Dayton's win over Texas A&M gets Lady Vols' attention
Since receiving its first-round assignment for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, Tennessee has been gathering game video to familiarize itself with Dayton. One game in particular will be reviewed closely.
For No. 5 seed Tennessee (19-11), Dayton’s 74-57 thrashing of SEC rival Texas A&M on Dec. 20 at the Florida Sunshine Classic in Winter Park, Fla., should be eye-opening. The No. 12 seed Flyers (22-9), who were 3-6 entering the game, hit 12 3-pointers, outrebounded A&M 36-33 and bolted to a 45-25 halftime lead.
"I said that team could compete in the SEC," Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said on Tuesday.
UT and Dayton meet at 4 p.m. Saturday in Louisville, Ky., in a first-round game of the Oklahoma City Regional. Host Louisville and Chattanooga play in the other opener.
Against A&M, the Flyers’ five starters all played at least 34 minutes. Alex Harris, a 6-foot-3 redshirt junior forward who transferred from Penn State last season, grabbed 15 rebounds. Blair was impressed with Harris and 6-5 center Saicha Grant-Allen, who had three blocks apiece.
"Most mid (major) teams don't have two athletic post players," Blair said. "They both could run the floor."
Three of Dayton’s starters – Grant-Allen and guards Kelley Austria and Jenna Burdette – played extensively on the 2014-15 team that advanced to the Elite Eight round before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut. Austria and Burdette started 35 and 32 games respectively that season.
Blair said UT assistant coach Dean Lockwood has the Dayton-A&M game tape.
"He only needs to watch the first half," Blair said. "In the first half, they could've beaten a lot of teams."
Not Much Rest: While Tennessee hasn’t played since a 72-64 loss to Alabama on March 2 in the SEC tournament, the Lady Vols haven’t had much rest. UT coach Holly Warlick counted just three off days since then. She also said the pre-NCAA workouts have been longer and harder than past years.
The loss was the reason why.
“I just didn’t like how we ended in the SEC tournament and thought we needed a change,” she said. “… It was just a decision that I made that I thought we needed to get after it and that’s kind of what we did.”
Tennessee was a No. 5 seed in the SEC tournament as well but lost its first game there for the first time since 1993.
Familiar Field: Tennessee played 12 of the teams this season in the 64-team NCAA field. The Lady Vols beat South Carolina and Notre Dame, which both received No. 1 seeds, and beat No. 2 seed Stanford. They split two games with another No. 2 seed, Mississippi State.
UT also beat Kentucky, Missouri, LSU and Troy. Conversely, it lost to Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Auburn.
Warlick singled out the preparation afforded by the SEC, which put the most teams (eight) in the tournament of any conference. Tennessee went 10-6 in regular season league play.
“I feel like the Southeastern Conference is the best in the country because every night teams come out and punch you,” Warlick said. “We’ve got big kids; we’ve got kids who shoot threes. We’ve got athletic teams. We’ve got running teams. So this conference, I don’t know how it wouldn’t prepare you for anything that someone is going to throw at you.”
More Familiarity: Four more teams Tennessee played this season (Ole Miss, Alabama, Virginia Tech and Penn State) are in the 64-team WNIT field. First-round games are scheduled for Wednesday through Friday.