All (national) eyes on Lady Vol commitment Avant

Photo by Alan Spearman

Lauren Avant, right, tweaks her hair while her mother, Dana, holds the basketball during a Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

Lauren Avant, right, tweaks her hair while her mother, Dana, holds the basketball during a Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

MEMPHIS - As his subject dribbled, passed and posed for an upcoming photo spread in Sports Illustrated, photographer Al Tielemans quickly surmised Lausanne High School basketball star Lauren Avant had done this sort of thing before.

"She did great. She's obviously done it before. She was very comfortable," Tielemans said of the rising junior point guard and University of Tennessee commitment.

"Some of the younger kids that haven't done these kinds of pictures, they struggle. It's just hard because all this stuff, like running and dribbling, it's innate to them, but she doesn't ever have to do it on the blue block.

"Now you're asking her to do something natural, but she's got to make her stride on that point, and be smiling and looking at me. That's when it gets hard, when something innate and natural has to become a thought process."

The 16-year-old Avant, however, appeared to be at ease, gliding gracefully through a series of camera-pleasing drills across Lausanne's gymnasium floor.

The 5-foot-9 reigning Division II-A Miss Basketball is one of 16 high-school athletes picked from across the country to be featured this month in Sports Illustrated's "Where Will They Be" photo series.

Last September, Avant, who drew national attention two years ago when she committed to the Lady Vols as a 14-year-old, was one of several high-school underclassmen featured in a Time magazine article about the recruitment of eighth-graders.

"When you have a player of this caliber who brings this much attention to your program, I think that it benefits everyone. It benefits all the athletes here because it's going to give them exposure," Lausanne athletic director Troy Baker said.

"Everybody knows what we are academically in the community and in the Memphis area. . . . But they need to also understand we're doing some very good things on the athletic side. My hope is that people will understand we're building a serious program here."

Sports Illustrated informed Avant, a starter since her eighth-grade season who led Lausanne to its first basketball state title last March, of her selection for the "Where Will They Be" series in May.

"Usually, I think of Sports Illustrated as for adults. Then it kind of hit me, and I was like, 'Whoa!' " Avant said.

"They wanted background information. They ask you everything. They're like, 'What made you start playing basketball?' and 'What kind of cartoons do you watch?' Avant said.

"They just want to know what kind of person you are."

Also on hand for the photo shoot at Lausanne were Avant's mother, Dana, and Avant's boyfriend, Terrico White, a former Craigmont High basketball star who's entering his freshman season at Ole Miss.

"I'm here in support," White said, smiling.

Dana said she doubts the national attention will go to her daughter's head, but does acknowledge the pressures that have come along with Lauren's high-profile recruitment.

"One of the things I told her was, 'This could be taken away at any moment. You appreciate it and be excited, but you always need to stay grounded.' That's one thing I taught her," Dana said.

"I told people, 'We'll have just one (copy of next month's article) for our home. Just one.' . . . All of that is good, but like I said, it could be taken away. We're trying to raise her with values, where she's a student first."