The Lady Vols finished on a very high note with a dominating win over Florida on the road, not unexpected, and an upset victory over South Carolina in the final game at home. Unexpected. This gives the Lady Vols a three game winning streak against the Gamecocks as a highpoint, offset by having lost inexplicably to Alabama for the fourth straight time in a row earlier in the season. It’s hard to imagine a universe where the same Lady Vol team can upset a superior South Carolina team three straight times, and also lose to an inferior Alabama team four straight times over the same span of time, but that’s the universe we live in.
I’ll make no predictions for the post season, either the SEC tournament or the NCAA, because, as one of the pundits said, Tennessee is the biggest enigma in the top twenty. Capable of beating, or losing, to practically anybody. It all depends on who shows up.
This was the hallmark of last year’s team as well, though this year’s team has taken positive strides towards more consistently being a good team, but…they aren’t as regular yet as they need to be. In the South Carolina game they started painfully slow on offense. Shot selection seemed good, but nothing was going in. They persevered, however, and continued to play hard, particularly on the defensive end, and eventually the offense came around. They might have played their best quarter of the season in the third, after having played one of their worst in the first, though as I said, the effort never flagged. Their hearts were in this one, and that’s why they won, in the end, handily.
South Carolina was without their best player, A’ja Wilson, who was left home as a precaution as she was suffering from vertigo. Assuming and hoping for her sake this is a temporary condition, the Gamecocks will be a difficult draw should the Lady Vols happen to end up in their bracket in the SEC tournament.
Tennessee’s three seniors were honored in a pre-game ceremony before the game. They’ve been a fantastic trio.
Mercedes Russell’s career began under a cloud as she was the number 1 rated recruit and was expected to dominate immediately as a freshman, which didn’t happen. It turned out she had problems in both feet limiting her mobility, that required surgery and a full year afterwards to recover. I probably heard more negativity from fans about Mercedes early on, than any other player on the team since I started attending games back in 2010. Naysayers were slow to come around, but as Mercedes’ health improved along with her strength and game, year by year, most of the disbelievers have gone silent. At least the observant ones have. The season just completed should have removed all doubt. She will leave Tennessee as one of the team’s all-time leaders in rebounds, blocks, and double doubles, and the conventional wisdom now is that as Mercedes goes, so goes the team. If there is a remaining knock against her, it’s that she doesn’t demand the ball enough. When the team goes away from her offensively, it shows. She will be the hardest piece to replace next year, and should have an outstanding professional career ahead of her.
Personal memories, I saw Mercedes several times at Lady Vol softball games because she was a regular attendee and, at 6′ 6″, she’s pretty hard to miss. She even attended one of the softball team open houses, held on the field and in the clubhouse every year in February. I never tried to talk to her because I usually steer clear of the players unless they happen to sit somewhere near us, which she never has, so far. If the opportunity arises this spring, though, I think I will try to thank her for choosing Knoxville.
Jaime Nared is my favorite player from this year’s team. There isn’t much she can’t do on a basketball court, and like Mercedes her career has been marked by steady and marked improvement every year. As a freshman she was one of a crowd; as a Senior she is the team’s leading scorer and perhaps as valuable as Russell in the high picture. She’s had some frustrating cold spells this year on offense, and sometimes settles for the outside shot too often, but her occasional offensive dry spells have seldom infected her defensive intensity or team leadership. If Mercedes is the drink, Jaime is the straw that stirs it.
Kortney Dunbar hasn’t been nearly the factor her fellow seniors have been, but is still a solid contributor and has always been a fan favorite. Sometimes the loudest cheers of the half will be when she enters the game for her 2-3 minutes. A three-point specialist even though she plays forward, the crowd goes wild whenever she hits one, which, given her limited playing time, is more often than you would think. She has never let any disappointment at not getting more playing time get to her; she is almost always the most enthusiastic player on the bench, the first one up to greet starters coming out of the game. She reminds me somewhat of Sydney Smallbone, another player who saw limited action but was a valuable member of the team for sheer attitude. If you could bottle and sell enthusiasm, you’d market it under the name Dunbar.
Though this team is clearly more cohesive than last year’s, with a better record as a result, the paper lately has published a number of letters from fans calling for or demanding Holly Warlick be fired for the crime of not yet having won a national championship and returned Tennessee to the glory days under Pat Summitt. I’d just like to wrap up by offering a little rebuttal.
Dear Frustrated Fans:
The glory days are not coming back. The glory days were already gone, even before Pat was forced to retire because of Alzheimer’s disease. I would say what she accomplished couldn’t be done today because the talent pool is so much larger now, and there are so many more good programs, except Geno Auriemma is doing it. The thing is, there aren’t many Geno Auriemmas and Pat Summitts out there; maybe one or two in a generation. Firing Holly Warlick is one thing, but who are you replacing her with? Pat is gone, and Geno isn’t going to leave Connecticut. Unless you have a superstar in mind, and that superstar wants to come here, all you’re doing is treading water, or perhaps regressing.
Because, like it or not, Holly Warlick is a good coach. Perhaps not a great one; but great ones are rare. Achieving national championships should be a goal for every coach, and every program in the country; but, believe it or not, it isn’t what matters most, or at least it shouldn’t be. If your idea is to win a national championship at all costs, you’re going to do things you shouldn’t do: illegal recruiting, under the table payoffs, booster interference. Playing ineligible players, filling your roster with “students” who don’t even belong in college and couldn’t graduate if their lives depended on it. You’ve seen it; it happens all the time in the men’s game.
That shouldn’t be what college basketball is all about. It’s all about winning, sure, but winning the right way: winning without scandal or cheating. More important than winning is integrity and character. That’s what a university should teach; that’s what a university should sell.
Under Holly Warlick, the Lady Vols are competitive. They’re winning the lion’s share of their games. They are getting their share of the nation’s best players. And, most significantly, those players, at least the ones who stay the full four years, are leaving as significantly better players than they were when they arrived. Look at Mercedes Russell. Look at Jaime Nared. Look at Kortney Dunbar. That’s the true measure of a coach.
Sure, we’d like to be winning national championships. Holly would like to be winning national championships. But if it isn’t done the right way, what does it matter? And firing coaches for not winning national championships is the beginning of the end. You’re chasing a goal that should be the culmination of your efforts, not something that you should sacrifice your integrity and decency for. The first priority of a university should be to maintain integrity and decency. To practice, and teach, sportsmanship; to improve student athletes in body and mind, and to set an example for not only its own students, but the world.
If you fire a coach who is winning the majority of her games, without cheating, and is developing her players as students and athletes, merely because in your mind you think she ought to be doing even better, well…get your priorities straight.
It’s only a game. A game that should be played like it’s the most important thing in the world, even though it’s should be remembered at all times off the court it’s the least. It doesn’t matter who wins the national championship. It matters what sort of people are playing for it.
Be Tennessee. Be better than mere championship chasers.
Hoops and Diamonds 