John Adams: Tennessee's tournament resume needs work

A losing streak was supposed to be a source of motivation for the Tennessee women’s basketball team against Notre Dame. But thanks to Ole Miss, two losing streaks now factor into Monday night’s game at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Rebels handed the Lady Vols their second consecutive loss with an upset victory on Thursday. That defeat magnified the significance of ending a six-game losing streak to Notre Dame.

Never mind that it’s only mid-January. A victory over No. 6 Notre Dame would resonate in March when the NCAA tournament field is selected and seeded.

As bad as Tennessee has looked at times in a 10-6 start, it’s capable of qualifying for the NCAA tournament. Enhancing its tournament seeding is another matter.

Beating a team of Notre Dame’s status would do wonders for UT’s resume, as well as its self-esteem.

The Lady Vols are 1-4 against teams currently ranked in the top 25. Once past Notre Dame, their best chances for getting the NCAA tournament selection committee’s attention would come against No. 5 South Carolina and No. 4 Mississippi State. Both games will be on the road, and Tennessee already has lost at home to the Bulldogs.

At least, the Lady Vols won’t be playing Notre Dame in South Bend, where it lost by 13 points last season and by 12 the year before that. Of course, beating Notre Dame anywhere has become an almost insurmountable challenge.

No other series better reflects the decline of Lady Vols basketball.

When UT was making the Final Four on a regular basis, Notre Dame offered less resistance than a speed bump. The Lady Vols won the first 20 games in the series, and 17 of those victories were by double-digit margins.

In late March of 2008, Tennessee posted another double-digit victory over Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament. Eight days later, it won its eighth national championship.

Nine years later, the Lady Vols have yet to return to the Final Four or beat Notre Dame.

UT once measured itself at this juncture of the season by its now-defunct rivalry with Connecticut. Notre Dame now serves as its best non-conference measuring stick. And it keeps coming up short.

Notre Dame’s average margin of victory has been 15 points. How it has won has been almost as significant as by how much.

The difference between the two offenses has been glaring in each Tennessee loss. That’s a tribute to Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw, long recognized as one of the game’s best coaches.

Balanced scoring, exceptional ball movement and accurate perimeter shooting are Notre Dame staples. This season, it ranks 20th nationally in scoring, 10th in 3-point field-goal percentage and fifth in assists per game.

Those attributes have been obvious in its winning streak against the Lady Vols. Notre Dame has made 49.4 percent of its shots, compared to 37.1 percent for UT. In fact, Notre Dame has shot better from 3-point range (45.4 percent) than UT has overall in the six games.

Improved shooting would be a good place to start if UT hopes to pull off an upset. But in the past three games, it has hit only 33.9 percent of its field-goal attempts.

That’s no way to end a losing streak, much less two.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.