On one hand, being a preseason top five team should be exciting for the Tennessee Lady Vols. Given what they have been through the past decade, Kellie Harper building a team that’s now expected to reach the Final Four is a huge deal.
However, on the other hand, Harper and co. deserve respect for what they are building. UT moved up two spots to No. 4 in the Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings by Alexa Philippou and Mechelle Voepel of ESPN Tuesday.
Ahead of Rocky Top were the Stanford Cardinal at No. 3, the UConn Huskies at No. 2 and the South Carolina Gamecocks at No. 1. Harper’s team moved ahead of the Texas Longhorns and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Here’s what was written about the Tennessee Lady Vols.
"Rae Burrell is be gone, but the Lady Vols arguably won the transfer portal sweepstakes with a staked haul of Rickea Jackson (Mississippi State), Jillian Hollingshead (Georgia), Jasmine Powell (Minnesota) and Jasmine Franklin (Missouri State). Pair that group — plus incoming freshman Justine Pissott, the No. 11-ranked recruit — with Jordan Horston and Tamari Key, and Tennessee has the talent to build upon last season’s promising start, in which the program achieved its best ranking in the Associated Press poll (No. 4) since the first weeks of 2015."
Despite this level of respect, they should be higher. If you want to put Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks at No. 1 as defending national champions, so be it. However, nobody else should be ahead of the Lady Vols given what they have put together this offseason.
Last year, before an array of injuries cost the program, and even while they were dealing with an array of injuries, they had gotten up to No. 4 already. They lose three key players who were in the rotation at the time of that ranking in Rae Burrell, Alexus Dye and Keyen Green.
Burrell was barely herself at that moment due to injury. Green suffered a season-ending injury right as they reached that ranking, one that wrecked the program. Still, to be fair, Green and Dye were at full strength, and Burrell was still somewhat solid when they were No. 4.
In place of that talent, the Tennessee Lady Vols upgraded at the four to replace Green and Dye in Rickea Jackson and Jasmine Franklin. They also return Marta Suarez, an All-SEC freshman in 2020-2021 at the position, who missed all of last year due to a season-ending injury.
Justine Pissott joins the program with a ton of potential, and since she’s healthy, she should be better as a freshman that Burrell was last year simply due to Burrell’s injuries. As a result, without naming anybody else, the Lady Vols have upgraded from the team that reached No. 4 last year.
Meanwhile, depth at the five was added in Jillian Hollingsworth, and a true elite point guard arrived in Jasmine Powell. As a result, you go from a slight upgrade to a pretty significant one, assuming Jordan Horston gets healthy, as the depth of this team is incredible.
Taking all this into account, UT should be higher than No. 4. They played Stanford tough last year without Burrell, so Stanford shouldn’t be ranked ahead of them. UConn has won all three games against the Lady Vols since they rekindled the series, but Harper’s team has a better case when you look at its breakdown this year.
Simply put, the Tennessee Lady Vols must be back because they are the No. 4 team in these rankings, and we’re talking about them as an underrated program. That’s a testament to what Harper has built as she enters her fourth season on the job.