The history is the stuff of sports legend: Coming into this season, the Lady Vols had made a record 27 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament appearances—making every tournament since the event began in 1982. Along the way, they racked up 102 Tournament wins, making it to at least the Sweet Sixteen in every single year. This year’s two-time defending NCAA champions, the Lady Vols have left the tourney eight times as national champs (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008). Eighteen times they advanced to the Final Four. Nineteen times they have held the number one seed. They’ve been seeded number two on four occasions; number three, three times; and number four only once.
Headed by women’s college basketball’s all-time winningest coach, Pat Summit (1,005-192), never, before this season, has the University of Tennessee, perennially ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation, been seeded as low as Number Five. And never, until Sunday night, had the Lady Vols, 42-0 in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, made their exit with an opening-round loss.
Enter Ball State. This year’s Mid-American Conference champions went 25-8 on their season, the best in the program’s history, but were not nationally ranked at any time this season. Appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the very first time, the Cardinals’ rookie coach Kelly Packard and her charges weren’t put off by their Number 12 seeding. They were just thrilled to be there at all.
Before the tournament got underway, Summitt tried to put a positive spin on her team’s worst seed. Noting that the Vols had been underdogs before, she added, “I expected us to be a five-seed because of the losses that we had.“
Over the course of their 22-10 season, this year’s Lady Vols had racked up quite a few of them. Against the 16 teams they played in their regular season who made the NCAA Tournament field, the Vols were just 11-9.
Tennessee graduated five of its seniors at the end of last season, and superstar Candace Parker, who had redshirted her freshman year after knee surgery, left early to join the WNBA.
That left the Tennessee roster populated by seven freshmen—very good ones, to be sure, but freshmen nonetheless. The Vols returned just one senior, Alex Fuller, who redshirted her freshman year alongside Parker. Anchored by sophomores Angie Bjorklund and Vicki Baugh, the “Baby Vols,” as the team was tagged, performed as young players are wont to do—erratically.
But Summitt said their tough season and five-seed would only serve to motivate her charges. Recalling the Tennessee team of 1997, who had finished their season 23-10 (and seeded third) but had gone on to beat Number One seeds Connecticut and Old Dominion to take home the national championship, Summitt broke out the highlight reel of that season for the team’s bus ride to Bowling Green for opening round play.
“I think that this team has really come together with a mission in mind. We’ve got to be a better team for 40 minutes and we have to be committed to our defense and our board play. That is going to give us a great chance to be successful.”
Or then again, perhaps not.
Things started off more or less according to form, as Tennessee got out to a five-point lead in the first three minutes. But despite a gross mismatch in both height and tournament experience, Ball State soon showed they had no plans simply to roll over.
The Cardinals’ Kiley Jarrett got her team into the action with a three-pointer a minute-and-a-half in. From there, the two teams largely traded baskets for the next 10 minutes, with Tennessee maintaining a slight edge—a mere five points, at its widest margin.
Though badly outrebounded by the Vols (28-18) in the first half, the Cardinals took advantage of Tennessee turnovers to stay in the game throughout the opening period. Roughly six minutes into the half, Ball State’s Porchia Green stole the ball and fed it to Patrice King on a fast break to tie the score for the first time at 14 apiece with just under 13 minutes remaining in the half.
After exchanging misses for the next two minutes, Danielle Gratton gave Ball State its first lead, 16-14, at the 10:47 mark.
Tennessee got a 6-0 run going late in the half to retake the lead, 24-21, but Green and Audrey McDonald quickly answered back to pull Ball State back in front, 25-24, with just under four minutes left.
A minute earlier, as the score stood at 24-21 in the Vols' favor, Tennessee suffered a crucial loss as redshirt-freshman Kelley Cain limped off the court, clutching her knee. Cain, who had been leading the Vols with 10 first-half points plus eight boards and two blocks, collided with Ball State’s Emily Maggert while going up for a shot below the basket. Though the contact was incidental and appeared to be minor, the loss of Cain, who plays with screws in her knee from previous injuries, was not.
