Good rundown of the Vols and history of the series between the Techsters and Lady Vols:
http://utladyvols.collegesports.com/...121405aac.html
Good rundown of the Vols and history of the series between the Techsters and Lady Vols:
http://utladyvols.collegesports.com/...121405aac.html
Looks like the weather has already given us our first blow on this trip. The Techsters were to fly out of Monroe to Houston to Tennessee yesterday. However, the weather prevented the flight. They ended up bussing from Monroe to Birmingham and were to arrive at 1am. They will leave at 7:30am this morning to buss the last 4 hours to Knoxville. After a quick run throught practice, they will play at 6pm.
Hope it gives them more fight instead of taking away their energy.
...Sounds like the perfect scenario for a Christmas sports miracle movie. The tired and outmatched Techsters somehow hang in there, and then pull it off with a last second shot. The Techsters rush the floor in glee, the small group of Tech supporters who are present hug each other and sing the Tech fight song, and then a bell rings, and Clarence gets his wings. :icon_winkOriginally Posted by champion110
From your lips to God's ears, DD !!! haha
The Lady Techsters had a similar experience traveling to Penn State a few years ago. They upset Penn State who I think at that time was the #6 team in the country. Hopefully the Techsters will have the same outcome this time around. I also hope to be one of the Tech supporters to rush the floor after the game!! Go Lady Techsters!
More on the traveling woes of the Techsters:
http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs...512150318/1002
Techsters on a bumpy ride to Tennessee
Short flight turns into a long road trip for the team
By Scott Beder
sbeder@thenewsstar.com
What the Louisiana Tech women's basketball team thought would be a routine flight to Knoxville, Tenn., turned into a 20-hour odyssey Wednesday.
The Lady Techsters, scheduled to play No. 1-ranked Tennessee at 6 p.m., today were to fly from Monroe to Houston and on to Knoxville, arriving in Tennessee at 4 p.m. But bad weather in the Houston area delayed the Techsters' flight out of Monroe and they eventually missed their connection, which called for Plan B — securing a Salter bus from Jonesboro.
After spending 10 hours stranded at the Monroe airport, the Techsters boarded a bus for the seven-hour trip to Birmingham, Ala., where they spent the night. Tech will leave Birmingham this morning and arrive in Knoxville around lunch time, go through a walk through and try and get some rest before the game.
First-year coach Chris Long, who took a separate flight to Knoxville via Atlanta because of airline credits he had to use or lose, didn't realize his team was stranded until he landed in Atlanta.
"It was already going to be difficult (to play Tennessee) just having one day to get ready for them the way the schedule fell," Long said. "Now it will be even tougher.
"This isn't our first travel problem we've had over the years," said Long, who served as an assistant coach for six years before being promoted. "Nonetheless, it's frustrating to be stuck in the airport all day."
During the wait in Monroe, the players watched DVDs on portable players, talked on their cell phones and played "spoons," a card game, before falling asleep on the airport floor.
Junior forward Tamika Kursh said "We've got to keep the mindset of what we have to do, no matter what we face. We can't let anything like the bad weather affect us."
Originally published December 15, 2005
Nice Knoxville News article:
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/gvx_lady...315778,00.html
Keeping a colorful legacy alive
Summitt-Barmore friendship preserves UT-La. Tech series
By DAN FLESER, fleser@knews.com
December 14, 2005
History has come in handy for Louisiana Tech.
The Lady Techsters wanted to keep Tennessee on their women's basketball schedule. So they called on former Tech coach Leon Barmore. The Hall of Famer called UT coach Pat Summitt.
"I'd love to see the series stay, although I'm not in it,'' he told Summitt. "I think it'd be good for Louisiana Tech.''
It helped that Summitt hadn't forgotten how good the game has been for Tennessee as well. The Lady Vols forged their program in Tech's blast furnace. Summitt remembered 1982 and playing the Lady Techsters in the first NCAA Final Four in Norfolk, Va., like it was yesterday.
"We were a turnover waiting to happen,'' Summitt recalled. "You play teams like that, you learn from that."
It's not easy discarding such a legacy.
