Third-seeded Tennessee Lady Vols to play Liberty in NCAA basketball tournament
Dan FleserTennessee will spend the rest of spring break on campus and that's exactly where the Lady Vols hoped to be for the start of the NCAA women's basketball tournament.
UT was slotted as a No. 3 seed in the Lexington, Ky., Regional on Monday night and was handed a guest list for opening-round games.
Tennessee (24-7) will play No. 14 seed Liberty (24-9), the champions of the Big South, at Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday (TV: ESPN2, 2:30 p.m). No. 6 seed Oregon State (23-7) of the Pac-12 and No. 11 seed Western Kentucky (24-8), champions of Conference USA, will play in the other first-round game at noon.
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The winners will play Sunday. Game time has not been announced.
"It's huge for us, getting a chance to play in front of your fans again," UT coach Holly Warlick said. "The opportunity to stay home and not have to travel, it's awesome. I absolutely love it."
Tennessee, the only school to qualify for all 37 NCAA tournaments, hasn't played tournament games at home since 2015. Two years ago, as a No. 7 seed, the Lady Vols were sent to Tempe, Ariz, for opening round games. Last year, they went to Louisville as a No. 5 seed and lost to the host Cardinals in the second round.
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Louisville is the top seed in Lexington while Baylor is the No. 2 seed. Stanford rounds out the top four seeds.
Tennessee is 56-0 in NCAA tournament games at home. Seniors Jaime Nared and Mercedes Russell said that they were unaware of that record.
"I was going to say undefeated," Russell said. "I don't think it brings any pressure. Obviously it's a huge tradition. It goes back many, many years. I think it shows the importance of playing at home."
Said Warlick: "We won't be talking about the record. We'll be talking about Liberty and trying to advance."
By Friday, two weeks will have passed since Tennessee's last game, a 73-62 loss to South Carolina in the SEC tournament semifinals. Between tournaments, Warlick has tried to strike a balance between recuperation and readiness. The team practiced three days last week before breaking for the weekend.
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"I'm very mindful of our bodies," Warlick said. "We need to heal a little bit but then we have to stay in shape as well because the running game and pressing, that's part of our game."
Nared suffered a bruised right hip in Tennessee's 64-61 victory over Auburn on March 1 to start the SEC tournament. She returned the next day and played nearly a full 40-minute shift against South Carolina.
"I'm getting better," Nared said. "That's all I can say. Getting better."
About Right
Warlick was content was a No. 3 seed, which was the Lady Vols' highest in three years. They last time they were a third seed was 1997, when they won a national championship despite having 10 losses.
"I thought with our strength of schedule and what we did, I thought a three seed was good," she said. "If we had advanced a bit in the (SEC) tournament, we might have gotten a better seed. We had a couple games that I thought hurt us."
Final ranking
Tennessee was ranked 12th in the final Associated Press poll on Monday, one spot ahead of Oregon State.
Russell, Nared finalists
Tennessee's Russell and Nared are among the finalists for two inaugural awards being presented this year.
Russell is in the running for the Lisa Leslie Award, which will go to the nation's top center. Nared, meanwhile, is up for the Cheryl Miller Award, which goes to the top small forward.
The winners will be determined by a combination of fan votes and input from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's selection committee. Fans may visit www.HoophallAwards.com to cast their votes until March 23.