Kellie Harper previews Lady Vols’ basketball ahead of season opener

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

On who will start in the season opener besides Rennia Davis:
“Rae Burrell will be on the court as well. Outside of that, we’re still figuring some things out. We’ve got a little depth and players competing for those spots, and I think that’s a good thing.”

On what she is looking forward to learning about the team once the season starts:
“The biggest thing for me is how are they translating from practice to games? I want to see that, and I want to get them out there. Obviously, the first game or two, it’s uniforms, it’s lights, let’s see what our new normal looks like out there. Let’s be sure that we’re communicating, that we’re doing what we need to do. Are we able to settle in when the lights are on, when the uniforms are on, and execute? We’ve been able to do that in practice, and I want that to translate to the game.”

On what advice she has given the team on how to handle what this season has in store:
“We’ve talked about being flexible, and no matter what, no matter who we’ve got, we’re going to step out and compete. We’ve talked about those things. We’ve also talked about not having excuses, because there are going to be a lot of hurdles. We don’t even know what they are at this point. We’re just going to take a no excuse, step out and play type of approach. That’s where I want our players and our staff to be comfortable handling adversity, handling things looking different from day to day, and they’ve done that so far. They really haven’t blinked when those things have popped up.”