Tennessee’s Harper feels that playing is easier than coaching now

SEATTLE – The Tennessee women’s basketball team hasn’t advanced to the Final Four since 2008, the last time the Lady Vols won a national championship. If they make it past Virginia Tech in the NCAA Tournament Seattle 3 Regional semifinal Saturday, they will have to face the winner of Ohio State-uconn Monday in the regional final.

Tennessee coach Kellie Harper knows what it’s like to win as a player. She played for Pat Summitt’s teams that won NCAA championships from 1996-98 and was the Lady Vols’ point guard in 1997 and 1998. As a coach, it’s a bit different.

“I think it’s much harder as a coach,” Harper said. “Players, you just show up and play. I mean, it’s, ‘Give me the game plan, Coach. I’m ready to go.’ Coaches, we’re trying to figure out how to make our players feel good, what meals they need to eat, when they need to eat, where we need to go, do we need to watch this film, this film, break it down, what’s our scout going to look like, and then you try to figure out your game plan. There’s a whole lot more to be done as a coach to get it right.”

No. 10 on No. 10

Uconn point guard Nika Mühl said the No. 10 never held any special significance for her but it does now, as Sue Bird’s former number. “I was the youngest of my teams in Croatia and No. 10 was the free one, nobody wanted it so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll take it,’” she said Friday. When Bird called her after she broke her single-season assist record, Muhl almost didn’t answer the call because it was an unknown number. “I’m still fangirling,” Muhl said. “I try to keep my cool. I love her as a person, on and off the court, what she’s done for basketball, what she’s done with her platform. I don’t know herthatwell,butherenergyspeakssoloud.”

Geno on super regional

Geno Auriemma had mixed feelings about the regional sites being combined in Seattle and Greenville, S.C. On the one hand, he was happy to play at Climate Pledge Arena – “This arena might be as nice an arena as there is in the entire tournament” – but on the other hand, having eight teams in one place is a lot. “The logistics maybe make it a little tougher with how much time you can get on the court,” he said. “Having the eight teams, I think causes some issues for the host trying to balance all that out. I’m hoping that it works, I’m hoping it doesn’t, because I also think they’re called regionals for a reason, and there’s four regions in this country and you would like to have one in each region.”