DAYTON, Ohio - The Ole Miss Rebels are not only comfortable with their limitations. They seem to revel in them.

Other teams are more talented, the Rebels point out.

Other teams are faster, they add.

And they smile when you ask about their lack of size, which will be more apparent than ever against Tennessee in an Elite Eight match-up of the NCAA women's basketball tournament this evening at the University of Dayton Arena.

"We're not tall," said 6-foot-1 Ole Miss senior forward Jada Mincey. "We're not the best skill team. But we build a lot of our defense from our heart."

The Lady Vols have heard it all before. They have a long, proud tradition of squashing smaller, less-talented teams with intangible assets and grand intentions.

They just dismissed 13th-seeded Marist with relative ease after the Red Foxes had played their way onto the tournament marquee by upsetting Ohio State and Middle Tennessee State.

But when the Lady Vols look at Ole Miss, they don't see Marist. When they look at Ole Miss, they don't even see the old Ole Miss.

Until the last two weeks, the Rebels hadn't won an NCAA tournament game since 1994. They have never played in an NCAA Final Four. And their history with UT is downright dreadful.

The Lady Vols have won 11 consecutive games in the series and have won the last 10 by an average of 30 points. If you're interested in the disastrous details, there was a 119-52 game in 2001 and a 91-45 game in 1998. Compared to that, UT's 81-69 victory over the Rebels last month qualifies as a thriller

But none of that seemed to matter Sunday afternoon. Ole Miss clearly had UT's attention.

After the Lady Vols took care of Marist in the first half of Sunday's double-header, they stuck around to watch the Rebels upset third-seeded Oklahoma. They saw a pesky, tenacious team that has a star player in guard Armintie Price, an improved supporting cast and a commitment to aggressive, full-court defense.

"You can watch (the Rebels) on television and watch them in person, and (have) two different opinions on how they play," UT coach Pat Summitt said. "On TV, they don't look like they're that much faster, quicker and aggressive.

"But when you see them actually play, when you saw them against Oklahoma, it was glaring - their overall team speed and quickness."

Later that evening, the Rebels - "our little Runnin' Rebels, Ole Miss coach Carol Ross calls them - were prominent in UT's dinner conversation.

"Our players were talking about what they saw from Ole Miss now that they didn't see earlier (when) they were not pushing the tempo," Summitt said. "That's the biggest change."

The change has been a season in the making, but it has been more striking in the tournament. For example, take defending national champion Maryland.

Way down in the Bahamas, way back in November, Maryland routed the Rebels 110-79. Four months later, Ole Miss jumped out to a 33-12 lead, forced 20 turnovers in the first half, and knocked Maryland out of the NCAA tournament with an 89-78 victory in the second round.

"I wasn't that surprised (about the upset) because of their overall team speed and quickness," Summitt said. "It's hard to really appreciate the speed, quickness and athleticism if you haven't been on the court with them.

"I thought that was the advantage they had over Maryland and then over Oklahoma. I'm sure (Oklahoma coach) Sherri Coale saw a different team on the court than what she saw on film."

Mincey insists UT will see a different team than the one it beat in February.

"They went to a zone and we froze," Mincey said. "We weren't used to people playing zone on us. We froze and we lost."

It was a simple, concise explanation for a defeat that, like the regular-season loss to Maryland, is deemed irrelevant.

"We didn't even look at the tape (of the first Maryland loss)," guard Alliesha Easley said of her team's preparation for the rematch. "We're not the same team."

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.