When the Lady Vol basketball team begins its NCAA tournament title quest Saturday, they will do so in a slightly different manner – on the road.
Tennessee will not host the first and second rounds of competition this season, marking the first time in 23 NCAA tournaments that the Lady Vols have been forced to travel for the opening rounds.
Aside from the road trip to Tallahassee, Fla., however, Tennessee remains in familiar territory. The selection committee declared the Lady Vols as the top seed overall in the tournament field.
With the top seed, the Lady Vols head south to take on 16-seed Colgate. The Raiders are taking their first trip to the NCAA tournament courtesy of an automatic bid from winning the Patriot League Championship.
Colgate, working with a veteran team of eight upperclassmen, finished the season 21-9.
Like Tennessee, the Raiders have dealt with injury problems. Senior co-captain Victoria Briscoe, the team’s point guard, suffered a career-ending injury in a car accident back in September.
Her replacement, freshman guard Molly Patterson, suffered a stress fracture in her left foot in January and remains out of commission.
In their absence, senior guard Malissa Burke and junior forward Emily Braseth have picked up the slack. Burke averages 14.7 points per game and Braseth leads the team with 16.6 ppg.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt sees a team that will force Tennessee to play strong defensively.
“We have to play not only good individual defenses, but we also need good team defense,” Summitt said. “We will have to play patiently on defense, because they have a lot of patience on the offensive end.”
Offensively, Summitt thinks that the turnover problem that cost the Lady Vols a spot in the SEC tournament final might incite the team to improve.
“They were really mad at themselves when the Georgia game was over,” she said. “And when we watched the tapes, they were even more so. They realized that they didn’t deserve to win.
“Their attitude now is that we have to do things a certain way and we have to be very efficient in order to win.”
The Lady Vols are led by junior forward Shyra Ely, who averaged 29 points in the two SEC Tournament contests.
Tasha Butts leadership, though, has made her indispensable to the team, according to her coach, who thinks that her efforts are starting to trickle down through the team.
“For us, we’ve had strong leadership this year with Tasha Butts and Ashley Robinson, but I do think we’re seeing more people step up and be vocal and compete more on every possession,” Summitt said.
“It’s a game of possessions and every possession can matter in the postseason.”
The total team effort is part of why Summitt thinks that this team has the potential to go as far as their will to win can carry them in the postseason.
“I’ll say that going into the NCAA tournament, I really like this team and I like their chances because they have something in them that is very, very special,” Summitt said.
“It’s hard to put that into words. You just feel it.”
