The University of Tennessee set an SEC women's basketball record for conference wins with a sterling 15-1 mark this season. The Lady Vols earned the top seed in this week's league tournament in Duluth, Ga., and remain ranked No. 4 in the country.
And there is no senior on the roster.
These fruits were products of a great deal of labor, of course, but the seeds were planted last March.
The Lady Vols were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the first time under coach Pat Summitt. After falling to Ball State, they handed in their game uniforms -- but held on to the practice gear.
Summitt wanted to make sure everyone realized that a first-round dismissal was not acceptable. Ever.
"I think our team this year has made a lot of progress over the last year," Summitt said on Monday's SEC teleconference. "With primarily a sophomore team, the biggest thing that has allowed us to be successful has been our summer workouts, and you have to volunteer for that. ...This group has invested more than maybe any other we've had."
Those investments have paid off. There have been narrow wins and blowouts. The title of hero has rotated throughout the Lady Vols' locker room all season.
It started with Shekinna Stricklen, who posted a triple-double early in an impressive win over Oklahoma. Kelley Cain, the 6-foot-6 sophomore, has emerged as a true force on each end of the floor. Add in the deep UT bench and the steady hand of Angie Bjorklund -- who has scored at least seven points in each game this season and is making more than 40 percent of her 3-point tries -- and the Lady Vols are prepared.
Not that you'd always know it from Summitt's demeanor this season. Her sideline glares and tirades have become a well-known calling card, but she seldom does anything without purpose and she never misses a meaningful moment to get across her message.
"Every moment is a teaching moment," Summits said. "You can't predetermine how you're going to react. There are different methods of communicating with the members of our team, and they're not always the same. It's a guessing game a lot of the time. You hope you are pushing the right buttons, but it doesn't mean you always get the results you want."
The results have been there to date. All of this balance and motivation and seasoning has the Lady Vols in the familiar position as the favorites this week in Duluth. Not that there won't be challengers, though.
"Look at the league," Mississippi State coach Sharon Fanning said, "and the number of teams that have been ranked and been in the top 10, this may be the most competitive tournament. Anybody can win. You have to be playing your best basketball."
Said Ole Miss coach Renee Ladner: "I've never seen the league this unpredictable. Not in my tenure, at least. The past 10 years there was always the favorites and those on the bottom. It's parity; it's balance."
That's all well and good, but the bull's eye still remains orange and the top still belongs to Summitt.
"They have such good balance and depth and size. Of course they are the team to beat," Fanning said. "I think it's just game day and everyone has to be ready to play. But obviously they are the team to beat."
Yep, and they probably have been since last March.