Tennessee Replaces UConn As AP No. 1
Tennessee is getting another chance at No. 1. Now comes the tricky part: staying there. The Lady Vols replaced Connecticut atop The Associated Press' women's basketball poll Monday after the Huskies were upset by Villanova for the second straight year.
But keeping the top spot has been harder than getting there; this change is the fifth in the last nine weeks. The longest stint at No. 1 in that stretch was Duke's three weeks.
"For us right now, where we're ranked is not as important to me as how we play," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "I don't think the team is focused on that. They know not many people think we're the most talented team in the country.
"All we want to do is keep working and keep getting better and hopefully we'll have a chance to be the best team."
Villanova, which joined the poll at No. 23, beat Connecticut 59-56 Saturday night. Last year, the Wildcats ended Connecticut's 70-game winning streak in the Big East tournament title game.
Connecticut led the poll the first eight weeks of the season, but lasted only one week in its return to No. 1, dropping to fourth Monday.
Tennessee (25-2) was No. 1 for two weeks before losing to UConn on Feb. 5. That was the Lady Vols' only loss in the past 19 games, and they went 14-0 in the Southeastern Conference despite losing starting point guard Loree Moore to a knee injury Jan. 24.
"I told them yesterday, 'There's something special here,'" Summitt said. "It's one of the most special groups I've worked with in my 30-year career. This team has something inside of them that has allowed them to compete with a great deal of confidence."
Tennessee received 34 of 47 first-place votes from a national media panel and had 1,159 points - 55 more than No. 2 Duke.
In all, five teams had at least one first-place vote, matching the highest number since the poll switched from a coaches' panel to media voting in 1994.
Duke received four first-place votes, No. 3 Texas had three, Connecticut got five, and No. 5 Penn State received one.
Purdue dropped two places to sixth after a loss at Penn State on Sunday ended its 15-game winning streak. Louisiana Tech was seventh, followed by Kansas State, Texas Tech and North Carolina.
Houston jumped six places to 11th after beating then-No. 13 TCU for its ninth straight win. Stanford slipped two spots to 12th after splitting two one-point road games. Colorado was 13th, followed by Baylor, LSU, TCU, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Auburn and Georgia.
Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Villanova and DePaul and Michigan State held the final five places.
Villanova (21-5), which has won seven straight games, returned to the Top 25 after being ranked for two weeks in January. Miami, which was 21st, dropped out after splitting two games - a 93-58 loss to unranked Notre Dame and an 82-74 victory over West Virginia.
Oklahoma matched Houston for the biggest jump in the poll, going from 23rd to 17th after beating Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
Minnesota continued to struggle without leading scorer Lindsay Whalen, sidelined by a broken hand. The Gophers lost to Ohio State and Michigan and tumbled six places to 18th.
DePaul has lost three straight games and fell four spots from 20th. The Blue Demons were 12th two weeks ago.
March 01, 2004
Lady Vols have developed mental toughness
KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's relatively easy 85-62 victory over No. 15 LSU to close out an unbeaten SEC season on Sunday was just the kind of performance coach Pat Summitt wanted to see as the Lady Vols head into this week's conference tournament in Nashville.
With the defeat of No. 1 Connecticut by Villanova on Saturday, the Lady Vols should enter the tournament as the top-ranked team in the country and with a lot of momentum from having won their last couple of games in more familiar fashion.
The seniors on this squad have not won an SEC tournament championship, but with adversity as the primary adversary this season, the Lady Vols appear poised to take the title for the first time since 2000.
``It wasn't about physical ability. It was about mental toughness in the SEC tournaments,'' senior Tasha Butts said. ``This year, we've put ourselves into so many situations like that, that our mental toughness has improved. We're ready for the physical game and toughness of the tournament.''
Some of the situations that Tennessee was put into were dictated by the lack of a returning All-America go-to player (or players) that Summitt is used to relying upon each season.
But overtime victories on the road against then No. 6 Stanford and unranked DePaul and an impressive offensive show at No. 13 Oklahoma indicated that this Lady Vol squad might not be the ``weak sister'' everyone thought in preseason.
A loss to Texas in Knoxville dictated a new list of things to work on, and as the SEC season began, Tennessee seemed prepared to overwhelm opponents with its deep post rotation and solid perimeter shooting.