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| Tennessee's Kelley Cain eyes the basket as Ball State players Porchia Green and Emily Maggert provide defense during the first half of a first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament game in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday, March 22, 2009. When Cain left the game with knee problems late in the first half, after scoring 10 points and pulling down eight boards, she took with her much of Tennessee's post power. |
Of course, Ball State didn’t notice the difference at the time. “Once one tall girl came out, another one came in,” said Maggert after the game. “They just kept bringing big girls in and we just had to keep pushing them back and boxing out.”
Baskets by Maggert and Gratton sent Ball State to the locker room with a one-point lead, 29-28. Pat Summit was visibly unhappy.
Ball State, however was gaining confidence. The Cardinals’ program is in its infancy as compared to Tennessee, but in this, their best season ever, they were already beginning to build a little history. Item: The Cardinals were 17-2 on the season when leading at the half.
It looked like that might become 17-3 as Tennessee appeared to turn the corner at the opening of the second period. Bjorklund got things started, picking Maggert’s pocket, then followed a jumper with a trey to put Tennessee back on top, 33-29.
Ball State was slow in getting rolling, but once they did, they came to life in a big way, as Amber Clark swiped the ball the ball from Bjorklund and fed it to Porchia Green on the breakaway. Fouled by Bjorklund on her way to the hoop, Green finished the lay-up and converted the penalty shot for a three-point play.
A trey by Green, an All Mid-American Conference first team honoree and the conference's Defensive Player of the Year who played inspired ball throughout the second half, put the Cardinals back in front, 35-33, seconds later.
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| Ball State's Porchia Green, left, drives to the basket against Tennessee's Briana Bass in the first half of a first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament game in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday, March 22, 2009. Green put on a stunning performance, leading all players with 23 points. |
The Cardinals were deadly from long range over the next several minutes, as Maggert and Audrey McDonald knocked down treys to bookend a pair of jumpers by Green and McDonald and put the score at 45-41 in Ball State’s favor just inside the 10-minute mark. Shekkina Stricklen and Alex Fuller were keeping Tennessee in the game throughout this period, with the help of two turnovers by Ball State’s Danielle Gratton and several fouls by Gratton and Amber Grey.
Ball State broke things open, taking off on a 12-3 scoring run, near the start of the “fourth quarter.” Though badly outrebounded in the first half, the Cardinals matched their taller opponents board-for-board (16 each) in the second period, leading Summitt after the game to criticize her team’s “soft post” play with good reason.
Ball State used the added boards to get its running game going, with both Maggert and Green driving the length of the court and powering to the hole for lay-ups that left the Tennessee defense looking like their feet were glued to the floor.
A minute-and-a-half into the run, with Ball State up seven, 49-42, Summitt called a timeout in an effort to revitalize her troops, but the mayhem continued after the break. Though Bjorklund dropped in a lay-up on an assist from Fuller, McDonald and Jarrett knocked down a pair of three-pointers and Green connected on a medium-range jumper, keeping Tennessee’s defenders honest.
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| Clearly unhappy with what they are seeing on the floor, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, center, and assistant Holly Warlick voice their concerns during the second half of a first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament loss, 71-55, to Ball State in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday, March 22, 2009. |
Jarrett’s trey put Ball State up by 13, 59-46, with less than five minutes left to play. Bjorklund responded in kind off a Stricklen assist, and Stricklen laid one in off a dish from Brianna Bass, to cut the Cardinals lead to single digits, 59-51, over the next minute.
“Throughout the game, you cannot think you don’t have a chance. We were trying our best to come back and fight through it, but obviously it was too late,” Bjorklund said afterwards of her team's abortive last stand.
Ball State, sensing victory in their grasp, scored the next nine points. Meanwhile, the Vols, feeling the pressure, were compounding their mistakes. Stricklen fouled Jarrett, who made both from the charity stripe. Bass grabbed a board off a rare miss by Green, then turned it over to Gratton.
Gratton capitalized on the other end, and 10 seconds later, picked Stricklen’s pocket. Green was good for yet another coast-to-coast lay-up, stretching the Ball State lead to 17 points, 68-51, with 1:26 left on the clock.
