The rumblings of the thunderous locomotive you will hear tonight belong to Tennessee and its women’s basketball program.
Coach Pat Summitt, the NCAA’s all-time leader with 1,019, is the architect and conductor that has been driving the program since 1974 and is rolling into Gainesville to pit her No. 4 Volunteers (14-1, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) against the Gators (9-7, 2-1 SEC) at 7 tonight in the O’Connell Center.
It may be just another SEC game, but even the Gators can’t ignore the heightened media attention that follows Tennessee.
“Because it’s Tennessee, it motivates us a lot more,” senior Sharielle Smith said. “It gets us basically in the mindset of ‘OK, this is Tennessee. We’ve gotta step up our game.’ Our intensity has to be there the entire game for us to succeed.”
Last season, UF pulled off a 66-57 upset over the Volunteers in Gainesville, but Tennessee has dominated the all-time series 38-3.
“They’re super talented,” UF coach Amanda Butler said. “They’ve got the best coach in the history of ever. Are they the standard by which we all measure ourselves? Absolutely.”
Coming off a sub-par year, where they exited the NCAA tournament in the first round, the Volunteers have a sophomore-dominated team, led by preseason All-SEC First Teamers Angie Bjorklund — averaging 16.5 points per game and draining 49 percent of her three-pointers — and Shekinna Stricklen, who is second on the team with 14 points per game to go with her 6.6 rebounds per contest. Sophomore Glory Johnson compliments them with 12.7 points per game and 8.0 boards a game.
With a lineup that features every starter at least six feet, Tennessee poses an immediate size problem for the smaller Gators, whose only such starter is center Azania Stewart.
Unable to match the Volunteers’ size, Florida will have to play its best for 40 minutes, relying on keeping the ball and getting Tennessee out of sync offensively in an effort to score transition points.
The Gators come in averaging more steals per game (9.9) than their opponents and will have to play tough defense to slow a team that averages 79.6 points.
Turnovers have been a hindrance for the team all season. UF averages 19.4 per game — nearly six more than Tennessee — and had 16 in the first half against Georgia on Sunday.
“That can’t be an issue this game because the majority of the time when we turn the ball over, that’s extra points for them — it’s like we’re spotting them points,” Smith said. “With Tennessee, you can’t afford to have those.”
For a team that outscores its opponents by an average of 22 points, the Volunteers won’t need any extra help from the Gators to gain a big lead.
Otherwise, UF will be notch No. 1,020 in Summitt’s belt.
“For us as a team that’s trying to get to the top, there’s only one way to get there,” Butler said. “You’ve got to go through people like that, you can’t go around them.”
