Tennessee’s basketball season came to an end in Wichita, Kansas, but the Lady Vols persevered through major injuries, made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years and will return a veteran core with talented newcomers in 2022-23.
The ending of a season is always abrupt for players, coaches and fans. The excitement of survive and advance is replaced by the sudden realization that it’s over. In the case of the Lady Vols team, the game against Louisville ended Saturday night with a 76-64 loss, and the NCAA chartered the Tennessee players and coaches by plane back to Knoxville well before the sun would rise on Sunday.
In years past, the final loss of the basketball season brought considerable fan angst and sometimes anger on social media. Before the digital era, talk radio dominated the gnashing of teeth over any Tennessee team’s performance, a group of listeners that the late Johnny Majors aptly called the Legions of the Miserable. And while there always are pockets of discontent, the overwhelming sentiment of Lady Vol fans is that this team took itself about as far as it could go.
Preseason and in-season injuries robbed coach Kellie Harper of four key players, none worse, as far as timing, than Jordan Horston’s fractured and dislocated elbow in February.
“She was our leading scorer, our best rebounder, our best defender, leading assists,” Harper said. “She did everything for us. You might can cover one area, but it’s just really hard to cover all those areas. That’s where I’m telling you, just so proud of our team for stepping up and giving it their all to be able to do that. That was hard to do. That’s an All-American candidate that they lost.”
Harper retooled her team again and relied on four freshmen who delivered off the bench and two seniors in Rae Burrell and Alexus Dye, both of whom will pursue professional careers. Burrell led Tennessee against Louisville with 22 points and projects to be a first round WNBA draft pick on April 11. A better outcome against No. 1 seed Louisville – turnovers bedeviled Tennessee at times this season – and the Lady Vols are in the Elite Eight. Instead, Louisville beat Michigan on Monday and is headed to the Final Four this weekend in Minneapolis.
The battle cry for fans of all sports is: Wait ‘til next year!
In this case, it’s not folly but fact. Tennessee will return the core of its team, including Horston, and will add Rickea Jackson, an all-SEC caliber player, and proven point guard Jasmine Powell from the transfer portal from Mississippi State and Minnesota, respectively.
Harper showed this season how well she can coach. She added veteran recruiter and assistant coach Samantha Williams to her staff last spring, along with assistant coach Joy McCorvey, one of the profession’s rising stars. In 2022-23, the Lady Vols likely will start the season as a Final Four favorite.
Under the late Pat Summitt, that became a birthright for Tennessee fans. The Lady Vols are back.