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Auburn is Tennessee Lady Vols’ first bad loss in Kellie Harper era

By Caleb Calhoun

Nov 21, 2021; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper coaches during the first half against the Texas Longhorns at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 21, 2021; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper coaches during the first half against the Texas Longhorns at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports /
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What was shocking about the Tennessee Lady Vols losing at the Auburn Tigers in an upset Thursday night wasn’t just the nature of the upset. Although Auburn hasn’t had a top five win in 25 years, things like that happen.

The shocking part, though, is that Harper took this long to suffer such a loss. In three years on Rocky Top, Harper has never lost a game she wasn’t supposed to lose. That alone was a remarkable accomplishment, and it’s a way to put this loss into perspective.

So far, Harper is 46-19 as head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols. Of those 19 losses, 14 have come against teams that were in the top 25 when UT played them, and 15 of their 17 losses before this year were to teams that finished that season in the top 25.

It’s a safe bet that the Stanford Cardinal will finish in the top 25 this year, so we could move that to 16 of 19. The only time anybody might say that the Lady Vols actually suffered an upset loss before Auburn this past Thursday under Harper was last year’s NCAA Tournament, when they lost to the No. 6 seed Michigan Wolverines in the second round as a No. 3 seed.

However, let’s look deeper into that. Michigan entered the Big Dance ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll and No. 14 in the Coaches Poll. UT entered ranked No. 13 in the AP Poll and No. 15 in the Coaches Poll, so they were behind the Wolverines in one of the polls. Does that really qualify this game as an upset? It’s certainly not a bad loss.

Simply put, before Auburn Thursday night, UT never suffered a loss like that under Harper. That’s a far cry from where they were before Harper arrived. Remember Holly Warlick’s last year? The Lady Vols lost their last home game of the year that season to the Vanderbilt Commodores, who were 7-21 at the time and 2-13 in league play. It remains Vandy’s only win ever in Knoxville.

Things like that were commonplace before Harper took over. To add to the perspective, Auburn is much better than their record indicates. Yes, at 8-10 heading into that game and 0-7 in the SEC, they shouldn’t have beaten a Lady Vols team that was 18-1, 7-0 in the SEC and ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll and No. 5 in the Coaches Poll.

A deeper look, though, shows that Auburn has been playing hard under first-year head coach Johnnie Harris. One of their three SEC losses was in overtime, and two others were within five points. They also beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on the road in the regular season, and GT is now ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll and No. 17 in the Coaches Poll.

This is a dangerous team that’s on a path to do some dangerous things under Harris in the future. They just happened to take advantage of some of UT’s biggest weaknesses in that game, things that have been plaguing Harper’s team all year.

Next. Pat Summitt's 10 greatest wins as Lady Vols head coach. dark

Don’t get it twisted. This is still a bad loss, and that it would come right as the Tennessee Lady Vols are unanimously considered a No. 1 seed only makes it worse. However, it’s not the end of the world. As long as Harper’s team regroups, they should be fine. They just have to learn how to handle success, and Harper seems to be good at teaching that.