In her first NCAA Tournament game as head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols, Kellie Harper will lead her team against an in-state foe. UT takes the court as a No. 3 seed Sunday at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas to take on the No. 14 seed MTSU Blue Raiders.
Ranked No. 13 in the AP Poll and No. 15 in the Coaches Poll, Rocky Top’s most recent outing was a loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament semifinals 15 days ago. They’ll be looking to win a March Madness game for the first time since 2017 on Sunday.
This game comes two days after the men’s Tennessee basketball team suffered a first-round upset loss to the Oregon State Beavers. We now see if the women’s team fares any better. Here is all the information you need for the Lady Vols’ NCAA Tournament matchup.
Live stream: WatchESPN
Radio: Lady Vol Network; Blue Raider Network
Listen online: UTSports; GoBlueRaiders.com
Tipping off against the Lady Vols are the red-hot champions of the Conference USA. Led by head coach Rick Insell, who is in his 16th year, MTSU finished second in the C-USA regular season standings to the Rice Owls. However, they won the C-USA East and beat Rice in the tournament championship game. Right now, they are on a four-game winning streak.
MTSU is playing its first game in the Big Dance since 2016. The return of four starters helped them improve on last year’s 21-9 campaign. Key among those starters is former Lady Vol Anastasia Hayes, who was dismissed from the team before the start of the 2018 season and is currently averaging 26.5 points per game.
Given Hayes’ connections to the Lady Vols and the winning streak the Blue Raiders are on, UT can’t take this game lightly. It would be embarrassing for Rocky Top to lose this one, but they are facing a talented mid-major program.
Harper will coach an NCAA Tournament game at a fourth school when these two teams face off Sunday, having led the Western Carolina Catamounts, N.C. State Wolfpack, and Missouri State Lady Bears to the event. She is only the fourth coach in history to do that.
The winner of this game will take on the winner between the No. 3 seed Michigan Wolverines and the No. 14 seed Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Tuesday. That game is scheduled for 3 p.m., an hour after the Lady Vols and MTSU tip off.