The last time Tennessee and Texas played, the Lady Vols nearly upset the Longhorns in Austin, while coach Kim Caldwell was watching at home in Knoxville after giving birth to her first child.

Jenna Burdette took the reins as acting head coach, and the Lady Vols, several of whom were battling the flu, fell by just four points, 80-76, on January 23.

“I think it’ll be nice to be back on the floor and to get that opportunity back,” Caldwell said.

The rematch carries much higher stakes with both teams trying to get to the Elite Eight. The game is set for this Saturday, March 29, when No. 5 seed Tennessee, 24-9, will square off again with No. 1 seed Texas, 33-3, in the Birmingham Regional in Alabama at Legacy Arena. Tip time is set for 3:30 p.m. with the broadcast on ABC.

No. 2 seed TCU (33-3) and No. 3 seed Notre Dame (28-5) will play at 1 p.m. The winners will meet Monday at 7 p.m. for a berth in the Final Four.

“They’re playing much better, and I think we are, too,” Caldwell said. “So, I do think it’ll be a different game, but their half-court defense has improved significantly. At least it looks like that on film. Their full court pressure has improved significantly since their last loss.”

Caldwell had signs at practice this week to remind players to rebound. Board play has at times surpassed expectations and other times has fallen short. In the first game against Texas, the Longhorns won the board battle, 39-24. Guard Talaysia Cooper led the way for the Lady Vols with seven rebounds and needed some more help.

Coach Kim Caldwell, center, smiles as Kaniya Boyd, far left, speaks with Sara Puckett, Ruby Whitehorn, Avery Strickland and Jewel Spear also listening. (Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

“I do think we rebounded well last week,” Caldwell said. “It’s a new week. It’s a bigger opponent, it’s a more physical opponent, and we just have to continue to do that focused effort. And there have been some games this year where I have questioned, ‘Are we capable? Are we capable of rebounding with this team?’

“And watching the Texas game was one of them, so just making sure that we have a focused effort with a sense of urgency on the boards.”

Both the Lady Vols and the Gentlemen Vols earned spots in the Sweet 16.

“It’s amazing, and I’m happy to be a part of it,” Caldwell said. “I think there’s a long time there where, again, you don’t want to be the coach that didn’t reach the standard of the other coaches around you on a day-to-day basis. And when you are around success, it breeds success.”

The Vols, seeded No. 2, will play No. 3  seed Kentucky at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis  at 7:39 p.m. tonight on March 28. That game will be broadcast on TBS and truTV.

Ironically, both Tennessee teams will face another SEC foe. The NCAA tries to keep teams in the same conference from playing each other before the Elite Eight, but when so many SEC teams made the field of 68 – 14 for the men and 10 for the women – that task became impossible. While the opponent is well-known, coaches often have mixed feelings about seeing such a familiar team.

“Kind of neutral,” Caldwell said. “It’s a little bit of motivation for us because we didn’t win the first time. But sometimes it’s nice to play someone new.”

Zee Spearman gets to the rim in the win over Ohio State in the NCAA tourney. (Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

Tennessee stumbled to end the regular season and had a short stay in the SEC tourney. The team that had beaten UConn and taken so many teams to the final possession looked like a shell of itself in late February and early March.

But the team got back to work, hit the reset button and restored itself in the NCAA tourney. The Lady Vols could have gone in either direction. The coaches and players took the path of hard work and commitment to each other.

“I think it’s really rare this day and age that you have a team that doesn’t just check out and say, ‘Well, I’m moving on to the next thing,’” Caldwell said. “Or if you don’t have a coaching staff that moves on and says, ‘I’m moving on to the next class of kids. Let’s just go ahead and start recruiting.’

“I think it says a lot about the resiliency of this program from our assistant coaches to our players that they cared enough about each other to just check back in and fix it, as opposed to say, ‘Oh well, we failed.’ They figured it out. I’m happy we’re going to the Sweet 16. I’m proud of that, but I’m incredibly proud of the way we looked on the floor our last two games and despite what happens in our next game, I hope that those last two games can be something that we remember as a group of how hard we played and how we played together.”

Of course, everyone on the roster wants more, especially the seniors who know the next loss is the end of their college career.

“I think from the very beginning of me and this team, their mindset was a hungry mindset,” Caldwell said. “Now, maybe we lost that somewhere along the way, but I did think we’d have it back. And as a coach, you can’t sit here and think, ‘OK, we’ve got it. Let’s check that box. Let’s pat ourselves on the back.’

“We have to continue to motivate. We have to continue to stay locked in. We have to continue to play the underdog card and play as hard as we can in our next game.”

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.