Basketball Preview: Cover Story

Underachievement is hardly the favorite word in a basketball coach’s vocabulary.

But for Bruce Pearl and Pat Summitt, there may not be a better description for the 2008-2009 basketball season.

The Vols and Lady Vols hung up their sneakers earlier than expected last season.

The Vols, on the heels of the winningest basketball season in Tennessee history, fell short in the SEC Championship game against Mississippi State before closing out the season with a last-second loss to Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Having snagged the nation’s No. 1 ranking in 2007, the Vols’ championship aspirations for 2008 never took shape.

“For the first time since I’ve been here, we didn’t overachieve,” Pearl said. “Or we didn’t achieve to the level I thought we were capable of achieving.”

For the Lady Vols, the lackluster season was even more glaring. Head coach Pat Summitt’s squads are used to hanging decorated banners in Thompson-Boling Arena each and every year, and the 2007-2008 roster even garnered UT’s second-straight NCAA National Championship with the play of stars such as Candace Parker and Alexis Hornbuckle. After that squad’s entire starting lineup departed the halls of Rocky Top, young leaders took the reins but were unable to reach the heights Summitt demanded.

“I try to be realistic now,” Summitt said. “It was the youngest group we ever had, and while I think all of our players wanted to come in and hold the tradition high, they were not ready and there was really no way to fast-forward it.”

The common theme for each team last season was youth, as Pearl and Summitt each graduated talented upperclassmen from 2007-2008 who served as key components on both ends of the floor. With Parker, Hornbuckle, Nicky Anosike, Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith all out the door, the Vols and Lady Vols turned to newcomers such as Scotty Hopson, Renaldo Woolridge, Alicia Manning and Glory Johnson to keep the Tennessee tradition alive with new blood on the court.

For the Lady Vols, it didn’t take long to realize winning in the SEC took more than just putting on a Tennessee jersey. The first-round loss to Ball State opened the eyes of the young roster.

“Last year, it was kind of like, ‘Alright, we’re at Tennessee, people just expect us to win, we expect to win,’” Lady Vol junior Angie Bjorklund said. “But we really realized it takes a lot of work to win. I thought after that loss (to Ball State), we got in the gym and started working, and we haven’t stopped since.”

Though the Vols’ program isn’t as storied as Summitt’s counterpart, last season played out in similar fashion for Pearl’s team. The 2007-2008 version of the Vols snagged the program’s first-ever No. 1 ranking after toppling top-ranked Memphis on the road. But the losses of Lofton and Smith dramatically shuffled the Vols’ on-court persona for last year’s campaign.

“We were young,” Vol senior J.P. Prince said. “It was our first time without Chris and JaJuan. We came off one of the greatest seasons in Tennessee basketball history. Expectations were high, but we had a young team.”

Tough schedules and inconsistent play from UT’s newcomers took a toll on the Vols’ and Lady Vols’ records last season. This year, it’s a different story.

“We are all back here,” Vol senior Wayne Chism said. “We’re looking at this season a little bit differently. Everybody’s working hard, and we’re going to keep it that way.”

The Vols return nearly Pearl’s entire rotation with the exception of sophomore Emmanuel Negedu, who has been sidelined indefinitely with a heart condition. Preseason All-SEC senior forward Tyler Smith returns to Rocky Top after flirting with the NBA Draft, and Smith, Chism and Prince will form a trio of seniors Pearl will call on for leadership down the stretch. Freshmen Kenny Hall and Skylar McBee, along with junior college transfer Melvin Goins, will also look to crack Pearl’s rotation.

Pearl says for UT to enjoy success once again, the Vols will have to reintroduce a staple of Pearl’s early Tennessee teams: the press.

“I think in the big scheme of things, we’re going to take advantage of our depth, which we once again have,” Pearl said. “(And to have) the ability to beat everybody on our schedule that we’re ‘supposed’ to beat, and have a chance to beat some of the teams maybe we’re ‘not supposed’ to beat, we’ve got to get back in that form of play.”

Summitt’s crew lost only one senior in the departed Alex Fuller, so Bjorklund’s junior class could be the spark behind the Lady Vols’ fire. Guard Sydney Smallbone and post Vicki Baugh will help Bjorklund lead the Lady Vols’ first-ever team without a senior.

Sophomore guard/forward Shekinna Stricklen, who tallied 13.3 point per game last season, returns as a scoring threat for the Lady Vols. Summitt’s talented freshmen class of Faith Dupree, Taber Spani and Kamiko Williams could make noise on the court with the Lady Vols’ thin roster of upperclassmen.

“I can see a big difference with this team over last year,” Summitt said. “There’s a lot I like about this team. We are much more mature, serious and focused. I think we have learned valuable lessons, and we have invested at a different level as far as our training.”

The Vols and Lady Vols have tasted mediocrity in the SEC, and it’s a taste neither team wants again.

“I think the difference is just our attitude,” Bjorklund said. “We’re a lot more motivated. We have a lot more sense of urgency to get better.”

“It’s a different focus,” Vol center Brian Williams said. “We’ve got every piece that we need to go where we want to go. We’ve just got to put it on the court now.”