KNOXVILLE – With still something on the line, the Tennessee women’s basketball team will close its regular season with a Southeastern Conference game Sunday afternoon at Auburn.
Tipoff is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. EST, and the game will be part of the SEC Network’s “Whiparound” television coverage – the network’s version of the NFL RedZone.
The Lady Volunteers (19-9, 9-6) have topped last season’s league wins total and have matched the total number of regular-season victories from a year ago, one of the most disappointing seasons in program history. They still can finish as high as a four-way tie for third in the SEC standings, but that would entail not only Texas A&M (22-6, 10-5) losing as expected at top-ranked South Carolina on Sunday but also Kentucky (21-6, 10-5) falling at Vanderbilt (13-15, 3-12).
Arkansas hosts LSU in a matchup of 9-6 league teams, so one of them will be 10-6. Because Tennessee loses tiebreakers against all the other third- and fourth-place contenders, it will be the sixth seed in the upcoming conference tournament with a win at Auburn, the seventh seed with a loss.
AP photo by Saul Young / Tennessee women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper watches as the Lady Vols host Vanderbilt last Sunday.Here are three keys for the Lady Vols to win the finale:
1. Handle the pressure: Nobody in the SEC presses as much as the Tigers, who have done so 32% of the time this season, according to Synergy Sports. They force turnovers 26% of the time, which falls into one of Tennessee’s biggest weaknesses. Ball security will be huge, because the pressure isn’t going to stop regardless of the score.
2. Execute against the zone: Auburn has a tendency to go into a zone defense when opponents are able to break the pressure, and beating the zone is one of Tennessee’s strengths. The Lady Vols shoot 45% against zone defenses and score 40% of the time they have the ball against that sort of defense. As long as Tennessee takes care of the ball, it should be able to get the shots it wants.
3. Keep defending: Auburn isn’t a bad shooting team, but defense is the Lady Vols’ calling card this year. As long as they defend and contest shots, they should have success on that end of the court, because they have a big advantage in the interior.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.