Three Weekends In

Expectations for the softball team are in flux. Before the season began the coaches Weekly, and particularly Ralph, seemed to think this was a reloading rather than a rebuilding year, and that in spite of extreme youth a repeat trip to the College World Series was a reachable goal. Retrenching seemed to occur in spite of a gaudy early win-loss record, and the inexperience of most of the players became a more frequent talking point. After a poor first weekend on the road against unranked South Carolina in SEC play resulted in only one win in three games, the second version of the narrative seemed more justified than the first. The next weekend series and home conference opener versus #18 Missouri was more encouraging, with the Lady Vols taking two out of three. But the Georgia series this past weekend at Lee Stadium in which the #7 Bulldogs were swept may rekindle Ralph’s earlier enthusiasm for the idea that this year’s team could go very far in the post-season after all.

It’s difficult to say at this point whether the Lady Vols have improved that much or if Georgia was not as good as everyone thought. The Lady Dawgs have dined on a lot of home cooking and came into the series with a losing record against the few ranked teams they faced, so there was some evidence of feet of clay. Their gaudy batting averages may have been the result of having faced weaker pitching, rather than because they possess superior bats. Certainly Tennessee’s quartet of pitchers appeared far more masterful than they had in their six previous SEC games, most high-scoring slugfests, and this improvement either came at Georgia’s expense or because Georgia isn’t actually all that.

Tennessee has benefited from some mid-week stat-padding games as well. Erin Gabriel has sparkled particularly on the week days against admittedly weaker teams, having tossed no-hitters against two non-conference teams fourteen days apart, the first a 16-strikeout, 7-inning masterpiece against Illinois State and the second  a run-rule perfect game of 5 innings versus in-state rival ETSU. In between these gems, the Lady Vols absorbed a rare out-of-conference loss to visiting Western Kentucky, with their hitters unable to get anything going against WKU ace Miranda Kramer, who gave up only two hits while fanning 14 Lady Vols in as masterful a pitching performance as I have ever seen or ever expect to see, and that includes Gabriel’s first no-hitter. Why Kramer is not pitching for a major national power is a mystery to me.

The hallmark of this Lady Vol team seems to be hitting and particularly power hitting, as everyone in the lineup is capable of putting the ball over the outfield wall and many are doing it regularly. Taylor Koenig is leading the team in HR’s but Annie Aldrete is coming on strong, resembling more and more the phenom that she was as a freshman. Meghan Gregg is starting to live up to the pre-season hype both at the plate and on the field and Scarlett McSwain, in spite of a rough weekend at the plate against Georgia, has shown genuine promise as a power hitter. Rainey Gaffin and Lexi Overstreet are bonafide stars with multiple skills and two years of eligibility remaining, and Tory Lewis and Cheyanne Tarango, this year’s seniors, are putting injuries behind them and assuming ever more significant roles. Gretchen Aucoin, the junior transfer from Texas Tech, has been solid pitching and hitting. Defense, and infield defense particularly, is not as strong for the Lady Vols as it has been in the recent past but our expectations may be unrealistic, as we were spoiled for years by Chevanne, Shipman, and Gibson consistently robbing hitters of surefire hits and shutting down rallies before they could even begin with a solid catch or a blistering throw.

Georgia suffered mightily in all three games, either surrendering the lead or at least a tie in the final innings all three days. Most frustrating of all must have been the Monday night game, which I did not witness in person because I needed to be at home for the NCAA Lady Vol basketball game, when the winning run was waved in after the relief pitcher fell down while trying to deliver the ball, an illegal pitch by rule and an unwise one by any standard. It was an inexplicable thing to see, and Ralph allowed a thing he had not seen before. McSwain was having a good at bat, and Ralph said he wished the outcome could have been decided more conventionally with her coming up with a series-saving hit, but nothing in the rules would allow Tennessee to decline the base and the score, and I doubt if Ralph would have taken it even if it were an option, because SEC wins are precious. Tennessee established it’s resiliency coming back from their terrible South Carolina series, and now we will see if Georgia has the fortitude to rebound from a terrible series of their own. SEC seasons are way too short, and there’s not a lot of margin for error.

