Randy Smith: Lady Vols Making A Return To Glory

The Tennessee Lady Vols are now 16-1 on the year after a big 65-51 win on the road at Vanderbilt. It's been a long time since Tennessee was this special in women's college hoops and you can look no further than head coach Kellie Harper for the reason. Harper has her Lady Vols ranked fifth in the country and, as of today, tournament bracketologists have Tennessee with at least a second seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament in March.

The Lady Vols have only one loss and that was to defending national champion Stanford, 74-63, on December 18th. Since that game, Tennessee has won seven in a row while the Cardinal has dropped to 11-3. There is no question that Tennessee is playing as well as any team in the country and to their legion of fans, it's been a long time coming.  It was back in 2012 when legendary Coach Pat Summitt announced she was suffering from Alzheimers and stepped down soon after. She was replaced by her long time assistant coach Holly Warlick, but things were never the same in Knoxville. And when Coach Summitt passed away in 2016, it seemed that the greatest program in women's basketball history was on a major decline.

When Warlick was replaced by former Lady Vol standout Kellie Jolly Harper three years ago, the program was at its lowest level. Talent was marginal and the support for the team was at an all time low. Gradually over the first two seasons interest began to increase and now in year three of the Harper era, things are getting close to the glory days of the past. It's not likely that any team will go undefeated from wire to wire again as Tennessee and UConn did several years ago because there is much more parity in women's basketball today. There are no longer totally dominant teams. Coach Harper understands this and the goal is to be in play for a national title every year. 

She has taken all four schools she has coached to the NCAA Tournament. At Western Carolina, Missouri State and Tennessee she has steadily improved her team every year. Now, she has the talent to compete for a national championship. She is scheduled to lose four players to graduation next year, but leading scorer Jordan Horston will return as will 6'6" center Tamari Key. On the recruiting front, Tennessee has only one commitment so far for the next class but it's five star guard Justine Pissott.

This is an exciting team to watch and hopefully they haven't peaked too soon. As with Rick Barnes men's team, defense is the key. The Lady Vols are also the leading rebounding team in the SEC and remember what Coach Pat Summitt used to say about rebounding. Summitt once said, "Offense sells tickets, defense wins games and rebounding wins championships." 

I can't really predict what happens the rest of the way because there is still a lot of basketball to be played. But I do know this.....Tennessee has a chance for a really special season in 2022 and with Kellie Harper at the helm of the program the future is really bright.