All for Tennessee
Fansided

Top 10 All Time Tennessee Lady Vols Basketball Teams

By Caleb Calhoun

facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 11
Next
Dec 17, 2013; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers head coach emeritus Pat Summitt in attendance during the second half against the Tennessee State Lady Tigers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee won 94 to 43. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2013; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers head coach emeritus Pat Summitt in attendance during the second half against the Tennessee State Lady Tigers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee won 94 to 43. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /

8. 1996-1997 Tennessee Lady Vols (29-10, National Championship)

The odd part about the Lady Vols is that their best teams were not always the teams that won national championships with the exception of maybe three of them. But the best example of this is the previous team we mentioned compared to this one.

This version of the Lady Vols would probably be the worst team in Pat Summitt’s history as head coach had it not been for their red-hot NCAA Tournament run. All of a sudden, they went from worst to one of the best.

Fresh off of her fourth national championship in 1995-1996, Summitt’s 1996-1997 team had extremely high expectations from the start. Summitt allowed HBO to film this team, but things probably did not go as HBO expected when they documented it.

With Chamique Holdsclaw only a sophomore but leading the team, things got tricky immediately as Kelly Jolly injured her knee early. That injury cost her the season, and Summitt’s team had trouble adjusting to that and clearly the HBO series, losing close games to Louisiana Tech, Georgia, Arkansas, LSU, and Florida but also getting blown out by UConn, Stanford, Old Dominion, and Louisiana Tech again.

But they appeared to find themselves in the SEC Tournament, pulling out an overtime squeaker against LSU before barely losing to the Auburn Tigers. That momentum carried them into the tournament.

And after the 23-10 Lady Vols somehow got a No. 3 seed thanks mostly to their strength of schedule, they went on a Cinderella run. The highlight was a 91-81 upset in the Elite Eight over the undefeated UConn Huskies. And they carried that momentum to two dominant wins in the Final Four against Notre Dame and Old Dominion.

That made this Cinderella team back to back national champions and put them on this list, just barely.

Next: #7: 1986-1987 Tennessee Lady Vols

Home/Vols Basketball