Entering this season, Tennessee women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper and her staff felt good about the depth they had acquired, both in the form of prep recruits and college transfers.
It’s just that the Lady Volunteers likely didn’t expect to have it tested so much in the first six weeks of the schedule.
Tennessee had a preseason ranking of fifth in The Associated Press Top 25, but the Lady Vols were out of the top 10 by the first regular-season edition of the poll, then dropped to No. 23 before falling out altogether and haven’t been ranked since. They dropped five of their first nine games, although four of those losses were to opponents currently ranked in the top 10 — Ohio State, Indiana, Virginia Tech and UCLA — and the fifth was to Gonzaga, which is 23rd in the latest poll.
Although it has been 14 years since the Lady Vols won the NCAA tournament for the eighth time, the expectation for those who don the orange and white (sometimes with a hint of baby blue) remains high: to contend for championships. That’s what Harper competed for during her time as a Tennessee point guard for Pat Summitt, winning three national titles as a player from 1995-99. It’s also what Harper has recruited for since she returned to Knoxville as head coach prior to the 2019-20 season.
Some journeys, though, are filled with detours. This season that has included six different lineup combinations and players missing a total of 10 games for various reasons.