Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper sees no limits for freshman center Tamari Key, who could be big help soon

Tennessee Athletics photo by Maury Neipris / Tennessee freshman center Tamari Key practices with the Lady Vols this past summer in Knoxville.
Tennessee Athletics photo by Maury Neipris / Tennessee freshman center Tamari Key practices with the Lady Vols this past summer in Knoxville.

KNOXVILLE - Asked for a word to describe freshman center Tamari Key, Tennessee women's basketball coach Kellie Harper said "skilled."

"That's not a word you often associate with a girl 6-foot-5-plus, but she's very skilled," Harper said. "The only ceiling she has is anything she puts on herself. She has a chance to be terrific."

The next step for the Lady Volunteers' first-year head coach is getting Key to realize that, too.

As a senior at Cary High School in North Carolina, Key averaged 13.9 points, 11.2 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game. Despite only playing two full seasons, she was a three-time all-district selection.

On the AAU circuit, she was ranked as a top-50 player in the country, but at Tennessee she finds herself in a position where she's just trying to learn what it takes to play at her new level.

photo First-year Tennessee women's basketball coach Kellie Harper has her Lady Vols 10-2 as they head into SEC play this week. / AP file photo by Butch Dill

"After we got back from (an exhibition tour in Europe in August), Coach Harper and I talked about how my play was there," Key said. "We talked about what she wanted from me in the future and what she felt the other girls were looking for from me on the court. I have to get stronger and get used to the physicality of it all but also use my length, because I have really long arms and that's something that can give me an advantage on the court."

Defense could be her most direct path to early playing time, but she's doing a lot more work on her offense as the Lady Vols prepare to host Carson-Newman in an exhibition Tuesday and tip off the season a week later at East Tennessee State.

Key has concentrated on trying to refine her post moves and then testing them during practice in hopes of seeing how they work in real-time situations, and she also spends a lot of time leaning on Kasiyahna Kushkituah, a junior who has helped Key learn plays.

photo Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / Tennessee center Tamari Key was rated one of the top 50 players in the nation on the AAU circuit, but now she's a freshman working to be ready to help the Lady Vols this season.

All of it has been designed to help Key get on the court as quickly as possible to help in the likely interior battles that loom in the Southeastern Conference. But that's why she chose Tennessee in the first place.

"That was one thing me and my mom talked about before I decided to come here. That was a big thing," she said. "At Tennessee, all eyes are on us. We play in front of the crowd they have, and the legacy that Tennessee women's basketball has is awesome.

"It's exciting."

For Harper and the Lady Vols, so is Key's potential.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.

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