![\"Tennessee](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770722242_14_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nIt has been a rough few weeks for No. 22 Tennessee and coach Kim Caldwell, who have lost three of their last four games.<\/p>\n
Losing is bad enough, but the Lady Vols (17-6) haven’t been competitive in the defeats, including a record loss to No. 2 South Carolina on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just had a lot of quit in us tonight and that\u2019s been something that\u2019s been consistent with our team is when we\u2019re not comfortable and things don\u2019t go our way and I have a team that\u2019ll just quit on you and you can\u2019t do that in big games,\u201d Caldwell said after the 43-point loss to the Gamecocks. \u201cYou can\u2019t do that anytime in the SEC, but you certainly can\u2019t do that at a program like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
That came a few games after a 30-point defeat to UConn that was the biggest margin in the history of that rivalry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to fix it,\u201d Caldwell said. \u201cThey have to decide they want to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their six losses, the Lady Vols have averaged defeats by nearly 23 points a game.<\/p>\n
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Lady Vols, who face former coach Kellie Harper and Missouri on Thursday and then No. 4 Texas on Sunday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tennessee guard Talaysia Cooper (55) passes against South Carolina guard Ta’niya Latson (00) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Columbia, S.C., Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. Credit: AP\/Nell Redmond<\/p>\n
\u201cWin your next game. Win your next game. It\u2019s embarrassing. We\u2019re embarrassed. Win your next game,\u201d Caldwell said.<\/p>\n
The Lady Vols lost earlier this season to No. 2 UCLA, which is coming off its own big win last week. The Bruins topped Michigan by three on the road to retain sole possession of first place in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told our team this was going to be like an Elite Eight matchup,\u201d UCLA coach Cori Close said after the win. “You could feel the intensity of each possession, and that\u2019s something honestly, we needed because we haven\u2019t had it since Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bruins visit No. 13 Michigan State on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770722243_920_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
South Carolina center Madina Okot, left, and Tennessee guard Jaida Civil, right, battle for control of the ball during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Columbia, S.C., Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. Credit: AP\/Nell Redmond<\/p>\n
Early reveal<\/p>\n
The NCAA will announce the top 16 teams to this point of the season on Saturday to give a look at which teams currently would be hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
NET rating<\/p>\n
UConn still holds the top spot in the NET ratings Monday ahead of UCLA, South Carolina and Texas. The SEC has five of the top 11 spots. <\/p>\n
North Dakota State and Richmond are the top mid-major teams, coming in at 40 and 41, respectively.<\/p>\n
The NET is just one tool the NCAA selection committee uses to figure out which teams make the NCAA Tournament and where they are seeded. It has predicted the winner pretty accurately since it first was used in 2021. Four of the five national champions were No. 1 in the NET on Selection Sunday.<\/p>\n
Games of the week<\/p>\n
No. 17 TCU at No. 12 Baylor, Thursday. First place in the Big 12 will be on the line as the Bears have a one-game lead in the standings on the Horned Frogs, who also host third-place West Virginia on Sunday.<\/p>\n
No. 24 Princeton at Columbia, Friday. The top spot in the Ivy League will be on the line as the Tigers visit the Lions. Princeton holds a one-game lead in the standings over Columbia and Harvard. The Lions handed the Tigers their lone loss in conference play when they met two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a rough few weeks for No. 22 Tennessee and coach Kim Caldwell, who have lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,319,217,231,772,1544,2148],"class_list":{"0":"post-594402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116046060215573992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}