When a team doesn’t start the season ranked, it’s hard to break into the polls. But undefeated Tennessee has made its case to be included after defeating Florida State and Iowa.

The weekly AP rankings will be released today, Dec. 9, followed by the coaches’ poll the following day. While rankings are subjective, fluctuate week to week and have no bearing on postseason seeding in the NCAA tourney – the College Football Playoff committee should follow suit – it is something fans and media watch.

The Lady Vols started the season with a 5-0 record against mid-major conference teams. The not-so-silent whisper campaign against Tennessee and its new head coach among national observers and other coaches – if it reached me, surely the Lady Vols and Kim Caldwell heard it, too – was that her system of high-octane offense, relentless pressure defense and rapid rotations of players would not work against power conference teams.

Tennessee welcomed Florida State to Knoxville on Dec. 4 and won 79-77. The naysayers pointed out the Lady Vols had yet to leave home. Tennessee flew to New York and defeated No. 17/20 Iowa, 78-68, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn after pulling away in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. The lead changed 16 times in the game, and the Lady Vols never wilted.

“I think the biggest thing that we learned is we are resilient,” Caldwell said. I don’t want to jinx it, but I know can get better. We’re closer to our floor than we are our ceiling right now. We’ve got to start getting over the hump.

“Our shooting percentage isn’t great. It was good to get these two wins, but it was still ugly, and we’ve got to continue to get better.”

Tennessee, now 7-0, got up big against Florida State, surrendered the lead and had to go toe-to-toe with the Seminoles in the fourth quarter. The Lady Vols started 8-0 against Iowa due to its defense and then struggled to hit shots. With four minutes left to play, Iowa had a two-possession lead. Tennessee’s Talaysia Cooper scored six consecutive points in that critical stretch after playing just five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, and the Lady Vols won by 10 points to hand Iowa, 8-1, its first loss of the season.

“My teammates kept me in the game, kept talking to me, telling me they need me,” Cooper said. “We did it together, pressuring the ball on defense, pushing the pace more. We work hard every day in practice. I’m not shocked. That might sound cocky, but no, it’s only going to get better. Keep working hard. Trust in the process.”

Cooper finished with 23 points. She got considerable help on offense from Ruby Whitehorn, who notched 16 points, and Samara Spencer and Tess Darby, who added 11 points each. Darby had a clutch three late in the fourth quarter.

Tess Darby launches a three-pointer against Iowa with the Lady Vols bench calling the shot. (Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

Iowa coach Jan Jensen said the Lady Vols’ pressure takes a toll on a team when asked if fatigue was a factor late in the game.

“I don’t think physically it was, but it was mentally, because the pressure will get you,” Jensen said. “The pressure weighs on the mind. That team is going to make you win ugly and probably make you lose ugly, unless you have some tremendous depth of ball handlers.”

From Caldwell’s view, her team can get a lot better, especially on offense.

The Lady Vols have four games before the holiday break against North Carolina Central on Dec. 14 in Knoxville, a trip to Memphis on Dec. 18 – the first road game of the season since New York was a neutral site – and two games in the West Palm Beach Classic in Florida against Richmond on Dec. 20 and Tulsa on Dec. 21.

After the break, Tennessee hosts Winthrop on Dec. 29 and starts SEC play on the road at Texas A&M on Jan. 2. The Lady Vols then host Oklahoma on Jan. 6 and LSU on Jan. 9. The SEC is a brutal conference for women’s basketball and loaded with potential Final Four teams. The hits are coming – any team getting through the SEC this season unscathed seems unlikely – and Caldwell is fully aware of the magnitude of conference play.

While the box score offered a lot of like for Tennessee, especially 42 points off 30 Iowa turnovers, the Hawkeyes owned the glass, 48-33.

“At this point of the season, these are just lessons we’re learning,” Caldwell said. “The rebounds, we’re going to watch them, we’re going to run for them, it’s going to be corrected. You want to be able to handle them now so that you can fix them now, so by the time that you get into SEC play, you fix all these problems. Games like these are huge for us.”

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.