KNOXVILLE,  Tenn. — Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Kellie Harper took questions from the media on Tuesday evening in a Zoom interview session that covered the Lady Vols’ upcoming road games at No. 20/18 Kentucky (13-5/6-4 SEC) and No. 6/5 Texas A&M (18-1, 9-1 SEC).

UT (12-3, 6-1 SEC), which has ascended to season-high rankings of No. 16 in the AP poll and No. 19 in the USA TODAY Coaches poll, is scheduled to play the Wildcats at Rupp Arena in Lexington on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET (SECN+) and the Aggies in College Station on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT (ESPN).

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

On how the team was able to stay in shape over the pause in activities:
“This pause felt a little different because of the timing. Our first one was coming back from Christmas. We’d been off for Christmas break and then came back and had a pause, so it felt very different. Conditioning was a huge priority for us (then). We’re in a different space now, so in terms of getting them in shape, we just wanted to maintain. We were also able to do some different workouts. We have very specific protocols when we’re working out with some of our quarantined athletes, so when I say working out, we’re basically observing from the upper deck. So, we can’t get hands-on with every athlete, but we had a small group who were still able to get some practice in. We really didn’t take the court until today for our first real practice.”

On how she can tell if her team has gotten back in the groove after a break:
“Sometimes it’s a guess. The biggest thing for us today was going out and letting our team get up and down, practicing, seeing where we are offensively. Where are we defensively? Where is our focus, our energy? I thought we had a pretty good practice considering everything. I thought we played hard. I thought they, for the most part, were pretty locked in. I didn’t have to do a whole lot of a review session. So, we’ll see how we come out of this practice and then, hopefully, we’ll have another good one before we head up to Kentucky.”

On implementing strategies learned from first COVID pause in the second break:
“Structurally, we did some of the same things. We liked how our quarantined athletes were able to get through a workout back early in January, so we did those very similarly. But again, the timing just makes this one look different, and our goals during this week were different than our goals in January because we’re in a different space. We hate the pause, obviously. We feel good, you’re in rhythm, you want to play basketball, you want to keep playing and just unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that. But hopefully, our team will be ready when we get up to Kentucky.”

On challenge of facing Kentucky for the second time:
“I think we’re going to face a very motivated Kentucky team. They’ll have the intrinsic motivation going on, and I’m sure coming off a loss also is adding fuel to that fire. They’re going to come out all guns blazing. They’re going to be really playing hard and coming right at us, for sure. When you play teams twice, if you’re the winning team the first time, you go in it, and you want to do the same game plan. You want to do what worked. However, you’ve got to look at what the opponent is going to do. They’re not going to do the same thing, so your same game plan for the winning team may or may not work the second time around. So, I think the challenges are that you have to make sure that your team is focused again and not overlooking a team that you beat. I would hope that’s not going to be the case or an issue with our team. They know them, but also, now they have to understand that there will be some tweaks and some changes, and we have to adapt to those changes. I think having plan A is great, but it’s also having plan B and plan C and players being able to adjust to it on the fly.”

On Vanderbilt’s season cancellation resulting in UT facing four of the top teams in the SEC in a row and how to go about facing such a tough stretch:
“We talked to our team about it…first off, they wanted to get the game in. They were wanting to play all the games that are on our schedule, so they’re excited about putting the A&M game in on Sunday. But I think they also understand that, yeah, this is a tough stretch. But I think they’re excited about that. One thing that we have done all season is we have continued to talk to our team about how no matter what is thrown in front of us, we can handle this. One of our players walking down the hall just made a comment and said, ‘We’re built for this.’ And I got cold chills, because that’s exactly the mindset you want your team having. They can handle this. They can be resilient. We can get through anything.”

