The Lady Vols got, as the head coach said, a win that was “desperately” needed at Arkansas in what is an indicator of how victories are coveted in the SEC.

Tennessee is now 14-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC and moved up a spot in Monday’s AP poll to No. 15 after the 93-63 win on Sunday against the Razorbacks. The media voters seemed to recognize that the losses to top 10 teams Oklahoma and LSU were decided by a total of three points in games that came down to the final seconds. Tennessee will host Mississippi State on Thursday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. f0r its “We Back Pat” game.

“We desperately needed the win, especially on the road,” Caldwell said.

No matter the opponent’s record or ranking, it’s hard to win on the road in the SEC for the Lady Vols and Vols. Both teams emerged from the weekend with big bounce-back wins.

Samara Spencer returned to her old home at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville in a Tennessee uniform. The point guard for the Lady Vols played three seasons for Arkansas before transferring to Tennessee and had eight assists and zero turnovers against her former team. Spencer now has 89 assists to just 26 turnovers.

The Razorback also play the game at an elevated pace, so Spencer arrived at Tennessee ready to run in Caldwell’s new system.

“It’s huge, and it’s helped our whole team,” Caldwell said. “I’ve said it from the beginning, she already knew how to play pace. From the very moment we were trying to put the system in, she was the one that was going downhill, pushing the ball up, was already comfortable playing this way, so it was big for us.”

Samara Spencer is helped up by Lazaria “Zee” Spearman, Talaysia Cooper and Ruby Whitehorn.
(Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

Caldwell went viral in the best way last week with a passionate answer after the LSU game about why her seniors mean so much to her.

“I get a little bit offended with, ‘You have time to rebuild. You have time to rebuild. These seniors aren’t your players,’ ” Caldwell said. “That offends me. They are my players. They chose to stay, and I chose to coach them. And so, I don’t want to wait. I don’t want people to say, ‘when you get your players in here.’ These are my players. I want to win for them. I want to win right now.

“And so, these games that we can’t get back and they can’t get back, yes, maybe they are establishing something for the future, but I want them to be able to have the experience, too. I want them to get what they deserve. I want that for them.”

The video quickly got clipped and posted all other social and traditional media with former Lady Vol Candace Parker also sharing it with the words: “I would want to play for her.” Parker also added three orange heart emojis. Endorsements for the new head coach don’t come any better than that.

The win against Arkansas also was needed because Tennessee has a tough slate to finish January with a home game this Thursday, Jan. 16, against Mississippi State, which beat Oklahoma, at 7 p.m. with the broadcast on the SEC Network. That will be followed by road trips to Vanderbilt and Texas and then a home game in Knoxville against South Carolina.

Talaysia Cooper led Tennessee against the Razorbacks with 20 points, while Zee Spearman notched 18 points, Ruby Whitehorn tallied 17 points, and Sara Puckett added 11 points and nearly had a double-double with nine boards.

Spearman’s offensive production was especially noteworthy because the 6-4 junior forward went 3-3 from the three-point line. Her earlier attempts from long range often had come too quickly and not within her natural flow.

“She’s capable of doing that,” Caldwell said. “It’s just taking threes in rhythm later in the shot clock is what they’re allowed to do.”

Caldwell also liked Puckett’s pursuit of the ball off the glass and overall play.

“She played well. She played hard,” Caldwell said. “Her rebounding was really good. She was just going to get the ball, and that’s what impressed me the most.”

Puckett enjoys playing with Spencer and while the 5-7 senior guard can score, she often looks to set up a teammate.

“She has a very big personality, and she’s a great friend but also a great teammate,” Puckett said. “She’s a great leader as well. She can see the floor, she can make eye contact with me and some other players and just know exactly what we’re going to do with each other, and if she’s going to pass it or whatever’s going to happen.

“It’s really special to play with a point guard like that, and I really enjoy it.”

Sara Puckett launches a shot against Arkansas. (Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics)

Highlights from the win over Arkansas can be watched HERE.

While Caldwell will take the win, she didn’t see her team take a step forward as the game got a bit choppy with inconsistent offensive flow. The head coach also wants her players to better execute the scouting report, especially on defense.

“We don’t do a very good job of holding the other team’s best players down,” Caldwell said. “So just taking a little bit more pride in that, being more consistent and being a little bit more fluid on offense.”

Tennessee has seven newcomers on this team and was able to build early chemistry, as evidenced by the 14-2 start. But on-court flow and communication is always work in progress, too, as players better learn each other’s game and individual tendencies.

“We can’t do this without each other,” Spearman said. “The coaches are not out there playing with us, so we’ve got to make sure we’re with each other always and have confidence in each other and make sure we play together always, even when things aren’t going our way.”

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.