Adversity came again at Duke, when the Lady Vols took the No. 1 ranking from the Blue Devils on their home court but lost point guard Loree Moore to a knee injury.
On that day late in January, the season in many ways began over again, and the remaining players struggled to recover the offensive chemistry Moore had created with her floor presence. A loss to Connecticut revealed how critical Moore had been to the team. The Lady Vols continued to win in the SEC but could no longer dominate an opponent, even lowly South Carolina.
Then a strange thing happened. When junior Brittany Jackson sprained a knee in practice and missed the Florida game, the Lady Vols had less depth but showed a tougher mindset, overcoming various weaknesses to defeat the Lady Gators in the closing minutes.
At Ole Miss and Arkansas, Tennessee began to looked as though it had found itself again, having worked through its losses -- both on the court and from the team roster.
On Sunday at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Lady Vols used their inside presence, rebounding and defensive pressure to demolish an LSU squad that with Auburn will be one of the top contenders in the conference tournament.
And they did it without Loree Moore, with Jackson on the floor only sparingly and amid the emotions of Senior Day but with one senior -- Courtney McDaniel -- not present, having effectively resigned from the squad ``for health reasons.''
``I think this is the best we've played against a better team since losing Loree,'' junior Shyra Ely said. ``We've dealt with a lot of adversity this season, and I think you have to dig deep as a team in critical situations. And I think that's why we're playing better as a team.''
And that's also why it looks as though there won't be another conference team that can match the ``mental toughness'' of the Lady Vols in Nashville next weekend.
KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's relatively easy 85-62 victory over No. 15 LSU to close out an unbeaten SEC season on Sunday was just the kind of performance coach Pat Summitt wanted to see as the Lady Vols head into this week's conference tournament in Nashville.
With the defeat of No. 1 Connecticut by Villanova on Saturday, the Lady Vols should enter the tournament as the top-ranked team in the country and with a lot of momentum from having won their last couple of games in more familiar fashion.
The seniors on this squad have not won an SEC tournament championship, but with adversity as the primary adversary this season, the Lady Vols appear poised to take the title for the first time since 2000.
``It wasn't about physical ability. It was about mental toughness in the SEC tournaments,'' senior Tasha Butts said. ``This year, we've put ourselves into so many situations like that, that our mental toughness has improved. We're ready for the physical game and toughness of the tournament.''
Some of the situations that Tennessee was put into were dictated by the lack of a returning All-America go-to player (or players) that Summitt is used to relying upon each season.
But overtime victories on the road against then No. 6 Stanford and unranked DePaul and an impressive offensive show at No. 13 Oklahoma indicated that this Lady Vol squad might not be the ``weak sister'' everyone thought in preseason.
A loss to Texas in Knoxville dictated a new list of things to work on, and as the SEC season began, Tennessee seemed prepared to overwhelm opponents with its deep post rotation and solid perimeter shooting.
Adversity came again at Duke, when the Lady Vols took the No. 1 ranking from the Blue Devils on their home court but lost point guard Loree Moore to a knee injury.
On that day late in January, the season in many ways began over again, and the remaining players struggled to recover the offensive chemistry Moore had created with her floor presence. A loss to Connecticut revealed how critical Moore had been to the team. The Lady Vols continued to win in the SEC but could no longer dominate an opponent, even lowly South Carolina.
Then a strange thing happened. When junior Brittany Jackson sprained a knee in practice and missed the Florida game, the Lady Vols had less depth but showed a tougher mindset, overcoming various weaknesses to defeat the Lady Gators in the closing minutes.
At Ole Miss and Arkansas, Tennessee began to looked as though it had found itself again, having worked through its losses -- both on the court and from the team roster.
On Sunday at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Lady Vols used their inside presence, rebounding and defensive pressure to demolish an LSU squad that with Auburn will be one of the top contenders in the conference tournament.
And they did it without Loree Moore, with Jackson on the floor only sparingly and amid the emotions of Senior Day but with one senior -- Courtney McDaniel -- not present, having effectively resigned from the squad ``for health reasons.''
``I think this is the best we've played against a better team since losing Loree,'' junior Shyra Ely said. ``We've dealt with a lot of adversity this season, and I think you have to dig deep as a team in critical situations. And I think that's why we're playing better as a team.''
And that's also why it looks as though there won't be another conference team that can match the ``mental toughness'' of the Lady Vols in Nashville next weekend.
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