Lady Vols hope to improve with better ?D?, new speed
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The fourth-ranked Lady Vols will find out soon if they have made the right changes.
North Carolina exposed the frailties and beat Tennessee in the NCAA regional final, sending the Lady Vols home early without getting a chance at a seventh national championship.
Tennessee (6-0) has quicker point guards and a renewed emphasis on defense this season that Summitt hopes will be evident in Sunday?s rematch against the No. 2 Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.
?Playing them on their home court will be a good challenge for us and just what this team needs. It will be a good measure of how good we are and where we can improve. When we play against a talented team like North Carolina that can expose weaknesses and challenge us, it will be good for us,? Summitt said.
The Lady Vols had several uncharacteristic losses a year ago that concerned even former players, prompting some to appear at practice to see what was wrong.
Tennessee lost at unranked Kentucky and then dropped their first Southeastern Conference game at home since 1996 with a loss to LSU. Florida became the first unranked team to ever win in Thompson-Boling Arena, which opened in 1987.
Point guard play became a problem when Sa?de Wiley-Gatewood left the team last December, leaving Alexis Hornbuckle as the only point guard on the roster. Then Hornbuckle missed seven games with a broken right wrist. In the interim, other players, such as senior shooting guard Shanna Zolman, had to step in.
Hornbuckle was back for the NCAA tournament, but North Carolina?s speed and pressure was too much for the Lady Vols to handle.
?I think we?re better equipped in the backcourt with our guard play this year. I thought that was a big difference in the game, matching their intensity and taking care of the ball better,? Summitt said. ?Last year we turned it over way too much early on. I don?t think we?ll see anything different from their pressure than last year ? that is their style of play. I have to believe that as a basketball team we?re more skilled and experienced.?
Hornbuckle has moved to her more natural spot at the two guard with the arrival of junior college transfer Shannon Bobbitt and freshman Cait McMahan. Bobbitt, 5-foot-2 but fast, starts at the point while McMahan shares minutes off the bench.
Better defense and more speed has been evident so far in wins over UCLA, Arizona State, Stanford and Louisiana Tech.
?I think our speed is going to help us. We?re definitely more athletic, a lot quicker than we were last year,? Hornbuckle said.
Defense interests Summitt the most. Always a stickler for stiff defensive pressure, Summitt has been pleased so far this season.
?Early on, without question, it?s been our defense that has defined us. It is a complete 180 from last year. We had to rely so much on our offense last year and couldn?t generate easy points off of our defense,? Summitt said.
The Lady Vols are scoring more in transition and off turnovers. Already Candace Parker has dunked twice this season on breakaways, adding to the two she had in last year?s first-round NCAA game against Army. Opponents are averaging 24 turnovers a game.
North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell, a longtime friend of Summitt, approached the Tennessee coach about renewing the border-state series. The deal for a home-and-home series was reached before the Tar Heels? 75-63 win in the tournament.
?That convinced me even more,? Summitt said. ?When I started out here we played a lot of people that were just a lot better than us and we knew it going into it. … We took a lot of lumps early and just learned from it.?
The Lady Vols are excited about facing North Carolina again.
?They cut our season short, so, of course, we want that rematch,? Hornbuckle said.