Tennessee's Evina Westbrook (2) is pressured by Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale during the first half of Thursday's game. Turnovers have been a problem for the sixth-ranked Lady Vols.KNOXVILLE - The bad news for the Tennessee women's basketball team is it blew a 23-point lead against a top-five team on national television Thursday.
The good news - or more bad news, depending on how you look at it - is that a game of similar magnitude awaits the sixth-ranked Lady Volunteers (16-2, 4-1 SEC) this afternoon.
"I think it is great timing for us," Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said Saturday, choosing the optimistic outlook.
No. 3 Mississippi State (19-0, 5-0) will try to become the first Southeastern Conference team to reach 20 wins in the 3 p.m. contest in Thompson-Boling Arena. It's the annual "We Back Pat" game, meant to bring awareness to the Pat Summitt Foundation and the fight against Alzheimer's disease.
The meeting of the SEC's highest-ranked teams will be televised on ESPN2.
"Coming off the loss, we understand that we need to be more focused," Warlick said. "We have to tune in. We have to stick to our game plan. I'm OK with the game being now."
Tennessee turned the ball over 28 times Thursday at Notre Dame in letting a 37-14 lead melt into an 84-70 defeat. The collapse set the stage for what Warlick described as "a pretty intense" Friday practice in which some players struggled.
"And I actually let them sulk for the day," Warlick said. "That one stung. I get it: It stung with me too. I told the group, 'We're going to talk about Notre Dame today (Friday). We're going to fix it, and then tomorrow we're not going to bring it back up.' And that's what we've done."
Turnover woes have been a recurring issue for the Lady Vols this season. Thursday's loss was the sixth time this season that Tennessee, which relies on two freshman point guards, has turned the ball over 20 times or more. The Lady Vols also committed 28 turnovers in a 70-59 win over Auburn earlier this month.
Of the SEC's 14 teams, only Vanderbilt turns the ball over more times per game (17.3) than Tennessee (17.2). Mississippi State commits the fewest turnovers (11.6) of any team in the league.
The stage and result of Thursday's game simply magnified Tennessee's turnover issue.
"We are trying to hit a home run when we just need a base hit," Warlick said. "Make the easy pass. Now, we are playing against better athletes, and better defenders. We are seeing a gap, and we are trying to thread a needle, and we don't need that. If there is not an assurance of what we can do, just pull it back out."
When the NCAA Division I women's basketball committee revealed its top 16 teams Thursday, the Lady Vols were fifth, meaning the midseason projection had them as the top two-seed in the NCAA tournament bracket.
That projection was before Thursday's loss. Losing to Notre Dame likely will not hurt Tennessee's resume very much since it came at the hands of the country's fifth-ranked team.
Mississippi State brings another chance for a marquee win, and it happens to come in the "We Back Pat" game.
Warlick said earlier this week that Summitt would love this Tennessee team.
"She'd love how hard they play, just the effort they give," Warlick said. "They would drive her crazy with the turnovers, but other than that she would really love this team."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.