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”.
Hoops and Diamonds 