For longtime Tennessee basketball fans, it’s easy to place their hopes of a return to national title glory in the hands of third-year coach and Tennessee basketball alum Kellie Harper. That narrative has storybook ending written all over it.

Pat Summitt, one of the most iconic and successful coaches in all of college basketball, started out at Tennessee in the early 1970s and served as team coach, athletic trainer, tutor, driver and equipment launderer, as so many women of her era did. Eventually, Summitt built a dynasty at Tennessee, winning eight national championships between 1988 and 2008. In 2012, Summitt stepped down after the symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s started to impede her ability to coach. Over the next seven seasons, the women’s basketball community watched the program slowly slip down the ladder of national prominence, while also mourning the loss of Summitt when she passed away in 2016.

Tennessee’s hiring of Harper in 2019 ignited new hope around the team. Kellie Harper (then Kellie Jolly) had been a starting point guard for Summitt and was integral to the Vols’ national championship three-peat from 1996-98. After leading her new squad to a 21-10 record her first year at the helm, and following it up with a 17-8 season last year, Tennessee caught everyone’s attention by going 18-1 through the first half of this season and grabbing a top-four national ranking.

Supporters and media were abuzz with talk of Tennessee’s “resurgence.” Harper was fulfilling the promise she represented; Pat Summitt’s student was now the teacher, and a return to glory seemed imminent. Those who’ve watched women’s college basketball become more and more unforgiving, however, know there is no such fairytale.

Harper knows that as well as anyone, but it hasn’t stopped her from focusing on the little things. When she first took the job at her alma mater, there were certain aspects she wanted to focus on right away.

“Establishing how I wanted it to look, how I wanted it to feel was really important early on,” she recalled in a recent conversation with Just Women’s Sports. “For me, I know what it needs to look like to be successful and that we’ve gotta be gritty. We’ve gotta be tough. We’ve gotta be competitive, have a little chip-on-our-shoulder type of feel.”

Another important task for Harper has been to educate her team about Tennessee’s legacy, while not making it a burden for her players who may have been too young to have even watched Summitt on TV.

“When I was a player, Pat shared the history with us. It wasn’t forced. It was just important to her that we know who came before and what they did,” Harper said. “I think that’s important for our team. I think it’s important that they know the history and we’ve done different things to learn that. But at the same time, you can’t be successful off of your past. You’ve gotta be successful based on what you’re doing now. So, it’s important to carry on the tradition and the legacy of so many great people that came before, but also at the same time, they can still carve out their own piece in history.”

That's our coach 🔥

🎥 𝙎𝙀𝘾 𝙄𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 pic.twitter.com/UPrHbi69SQ

— Lady Vol Basketball (@LadyVol_Hoops) February 15, 2022

Keeping two feet planted firmly in the present moment has helped Harper maintain a level head during the past few weeks. In their Jan. 23 game against Georgia, grad student Keyen Green, a valuable leader and on-court producer, suffered a season-ending ACL tear. The Vols went on to lose three of their next four games and dropped from No. 4 to No. 13 in the AP Poll. Now at No. 12, Tennessee suffered more adversity Thursday night, falling to Alabama 74-64 in an SEC matchup despite a 20-point, 13-rebound double-double from Tamari Key.

When losses come in such bundles, an overreaction from those on the outside is all but guaranteed. Harper’s job has been to keep things in perspective for those on the inside.

“The mindset that we have to have is this isn’t catastrophic. It feels like it is because we haven’t dealt with it all year,” Harper said. “Another thing is that getting into the top five is maybe easier than staying there … there’s pressure there. The expectations are high, and our players have to learn how to live in that space. This is new for a lot of our players.”

It would be easy after the Feb. 6 loss to UConn to regret signing on for the marquee matchup in the middle of conference play, but Harper wasn’t letting their recent rough patch cloud her judgment of the bigger picture.

“There’s a lot of talk, a lot of attention on those games and I thought it was good. I think it’s a good situation to put a team in,” she explained. “It’s a loud environment, good crowd, really good for team discipline. If you want to be the best, you’ve gotta be able to perform in those situations.”

Heading into Storrs as the seventh-ranked team in the nation, and taking on the 10th-ranked Huskies, was definitely new for her players. Until this season, the Vols hadn’t outranked UConn since the preseason poll in 2012, causing diehard Tennessee fans to do an extra little jig when they surpassed UConn in Week 6 this year.

Although losing Green was a significant blow to the team both on and off the court, it’s 6-foot-2 junior Jordan Horston who leads the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals. She’s also second in blocks, behind 6-foot-6 center Key. Horston has played her way onto the midseason list for the Naismith Player of the Year Trophy and the top-10 list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, given to the top shooting guard in the nation. Playing under a brighter national spotlight has been important developmentally for Horston.

“Jordan has really matured over her career here at Tennessee. She’s very competitive. She’s a great teammate. She wants to win,” Harper said. “You have to understand you’re going to make mistakes. You’ve gotta play through those mistakes. That’s mental toughness. I think that’s one of the biggest areas that Jordan has improved.”

