Tennessee Lady Vols climb AP Poll; Rennia Davis still Naismith candidate

Despite not playing last week due to a second COVID outbreak that hit the program during SEC season, the Tennessee Lady Vols still saw some movement in a few rankings and projections. One player continues to make news for awards as well.

At 12-3 and 6-1 in the SEC, Kellie Harper’s team moved up to No. 16 in the AP Poll, a two-spot jump from last week. They stayed at No. 19 in the Coaches Poll, but any movement after no time off was a bit surprising.

In the all-important NCAA NET Rankings, the Tennessee Lady Vols are at No. 14. For what it’s worth, they are No. 24 in the RealTime RPI due to their No. 34 ranked strength of schedule, but that could change once they make up these recently postponed games.

The South Carolina Gamecocks are the only SEC team ahead of them in all four rankings, although the Texas A&M Aggies are ahead of them in all but the NET Rankings. Somehow, the Kentucky Wildcats and Arkansas Razorbacks, who lost to UT, are ahead of them in the Coaches Poll. In the RPI, all three teams plus the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide are ahead of them.

Rocky Top probably could have shot up the all of the rankings last week regardless of what happened on the court, as they were set to visit the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Texas A&M Aggies on Thursday and Sunday respectively. MSU is No. 24 in the Coaches Poll and one spot out of the AP Poll, although they were ranked in both polls last week.

In fact, their schedule was set to include a trip to the Kentucky Wildcats this week after that. Due to postponements and reschedules, though, they’ll still visit Kentucky, and they’ll make up that game with A&M this coming Sunday. Then they face South Carolina a week from Thursday and visit Georgia a week from Sunday, so they have a brutal four-game stretch to prove themselves.

After not playing, though, Charli Creme of ESPN dropped them to a No. 5 seed this week in his bracketology pojections, facing the No. 12 seed Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks in the first round. They were in a season-opening bracket with the No. 4 seed Michigan Wolverines and No. 13 seed Dayton Flyers, and the Louisville Cardinals were the No. 1 seed in their region.

College Sports Madness, however, kept them as a No. 4 seed facing the No. 13 seed MTSU Blue Raiders in the first round and in a season-opening bracket with the No. 5 seed Texas Longhorns and No. 12 seed Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The UConn Huskies were the top seed in that region.

Rennia Davis continues to be on awards watch lists

What also came with not playing this week was multiple bits of recognition for senior forward Rennia Davis. One day after the Senior CLASS Award announced her as one of their candidates for 2020-2021 honor, given annually to athletes who reach a level of success on the court, in the classroom and in the community, she made the cut for the Naismith Trophy.

Given annually to the player of the year, the award announced Davis as one of the 30 finalists to advance to the Naismith Midseason Team on Tuesday. She advanced this far last year, but as an all-around player on a more elite team this year, averaging 14.5 points and nearly nine rebounds a game, she may have a shot.

Of course, what Rocky Top does over the next few games will go a long way toward determining her prospects. Rae Burrell being the team’s leading scorer at 16.9 points a game hurts her case, but Davis has gotten better and become more of the go-to player once again as the season has progressed. We’ll see how she performs in the future.

Kellie Harper addresses off-week, future

Last week’s pause was definitely a missed opportunity. In her Tuesday press conference, which you can see by clicking on the video above from Maria M. Cornelius of GoVols247, Kellie Harper had to keep her team focused and motivated, though.

With the new scheduling updates, the Tennessee Lady Vols still have some opportunities. Harper said her team had limited practices last week but had their first real practice again Monday. This is her comparison of the two off-weeks they have had.

"“Our first one was coming back from Christmas. We had been off for Christmas break, come back and then have a pause, so it felt very different. Conditioning was a huge priority for us. We’re in a different space now, and so, in terms of getting them in shape, we just wanted to maintain. We also were able to do some different workouts.”"

Given the test Kentucky will provide in a rematch on Thursday, Harper has a lot of work to do to make sure her team stays as motivated. Obviously, the Wildcats will want revenge. Here’s a bit of what she said about the second matchup.

"“They’re going to come out all guns blazing. They’re gong to be really playing hard and coming  right at us for sure. When you play teams twice, if you’re the winning team the first time, you go in it, and you want to do the same game plan. You want to do what works. However, you’ve got to look at what the opponents going to do. They’re not going to do the same thing.”"

Obviously, A&M on Sunday will produce a major challenge as well as a top 10 team across the board. This is the third attempt for this game to be played, as it was postponed both times due to the COVID outbreak that affected Rocky Top. Noting that they have lots of good players, here’s a bit of what Harper said about them.

"“They can come off their bench with really, really good players that can affect the game in multiple ways, offensively, defensively and on the boards, so I think they’re depth is at an elite level. It’s something that you don’t see a lot of nationwide. They’ve been able to win games, and they’ve looked different doing it.”"

Simply put, the next two weeks, if all the games can happen, will define this program in a big way. At this point, the only opportunity they may have missed is MSU, as that game may not be made up. However, there are plenty of other imposing opponents.

We may find out in a week if the Tennessee Lady Vols are capable of reaching the Final Four. News broke last week that the entire women’s NCAA Tournament would be in San Antonio while this team was off. Now we get a look at how far they may be capable of going in that tournament.