UT vs. UT: Texas women’s basketball visits Tennessee Sunday

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — The road only gets tougher for Texas head coach Karen Aston and the women’s basketball squad. After traveling to Hawaii for the Thanksgiving Rainbow Wahine Showdown, in which the Longhorns played three games in three days, they will play only once this week, but it will be against a dangerous opponent with a deep women’s hoops history. In this case, UT will face UT with both teams wearing orange and white, when Texas plays Sunday at Tennessee.

Rebounding is the focus for the Lady Vols, who are big and [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]strong and typically use their size to get around opponents and bring down rebounds, which frustrates and tires out opponents rather quickly. That’s the game plan on which the nation’s No. 20-ranked team prides itself, and and is an integral part of Tennessee’s current 7-0 record.

The Lady Vols have won the rebounding battle in every game except last Sunday against Air Force, and first-year head coach Kellie Harper was not pleased after that game, saying “Disappointed in our rebounding today. I’ve been concerned about it, and the numbers have not reflected my concern until now, but we (knew) at some point, it was going to catch up with us, and it did today.”

With that said, the Longhorns can assume that the Lady Vols will come out Sunday ready to crash the boards, because it clearly is one of their coach’s priorities. In response, the Horns will need to be aggressive and confident if they want to stay in the ballgame, especially because they lack the same size in the post. If players like Joyner Holmes, Charlie Collier and Jada Underwood can step up, Aston will have a good group to go to when she needs some plays in the frontcourt.

Tennessee is led by sophomore guard Rae Burrell, who didn’t begin 2019 with much of a role but has seen her minutes significantly increase after guard Jordan Houston tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Since the Lady Vols faced Tennessee State in early November, Burrell has become a scoring machine, posting double-digit scoring in each of the past four games, including 18 Sunday against Air Force. Junior forward Rennia Davis leads Tennessee on the glass, with 60 rebounds through seven games.

Without question, the Longhorns will have a challenge on their hands Sunday, especially with the Lady Vols possessing such a great size advantage, and Texas needs to iron out some early-season inconsistency before conference play tips of Jan. 3. A win over a program like Tennessee would look awfully good on an NCAA tournament résumé, so the Longhorns have a lot to play for in the games, which can be seen at 1 p.m. (Central time) on ESPN2 and can be heard on the radio in Austin on 105.3 FM.
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