There was plenty of competition for our weekly ‘L’ within the past seven days.
Should we give it to The Washington Post for shuttering one of, maybe the, greatest sports departments in any newspaper?
Maybe it should go to the media and fans at the Super Bowl who snubbed Seahawks kicker Jason Meyer in MVP voting, even though he made more field goals than any other kicker in the 60-year history of the big game?
Instead, some other results on Sunday led us to look closer to home for the ‘L’ of the week.
It’s not so great to be a Lady Vol these days.
The Tennessee women’s basketball team has suffered two of the worst defeats in program history in the month of February. Bad enough that the Lady Vols lost by 30 to UCONN on the first day of the month. Then, on Sunday, Tennessee endured its worst loss ever, a 93-50 humbling at the hands of South Carolina.
Yes, the Gamecocks are one of the best women’s basketball programs in the nation — a perennial power and fixture in the Final Four in recent years.
Still, this beat down in Columbia was one for the books, with some stats that were eye-popping for all the wrong reasons.
Tennessee shot 27.7% (18 of 65) from the field, while allowing South Carolina to fire at a gaudy 69.2% (36 of 52). The Gamecocks made twice as many field goals as the Lady Vols, while attempting 13 fewer shots. Tennessee attempted just five free throws, got rebounded by a 39-24 margin, and gave up 54 points in the paint.
The loss was bad enough, but Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell arguably made things worse by throwing her team under the bus in her post game remarks. We’ve written before about the growing epidemic of sore losers in the sports world, and the increasing number of coaches in the sports world who duck, dodge, or decline postgame comments. Still, when a coach throws a team under the bus the way Caldwell did her Lady Vols, it’s never a good sign.
“A lot of quit in us tonight, and that’s been something consistent with our team, is we’re not comfortable and things don’t go our way. And I have a team that just quit on you, and you can’t do that in big games,” Caldwell said in her opening statement.
Caldwell went on to call the loss “embarrassing” (she’s not wrong) and that “we don’t have the leadership we need, player-wise, and we’ve talked about it for a couple of weeks. It can come from anyone anywhere, but we need, do need somebody that is respected and does things the right way, to step up and lead this team from a player standpoint.”
A curious moment came when Caldwell deferred one reporter’s question, saying “… that’s a question for them [the players] about why they can’t stick together.” Easier said than done, considering that Tennessee did not make any players available for the postgame press conference.
Later on, during her appearance on the postgame with the Lady Vol Radio Network, Caldwell said she wouldn’t blame the Tennessee fans if no one showed up for the upcoming two-game home stand.
Yeesh.
Maybe UCONN coach Geno Auriemma can get away with ripping his team like that — as he’s done from time to time through the years — but we don’t know many coaches who reach the heights of success that make a habit of putting all the blame on their players when things go poorly.
Tennessee only has lost five games so far this season, but the losses have been ugly — four of them have been decided by 22 or more points, all against nationally ranked teams. It shows how far the Lady Vols have to go to reach the former heights the program reached, and the continued search for that type of identity since Pat Summitt stepped down as coach.
You can’t spell Lady Vols without an ‘L’. Two of them, in fact.
After Sunday night, they deserve, and receive, one more ‘L’ to grow on.
2026 ‘L’ Of The Week Archive
Jan. 5-11: Green Bay Packers
Jan. 19-25: Pittsburgh Steeelers
Jan. 26-Feb. 1: Alabama basketball