The influx of questions into Smithey's Corner has been fast and furious during the past few weeks. It's finally time to provide some answers (so I can delete them from my E-mail account).

Dear Smithey's Corner:

Question about the Lady Vols basketball team. Who can they practice with - legally and for how long a time? Could we bring back a squad from the pros who were UT alumni for a few sessions? Can they practice against the men's team?

Talking with Debby Jennings, the associate athletics director for media relations for the Lady Vols, I found out the women's basketball team could practice against men, then couldn't and then could again.

The Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed UT women's basketball before 1981, and the Lady Vols practiced against male players during the AIAW's reign.

Jennings said Pat Summitt used to teach physical education classes during those times and she would recruit able males from her classes to scrimmage her squad.

The NCAA took over women's basketball in 1981-82, and it did not allow male practice players.

So what did teams do?

Women's teams weren't using their allotment of 15 scholarship players in the 1980s, because there weren't enough good players to give scholarships to, according to Jennings. And with women succumbing more to knee injuries, especially to the anterior cruciate ligament, some teams couldn't scrimmage at all because of depleted rosters.

So around the late 1980s, 6-foot-plus male managers began to surface in women's programs around the country, and they filled in.

In 1991-92, the NCAA finally allowed male practice players for women's college basketball, but it knew it would have to govern the new rule.

It produced guidelines for the practice players.

The men have to be underclassmen and have to go through the NCAA Clearinghouse, meeting the criteria of normal student athletes.

They have to pass and carry 12 credit hours of classes each semester - in other words, they have to be full-time students.

The practice players don't get perks. The only things they get are the shoes they wear. They can't get tickets. They can't go on road trips with the team.

But they can practice with the team whenever it practices, usually 2-3 hours per day.

"You're basically a student who wants court time," Jennings said of a practice player. "You're a gym rat."

Another significant criterion is: the students better come to play and play hard, or Summitt will not hesitate to rid her practice squad of them.

"She's thrown some out for not working hard," Jennings said.

Former Lady Vols, can occasionally practice against the team.

Tamika Catchings, Kara Lawson, Chamique Holdsclaw and Nikki McCray all have come back to practice from time to time.

But Jennings said if someone like Nancy Lieberman came to Knoxville and wanted to run with the team, she wouldn't be able to.

"She wanted to be (a Lady Vol)," Jennings said of Lieberman. "But we wouldn't let her transfer (here from Old Dominion)."

Practicing against the men's team is something that won't happen. The size of the men's players against the women's is too vast, and the threat of injury would be too high.

Can you tell me the status of (UT) basketball player Damion Harris?

Paul Jeffers

I followed Bruce Pearl around all day on Feb. 15, and I saw Harris a few times.

Judging by Harris' blue practice-squad jersey with orange taped-on numbers, it's evident Harris is not going to be on the court anytime soon.

UT is red-shirting the 20-year-old freshman.

Harris, a 6-foot-10, 275-pound center, is noticeably gargantuan, and one can't help but wonder: "Why isn't he playing?"

But watching him practice, Harris - known as "Baby Shaq" - hardly resembled his nickname.

By red-shirting, he will have time to learn more nuances of the game and develop into a better player.

Where have all the smart sportswriters/media gone?

Here is my No. 1 blunder committed by the current sportswriters/media:

Have you ever been guilty of writing or announcing: "Billy Bob Smith (or some athlete) has just broken the NFL record (or SEC record) for most fumbles left-handed."

But, the writer/announcer never tells you who held the record previously, or when or where the record was set.

What do you mean, "Where have all the smart sportswriters gone?"

Why, right now as I type this, John Adams, Dan Fleser and Mike Strange are all here at the News Sentinel.

Doesn't get much better than that, and I think we all graduated college, too.

But hopefully, we've never been guilty of your No. 1 blunder. If the record's information is accessible or findable to a writer/announcer, then it should be in there.

If you ever see me leave it out, tell me and I'll run laps after writing practice.

Have a sports-related topic or question and want it answered? Send it to Jesse Smithey at corner@knews.com.