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Tennessee Vols 10 biggest stories from January 2019

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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KNOXVILLE, TN – JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN – JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

6. Women’s basketball suffers a six-game losing streak.

It wasn’t all good news for the Tennessee Vols in January. Calls for Holly Warlick’s head reached boiling point with a six-game losing streak that exposed what everybody feared most about the women’s basketball program.

The Tennessee Lady Vols had actually gotten off to a great start. Adjusting to no Mercedes Russell and Jaime Nared, the sophomores from that No. 1 recruiting class in 2017 were ready to take over. This was now Evina Westbrook’s and Rennia Davis’s team. So these guys roared off to a 12-1 start.

They scored quality wins over the Clemson Tigers, the Oklahoma State Cowgirls, the Texas Longhorns and the Auburn Tigers. The latter three were all on the road. And their only loss was to a Stanford Cardinal team that just had one of those red-hot shooting nights against them.

Still, at 12-1 and 1-0 in the SEC, they returned home to face the Missouri Tiger. And they lost their second game of the year, both at home. This one was due to poor shooting on their end. A close two-point loss to the Kentucky Wildcats the following Thursday turned 12-1 to 12-3 and 1-2 in the SEC with all losses coming at home.

But the panic button hit the following Sunday, when the Lady Vols lost to a terrible Georgia Bulldogs team on the road. All of a sudden, something was clearly wrong. And that mentality resulted in a collapse, a blowout 86-65 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. This team wasn’t just in a funk, they were collapsing.

The next week, a home loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks was also inexplicable, and the losing streak was five, the longest in women’s basketball history. Losing to the top-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish afterward was expected, but it still extended the streak to six games. They ended it by beating the LSU Tigers, but the skid put them on the NCAA Tournament and marked their January. It was a bad month for Warlick.

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