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Tennessee Lady Vols struggles vs. ETSU no reason to panic yet

By Caleb Calhoun

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) /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols should not have struggled to beat the East Tennessee State Buccaneers. But don’t panic yet over the women’s basketball Volunteers.

Well, it was a scary start to the season. There were already questions about the state of the Tennessee Lady Vols. After all, they were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Then they lost three starters. Finally, they brought in a new head coach in Kellie Harper who has a mixed track record of success.

When you take all of that into account, only winning by four against a team that went 10-21 last year in the Southern Conference can be a big concern. Even in Johnson City, UT should not be struggling like that about ETSU.

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Harper can say that no win should ever be taken for granted, but they can certainly be scrutinized. And these types of games can raise overall concerns about the state of the Tennessee Lady Vols, which has gotten progressively worse since their 2008 national championship.

However, even if all of that is true, Tuesday night is not enough of a reason on its own to panic just yet. Remember everything this team was dealing with going into the game, and it’s safe to say that you could see this happening.

As Harper went 10-deep, it’s worth noting that she played three true freshmen in Jordan Horston, Tamari Key and Jessie Rennie. There was also a junior college transfer, Jaiden McCoy, and a player who is fresh off of a season-ending injury, Lou Brown.

She has to break in a new point guard and work with Horston and Jazmine Massengill to do that while also working on Zaay Green’s development after the loss of Evina Westbrook. Meanwhile, she has get her team used to playing with a true four, as they spent last year playing with a wing player at the four. And the one four they were used to, Mimi Collins off the bench, also transferred.

Also, Brown is one of only two seniors, and the other one is a reserve deep on the bench who didn’t see any action. Nobody starting is a senior. Rennie, on the other hand, is expected to replace Meme Jackson as the three-point specialist, and she missed all four three-point attempts.

Simply put, growing pains should be expected for the Tennessee Lady Vols, and they also faced an ETSU team on the road that did return its two leading scorers. Then there’s what happened in the flow of the game. Five players on the team finished the game with four fouls, and that’s what forced Harper to go to her bench in the first place. Their best player, Rennia Davis, had three fouls.

This team had a 10-point lead with less than four minutes to go in the game before escaping. So they largely stayed in control, and that’s a positive. Another positive is things were solid in the post between McCoy, Kasiyahna Kushkituah, Brown and Key.

So there are plenty of positives to build on. It may not be the start Harper wanted to the season, but things could have been a heck of a lot worse. So for now, the Tennessee Lady Vols should just take the win.