Tennessee's perfect attendance record at the NCAA women's basketball tournament is intact, barring any last-minute COVID-19 concerns. The Lady Volunteers' effort to regain the lofty status they once held as a national power is ongoing.
The Lady Vols have made all 39 brackets since the NCAA added a women's tourney in 1982. It was a streak that appeared to be in jeopardy a year ago until the pandemic led to the event's cancellation.
This time, 13th-ranked Tennessee (16-7) is a No. 3 seed and will open against No. 14 seed Middle Tennessee State University (17-7) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. ABC will televise the matchup of programs separated by less than 200 miles taking place some 1,000 miles away.
It will mark Tennessee's first NCAA tourney game under coach Kellie Harper, the former Lady Vols point guard who won three national championships as a player under coaching legend Pat Summitt.
"That's a big deal. It's pretty cool," Harper said of getting to guide her alma mater in the 64-team basketball bonanza.
What would really be cool for the Lady Vols is making the kind of deep tourney run that was once commonplace for the program. Tennessee hasn't been as far as the Final Four since winning its eighth national championship 13 years ago.
Knoxville News Sentinel photo by Saul Young via AP / Tennessee women's basketball coach Kellie Harper speaks to Rennia Davis (0), wearing a jersey in honor of former Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, during a game against Connecticut on Jan. 21.With Summitt a pioneer for women's basketball, Tennessee was a juggernaut from the start, reaching the Final Four on 18 occasions from 1982 to 2008, with national titles in 1985, '89, '91, '96, '97, '98, 2007 and '08. Things have slowed dramatically since, with the Lady Vols failing to advance past the second round in their past three appearances, including a first-round exit in 2019, which was followed by former Tennessee player and assistant Holly Warlick's exit after seven seasons as head coach.
The Lady Vols haven't played since March 6, when they lost 67-52 in the Southeastern Conference tournament semifinals to eventual champion South Carolina. Harper held a workout session outdoors with her players during their down time, hoping the change of venue and some fresh air would clear their heads in preparation for the NCAA tourney.
The Lady Vols are the fourth team led by Harper to qualify for the event - Western Carolina, North Carolina State and Missouri State are the others - and she's just the second women's coach to do that. The other is Jim Foster, the Women's Basketball Hall of Famer who did so with Saint Joseph's, Vanderbilt, Ohio State and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
"It means I've had really good players wherever I've been," said Harper, a UTC assistant - though not during Harper's tenure - for three seasons before her first head coaching job. "There are a lot of talented players out there that never get to play in the NCAA tournament, so I don't take that for granted."
The Lady Vols have deep ties with their first-round opponent this year, including Harper once playing for MTSU coach Rick Insell's AAU teams.
Then there's junior guard Anastasia Hayes, who this season helped lead the Lady Blue Raiders to their third Conference USA title and was chosen the league's player of the year. The 2017 McDonald's All American started her college career at Tennessee before being dismissed in August 2018. Hayes wound up back home at MTSU, playing with her sister Aislynn for the Murfreesboro program.
"I'm just so blessed and honored that she's even gets to play with me, and we play great together," Anastasia said. "I know if I tell Aislynn, 'Make a shot,' she's going to make a shot. And we have that chemistry that nobody else can ever have."
Hayes said she doesn't really talk to any of the Lady Vols, but she has given her coaches a bit of a scouting report on the Tennessee players she knows.
The entire tournament is being centralized in the San Antonio area this year due to the pandemic, though that does mean some first-round games being played as far away as San Marcos (50 miles) and Austin (80 miles).
The MTSU-Tennessee winner advances to face either No. 6 seed Michigan (14-5) or No. 11 seed Florida Gulf Coast University (26-2) in the second round of the River Walk Region, where the No. 1 seed is Connecticut (24-1), with Baylor (25-2) seeded second.
The No. 4 seed is Kentucky, which is led by Bradley Central High School graduate Rhyne Howard, who was named an AP All-American for the second straight season and is the two-time reigning SEC player of the year. The Wildcats (17-8) face No. 13 seed Idaho State (22-3) at 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
While the Atlantic Coast Conference was the leading league this year with eight NCAA invitations - including Mercado Region No. 1 seed North Carolina State, led by former UTC coach Wes Moore, and Hemisfair Region No. 5 seed Georgia Tech - the SEC tied the Big Ten for second with seven.
In addition to Kentucky and Tennessee, those schools were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas A&M. South Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the Hemisfair, with the tourney's other No. 1 seed - both in the Alamo Region and overall - Pac-12 champion Stanford.
Slotted in the Hemisfair, seventh-seeded Alabama (16-9) faces 10th-seeded North Carolina (13-10) on ESPN at noon Monday, the same time Alamo No. 3 seed Georgia (20-6) faces No. 14 seed Drexel (14-8) on ESPN2.