The Vols, desperately playing catch-up, had already turned to the long-ball, but for the most part, the bombs failed to find their marks. With the clock winding down, the parade to the foul line commenced. McDonald sealed the final score for Ball State at 71-55 on a pair of free throws, though, in a microcosm of her team's second-half play, Stricklen would manage two missed treys and a turnover in the final 36 seconds.
The 16-point loss was not only the Vols’ earliest exit in Tournament history, it also tied as Tennessee’s fifth-worst loss in the NCAA Tournament. Ball State, a 12-seed, was the lowest seed ever to beat Tennessee in the tourney.
Green finished a sensational evening with a game-high 23 points for Ball State on nine-of-17 from the field, including two of five three-point attempts, plus eight boards, three assists and two steals (but three turnovers). McDonald contributed 18 points, including two-of-five three-balls, and Jarrett added 14 points, going four-of-seven from the field, and two-of-four from long range.
Credit Tennessee’s guards, Stricklen and Bjorklund, with making it a game at all, as the Vols’ front court was all but silent after Cain went to the sidelines. Fuller and Glory Johnson finished with a mere four points apiece. Stricklen led the Lady Vols with 17 points, but her marksmanship (a meager eight-of-20 from the field and zero-for-seven from long distance) left a lot to be desired. Bjorklund followed with 14 points, and exhibited the most energy of any of the Vols, but she, too, shot a paltry six-of-18 from the field and went two-for-eight from long range.
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| Tennessee's Glory Johnson tries to put up a shot through the defense of Ball State players Emily Maggert, right, and Danielle Gratton during the first half of a first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament game in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday, March 22, 2009. Johnson finished with just four points. |
As a team, Tennessee shot just 33.3% from the field in the second half, 34.8% for the game as a whole. But it was their over-reliance on a perimeter game that failed to materialize that cost them most dearly. The Vols dominated the paint, 32-to-16. But after digging themselves a hole, they largely abandoned their inside game in favor of the perimeter, where they shot a pathetic 16.7% from beyond the arc in the second half. Ironically, that actually raised their three-point percentage for the game as a whole to 11.1% since the Vols went zero-for-six from long distance in the opening stanza.
By comparison, though Ball State’s shooting was off the mark in the first half (36.4% from the field; 16.7% from long range), they improved radically in the second period, connecting on 12 of their 21 field-goal attempts (57.1%). In particular, the three-ball fueled their win, as the Cardinals knocked down five of their seven attempts from long range (71.4%).
Complimenting Ball State and their first-year coach Kelly Packard on the win, Summitt lamented her own team’s poor defense: “I think Ball State really put us on our heels early and for whatever reason we were not committed to defending the way we needed to defend…They [Ball State] had a lot more toughness than we did. They beat us to loose balls and they made shots. They played well together. We had a lot of empty possessions.”
Bjorklund explained that some of Tennessee’s defensive lapses came as a result of mismatches with Ball State’s speedy guards. “Their guards did an awesome job,” Bjorklund stated. “We were trying to switch to steal. That was our game plan in the second half. Sometimes we switched and had some mismatches with a post on a guard. At the same time, that’s not an excuse. You have to defend no matter what.”
Ball State effectively used screens to get their shooters looks against the taller Tennessee defenders, which Coach Kelly Packard said was part of the game plan. “I told them all along that our offensive execution and the number of screens that we could set knowing that team is full of freshmen that haven’t had to defend screens for a long time, that that would be our best thing.”
Green agreed: “Screening is what gets you open and helps you execute….We stayed focused and stuck to the scouting report and we ended up with a good outcome.”
Ball State also managed to take better advantage of their opponents’ mistakes. Though the two teams had an unremarkable number of turnovers—13 for Ball State to 16 for Tennessee—the Vols seemed to have them at the worst possible moments, just when they appeared to be gaining some traction. Ball State was also marginally more effective in turning those mistakes into field goals, garnering 17 points off turnovers to just 13 for the Vols.
