Rocky Top Talk, a Tennessee Volunteers community

Shekinna Stricklen, Glory Johnson, Meighan Simmons, and Pat Summitt clean up the SEC awards for the Lady Vols. David Hooper has his breakdown of each at the link above, but I must add that this team is looking far more impressive over the last few weeks and after some doubts about how far they'd go in the tournament (from me, mostly) their potential once at full health is off the charts.

Tennessee Lady Vols point guard Meighan Simmons drives me nuts and I don't even have a strong rooting interest in the team. She has got to be among the most maddeningly fascinating freshman talents in the country because it's almost impossible to know whether you want someone to reign her in or just show her the ways of the Force because it's so strong within her. Her line tonight as described by David Hooper at SBN's Tennessee blog Rocky Top Talk. Meighan Simmons had a fire and ice night with 15 points (including several clutch points late), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, ... and 9 turnovers. She's a freshman; give her a break this time. Just as Hooper implores us to give Simmons a break, I often feel like those who want to consider Tennessee a national championship contender look at their talent but have to ignore a lot of blemishes (e.g. 24 turnovers tonight) in order to imagine that coming to fruition. Indeed Simmons has time and I'd argue she does less harm than good even now. But after the relatively few times I've watched this team (with & without Bjorklund), I'm left wondering how far they can really go this year and how close they really are to the likes of Baylor, UConn, and Stanford right now?