On the importance this upcoming series of games is for the team, playing three teams in the Top-25:
“I think these games are big games on our schedule regardless of where they’re placed. The placement of them, you’ve just got to get up every night. But that’s the SEC. And hopefully the way we’ve prepared our team, we have to get up for everybody we play. It doesn’t matter if they’re ranked or not, because if you don’t, you’re not going to win, not in the SEC. And so, I’m hopeful that that preparation will give our players confidence as they step out on the court each and every night to be prepared and to be focused to play. I’ll tell you this – the team is excited. The team is really excited about the challenges and understand that it’s a challenge, but they’re really excited about the opportunity.”

On postseason play coming up:
“I know there have been some communications about the NCAA Tournament and about the SEC Tournament with our operations folks trying to go ahead and get some logistics prepared. I think for us, the thing that gives me confidence about the SEC Tournament is how the SEC has handled our season. I think the protocols that our conference have put into place have been encouraging. They’ve given us a lot of confidence and even a little bit of security, knowing that we’re going out and doing things and we’re still getting to play basketball – most of the time – and as safely as possible. And I think the SEC has done a terrific job. I’ve been so proud of our league and how we handled things, so I feel really good about that. I know the NCAA has taken a lot of time to make sure that the protocols that they’re going to put into place are also very safe, and I think our team will feel comfortable with both tournaments and the things that need to be in place to play those games.”

On how the players mentally handled the second COVID-19 pause:
“I’ll be honest with you, the shoulders slumped a little bit more this time. It took me a little bit longer to get myself picked back up. I feel like that’s human nature, and I admitted it to our team. I admitted it. I said, ‘Listen, I’ve allowed myself to be down, but no more. Now, we’ve got to pick ourselves back up, and we’ve got to move forward.’ To say it wasn’t tough would not be telling the truth. It was tough. It was another gut punch. But again, when I asked them, (the team) responded. They were able to turn their focus to something else. You know, like I said, we kept them active. We did get an extra day off for some people who probably needed a day off, so maybe there were some positives there.”

On the challenges she anticipates Texas A&M will present:
“Well, they are extremely talented. They have so many good players. I think that alone is the challenge. They can come off their bench with really, really good players that can affect the game in multiple ways – offensively, defensively, on the boards. So, I think their depth is at an elite level. It’s something you don’t see a lot of nationwide. Like you said, they’ve been able to win games, and they’ve looked different doing it. They’ve played zone, they’ve played man, they’ve been aggressive, they’ve set up their offense. So, they can do a lot of different things, and they can adapt pretty quickly. I think they’re very competitive. They have great balance on the court scoring and great athleticism on the defensive end whether they’re in man or zone. So, I think just their personnel, period, is the biggest challenge.”

On the importance of earning a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament and the idea of controlling their own destiny:
“I actually had mentioned that in passing to a couple of our players the other day. We were talking about things and I said, ‘We’re kind of in control here. We decide where we want to be. It’s up to us.’ That’s where we’re at at this moment. We’re in this position. I think for our team, they get it. They get the big picture. But at the same time, I don’t think they’re too far gone that they’re looking at it as such an important stretch. I think they can dial it down and see that every game is important in itself. That’s where I want them to be. You’ve got to finish strong. You’ve got to play well. We know that. We’ve had to do that all season, especially in SEC play. You’ve got to play well to get wins. Hopefully, we can continue to play well and put ourselves in position to compete for a win every night.”

On what the team needs to do to beat Kentucky on Thursday:
“We have to take care of the basketball. We have to get great shots, and we’ve got to be so alert defensively. I think it’s five people understanding their roles defensively. We’ve also got to do a great job on the boards. In the first game (against Kentucky), we took care of business on the boards. We have to do that again.”

On how good it is for both Tennessee’s men’s and women’s basketball programs to be ranked in the Top 20:
“I think it’s great. I think success breeds success. When people think Tennessee, they’re immediately thinking about some of these premier programs. Right now, when you’re thinking about basketball, you’ve got two successful teams this year – two teams that have won some big games and that have had some pretty good national attention. That’s a really good thing. I think it’s a positive image, not only for our athletic department and our teams, but for our university.”

-UT Athletics