Baylor dressed the part for Sunday's "We Back Pat" promotion, wearing purple warm-up T-shirts that honored Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt.
Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey said that she waited a few weeks after Summitt announced in August that she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type before calling her former Olympic coach.
"It wasn't a long conversation,'' Mulkey said, "because I guess I'm menopausal and getting old and she's getting old. And I didn't want to cry and she didn't want to cry.
"I just said a few things. The bottom line is I wanted her to understand how much I love her. I'm not afraid to tell her that I love her. ... I wanted her to make sure she had people that would protect her and she does. This university should protect her until the day she wants to step off that floor."
Matter Of Choice: Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick didn't indicate that the Lady Vols were sending a message to guard Meighan Simmons by playing her just one minute in the second half. Simmons followed up a 1-for-7 shooting performance against Virginia last week by coming off the bench to go 1 for 12 in the first half against Baylor. Instead, Warlick said that they were deferring to Taber Spani and Shekinna Stricklen, who combined for 35 points and six of UT's eight 3-pointers.
"Meighan just wasn't making plays and it's hard to take out Taber Spani and Shekinna when they're just making plays,'' Warlick said. " ... I think it's a matter of we weren't sure where we were going to put Meighan in that spot when the other two were producing."
Spanning The Years: Lady Vols past and future were in attendance on Sunday. The alums included Chamique Holdsclaw, Alexis Hornbuckle, Michelle Marciniak, Jill Rankin, Sheila Frost, Shelia Collins and Liza Graves.
Andraya Carter, Bashaara Graves and Jasmine Jones, UT's three 2012 signees, were on hand as well.
Recruiting: According to Twitter chatter and other eyewitness accounts, several recruits were in the crowd. Included were Class of 2013 prospects Diamond DeShields, Kaela Davis, Taya Reimer, Kristina Nelson and Tyler Scaife. Davis is committed to Tennessee.
Also on hand was Uju Ugoka, a 6-foot forward from Gulf Coast (Fla.) State College. She was a junior college All-American at Grayson County (Texas) College before transferring to Gulf Coast for this season. Tennessee hopes to sign one or two junior college prospects in the spring.
Notebook: Vicki Baugh's double-double was the fourth of her career and the first since she scored 12 points and grabbed 15 rebounds against Gonzaga on Dec. 30, 2008. ... Tennessee is 14-29 against No. 1 ranked teams and 3-10 in Knoxville. ... Baylor hadn't been outrebounded since a 56-45 loss at Texas Tech on Feb. 9.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Softball: Tennessee 2, Georgia 1
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 15
richvol writes:
I don't know what's going on with Meigan Simmons but I agree with sitting her until she gets back to producing...and not turning the ball over and shooting too much.
nhaaga writes:
stick with the great rebounding!
Biggie writes:
Coach Mulkey has always been a classa act.
Simmons needs to sit alot more, she's the kind of kid nobody wants in pick-up games because she thinks she's playing one on one ball.
patsvolsrgr8 writes:
Where is the minutes for A-town? She always brings the team something and hard worker; sad to see she isn't getting playing time.
dwa7#337691 writes:
who is A Town? Is it Manning? If so, I agree!
nhaaga writes:
i like mulkey's energy. she is fiesty! but her wardrobe = NO NO NO. lol.
also, you guys know i like simmons. she needs work, but definitely not ready to throw her out. i think she's a player with a lot of potential. both alicia's and meighan's minutes could be managed better.
some of our lineups are completely baffling. like, the point in 2nd half at which we had burdick, massengale, and harrison in. not sure what the coaches were thinking. don't think these kids shouldn't get minutes, it's just a matter of when they should get those minutes... and in conjunction with what other players. a-town shouldve been on the floor then for sure!
jack_2222#231746 writes:
Late in the game, needing a stop on an in bounds pass from underneath Baylor's basket, with 2 secs on the shot clock, the LV's had Massengale defending the lob to Griner. It was, of course, an easy pass and lay in over the shorter defenders. The obvious fact is Baugh or Harrison or Stricklen should have been on the ball, making the inbounds pass more difficult, rather than the tiny Massengale, over whom the pass was easily thrown.
Not a real biggie, but illustrates what happens when you have 3 head coaches rather than one. On top of their games, the LV coaches would never have defended a post pass like that.
DroopyDrawers writes:
We need one Coach in the huddle. It is like Holly and Mickie are competing.
When Pat's time is over and I, for one, hope it is never. I am for Nikki Caldwell for the next Head Coach.
airship writes:
i'll vote for nikki as well.
Volinflan writes:
I agree one hundred percent. The game for us ended with that play and why wasn't one of our taller girls making the play a little difficult. It's just 2 seconds on the shot clock. We could have made it easier for them by throwing it through the hoop. I don't blast coaches but that was just dumb.
nhaaga writes:
my vote is for nikki as well. i think mickey has shown she doesn't have what it takes to build a successful program as a head coach. and, holly's decision making is questionable, at best.
nhaaga writes:
ooh one other thing. nikki can recuit her tail off!
butch31 writes:
LOL...so true! I think coach Summit is trying them out now. So far, no go! If this team does NOT get to the final 4, I would be SHOCKED! Meighan is the missing link, obviously she does not feel comfortable at the point, or coming off the bench, but she will need to get comfortable there. Meighan is too good, too quick, not to have the ball in her hands most of the time. I think Cierra is feeling down, sometimes holidays, will do it to u. These kids are better than they think they are.
This schedule is brutal, to play Baylor this early on, is only going to HELP the lady vols down the stretch.
BruisedOrange writes:
Well... maybe not.
Think about it: a short pass to a tall receiver has to have a high trajectory. A tall defender at the boundary has no effect on that. It's like lobbing mortar shells over a hill--only way to do it anyway. Putting a tall defender on the in-bounds passer is only useful against longer, flatter trajectory passes.
Having tall defenders guarding the receiver at least forces the pass to be dropped in perfectly.
You really have to go back to Wilt Chamberlain's college days to appreciate how Griner's size & ability changes the game.
98reax writes:
Thank you, BruisedO, for setting that straight. I don't really think any one of us could do a better job, or as good a job as any of our coaching staff. We may think we could. We may think we know the personnel better than they know themselves. We see ONLY what is on the court, TV cameras or whatever. Our coaches are with them every day on and off court. They know their moods, tendencies, bad days and good days. They are family. We think we know, and that's OK for us to discuss, but sometimes I think we take ourselves too seriously. I surely do at times when we lose.
I suspect there are some fine coaches commenting on this gvx site. One can tell from the terminology and philosophy that some of you share that you have obvious basketball savvy. I enjoy reading those comments. One can also tell who's talking out of their posterior, humorous at times, ridiculous & irritating at other times.
I've learned to skip some, and I've oftentimes wished I had skipped others (as I've posted today on the "attitude check" article) but it takes all kinds to make the gvx world go 'round.
When it comes right down to it, nobody suffers more than I do at my own silly involvement with this UT Lady Vols program, or Vols football & bball. I've mellowed out A LOT over the last few years. I just don't invest as much as I used to because myself cannot handle the stress of coaching ; )
I could go into town today and not run into a single soul who could give me one sensible conversation about the Vols or any of my favorite sports teams. I should be so nonchalant and carefree. I'd be healthier.
Sometimes I consider picking a team that ALWAYS wins, and being a fair-weather fan. That's just wrong, isn't it? Fact is, my teams have come up short lately. Titans, Colts, Miami Heat, Vols and Big Orange Softball. I think I'm due a championship before I depart... but that's just me being selfish.
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