Tennessee's Rennia Davis drives toward the basket during the Lady Vols' home win against Auburn on Feb. 14.KNOXVILLE - With Tennessee's time at this year's Southeastern Conference women's basketball tournament about to begin, the Lady Volunteers' goal is simple.
Win.
Win against ninth-seeded LSU (16-12) in the tournament opener for each at noon Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina, and the eighth-seeded Lady Vols (18-11) are likely to be included in the field of 64 for the NCAA tournament. Lose, and those hopes are most likely squashed, meaning Tennessee would miss the event, which debuted in 1982, for the first time.
To see how Tennessee got to this improbable point where the NCAA tournament isn't a certainty, one doesn't have to take a deep look into what's gone wrong. Just look at the Lady Vols' past two games.
Last Thursday, the program took its worst defeat in some time as Vanderbilt won in Knoxville for the first time ever, 76-69. The Lady Vols followed that with Sunday's 25-point win at Ole Miss, a game the Lady Vols dominated in all aspects.
Frustrating for the fans? Yep. Frustrating for the players? Yep.
How about their coach?
"You're extremely happy for them and then get mad at the same time," Holly Warlick said Tuesday. "As a coach you've got to keep moving forward and keep building on what you saw. We're going to build on that. I know it's in them, and I know what they can do. They set a pretty high level of intensity and performance, and we need to have that exact same performance against LSU."
The Lady Vols beat LSU 74-65 on Jan. 27 in Knoxville in the programs' only other meeting this season.
Tennessee had a couple of team meetings - one with coaches, another with just players - prior to the Ole Miss game to clear the air.
"We decided that is not how we wanted to end our season," senior Meme Jackson said.
Based on the program's history and the high ratings Tennessee's recent signing classes have received, the Lady Vols could be expected to be playing better and this season should have gone better. At times they've been on the same page, and at times they've seemed miles apart. A lot could be attributed to youth, with Warlick asking sophomores to be leaders, but there have been losses that are difficult to explain regardless of age or inexperience.
A lot of those negative impressions would be turned around with an extended run in the SEC tournament. But a win alone should be enough to give them a spot in the NCAA tournament, which they must have to take a shot at earning the program's ninth national championship.
"Right now, in tournament play, everyone starts off 0-0, because it is a new record and a new season," Jackson said. "We just have to go out there with a mindset that it's just one game at a time."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.