Missed Again

The quest for National Championship number 9 came to a quick and bitter end Monday night as the Lady Vols fell in their Elite Eight round game to Maryland, 58-48. They were awarded only one free throw, and missed it. Nobody shot from the field very well either. The team’s final record was 30 wins and 6 losses, with three of the loses coming fittingly enough against three of the Final Four finalists, Notre Dame, South Carolina (twice), and now Maryland,with another loss having occurred early in the season to Texas, which was annihilated by tournament favorite and perennial power Connecticut in the tournament. One could say that this demonstrates definitively that Tennessee did not belong in the Final Four this year, but Tennessee fans can take some solace in reminding detractors that none of these losses, with the exception of the Notre Dame game, occurred when Isabelle Harrison was fit for active duty. Oh, what might have been.

On the other hand, Harrison was definitely gone and the next round, against Connecticut, might have been an even bitterer end to the season, given the passion Lady Vol fans have for that rivalry. And while I feel certain most of the Orange faithful will be rooting for a Terrapin upset, most will not expect it to happen.

In spite of the loss of three very worthy Seniors in Burdick, Massengale, and Harrison, next year’s Lady Vols should be strong enough to contend once more with the eligibility of transfer Diamond DeShields, the return to health of Mercedes Russell and Jasmine Jones, and the continued maturation of the underclassmen. Burdick’s emotional leadership will be missed, and other players will have to step up to fill her shoes as well as Massengale and Harrison’s, but the talent is there, and hopefully the drive and competitiveness that was the hallmark of this year’s team will remain or even intensify.

One of the peculiarities of the tournament, and human nature in general I suppose, is the apparent need to have more than just the tournament to play for; most of us seem to think we need to add emotional layers in order to prime our competitive juices. Ladies, the tournament ought to be enough. Cierra’s refrain to the media was that she was playing this one first, for the injured Harrison, and then for Pat Summitt, was I think more of a distraction than a help. It was a natural enough sentiment, as these seniors have been together four years and are the last players who were recruited by and also played for the legendary Tennessee coach. I’m sure no disrespect was intended for current coach Holly Warlick, and given Warlick’s long, close relationship with Summitt equally sure none was taken. But while dedications like these might help lift a player’s competitive juices, they also raises the pressure and tension level, since your failures will reflect on more than just the game as well. You didn’t just lose the game, you also let down Izzy and Pat! All I’m saying is, I’d prefer it if players keep those kind of dedications in the locker room, among themselves. Dedicate the trophy to Pat, Izzy, Jesus, and whoever else, after you’ve actually won it, if you must. But, if you need extra incentives like this to play at the highest level, maybe you’re a little less mature than you need to be to succeed.

Maryland was guilty of a little emotional self-motivational fantasy spin themselves. Within minutes of the game’s end, both Head Coach Brenda Frese and star player Lexie Brown declared that “nobody expected them to be there”, that Maryland was in fact the “underdog”. Reality check: you were the number one seed in the region, which means everybody expected you to be there. With Connecticut the number 1 seed overall up next, your underdog status only just now became a reality, and Connecticut if they stick to their history and philosophy will probably not be playing mind games to psych themselves up or get ready. They’ll just be playing the best basketball they can play, and that’s all they’ll need to do.

Reigning Three

On Sunday March 1st the Lady Vols played the last game of the regular season and the last regular season game for three seniors, Cierra Burdick, Ariel Massengale, and Isabelle Harrison. While I can’t say the win against instate rival Vanderbilt was shocking, the margin was, as the Lady Vols jumped out to an early lead and continued to build on it, winning by 30 points. This in spite of a penchant for throwing the ball where Vandy players could get their hands on it in the first half, an idiosyncrasy corrected at halftime.

After the game came the surprising news that Kentucky had upset the Gamecocks, leaving Tennessee and South Carolina finished in a tie for first place in the SEC. South Carolina will receive the #1 seed by virtue of their victory over the Lady Vols, but that’s a small matter. In this case a tie is way better than kissing your sister, and if all goes as it should the #1 seed will meet the #2 seed in the tournament finals and it won’t matter which was which going in. Though Kentucky was playing for their own benefit and only coincidentally in the interest of Tennessee, it seems only right the Lady Vols got an assist from the Wildcats after Tennessee lost its best player for the remainder of the season in the second Tennessee-Kentucky at Thompson-Boling two weeks ago. Her injury was not deliberate and the Kentucky players all gathered around Izzy in a show of support as she was carried off the court. The defeat of South Carolina, leading to the tie for the conference title for Tennessee, makes that gesture appear all the more genuine if you choose to look at it that way.

