After two seasons of growing pains, the latest edition of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers finally understand what it takes to compete for championships.
''It's about time,'' coach Pat Summitt said. ''I think they realize that the clock is ticking. What will their legacy be? It's a group that wants to cut down nets.''
It's only been two full seasons since the Lady Volunteers last won a national title - their eighth - but Tennessee had never seemed farther from the NCAA championship game.
The pack of talented freshmen Summitt restocked her team with after the 2008 championship are now juniors, but their legacy so far has been one of early exits from the NCAA tournament. Tennessee was upset in the first round of the 2009 tournament, its earliest postseason exit in history, and lost in the 2010 regional semifinals.
The fourth-ranked Lady Vols, featuring a lineup that includes mostly juniors, say they learned from those setbacks.
''We know that we are a better team than last year. We feel this is our year, and we know what we need to work on,'' junior guard Shekinna Stricklen said. ''This is a new team - we have two freshmen that came in that have been helping us a lot. We should be the Tennessee team that it has been, get to the Final Four and win a national championship.''
Summitt was once again impressed with the work her players did in the gym during the offseason and the Hall of Fame coach said that effort gives them a right to expect great things.
''I think they're more confident now, and they've earned that right because they've invested more and they know what to expect every day,'' she said.
Tennessee had no seniors last season and lost only two players when junior forward Amber Gray wasn't medically cleared to play and redshirt freshman Faith Dupree decided to transfer. The Lady Vols added freshmen guards Meighan Simmons and Lauren Avant.
Keeping last year's team mostly in tact means a better dynamic both on and off the floor, junior center Kelley Cain said.
''We know each other. We are one big happy family,'' she said. ''The chemistry is there. It has a lot to do with a team being able to go out and do the business and be successful.''
Summitt will find out quickly if that is the case. The Lady Vols open the season Friday at Louisville and will host Virginia, Arizona State, No. 3 Stanford and Rutgers and travel to No. 17 Texas and No. 2 Baylor before the end of 2010.
For the first time in two seasons, the Lady Vols also have their two top post players healthy and ready to go. Junior forward Vicki Baugh joins Cain in the paint after spending a season and a half recovering from twice tearing her left ACL.
That means a lot to Summitt, who demands strong rebounding and defensive efforts from her team every year, but she's also confident in Tennessee's guard play.
''There are times that we're going to want to go inside because of our depth inside and our size. We definitely have a size advantage in a lot of situations there. But our guard play is the best it's been in quite a while. I think our guards understand how to push and how to get the ball inside,'' Summitt said.
Simmons and Avant have already earned enough of Summitt's respect to find themselves in contention at the point guard position, freeing up Stricklen and Kamiko Williams to play more of their natural roles of guard/forward and wing, respectively.
''I think they bring an aggression that we need,'' senior guard Angie Bjorklund said. ''Lauren's defense is huge and she is able to get out and really be aggressive on 'D.' They both can create on the offensive end. Meighan has an awesome shot.''
