quote:
Gosh I hate autocorrect ... "St Roman" was supposed to be "Stroman."

Anyways, the girls looked good tonight, on the road, in a place that has typically be tough to get a win.

18 turnovers was not good. We'll need to keep that around 10 to beat Tennessee because they will capitalize.

I hope we sell the place out Monday night. Huge game. Massive game.

I will be totally shocked if we don't sell out, for these reasons:

1) the game is easily the top conference game of the year, with the regular season title on the line. UT doesn't have any more tough games for them after this one, while USC still plays @ UK and hosts a solid Miss St. But those teams have multiple conference losses and won't challenge for the title even if they beat USC, and if USC beats UT then a loss to one of them (if it happens) still has the Gamecocks in position for a share of the title with UT, or the tie-breaking edge on UT in H2H play (don't know how the SEC does that for record ties) for lone ownership. And Tennessee is still a standard in the SEC for wcbb, and Coach Staley only has 1 win against them at USC, so it's always going to be a statement game for her and us regardless of each team's standing in the SEC. So bottom line, this is a very critical game this season.

2) The game may also play a role for #1 seeding for the NCAAT. There's still tough games to play for USC with the other gms to play, while UT already has some losses on their resume and were not as solid a #1-seed to begin with as USC is. There's still some tough games to play in the SECT ahead for both teams. IMO even losing to UT would still keep USC in the final top 4 discussion for a #1, especially if they go on and beat the remainder of their schedule, but teams like Baylor and Notre Dame are making solid cases for themselves, and with UConn already locked in (who do they lose to the rest of the way?) and UT added to the discussion, that's 5 teams right there for 4 seeds. USC doesn't want to be the odd team out..

3) It's a ESPN2 televised game, which IMO has more cache with the local fanbase than the SECN+ for getting your "hi Mom's" in.

4) Tennessee carries it's fanbase with them: they regularly have a huge contingency of fans that travel to away games, similar to how UK's men's team does. Not to mention it's just as important a game for them as it for us. And USC is bringing it's own fans to home games this season in UT fashion. And the fact that this game will be on Monday shouldn't deter our fans in any way whatsoever: last Monday we hosted struggling Vanderbilt, and put 15K+ fannies in the seats for them. The additional 3K needed for an official sellout should be taken care of by the Lady Vols themselves.