Ball State also got themselves to the line far more often (20 free-throw attempts to 11 for Tennessee) and made the most of it once they were there. The Cardinals made 16 of their 20 attempts from the charity stripe (80%) to just seven of 11 attempts (63.6%) for Tennessee.
Packard noted that her team came into the game in awe of Tennessee. “We did come in with awe and complete respect for their tradition, legacy and everything that Tennessee is. “ At the same time, she said, her players had “some real healthy, classy pride in our own talent. That is all I wanted today. I wanted us to play with class. I wanted us to play with character.”
Ball State accomplished that goal and a good deal more. “To go out and do what they just did,” Packard said of her team, “it’s going to take us a really long time to get our minds around the accomplishment that they have been able to achieve.”
The Ball State players celebrated their win as though it had been the national championship game, and senior Kiley Jarrett was still trying to get her mind around it after the game. “This is just unbelievable,” she stated. “Tennessee is a great team. I would be lying to you if I told you I thought it would be a 16-point victory. They are a great team and I’m not going to take anything away from them, but we were just confident coming into this game and we knew what we could do. It hasn’t hit me yet. It is just unbelievable.”
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| Ball State players Danielle Gratton, right, and Porchia Green celebrate during the second half of their first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament game against Tennessee in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday, March 22, 2009. |
Summitt expressed hope that the disappointing loss would serve as motivation for her talented youngsters. “We only graduate one senior. It is all about what this team decides to do in the off-season. Angie [Bjorklund] has had a big year for us. She is a special player. Shekinna [Stricklen] has grown a lot. I’ve counted on her a lot. I’ve for the most part been pleased with what she has done. These two young ladies need to step up and provide leadership for us next year.”
Ball State now moves on to tackle fourth-seeded Iowa State on Tuesday in second-round action. Iowa State had no difficulty in dispatching 13th-seeded East Tennessee State, 85-53, in their opening round game.
In other Day Two opening round tournament action:
Raleigh Regional
College Park:
Number One-seed Maryland dominated 16th-seeded Dartmouth, 82-53.
Ninth-seeded Utah, the Mountain West Conference champions, upset eight-seed Villanova, in a 60-30 pasting.
Baton Rouge:
Sixth-seeded LSU took a 69-59 win over Wisconsin Green Bay.
Louisville, seeded third, lashed 14th-seeded Liberty, 62 – 42.
Lubbock:
South Dakota State, seeded seventh in their first NCAA Tournament appearance, trounced 10th-seeded TCU, 90 – 55.
Second-seeded Baylor, playing without head coach Kim Mulkey, who was hospitalized as a precaution following an adverse reaction to medication for a kidney stone, overcame initial difficulties to escape a near-upset by 15th seed, University of Texas San Antonio, 87-82.
Oklahoma City Regional
Iowa City:
Top-seeded Oklahoma had no difficulty putting 16th seed, Prairie View, to rest, 76-47l
Despite home-court advantage, eighth-seeded Iowa was stung by the ninth-seeded Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 62 -76
Trenton Regional
Storrs:
Top-seeded Connecticut appeared to be making a statement as they vanquished lowly Vermont, the 16th seed, 104 – 65.
Florida proved to be the only eighth seed to hold serve on Day Two, toppling Temple, 70–57.
Notre Dame:
In yet another upset demonstrating that neither a higher seed nor home court carries any guarantee of success in the Big Dance, seventh-seeded Notre Dame was knocked out of the field by tenth-seeded Minnesota, 71—79.
The fifteenth-seeded Evansville Purple Aces had no ace up their sleeves against the Aggies, losing badly to second-seeded Texas A&M, 45-80.
Berkeley Regional
East Lansing:
Number One-seeded Duke demolished Austin Peay, 83 –42.
Ninth-seeded Michigan State managed a modest upset of eighth-seeded Middle Tennessee, 60-59.
Bowling Green:
As more fully described above, 12th-seeded Ball State took fifth-seeded Tennessee to school in an historic 71-55 upset.
Fourth-seeded Iowa State advanced easily with an 85 –53 win over the 13 seed, East Tennessee State.