The series resumes at 7 tonight at Thompson-Boling Arena. And it continues next season in Ruston, La., but with a new twist. Tennessee's desire for more home games endangered the series in the first place. With that in mind, Tech proposed playing twice in Knoxville for every UT visit to northern Louisiana.
"It was important enough to keep it, for us to change the terms a little bit,'' Louisiana Tech coach Chris Long said.
For Tech, playing Tennessee helps on many fronts: recruiting, strength of schedule and tradition.
The latter attribute has suffered lately through three head coaching changes in five seasons and a move to the far-flung Western Athletic Conference. During this time, Tennessee has built a five-game winning streak and taken series control from its long-time rival.
The teams' last meeting was exactly one year ago. The week before that game, Tech dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time since 1992, ending a streak of 221 consecutive appearances.
At 5-2, Tech is not poised for a return. First-year coach Long is working on it, however. With six years worth of experience as a Tech assistant, he knows the demands of his domain.
"There's a tremendous amount of pressure and a lot of pride in this program,'' he said. "I know what the expectations are from the community. It's a tough burden. It's my job to get us back to where we belong.''
Recruiting is priority No. 1, beginning with better overall depth. Traditionally, Tech has shown itself capable of making more out of less.
"We've never gotten three or four of the top 25 players,'' Long said. "Yet, we've developed them.''
Nurturing a player's skills is one thing, growing them big and strong is a different matter. One of the Lady Techsters' biggest challenges has been maintaining their lineage of post players.
The regional pipeline paid off into the new millennium with such players as Takeisha Lewis (Lisbon, La.), Katrina Frierson (Vicksburg, Miss.) and Cheryl Ford (Summerfield, La.), the daughter of former Tech great Karl Malone. But supply isn't keeping up with demand.
"The 6-3 kids, there just aren't as many out there and everyone wants them,'' Long said.
While the Lady Techsters might not cast as long a shadow, they remain aggressive and present a matchup dilemma in guard Tasha Williams, the reigning WAC player of the year.
The Lady Techsters were conciliatory about keeping this game. The Lady Vols do not expect the same approach to the actual competition.
"They hawk the ball,'' Summitt said. "They're physical. They get after you. We have to be ready to take care of the ball.''
Notebook: Tech's last win in the series was here in 1999, 69-64. ... Summitt said Tennessee will be starting a series with North Carolina next season. ... UT's final game before the Christmas break is against Princeton on Tuesday at the arena.
Hate to see it go from a home and home to a "2 for 1", but we have to climb back into the thick of things to have any negotiating power. It is very important to play these SEC and B12 teams for our rpi. Playing Tennessee has really helped these last few seasons. Before that, we helped each other.
I hate that too, but at least we are still playing them. I would love to see our strenght of schedule increase even more by playing more tough out of conference teams. Why not Stanford, USC, UCLA, and other West Coast teams, when we do our West Coast conference swing ? Purdue out of the Big 10. Would be great to have the Curry's back in the Tac every so often. Several teams play ooc games while in the midst of conference play. Increasing our ooc strenght, would help our RPI even though we play in a weak conference. Could part of the issue be we have lost some of our luster, and some of the other top programs may not want to schedule us as in the past ?
I have never understood why we don't play Purdue home and home. Their coach has stated that she would be open to it more than once. We played them during Barmore's time once home and home. I can only think it was Budke. We can probably get them now.
I know we need a conference now a days, but wasn't it nice when we were on top of all the polls and an independant. Those were the days.
I wonder if Coach Long is aware that Kristy would be open to having a yearly series with us ? Maybe Coach Barmore needs to call Kristy, now. Hey. Maybe he can do our scheduling. He can call all these top programs, and he can talk them into it, if they're reluctant. How can you say no to a Hall of Famer ?
Exactly! I, actually, think that is part of the plan.Originally Posted by gonzajo71
So the game starts at 6? Is the only way to hear or see the game 107.5? Thanks guys.
The game starts at 6:00. I don't know about the radio though. But I do know WE READY!!!!!
WOW! Our windshield wipers on the bus broke which caused a 2 hour delay at a gas station on the way to Birmingham! It sounds like Pat was praying to her basketball gods to keep us from getting into town. Methinks she's scared.
GO TECHSTERS!!!