The Lady Vols limped to the end of the regular with two losses, got one in the SEC tourney and then fell again for a short stay in South Carolina.

“The nice thing about women’s basketball is you have some time,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said after the Lady Vols lost 84-76 to Vanderbilt on Thursday at Bon Secours Arena in downtown Greenville. “We have a hefty break between now and when we start again. We’ll be able to manage that load a little bit better.

“We have some players that are playing through minor injuries. Just letting them kind of heal and getting back to it.”

The first rounds of the NCAA tourney don’t start for two weeks. Selection Sunday is March 16, and Tennessee will learn its destination, which is all but guaranteed to be on the road. Two wins in Greenville might have boosted the Lady Vols to a host seed – and Tennessee looked the part with the 70-37 takedown against Texas A&M to open the SEC tourney – but the Vandy loss probably lands the Lady Vols at a five seed.

Tennessee entered its cycle of get behind, get back in the game, falter, fall further behind, and stage a comeback that comes up just short.

“I think our offense has been inconsistent,” Caldwell said. “I think when our offense is inconsistent, everything else goes down. I think we’re best when we’re sharing the ball and our offense is flowing, and we play with a little juice.”

Ruby Whitehorn gets to the rim against Vanderbilt. (Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

Caldwell also acknowledged that she has a tired team after experiencing her first trip through the rugged SEC.

“I think the SEC is an absolute grind,” Caldwell said. “I think again, like I said, in hindsight, we could have managed our load a little bit better. That absolutely takes a toll on you night in, night out.”

Tennessee is safely in the NCAA tourney – at least that ‘are-they-in-or-out’ narrative, which always was overhyped for clicks, has ended. The Lady Vols have shown stretches of being capable of beating top teams, such as the UConn win in February, and also stints of struggling with consistency. When shots don’t fall, the Lady Vols have a habit of letting the defense lapse, too.

“We just have to be able to do it more,” senior guard Samara Spencer said. “We have spurts where we do it, we have spurts where we don’t. We look like a completely different team.”

The Lady Vols’ press conference with Caldwell and Spencer can be watched HERE.

Tennessee did find more help in sophomore Alyssa Latham, who started both games in Greenville.

“She plays hard,” Caldwell said. “She’s a player that doesn’t take selfish shots. She just plays hard. She knows her scout. She’s good on defense. She starts the intensity the way we need to.”

Kaniya Boyd attacks against Vanderbilt. (Todd Van Emst/SEC)

Kaniya Boyd also held her own in the freshman’s first postseason experience.

“She’s the brightest part of our program right now,” Caldwell said. “I’ve said it before, she’s the future. She’s out here having fun. She pushes. She plays hard.

“She’s a dog. That’s what we want in our program. We want dogs. I think she is the leader of that.”

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.