Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt is in unfamiliar territory this month.
A perennial powerhouse atop the SEC and the entire NCAA, the Tennessee Volunteers are an unimpressive 20-9 and have been called the lowest-energy team in Rocky Top history. Competing in a league that features four of the top 25 teams, the Volunteers limp into the SEC tournament having lost three of their last five games, including a 10-point embarrassment to the Kentucky Wildcats, 10th in the conference, on Feb. 19. Since Jan. 25, Tennessee is 5-6, but two of those losses came to the Duke Blue Devils and the Oklahoma Sooners, a pair of the country's elite. Still, momentum can be a deal-breaker in March, as an early-round exit in the conference tournament could spell doom for the Lady Vols.
But prospects have looked bright for Tennessee this week, as Summitt always has her team ready for the crucial times in the season. The Vols opened up the SEC Tournament yesterday with a 68-49 win over the last-place Alabama Crimson Tide, a team that has not beaten Tennessee since 1984, while the Florida Gators await in the second round. Florida, like Alabama, has struggled against Summitt's teams in the past, as the Lady Vols have lost just three times to the Gators in their history, with one of the losses coming earlier this year.
Even if Tennessee loses in the semifinals to the No. 1-seeded Auburn Tigers, it will have made it far enough to secure no less than a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, just the right amount of motivation necessary for a squad lacking in energy. But the Volunteers could do one better, as the last time Auburn beat Tennessee twice in a season was 1987.
Also in the SEC, the Tigers, who boast a 27-2 record and a No. 6 national ranking, could lock up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA bracket with a conference tournament win. Yet two of the five teams ahead of Auburn in the AP Poll -- Oklahoma and the Baylor Bears -- are members of the Big 12, so one is bound to stumble in the conference tournament. As a result, Auburn, owners of the third-best field-goal percentage in the country and Whitney Boddie, the nation's leader in assists, will likely solidify its place among the country's elite with a strong SEC Tournament performance.
As far as the ACC Tournament goes, the four-time defending champion North Carolina Tar Heels are in a similar position as Tennessee, having fallen victim to a recent two-point overtime loss to conference-rival Duke and a Jan. 22 upset loss to the lowly Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Still, all four of UNC's losses have come on the road, so playing in the friendly confines of Greensboro, N.C. should certainly help Heels sophomore guard Cetera DeGraffenreid, who had an abysmal 8:1 turnover-to-assist ratio in the loss to the Blue Devils.
A surprising team thus far, the Maryland Terrapins sit atop the ACC standings with a 12-2 conference mark, including huge home wins over UNC and Duke. The 2006 national champions are winners of nine straight and 12 of their last 13, but Maryland has not won the conference tournament since 1989.
Far more of a surprise than Maryland, however, are the Florida State Seminoles, the No. 12 team in the country. Although they have never won the ACC Tournament or even reached the finals, FSU has not lost a conference road game this entire season, something that bodes extremely well for them this weekend in Greensboro. Like Auburn, the Seminoles can drastically improve their NCAA resume with a few ACC wins, but they have some difficult obstacles to overcome.
Of course, the Big East Tournament belongs almost entirely to the University of Connecticut Huskies, the unanimous national No. 1 and the only undefeated team left in the country. But the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, a team that has recently come storming back from the conference cellar, could potentially disrupt the stranglehold UConn has on the national scene.
Rutgers battled back against the Huskies on Monday, limiting the nation's top offense to just 69 points in a struggle that came down to the final minutes. Although UConn held on to secure its undefeated season, the game showcased the Scarlet Knights, a team with a mediocre 18-11 record but a four-game February winning streak under its belt. Rutgers seems on the bubble right now, but with even one Big East Tournament win, it should secure its ticket to the Dance.
While the nation's focus will undoubtedly be on March Madness once the tournament field is officially set, one shouldn't look past this weekend's games, all of which are sure to provide sparks as the country's best battle to catch the eye of the selection committee for prime seeding later this month.
