The decision was pure spur of the moment.

Shelley Sexton Collier, Melissa McCray Dukes and Carla Horton Douglas, members of Tennessee's first women's basketball national championship team in 1987, piled into a rented sports utility vehicle Tuesday morning and made the eight-hour drive to Cleveland for the Lady Vols' title game against Rutgers.

This traveling trio didn't put a lot of deliberations into the decision, which was particularly tormenting for Dukes.

"Usually I have to think about things for three or four weeks in advance,'' she said.

They didn't plan for a sufficient amount of rest, either. They came all the way back to Knoxville after the game and the postgame revelry with the newly crowned champs, arriving around 9 a.m.

"I wasn't tired; I guess I was going on adrenaline," Collier said Friday. It's sort of like when you're playing, you have to push through.

"But we're not as young as we used to be. I'm still recovering."

What the road trip lacked in planning, it made up for in motivation. Collier said that she and her two travel companions almost felt duty-bound by living in Knoxville and being in such close proximity to the program.

Collier and Dukes made the comparatively short drive last season to Thompson-Boling Arena and addressed the team in the wake of consecutive losses to Duke and Kentucky. They stood in the team circle with the players and took turns speaking. They were neither loud nor long-winded. They felt compelled to share their thoughts because they cared.

What drove them to the arena that day also drove them to Cleveland.

"It felt like our presence would let them know we meant what we said,'' Collier said.

Small wonder that their incentive was good enough for a 24 hours of LeMans journey that covered 1,000-plus miles. Its staying power has lasted the two decades since their championship. To hear them tell it, the personal bonds that were forged by that achievement can't be touched by time.

Dukes still felt the shared spirit Feb. 11, when every team member convened for a reunion celebration in conjunction with UT's game against Kentucky. More importantly, she saw a yearning in the current players for a similar bond.

"I could tell there was something going on,'' Dukes said. "I could tell that they wanted to have that special thing that you can't describe."

Dukes heard it again after the national semifinal victory over North Carolina when Lady Vols All-American Candace Parker turned a personal question during a postgame television interview into a team-oriented response.

Such responses might not resonate with the general public or worse seem strained or contrived. But not within the rank and file, Dukes said.

"Your teammates need to hear that, they need to see it,'' she said. "They need to know it's all about team."

Assistant coach Holly Warlick seconded that notion in the aftermath of Tuesday's victory, noting the importance of the team's chemistry in the championship.

"They could've come in here and been very jealous of Candace Parker,'' Warlick said. "I think how Candace handled it and how our team handled it was key. We fed off her. They (her teammates) knew that. But you look at tonight, we needed other players."

There were other interviews in Cleveland that Dukes didn't hear that likely would've drawn a knowing nod of approval. Players talked at length before Tuesday's game about how blunt they tend to be with each other. Guard Alexis Hornbuckle felt it necessary to apologize to her teammates before the North Carolina game.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you ahead of time,'' she said. "I know it's going to come out."

What an odd thing to say. Not at all, Dukes said.

"We used to do that,'' she said, noting that the general refrain for anyone's injury complaints was: "You have the whole spring and summer to heal. We need you now.

"To have your teammates hear it, accept it and respond, oh it's beautiful."

Dukes heard an echo from across the years in this season. She and her former teammates followed it all the way to Cleveland and back. Their spontaneity was richly rewarded.

"I don't care how far we had to drive,'' Collier said. "It was worth it."