This class is the second that I have followed for their entire career, here in my fifth year as a Knoxville resident and season ticket holder. My first graduating class was a party of one consisting of speedy guard Meighan Simmons, who was a special player from the moment she walked onto the court in her first game as a freshman. This year’s graduating threesome, the last to have been recruited by legendary longtime coach Pat Summitt, did not begin their careers with such obvious success or apparent potential, though Ariel Massengale was anointed the starting PG by Summitt even before she arrived on campus, an unprecedented honor in the program. Though Massengale proved a capable ball handler from the beginning, she was not oriented at all toward scoring as a freshman, shooting so reluctantly that  opponents could lag off of her and guard the rest of the team five on four. It’s safe to say her offensive game got more rounded as she grew as a player. This year she led the team in three point shots made, including eight in the final game to tie the great Meighan Simmon’s team record.

The knock on Cierra Burdick in her freshman year was that her footwork was too slow. From all accounts Burdick is probably one of the hardest workers the Lady Vols have ever had, and slow footwork is no longer an issue. Burdick has matured into a complete player with a willingness to take on whatever role is needed, from scorer to defender to emotional leader to everything at once and though next year’s team appears poised to pick up where this one leaves off (wherever that turns out to be), the intangibles that Burdick brings may be the hardest element to duplicate.

About Isabelle Harrison’s improvement over four years I cannot say enough. Her freshman year was a repeated story of being put in the lineup and yanked back out as she seemed overmatched again and again, though there were always signs of the talent that bloomed this year from flashes into reliable consistency. Always a threat under the basket to score on offense, always an intimidating presence the other guys had to figure out how to avoid on defense, she was repeatedly praised by the more knowledgeable commentators and tabbed by many as the best pro prospect graduating this year. The ACL injury just before she had a chance to appear on the national stage may only be the first note of what could turn out to be an even greater tragedy, as these injuries are notoriously difficult to overcome. It’s possible Lady Vol fans have witnessed Harrison at the peak of her game, as the best player she will ever be. I certainly hope not; I hope she has a complete recovery and goes on to dazzle the WNBA as so many former Lady Vols have done before her.

The final game is Senior Night, and all three players were honored in pre-game ceremonies in which their families are introduced to an appreciative crowd. Burdick was the most openly emotional, standing in the tunnel waiting to be introduced, and Harrison brought along the biggest family. The game could not have gone more ideally if it had been scripted, right down to the final seconds when Izzy, who had dressed for the game, was put out on the floor for one final time. As time ran out Carter passed the ball to her at mid court, for one final touch. The other seniors had been taken out just before this so that they could receive their final ovations. Massengale was on the cusp of two achievements: a ninth 3-pointer would have given her the single game record, and an assist would have given her 500 assists, making her only the 3rd Lady Vol to reach 1,000 points and 500 assists in a career. The assist will undoubtedly come on Friday in the SEC tournament; nobody would mind if she put up nine threes in a single game sometime in the next few weeks either. Both Harrison and Massengale have reached the 1,000 point mark. Burdick needs only 5 more points to reach 1,000 as well.

Longtime play by play announcer Mickey Dearstone had all three seniors as guests on his post game radio show, in the slot usually reserved for whichever individual is chosen player of the game, and he took the opportunity to praise the senior’s off-court accomplishments, academically, socially, and in charitable endeavors, and declared with obvious sincerity that if he had three daughters he would be content with three exactly like these. It was a touching and genuine moment.

At the end of the game and before the Dearstone moment Cierra took the mic after the game to inform the fans that the Lady Vols would go all the way to Tampa and play for the championship. That’s will be difficult to achieve with Harrison out, but I wouldn’t call it a pipe dream. Unlike Lady Vol teams of the recent past, I don’t see this one being outplayed or upset by a lesser team, nor do I expect them to quit against a superior one. And there are only a handful of superior ones, even with Harrison out of the picture. Whatever happens, they will play hard. Burdick, Massengale, and Harrison will see to it. As the pre-game film montage concludes with all the players reciting at once, “THIS is Lady Vol Basketball”.