Kellie Harper previews Lady Vols’ basketball ahead of season opener

Tennessee opens the 2020-21 season Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

On what newcomers have impressed her the most:
“I think all of them (have been impressive) in their own way. Keyen Green is coming in with great energy and great explosiveness, great leadership, and great competitiveness. Newcomer Marta Suárez has a broad skill set and can play a variety of positions. She’s very competitive, works very hard, and has great size. Jordan Walker, playing the point for us, has come in and given us that added depth that we needed in that position. She plays with poise, and I think it’s been good for our team.”

On how ready the team is to start the season despite recent events and adversity:
“They’re ready to play somebody else. They are ready to go out and put on a uniform and play. Coaches, we’re always trying to get more practices in, but it’s time. It’s time for them to get out there and play someone else, and we can start advancing. In terms of ready, we have our basic man (defense), we have a zone, some zone offense, some man offense; we have some transition stuff, a few out-of-bounds plays, so I think we’ve covered just about everything we need to cover for game one.”

On how the team has responded to the preseason media polls:
“They probably saw it. They see everything. We haven’t even talked about it. It’s not anything that I’m going to get worked up over. We’re out here trying to do our job. I love the preseason polls, because they get people talking about basketball. That’s exciting. I think that’s why we’re getting those polls out, but at the end of the day, it’s what you do on the court, and those preseason polls in about another two weeks really won’t matter.”