KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – University of Tennessee head women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper offered her comments about changes on Thursday to the Lady Vol staff.
Long-time Harper assistant coach Jennifer Sullivan, who has spent the past two seasons on Rocky Top, was announced as head coach at Florida Atlantic University, while fellow second-year UT assistant Lacey Goldwire departed to pursue other opportunities.
“I am so excited for Jennifer to get this much-deserved opportunity to become a head coach,” Harper said. “She has worked so very hard and is prepared to lead her own program. It has been wonderful to work alongside her for several years, and I can’t wait to see the impact she is going to have on the FAU program, both on the court and off.
“We also express our thanks to Lacey as she concludes her time with our program. I appreciate her contributions here as an assistant and recruiting coordinator the past two seasons and wish her the very best as she makes the next step in her career.”
The Tennessee basketball program added significant size to its 2021-22 roster Wednesday when 7-foot forward Jonas Aidoo signed with the Volunteers.
A consensus national top-70 prospect from Durham, North Carolina, Aidoo (pronounced uh-DOO) plans to enroll at UT this summer and will be a freshman next season.
He is rated as high as No. 33 nationally in the Class of 2021 by Rivals.com, and he was tabbed as the top prospect in the state of North Carolina by the 247sports.com composite.
“Jonas comes from a wonderful support system, led by his mother, Regina,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “He’s a high-character young man and will fit our program well in that respect. I love that he is hungry to develop—both as a player and a person. He has set an extremely high standard for himself. He’s a very versatile player with a high basketball IQ, and he’s going to be fun to coach.”
Aidoo is currently completing a postgrad prep year at Liberty Heights Athletic Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was coached by Michael Wright. He averaged 15 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocks this season while shooting 68 percent.
Just last month at the Phenom HoopState Championship in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Aidoo posted a three-game scoring average of 17.3 points while leading Liberty Heights to the championship game.
As a high school senior in 2019-20, Aidoo averaged 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks per game at Durham Voyager Academy.
A growth spurt prior to his sophomore year saw Aidoo add five inches to his frame.
He played his AAU ball with Pro Skills Basketball’s Team Curry program, coached by Sim Frazier.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – An impressive 18 strikeouts in 8.2 innings of work from junior righty, Ashley Rogers and timely runs pushed the No. 16 Tennessee softball team past Tennessee State in Wednesday’s twin bill at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
The Lady Vols (31-6) victories kept them undefeated in their all-time series with Tennessee State (8-24).
Game One Tennessee 2 Tennessee State 1
The Lady Vols pitched by committee in Game one, giving up just one run on four hits, with that run being unearned and coming in the third inning.
Davis led the way at the dish with a pair of hits and a home run in the fourth to give UT a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Tennessee scored the contests opening run when sophomore Kiki Milloy roped her first triple of the season down the right field line and later scored on a groundout by senior Chelsea Seggern. The hit was Milloy’s first extra-base-hit of the season that wasn’t a home run.
Two innings later, TSU responded and knotted things up at 1-1, on an errant throw from third base with a pair of runners on.
In the fourth, Davis blasted one over the wall in left field to give UT its one-run lead back at 2-1.
Rogers came in, in the sixth inning to slam the door, striking out the final six batters to give the Lady Vols win No. 30.
Game Two Tennessee 3 Tennessee State 0
Rogers was nothing short of dominant in game two, pitching 6.2 shutout innings, while giving up just one hit, one walk and striking out 12 batters.
Her performance was her eighth double-digit strikeout performance of the season, while the win upped her season-long record to 18-4.
Milloy led the way at the plate for the Orange & White, slapping a hit in both plate appearances and scoring the would-be winning run in the first inning.
The Lady Vols stormed out of the gates in game two, piling on a trio of runs in the opening inning.
Milloy started things off by scoring on a throwing error after stealing third base. A few batters later, graduate student Cailin Hannon scored on a Sac fly to center, before freshman Rylie West crossed the plate on a fielders’ choice to give UT an early 3-0 lead.
Despite not scoring the rest of the way, Rogers was electric in the circle to finish off the combined shutout and the doubleheader sweep.
UP NEXT
Tennessee returns to SEC play with a three-game set at South Carolina April 17-19 in Columbia. Game one is set for Saturday at 6 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
Ahead of her turn as a co-host with Keith Urban on this weekend’s 56th AnnualACM Awards, Mickey Guyton is turning the spotlight on some up-and-coming artists in the country music community that fans should know…
Check out Mickey talking about Rissi Palmer, Yola, Harper Grae, Reyna Roberts, Brittney Spencer, Caylee Hammack, & The Carolina Chocolate Drops…
Reba McEntire announced on her social media that her concert dates have been moved to 2022.
Reba posted, “We’ve waited as long as we possibly could to make a decision, but unfortunately we’re not going to be able to play our 2021 Reba: Live In Concert dates. As much as I wish we could get back out on the road, it’s just not possible yet. However, don’t worry…we are going to reschedule the dates for 2022. We cannot wait to get back out on the road and bring you our brand new show! If you’ve got your tickets, hang on to them – they’ll be good for the new dates.”
