This one felt different for the Lady Vols

There are some moments where you know a program is heading in the right direction. It’s as clear as day. And it’s happened right now with every major sports program at the University of Tennessee.

Josh Heupel’s Volunteers toppled Alabama for the first time since 2006 back on October 15, 2022 with a walk-off 52-49 win. The relief and exultation wafted up from the field in the form of cigar smoke, and it was something that could be felt through TV screens across the country. Heupel’s Vols would go on to win the Orange Bowl that year, and two years later, they made their first College Football Playoff appearance. The trajectory is upward.

The baseball team took that massive leap forward by making the College World Series back in 2021 for the first time in two decades, knocking off perennial power LSU in the Super Regionals in Knoxville before a raucous crowd. The trip to Omaha wasn’t memorable, but the fact they were there was. They were on the rise. And they topped it off with a title last June.

Tennessee basketball always folded in the biggest moments, and that included in large part the SEC tournament. After 43 years of futility, the Vols escaped Kentucky in Tampa in the semifinals and handled Texas A&M in the championship convincingly to see the confetti finally fall for an SEC tournament championship. Tennessee has managed to find themselves as the top-rated team for stretches over the last couple of seasons and continues to remain a threat to win it all. But that SEC tournament title win was a sign of the massive progress the program has made in the last decade with Rick Barnes.

And man, even though we’re just getting started, it feels like Thursday night could have been that moment for Kim Caldwell and the Lady Vols.

I don’t have to go into detail about what things have been like for the last decade and a half. You all know. No point in going down that road again. But there’s plenty of reason to look to the road ahead.

I was cautiously optimistic about the hire last year because Caldwell’s teams could score the basketball. And, well, when you can do that, you’re gonna be in a lot of games. And when you can’t? Well, look at the stretches from the men’s team that have made you want to pull your hair out.

But what I’ve loved seeing from this team is the hustle. The effort. That seems perhaps simple or silly, but there is zero doubt that Caldwell has gotten the most out of her players so far this year. And it’s almost paid off against top-ranked competition. Just short against Oklahoma. Tying shot clanged off at the horn against LSU.

But on Thursday, the Lady Vols got that huge victory, and like the other programs mentioned before, it was against a big-name program, one who’s given Tennessee fits. It’s the hurdle they couldn’t leap. And they finally did again.

This is just year one, but we’ll see just how far Tennessee can rise, both this year and beyond. And if you consider where programs at this school have gone recently, the ceiling is pretty darned high