JORDY AT THE 🚨

16 PTS / 13 REB / 7 AST

( @ladylynn22_'s 12th double-double of the year ) pic.twitter.com/SlMiPCDuJc

— Lady Vol Basketball (@LadyVol_Hoops) February 14, 2022

With back-to-back conference wins against Missouri and Vanderbilt last week, Tennessee has shown it can weather the storms in an otherwise stellar season, lessons that could prove useful come tournament time. With big matchups ahead, including against top-ranked South Carolina on Sunday and Kim Mulkey’s LSU a week later, Tennessee has the chance to add ample fuel to the “resurgence” storyline before March.

Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out for the Vols, Harper will continue to shape the pieces that are essential for getting Tennessee back into national championship contention.

“One of the big things for me is our players have to actually love the game, because this is hard. What we do is hard,” she said. “And doing it at Tennessee is harder than most places because of the set of eyes on you.”

She’s not expecting the fairytale version. Kellie Harper is here for the real thing.

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

Seven-a-side football is going global, with the newly announced World Sevens Football (W7F) set to kick off in May 2025.

Promising a $5 million prize pool per event, W7F will be a series of competitions in the same fashion as tennis' Grand Slams, with tournaments scheduled in "football-loving cities" worldwide.

Jennifer Mackesy, a minority owner of the NWSL’s Gotham FC and the WSL’s Chelsea FC, is a co-founder of the new soccer venture. Additionally, some of the game’s biggest names are backing W7F, including the USWNT's two-time World Cup champions Tobin Heath and Kelley O’Hara.

Heath is helming the W7F's player advisory council, which includes O'Hara and a trio of former international stars — England defender Anita Asante, longtime Sweden captain and midfielder Caroline Seger, and France defender Laura Georges — who are all shareholders in the organization as well.

Aly Wagner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the USWNT and co-founder of the NWSL's Bay FC, is serving as the new venture's chief of strategy.

"I'm so excited to play a role in building World Sevens Football," O’Hara said in a press release. "This groundbreaking format brings a new level of energy to the game while creating incredible opportunities for female footballers to showcase their talent on a global stage — and compete for a very lucrative prize pool."

"W7F is creating a future where women footballers have greater opportunities, financial security, and a bigger platform to connect with fans," echoed Heath in a statement. "This is about legacy — about changing the game for generations to come. And as a 1v1 artist myself, this format is a dream stage for those duels."

W7F to kick off alongside Champions League final

Each event will field eight professional women's clubs to compete in seven-on-seven matches, with teams explicitly in charge of all roster decisions. Games will be comprised of two 15-minute halves, with potential extra time periods for tiebreakers.

The first-ever contest will take place in Portugal from May 21st through 23rd, offering soccer fans an early treat ahead of the May 24th UEFA Women’s Champions League final, with at least one more W7F tournament currently in the works for 2025.

Already the broadcaster of the UWCL, streamer DAZN will be W7F’s global broadcasting, production, and marketing partner.

If change has been the driving force behind the 2024/25 women’s college basketball season, the Iowa Hawkeyes never took their foot off the gas pedal.

After four seasons spent watching 2024 graduate Caitlin Clark become one of the most impactful players of all time, Iowa has leaned hard into reinvention this year. It's a plan the No. 6 seed will hope pays off as they continue their NCAA tournament run on Monday after a dominant first-round 92-57 victory over Murray State.

Iowa’s rise to college basketball greatness is known. Clark, a home state hero, decides to build something unique with the Hawkeyes rather than heading to a blue-chip school. She then rewrites the very concept of a successful college career, breaking every scoring record that crosses her path while leading her team to two straight Final Four appearances.

With Clark, the team built a reputation for tough defense, logo threes, raucous crowds, and an elite competitive edge that electrified fans around the country. Clark may have been the headline, but Iowa created the platform.

“I think that for our team in particular, people do fall in love with the personalities of the women, and they want to support them, and they want to get behind them,” recently retired Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder told Just Women’s Sports last month.

According to Bluder, Iowa’s winning roots run deep. Before Clark, the Hawkeyes rallied around another homegrown talent: 2019 National Player of the Year Megan Gustafson.

“We don't have any pro sports, so the Hawks are a big deal here. Our players are treated like professional players.” Bluder attested. “We've had women's basketball in the state for over 100 years. And not everybody can say that.”

Iowa basketball roots run deep

Basketball heritage is woven into Iowa’s culture as it carries through much of the Midwest. But what the Hawkeyes felt entering 2024/25 wasn’t a just tide shift. It was the kind of shakeup that could cause even the most beloved program to buckle under the pressure.

Last summer, Clark transitioned from Iowa superstar to the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. And her teammate Kate Martin surprised the world by deploying her college strengths at the professional level. 

And it wasn’t just the players that left — the Hawkeyes also lost their longtime leader.

Bluder now sits on the sidelines, after amassing more Iowa wins than any other head coach in university history. She guided the Hawkeyes to 18 NCAA tournament appearances, only tallying one losing season over her 24 years. Beyond the X’s and O’s, Bluder was known for investing deeply in her players, exemplified by recruiting Clark and guiding her through her transformative college career.

