The post-game message after the loss to UConn was what it should be: turn the attention to SEC play.

That is how it always has been, dating to when the series started in 1995. Win or lose, get the focus back on conference games.

“This is obviously a big game, but we have always been about trying to finish as high as we can in the SEC,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “We’re going to get right back to that. We got right back to that in the locker room.”

The Lady Vols fell, 96-60, on Sunday in Hartford after arriving nearly nine hours later than expected because of delays at the Knoxville airport due to snow-covered runways. However, Caldwell also noted that wasn’t an excuse for the outcome. Monday’s AP poll had Tennessee down four slots at No. 19, No. 19 in NET and No. 20 in WAB, which were explained in an earlier column HERE.

Tennessee opened the game in a 16-point hole, clawed back to take a lead in the second quarter and were tied 42-42 at halftime. But after taking a brief lead in the third quarter, Tennessee let the Huskies go on a 14-0 run and then run away with the game.

“We were playing hard,” Caldwell said. “We were playing together. It’s really not that complicated. When we share the ball, we play hard, we play together, we look like a good team, and when we don’t, we look terrible.

“I think what the film is going to show is they were bad shots. When you take bad shots, it’s just the same as a turnover in my book. So, they had 36 points off turnover. They probably had 70 points off bad shots and turnovers combined.”

Janiah Barker launches a first-half three against UConn. (Tennessee Athletics)

The news came Saturday that the series would be renewed again with Tennessee playing at UConn in 2027 and the Huskies coming to Knoxville in 2028. The dates haven’t been set yet, but the series needs to move to November and December as a true non-conference game.

UConn is the only ranked team in the Big East and can run roughshod over its overmatched opponents. The SEC had 10 of its 16 teams ranked in the top 25 in late January, and the other six can pull off upsets. Unranked Mississippi State beat Tennessee last week and then got upset by unranked Missouri in its next game. Alabama beat No. 23 Georgia on Sunday, and the Bulldogs fell just out of the poll.

Putting the UConn game in the middle of SEC play is beneficial for UConn – Geno Auriemma said after the game he was glad the Lady Vols came back to take a lead because his team needed to see that happen – and detrimental for Tennessee due to more travel and another physical game that matches the brawling of the SEC. The Lady Vols should have had an SEC bye Sunday. Instead, they flew north.

“Absolutely,” said Caldwell, whose post-game video can be watched below. “It’s just too tough for us and you get two bye weeks in the SEC, so this takes away one of our bye weeks, which is unfortunate.”

When Pat Summitt and Auriemma were staring each other down from 1995 to 2007 – for one stretch it was a home-and-home game every season, but Summitt ended that after saying it was like UConn had been added to the SEC – the reality is that two, maybe three SEC teams, had a legitimate shot at beating Tennessee in any given season. That’s not the case anymore. Not a single SEC team got out of January in 2026 without at least one loss.

If the series is going to stay, play it before SEC play begins. Play it after before the holidays. Play it after Thanksgiving. Play it before Christmas. Just quit playing it in January and February.

The Lady Vols’ month of February looks like this: Back-to-back road games at No. 26 Georgia on Feb. 5 and at No. 3 South Carolina on Feb. 8 and host Missouri on Feb. 12 and No. 4 Texas on Feb. 15. Go to No. 13 Ole Miss for a makeup game on Feb. 17, host Texas A&M on Feb. 19 and travel to No. 11 Oklahoma on Feb. 22 and No. 5 LSU on Feb. 26.

The regular season ends with hosting No. 7 Vanderbilt on March 1 and then the SEC tournament starts a few days later.

Janiah Barker led Tennessee, 14-5, with 16 points, while Zee Spearman notched 14 points and Nya Robertson tallied 11 points against the Huskies

Spearman had the assist to Talaysia Cooper that tied the game in the first half and the bucket to take the lead. When the shots stopped falling, the Lady Vols reverted to old habits.

During a pre-game radio interview, Caldwell said she thought her team had turned a corner. After the loss to Mississippi State and second-half collapse against UConn, Caldwell said she can’t trust her team not to do it again.

“We need to continue to work on that,” Spearman said. “In practice, we took a big step forward today (in the first half), even with the outcome, by playing with each other through adversity and knowing that we got each other’s back and we can play through anything. Keeping our heads and sticking together, continue to pressure the ball on defense, even though things aren’t going our way on offense, just continue to stay together and keep hustling.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released June 16, 2026.