KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper and junior forward Rennia Davis met with members of the media on Tuesday prior to the team’s departure for the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C.
This week, Davis received national player of the week honors from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and both Southeastern Conference and College Sports Madness SEC Player of the Week accolades following back-to-back double-doubles against Ole Miss (19 pts./11 rbs.) and Auburn (22 pts./10 rbs.). She also was announced as a member of the Coaches’ All-SEC First Team on Tuesday. Davis answered questions about her recent honors and shared her thoughts on the Lady Vol squad as it heads into postseason play.
Harper discussed Tennessee’s potential matchups in the SEC Tournament as well as Davis and freshman Jordan Horston (SEC All-Freshman Team) receiving league recognition.
The sixth-seeded Lady Vols will face the winner of #14 Ole Miss vs. #11 Missouri on Thursday. The game will tip off 25 minutes following the conclusion of the 6 p.m. contest and is estimated to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET. The matchup will be televised by the SEC Network and broadcast on Lady Vol Network radio stations as well as on SiriusXM SEC Radio.
Head Coach Kellie Harper
On Rennia Davis racking up honors recently:
“Well, first off, I am happy for her. She has been a competitive and a consistent basketball player for us all year. I think night in and night out she has come to play. We have needed that from her, and it has been good to see.”
On Jordan Horston being named to the SEC All-Freshman Team:
“She is competitive, and she can make plays. She can guard; she can rebound. She can do a lot of things on the court. She had a lot on her. Being a freshman, she had a big load. She did a really good job, and I am really happy for her.”
On the message to the team for the postseason:
“Right before the Auburn game, we talked about making it feel like a tournament game. At this point you have to scrap, claw, fight and find a way to win and advance. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. It doesn’t matter how many points you win by. If you advance, you keep moving. For us, we just have been talking about the little things that we need to do. It’s the execution, intensity and the urgency you have to play with in the tournament. We will keep hammering home those messages.”
On if winning three consecutive games brings confidence to the team entering the SEC Tournament:
“We had to grit out three wins. We didn’t have blowout wins. I think you can look at it a couple of different ways. I think these teams are better. I think we still found a way to win. I think we knew they were going to be tough to get. I’m proud of our team for getting them. That might actually help us more than a blowout win would have.”
On facing either Missouri or Ole Miss and if one is more favorable than the other:
“No. At this point, I think everybody is going to be good. I think the things that those two teams could do similarly in their attack against us is shoot threes. I think Ole Miss’ approach for us, in this last game we had with them, was to shoot the ball behind the 3-point line. Looking back, obviously it’s been a while since we played Mizzou, they shot 29 threes. So, I think with either team we’re going to have to guard behind the 3-point line. We’re coming off a game where our post players defended terrifically on the block. Either of these matchups doesn’t really warrant that type of play. We’ve got to be able to get out on the perimeter and guard one-on-one.”
On “trusting the process” and where she feels like she’s at in her first season with the team:
“It takes time and everybody gets there at a different spot or a different time. Everybody improves, and your team moves. I think we’ve grown a lot. There are a lot of areas where our offense has grown this season, throughout the season. That’s been great to see. Our defense has grown throughout the season. I still think there are some things out there that we could be better at. I think we hit a dry spell there rebounding-wise and got back on the right end of that recently and have done a good job on the boards. I just think there are some things that we’ve done well. It just takes some time. I think it takes some adversity to be able to push you to a point where you’re challenged and you’re tested and you question. Then, you’re able to get through that. I’m hoping that the team, because of all those things, is in a good place going over to Greenville.”
Tennessee Junior Forward Rennia Davis
On her play this season and what she is most proud of:
“I think I’ve been able to be a consistent player for this team and just give us a scoring option every night. So, I am most proud of that. I think the last couple years one of the things I have been working on most is being more consistent for this team, and this year I have been able to do that.”
On what element of her game has allowed her to be a consistent scorer:
“Just the mindset. Knowing every night that other teams are going to give me their best defensive game plan, but I still have to be able to produce for this team in order for us to be successful.”
On being named USBWA Player of the Week and what that means to her to have national recognition:
“It means a lot to me; all these recognitions and awards mean a lot. They are (the results of) things I have been working on and the things I have been doing to help this team.”
On the turnover issues for her team and how they can fix that heading into the postseason:
“The turnovers with this team have kind of been an issue all season, something we have been constantly working on. I do think the past few games we have been able to cut down on those turnovers, I think we had 12 and 14 turnovers in the two games before the Auburn game, which is pretty good for this team. I think we are taking care of the ball better than before, besides the Auburn game. Which, Auburn plays the defense where they get you to turn the ball over, so we just have to kind of look past that game and move forward as far as turnovers.”
On the potential matchups with Ole Miss or Missouri:
“Ole Miss and Missouri are both gritty and tough teams. I actually had one of my most fun games against Ole Miss when we played them here at home. I just thought it was fun playing against them. I know their coaching staff. They are all from Florida, and I used to play for a lot of them, so it was pretty fun playing against them.”
On the postseason and how she would describe playing in the SEC Tournament:
“Postseason basketball is fun to me. It’s one of the best parts. It’s one of the reasons you come to a school like Tennessee, to play in big postseason games. And every postseason game is big. Like I said before, everybody is 0-0, so I’m excited.”
On why consistency has been so important for her:
“I think it’s because in the past couple years I have been pretty inconsistent. I remember last year, I think there was a stretch where I averaged only like four or six points. And it’s not all about scoring; it’s being able to produce in some way every night. I may not shoot the ball well every night, but (I’m) consistently crashing the boards. (It’s) little things like that – communicating with my teammates, trying to consistently get defensive stops. It’s not just about scoring, it’s about the little things as well.”
-UT Athletics
