The Lady Vol basketball team didn’t take a learning break over the holidays.
But rather than hitting the books, Tennessee spent its time figuring things out in coach Pat Summitt’s classroom. The Lady Volunteers played five of their seven games away from Thompson-Boling Arena, and faced four ranked opponents.
Summitt and the 12th-ranked Lady Volunteers (12-1, 2-0 SEC) emerged from the break with only one defeat, a 10-point home loss against No. 3 Texas.
Before the road trip, which included Stanford, Oklahoma and DePaul during a span of seven days, UT displayed an explosive offense, but often struggled defensively.
Summitt, who moved into third place on college basketball’s all-time win list over the break, now believes her team has made definite progress.
Our defense is getting better on a one-on-one basis, even with the players off the bench, the 30th-year coach said. We are focused a lot better on defending on dribble penetration, which has been a point of emphasis with us.
One player whose defensive abilities have been showcased thus far is Ashley Robinson. The senior center, long lauded for her shot-blocking ability, has developed a renewed confidence this season after struggling to find consistency last year.
Ashley Robinson has just been all over the court for us, Summitt said. She has always been a strong defender for us, but she is getting it done on both ends of the court.
She has been above the rim for us this season.
But while Summitt is pleased with her team’s effort on defense, she sees a developing trend another problem arising as the previous one is fixed.
Our team is having almost a see-saw effect, she said. Our offense early was good and our defense was lacking. Now our defense is better and our offense is slightly down.
But for Tennessee, the lack of offensive firepower is a problem that has the potential to be easily fixed, especially with a rotation that goes 11-deep.
We are a team with potential for balance, Summit said. We have no obvious go-to player.
That isn’t bad for us. It just means we involve more people offensively than we normally do.
Robinson held the same sentiment.
I don’t think we necessarily have to have one player who is our go-to player, the senior said. I might be hitting my shots one day and we need to get the ball to me. On another day, like against DePaul, it might be Tye’sha Fluker whose hitting her shots.
We just have to get the ball to the person who is hot that day. That’s the way this team works.
After her team’s loss to the Longhorns, Summitt responded with a change in the starting lineup. Guards Tasha Butts and Shanna Zolman were replaced with LaToya Davis and Brittany Jackson.
Butts responded with back-to-back career-high point totals to win back her starting role. Jackson, meanwhile, has held on to her starting position, with Zolman first off the bench.
After opening SEC play with a decisive victory over Arkansas last Thursday night, the Lady Vols were sluggish against Mississippi State Sunday. Tennessee saw a 19-point second-half lead cut to four as a result of sloppy, indecisive play, but the Lady Volunteers held on for a 61-53 win. The win pushed UT’s all-time record against the Lady Bulldogs to 22-0.
Zolman sees the rest of the season as an opportunity for the Lady Vols to improve from what they learned during the break.
It is really exciting now that we’re moving into another season, Zolman, who scored 17 against the Lady Bulldogs, said. We had a good preseason’ and now we get ready to face tough conference teams.
There is not a single game in the conference that can be considered easy. We will have to use what we’ve learned and play our hardest every game.
