Say what?! Take away the UConn win and Tennessee's season was nothing to write home about. 8-8 in conference, tied for 8th. That is not phenomenal and not remotely worthy of being considered for NCOY.
For some reason I thought she was a finalist for NCOY but I just checked and she wasn't. At any rate though, she looked like a slam dunk hire a year ago. For what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, 2024-25 was an excellent season. Tennessee started the year unranked and finished #15, making the Sweet 16 and proved they could compete with (and beat) the top teams in the country. Despite UCONN being their only marquee win, they came incredibly close to upsetting many top teams:
It's amazing how fast perception changes.
A good benchmark for academic standing is membership in the American Association of Universities. In the SEC, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, and Vanderbilt are AAU members. South Carolina (my alma mater) not being a member has not caused my self esteem to crater.
I think she’ll probably get 2 more years, maybe 3. Most coaches get 4-5 years to right the ship when they take over a program unless there are extreme circumstances.
I don’t think it’s perception…it’s reality. I will say, though, that many Vols fans got an overinflated boost from last year by the fact that they beat UConn. For whatever reason, the UConn effort in early February was definitely not the same as the one that destroyed SC a couple of weeks later. Whether it was the Tennessee loss or something else, there was a definite change.
One might suggest that you stick to your WBB knowledge base and leave the academics comments to the experts.
Apologies for the omission.
I regret accidentally swerving this thread and have already apologized for it. But just for the record, this is precisely my area of expertise as a lifelong college professor with a large network of colleagues working at many schools, who has seen the inner workings of several universities and knows first hand how to assess the educational opportunities they offer to undergrads. I know how rankings and ratings fail to capture what truly matters to an education.
Edwards feels like a Barker replacement. I doubt she will be as effective as Barker in their bigger games as a freshman, especially from 3, but I could see her becoming a force as a sophomore. They're also losing Spearman and Wolfenbarger so they're basically starting over with the bigs and will have to hit the portal for another transfer or two.
Perhaps it was an argument on the men's side where the committee valued teams finishing strong. Regardless, I think this is an important indicator as to team success. Likewise, I haven't been impressed with Ole Miss going 2 for 8.
Agreed on mid majors, but there are 10+ teams worse than TN that will make the tourney. Target them.
Me neither. Her twitter post says she wanted to play. Wolfenbarger also didn’t play.
