The Guru Report: Night of Fortune Reversals Sees Tennessee Fall in Double OT to Mississippi State

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Since the legendary Tennessee great Pat Summitt lost her battle with Alzheimer’s disease four years after stepping down from her Hall of Fame coaching career that set a standard in the sport there have been maybe more agonizing moments in the path to rebuild the high end of the Lady Vols brand.

But Monday afternoon and night represented signature moments of just how excruciating has become a season that began with a top five ranking in the initial Associated Press Women’s Poll and legit dreams of once more at least being part of the Women’s Final Four with a shot to win the whole shebang.

A month later, however, the school that has more appearances than anyone else in the 47-year history of the rankings, slipped out after some early upsets and now has been missing a program record 11 straight weeks. 

The previous absent streak of ten occurred in the mid-80s in the early poll era and when Tennessee returned the Lady Vols they stayed there mostly in the top ten and five for several decades a record 565 weeks that will likely be broken week two of next season by UConn.

Greasing the skid unlike Texas, another stalwart that slipped but has made returns, were missed opportunities going 0-for-8 against every team that had a ranking number attached to its name. 

There is a triumph in Knoxville over Colorado but that came early before the Buffs began terrorizing ranked opponents in the Pac-12 and earned their nod from the AP voting media panel.

As with cases of other unranked teams there certainly are teams in the top-25 that would be worth a Tennessee bet if they came across each other. 

Still left on the schedule is a shot with No. 1 South Carolina and the SEC tournament and if one wanted a role model for casting the the regular season aside there’s the 10-loss 1997 NCAA title though Old Dominion gave a helping hand bringing down Stanford in the semifinals.

But then came a basic dead Monday night on the NCAA overall schedule in which Tennessee having beaten Mississippi State 80-69 on January 5 in Thompson-Boling Arena was slated to complete the home-and-home in Starkville.

Well, the Vols no longer lose to just ranked teams.

Final in double overtime Mississippi State 91-90 over Tennessee in a game with 17 lead changes and 14 ties. 

A 9-0 run in the second overtime by the Bulldogs (16-7,5-5 SEC) under first-year coach Sam Purcell, a former longtime assistant under Jeff Walz at Louisville, provided the winning cushion, which closed on a three-pointer by Rickea Jackson of Tennessee (17-9, 9-2) at the finish.

Jackson gained a double-double with 28 points and 11 rebounds while Jillian Hollingshead had a first double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds. Tess Darby added 10 points.

Mississippi State’s Jerkaila Jordan had  24 points while Asianae Johnson scored 16 points, and Anastasia Hayes scored 14.

“We made a change in transition defense, and I told both of them, my double A batteries over there, [Asianae] and [Anastasia], you all are two of the fastest kids in the SEC,” Purcell said afterwards. “You wanna win, you wanna change the tempo for our team, they gotta feel you for four quarters, but obviously, tonight was more."

Tennessee had 23 turners leading to 21 points.

“We did not make plays or get stops when we needed to,” said Tennessee coach Kellie Harper.

Virginia Tech Tops N.C. State

While in the poll all season, No. 22 N.C. State is another early top-five team that has treated the season like a ski slope.

Though at one time it might have been, this one was no upset in the Atlantic Coast Conference with visiting No. 11 Virginia Tech toping the Wolfpack 73-61 in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh ending a 12-game losing streak in the series on the road.

Georgia Amoore’s career-high 27 points for the Hokies (19-4, 9-4 ACC) were driven by five shots from deep while Elizabeth Kitley had 25 points and 14 rebounds.

This was N.C. State’s annual Play4Kay game bringing breast cancer awareness in memory of the late Hall of Fame Wolfpack coach Kay Yow.

Diamond Johnson had 16 points for the Wolfpack  (16-7, 6-6) while  Saniya Rivers scored 10 points.

Nebraska Beats Northwestern

The host Wildcats under longtime coach Joe McKeown, a Father Judge grad, continue to struggle this season, losing at home Monday night to the Cornhuskers 78-66 in a Big Ten game at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill. 

Isabelle Borne scored 18 for Nebraska (14-9, 6-6 Big Ten) while Sam Haiby scored 17, Alexis Markowski had 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Jaz Shelley scored 12.

Northwestern (8-15, 1-11) got 13 points from Paige Mott, and Sydney Wood and Courtney Shaw each scored 12.

Looking Ahead

It’s another slow night Tuesday but in the Big East, Creighton visits Seton Hall at 7 p.m. in South Orange, N.J. The visiting Bluejays trail second-place Villanova by two games in the loss column while the host Pirates are three down.

Villanova’s ranking of 15th this week in the AP Poll is the highest since all-time highs of 11th achieved in the final polls of 2003 when the ‘Cats advanced to the Elite Eight and 1982 when the played in the AIAW Final Four in The Palestra. 

Coach Denise Dillon’s squad will be looking for a sweep when it visits Georgetown Wednesday at McDonough Arena in the nation’s capital at 7 p.m. on Flohoops.

The other game of note Tuesday has No. 16 Oklahoma at Baylor in the Big 12 in Waco, Texas, at 8 p.m.

And that’s the report.