The backcourt was at the forefront of Tennessee's recruiting this fall, and women's basketball signees Lauren Avant and Meighan Simmons have filled the bill.
Avant, from Memphis Lausanne Collegiate School, is a true point guard. Simmons, from Steele High in suburban San Antonio, is an off guard with impressive scoring credentials.
Avant and Simmons signed last week and have submitted their paperwork to UT.
The 5-foot-9 Avant, a two-time Division II-A Miss Basketball honoree, committed to Tennessee as a ninth-grader and has been a frequent campus visitor. Her mother, Dana, is a Tennessee graduate.
"She comes up for almost every football game,'' UT coach Pat Summitt said. "She's been on this campus about as much as I have."
Summitt described Avant as "a competitive, driven person" who has "a good feel for the game" as a point guard.
The 5-foot-9 Simmons, the two-time San Antonio Express-News player of the year, is on pace to become the leading scorer in San Antonio girls high school history, surpassing Clarissa Davis, who had an All-America collegiate career at Texas.
Tennessee got a late start on recruiting Simmons. An extra scholarship wasn't available until January, when guard Cait McMahan decided to stop playing because of persistent knee problems. Summitt said the Lady Vols benefitted from Simmons' admiration for former Lady Vols star Candace Parker.
"She's a really nice shooter,'' Summitt said of Simmons. "She has great touch. She'll stretch the defense for us."
Summitt also described Simmons as possessing the requisite athletic skills for being a strong perimeter defender.
Adding Avant and Simmons will give UT a full complement of 15 players for next season, provided Amber Gray is back after undergoing brain surgery this summer. Normally Summitt doesn't favor a full roster, but she conceded to uncertainty at this point about the workable depth of the current rank and file.
"That's part of it,'' she said.
UT's next recruiting priority will be the frontcourt. The Lady Vols received a verbal commitment this fall from Cierra Burdick, a 6-2 forward from Charlotte.
On The Move: The Tennessee-Virginia tip-off Sunday was moved back two hours to 4 p.m. to avoid a conflict with the Virginia men's soccer team, which will be playing an NCAA tournament second-round match at 1.
The Cavaliers are the second seed in the tournament.
"Based on the postseason process we ultimately decided that it would be difficult to move the start time for the soccer match to an evening time slot,'' said Jon Oliver, Virginia's executive associate director of athletics. "We appreciate the Tennessee women's basketball program working with us regarding this matter."
Injury Update: Lady Vols freshman forward Faith Dupree won't play Sunday because of back problems.
Forward Alyssia Brewer and guard Kamiko Williams will be back after missing Tuesday's game against Texas Tech because of a violation of team policy.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
National Signing Day 2010
Tennessee Lady Vols 82, Auburn Tigers 64
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 6
LadyVolsEighTimes writes:
Lady Vols should be fantastic next year, not that they are looking bad this year.
CTOWNICON writes:
Lady vols will be awesome next year! Adding those two to what they already have will make them that much better. From the description of Simmons, she seems like she can be a possible top caliber player for UT. Avant sounds pretty good to. Please no more injuries, I am hoping for Vicki to come back full strength and now Faith is having problems. Get well Faith!
eldr5#344719 writes:
I like the Lady Vols overall length and scoring ability but we need more players like Kimiko Williams who can break down a defender and get into the paint at will and are quick enough to guard the top athletes in the country. Maybe Simmons and Avant will give us more of that skill. Big guards are awesome but sometimes they have trouble stopping smaller, quicker guards on D.
98reax writes:
We need to handle our business with the Cavaliers tomorrow. Virginia was a hoodoo game for us last year. By that I mean that loss, narrow as it was, was the beginning of a downhill spiral for a very young team who could not recover. We need to have a solid win and build some momentum.
98reax writes:
From last season:
[[[Tennessee convened enough scorers for a victory Monday night. Six Lady Vols in double figures usually turns the trick. NOT! Not with Virginia’s Monica Wright doing the work of three players. Not with Tennessee coming up about 2½ minutes short of finishing the job. Tennessee’s points didn’t equate to enough poise and the result was an 83-82 loss to the Cavaliers before a stunned crowd of 11,627 at Thompson-Boling Arena. Wright, a junior guard, scored 35 points for No. 16 Virginia (2-0). Her impressive work allowed for teammate Britnee Millner’s decisive free throw with 6.4 seconds left.]]]
That was too much for the younguns to overcome. It's not unlike Ole Miss's Dexter McCluster running basically untouched the length of a football field time after time, score after score, after score, after score...
Looks like Monica Wright may be back. Guard her. Don't give her a look. Take care of the ball. Take care of business.
Bottom line: Play lights out ball with poise from buzzer to buzzer. Get the W!
utfan00 writes:
I'm glad to see another article posted. So tired
of the conflict between Pat and Geno.
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