The Tennessee women’s basketball team could be taking a particular kind of “gap year” next season.
A year away from the elite in the sport.
Unless Naperville’s Candace Parker changes her mind about giving up her final year of eligibility, the Lady Vols lose four starters and the reserve with the most playing time. They have just one junior and their lone sophomore missed the season with a knee injury.
That only increases the urgency for coach Pat Summitt and her players to make the most of a good chance for their second straight NCAA title and Tennessee’s eighth overall.
“We talk about the legacy this senior class could leave,” Summitt said. “I don’t see it as pressure for them. I see it as just an opportunity.”
The Vols have two outstanding freshmen in Angie Bjorklund, whose shooting made her a starting guard, and 6-foot-5-inch Vicki Baugh, a versatile reserve in the Parker mold, although most people would say that mold is unique to Parker. They have an excellent class coming in.
But next year could be a rare chance for some teams to settle old scores with the Vols.
Aggies on the rise
Five seasons ago, Texas A&M finished in a tie for last in the Big 12. The next year, they tied for ninth.
This season coach Gary Blair found himself in a regional with two teams that have won NCAA titles and another that made the Final Four four times.
Blair has no doubt the Aggies belong, especially after a 77-63 victory over Duke to reach the regional final.
“You look at the history of women’s basketball and that’s Tennessee, that’s Duke, that’s Notre Dame,” Blair said. “And now we’re trying to become part of history. [But] we’re not a Cinderella team. We’re a good basketball team that earned our No. 2 seed.”
Sooner sorrow
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale unburdened all her disappointment over Tuesday’s loss to Notre Dame in a terrific Sunday column by John Rohde in The Oklahoman newspaper.
“I feel like we let everybody down,” Coale said of her team’s failure to reach Oklahoma City, where they would have boosted attendance at the Ford Center, 25 miles from the OU campus. “The way I feel right now, I’m standing knee deep in a river and dying of thirst.”