Reba added, “The only show that won’t be possible to reschedule is our July 16, 2021 St. Paul, MN date. Tickets for this show will be refunded.”
But, there was some good news too!
Reba also shared, “I’ve got some big news coming later this year that I hope will be worth the wait for all of us! Stay tuned for some exciting announcements on tour, music and more coming soon.”
Ending with a “Love, Reba” She also added the following info to help people that are affected by the dates moving, “To learn more about what to do with your tickets, visit https://bit.ly/RebaTourUpdate “
Lee Brice woke up early Wednesday to stop by Today with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.
He talked about how his life has changed since the early days of his career, his ACM Award Nominations with Carly Pearce for “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” and of course his new song “Memory I Don’t Mess With.”
Check out the conversation between Lee and Hoda & Jenna right here…
Check out Lee’s music video for “Memory I Don’t Mess With” here…
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee rising senior Rae Burrell is among 20 of the nation’s top collegiate players who have accepted invitations to attend the 2021 USA Basketball Women’s AmeriCup Team trials.
Invitations to the trials, which will be held April 18-21 at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, were issued by the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee and USA Women’s Senior National Team Committee.
Due to COVID-19 precautions, no media or guests will be allowed to view trials sessions. USA Basketball will provide media with images and b-roll for non-commercial, editorial use on a daily basis.
The 20 athletes who have accepted an invitation to attend trials are: Grace Berger (Indiana/Louisville, Ky.); Aliyah Boston (South Carolina/St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.); Jakia Brown-Turner (NC State/Oxen Hill, Md.); Burrell (Tennessee/Las Vegas, Nev.); Veronica Burton (Northwestern/Newton, Mass.); Zia Cooke (South Carolina/Toledo, Ohio); Elissa Cunane (NC State/Summerfield, N.C.); Destanni Henderson (South Carolina/Fort Meyers, Fla.); Naz Hillmon (Michigan/Cleveland, Ohio); Rhyne Howard (Kentucky/Cleveland, Tenn.); Ashley Joens (Iowa State/Iowa City, Iowa); Haley Jones (Stanford/Santa Cruz, Calif.); Elizabeth Kitley (Virginia Tech/Summerfield, N.C.); Diamond Miller (Maryland/Somerset, N.J.); Ashley Owusu (Maryland/Woodbridge, Va.); Khayla Pointer (Louisiana State/Marietta, Ga.); Sedona Prince (Oregon/Liberty Hill, Texas); NaLyssa Smith (Baylor/Converse, Texas); Jenna Staiti (Georgia/Cumming, Ga.); and Hailey Van Lith (Louisville/Wenatchee, Wash.).
A 6-foot-1 guard/forward, Burrell was an All-SEC Second Team selection in 2021, helping Tennessee to a 17-8 overall record, a third-place finish in the SEC at 9-4, an NCAA appearance as a No. 3 seed and final national rankings of No. 14 and 16 in the AP and USA TODAY Coaches polls, respectively. She averaged 16.8 ppg. and 4.6 rpg., ranking second on the team in scoring and fourth in rebounding as the only Lady Vol to start all 25 contests.
Burrell scored in double figures in 22 of 25 games, fired in 15 or more points 17 times and hit 20+ on seven occasions, leading the team in the first two categories and ranking second in the third. She shot 45.8 percent on field goals, 40.2 on three-pointers and 82.5 percent from the free-throw line, all easily career bests. She went a perfect 16 for 16 at the charity stripe in the final four minutes of games.
“The AmeriCup is a national level competition with some of the best players in the Americas,” said Jennifer Rizzotti, chair of the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee. “Being a part of the staff in 2019 gave me a taste of the intensity level of this tournament and the Olympic-level players in it. We need to bring the best players available, and that’s who our committee has worked to identify. Because we are unable to bring WNBA players, we will rely on the best returning college players.
Obviously, this is a very talented group with good junior national team level USA Basketball experience, but they will learn quickly the difference when playing against pros. So, we’ll need to find the 12 players who are up to the challenge of helping us in our dual goal of claiming gold and advancing to the 2022 World Cup qualifying tournament.”
USA National Team head coach Dawn Staley (South Carolina) will serve as head coach of the USA AmeriCup Team, and she will be assisted by University of Arizona head coach Adia Barnes and Rizzotti, 2021 USA National Team assistant coach.
Ten nations from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean will take part in the 2021 AmeriCup, held June 11-19 in Puerto Rico. The top four finishing teams will advance to compete in one of four 2022 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournaments in hopes of earning one of the 12 spots in the 2022 FIBA World Cup field. Australia, host of the 2022 World Cup, and the 2020 Olympic champion, earn automatic berths to the World Cup but will be required to participate in the qualifying process.
The USA has played in five previous FIBA AmeriCups, historically used as a qualifier for an Olympics or FIBA World Cup, including 1989, 1993, 1997, 2007 and 2019. The U.S. has captured three gold medals and one silver medal while compiling a 24-7 all-time record. In the two most recent AmeriCups in which the USA has competed, the U.S. women were a perfect 11-0 and won a pair of gold medals.
