By: Sam Forman / @Sam_FormanWNML
The Lady Vols snapped a five-game losing streak to the Alabama Crimson Tide with a 65-63 win on Monday night to move Tennessee to a 15-3 record on the season.
While Monday’s win put an end to one of the program’s oddest losing streaks, it also gave first year Tennessee coach Kellie Harper her 300th career victory as a head coach.
In addition to that it was also the program’s 400th SEC regular season victory.
However, those accomplishments are still not as big as the win itself, as the Lady Vols get ready for one of the toughest two week stretches any team has faced this season.
It all gets started on Thursday when the 23rd ranked Lady Vols head to Hartford, Connecticut to renew a rivalry with 3rd ranked UConn, Then Tennessee returns home to face a talented LSU team for the “WE BACK PAT” game on Jan. 26th, before ending the month on the road in Nashville with a game against Vanderbilt on Jan. 30th.
Then to start off the month of February Tennessee travels to Columbia, South Carolina to face off with the SEC leading and toped ranked Gamecocks on Feb. 2nd. Before returning home to host No. 9 Mississippi State on Feb. 6th at Thompson-Boling Arena.
That five game stretch covering two weeks will see the Lady Vols play three Top 10 teams and four conference opponents.
The stretch will also see UT take on the first, third and fifth place teams in the SEC as of Monday night and could see Tennessee cross paths with the number one team in the nation for a second time this season.
Tennessee at 15-3 and 5-1 in SEC play is off to a solid start for Harper’s first season in charge of the program, but outside of games against Texas, at No. 6 Stanford (ranked No. 1 at the time of the game), at Notre Dame (ranked No. 15 at the time of the game) and at No. 12 Kentucky (ranked No. 13 at the time of the game) UT has truly been tested.
Now, yes three of those four games were on the road and those are the teams four biggest tests to date. However, Tennessee only managed to win one of those games and while that may have been on the road against a top 15 Notre Dame team at the time, that win just simply doesn’t mean as much as it normally would with the Irish in a rebuilding year.
The Lady Vols simply haven’t been tested like they will over the next two weeks and so far, two of their three losses have come on the road and they have three challenging road games during this two week stretch. Plus, Tennessee is only 1-2 against Top 25 teams this season.
It’s not just having to face three Top 10 teams that will make the next two weeks so challenging for the Lady Vol, it is also the environments in which they will have to play in on the road, travel miles and emotions that make this stretch so difficult and important for Tennessee.
Over the next two weeks Tennessee will travel 2,242.2 miles assuming they fly to and from South Carolina. Plus, the XL Center (UConn) and Colonial Life Arena (USC) are two of the more intimidating places to play in women’s college basketball.
The crowd at an away game can always cause issues for any team and while the Lady Vols have already stepped foot in rowdy places this season the XL Center and Colonial Life Arena are two of the rowdiest in the country. However, even the easiest game of this two week stretch for UT has a unique challenge.
While, Memorial Gym may not be as hostile of an environment as playing at UConn or South Carolina, it provides its own challenges. The biggest of which are the team benches being located on the baselines, parts of the court siting above the crowed and a unique set of acoustics that make it hard to hear on the court. Those three reasons alone make playing at Vanderbilt a challenge for any team, but then you also have to add in the fact it is a rivalry game for UT.
Tennessee’s two home games during the stretch also have plenty of challenges.
Obviously, hosting a Top 10 ranked conference opponent comes with a lot of pressure and challenges and that is just putting UT hosting No. 9 Mississippi State on Feb. 6th in as simple terms as possible.
However, even the LSU game will have a lot of pressure, as it will see Harper face off against another former Lady Vol in Tigers head coach Nikki Caldwell Fargas.
A matchup that would have some added pressure on any night, but defiantly will on “WE BACK PAT” night, as that is a game Fargas and LSU would love to win and Tennessee can’t afford to lose for so many reasons.
Plus, LSU could and should enter the matchup with UT in sole possession of fourth place in the SEC.
Getting a hard-fought win on Monday night was critical for Tennessee, so they can start off this difficult two week stretch on the right foot. However, The Lady Vols might just be starting their hardest two week stretch of the season and it all gets started on Thursday against UConn.
