles after a meet-and-greet with fans last fall. (Maria M. Cornelius)
Tennessee fans flooded Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium, and the fourth quarter comeback sounded like a home game for the Lady Vols.
“That part was amazing,” Burdette said. That was the only good part of the game so shoutout to our fans.”
Caldwell wasn’t happy after Sunday’s game since a defensive board would have secured the win. Instead, Vanderbilt won 71-70 on a putback. Tennessee could be 6-0 in SEC play but has lost on the last possession in three games by a total of four points to Oklahoma, LSU and Vandy.
“I think they have to make a change,” Caldwell said. “We have to make a change. We can’t continue to just do the same thing and have quarters where we don’t show up. Get outrebounded when it matters.
“Have plays where we take them off, effort plays. We show them every possession that costs us a game, and we’re either not good enough to fix it, or we just don’t think it matters.”
Tennessee is good enough to fix it, and the players know it matters, but that consistency has to be in place on game day. The competitive maturity needed to close out games in the SEC is still percolating.
“I think it starts in practice, and I think when we can string consistent practices together, then we’re going to take a step forward,” Caldwell said. “But until we can do that, we’re going to keep getting the same result.”
Despite the loss, Tennessee fell just two spots this week to No. 17 in the AP poll. The Lady Vols actually moved up in the NET – one metric the NCAA uses for postseason seeding – from No. 16 to No. 14. That is the poll to keep an eye on when it comes time to determine who will host the early rounds at home in the NCAA tourney.
Tess Darby signals a made three against Vanderbilt. (Tennessee Athletics)
Tennessee got off to a slow start against Vandy, which is also exasperating for the coaching staff.
“It’s us,” Tennessee senior guard Jewel Spear said. “That’s the only explanation for that. We just have to fix that. And we talk about it countless days, but we just have to fix it.”
Spear is playing her fifth and final year of college basketball. So is senior Tess Darby.
“Little things matter,” Darby said. “I think we’ve seen that in the past three games. Everything matters. We have to carry that focus in because the SEC is no joke. If we want to have a chance come March, then it’s time to pick it up.”
Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press.