Bluder shifts focus to the sidelines

The legendary coach has taken a step back from the day-to-day elements of women’s basketball, but she remains engaged with the sport. She currently serves as an advocate for technologically informed advances in basketball scouting and performance with companies like GameChanger. And she's always available to speak to reporters and communities alike on the subject of college basketball.

Even with distance, Bluder’s take on this season’s squad are as sharp as they ever were. “This is a team that lost four starters and the world's best players,” she said. “Let's not forget that when we're trying to compare.”

Bouncing back from the loss of a luminary head coach is never easy. And the Hawkeyes subsequently hit some bumps in the road this season, their first under longtime assistant and now head coach Jan Jansen. The reconstructed group began the season 8-0 before a skid that saw them lose seven of their next 11 games. Suddenly, a team not accustomed to losing had to find their patience.

“People can be a little bit unforgiving, and they're naive,” added Bluder. “Because this is a young team.”

Finding their way in the post-Clark era

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Hawkeyes finally finding their spark coincided with a visit from their most celebrated alum. It was early February when Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey, at an event planned around the unranked side’s high-profile matchup with JuJu Watkins and the top-ranked USC Trojans.

Rather than looking like also-rans up against the new wave of basketball wunderkinds, Iowa came to play. The Hawkeyes downed USC 76-69, officially becoming a bracket buster in the making. At once, wading through all that mid-season turmoil began to feel like working towards something, not against it.

“I’m just trying to stay steady,” Jensen said after that February victory. “Obviously a top four win is huge. I’m incredibly proud of them and I intend to build on it.”

Bluder agreed.

“I told her after the game, ‘Jan, this is your first top five win,’” she said, surrounded by fellow spectators like David Letterman and other celebrity fans. They watched from the stands as Iowa chipped away at a new team identity, one centered on transfer senior Lucy Olsen’s explosive shooting and the stabilizing interior presence of former Clark and Martin compatriot Hannah Stuelke.

“It just clicked that game, like, ‘This is what we brought you here to do,’” Olsen told The Athletic late last week, reflecting back on her team’s game-changing win.

Iowa paves a path to March Madness

Going into this weekend’s NCAA tournament, Iowa’s results have been there. They’ve won 10 of their last 13 games, with all three of those losses decided by single-digit margins against ranked opponents. That includes a near-upset of No.1 overall seed UCLA in late February, with Olsen averaging over 21 points since the victory over USC. And while the Hawkeyes’ corner of the bracket might be tough, they’ve managed to make some noise.

And momentum appears to be on Iowa’s side as they gear up for this afternoon’s second-round clash with No. 3 seed Oklahoma. The team recorded a tournament program-record 28 assists against Murray State — no small feat considering the Clark era's free-flowing basketball. All 12 Iowa players to feature last game scored at least two points, with five players registering double-digits.

The Hawkeyes will be eager to keep the good vibes going. But perhaps more importantly, they’re having fun playing the patented style that made so many fans fall in love with Iowa basketball. 

"It's fun to score obviously, but being able to make the extra pass... that just shows how special this team is,” said Iowa freshman Taylor Stremlow after Saturday’s win. “How much we love to share the ball, and support each other." 

Now aligned, the future is bright for Iowa

Resisting the temptation to let their season tank in favor of a lengthy rebuild, Iowa is achieving something far more difficult and by many degrees more interesting. They’re holding their own in an increasingly difficult Big Ten, leveraging their talent and potentially rewriting their legacy should they make it to the Sweet 16 — or beyond.

Of course, Bluder is keeping her eye on Iowa’s future. She’s already excited about next year’s recruiting class, saying she’s looking forward to five-star prospect Addy Deal joining the team. And the Hawkeyes announced they’ll be holding onto senior floor general Kylie Feuerbach for one more season.

“If recruits feel how great the atmosphere is in Iowa, in Carver [Hawkeye Arena], they're going to want to come back,” Bluder noted. True to her word, fan engagement hasn’t waned in the post-Clark era. The team averaging at-capacity attendance throughout the 2024/25 season.

A Cinderella March Madness run hangs in the balance

Iowa women’s basketball has been nothing short of a dream for a state so deeply entrenched in the sport. But things change, and the Hawkeyes are shifting their focus to a new dream: creating a level of success that extends far beyond a single figure. 

Regardless of whether they’re able to extend their Cinderella run or if their March Madness campaign comes to an end this afternoon, Iowa’s 2024/25 season was a hard-fought step in the right direction.

“Everybody asks me if I knew this was going to happen,” Bluder said of the legacy that lives on in this new team. “Of course, I didn't know it was going to happen. I hoped it was going to happen, but you never know for sure. We just had a belief.”

The quest for renewed parity in the NWSL received a boost over the weekend, as the 2025 regular season’s second matchday saw a few bottom-table teams capture key wins.

While the reigning champion Orlando Pride and the Kansas City Current maintained their perfect 2025 season records with respective wins over fellow 2024 semifinalists Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit, teams lower on last year's table claimed valuable points over the weekend.

With a 2-0 Saturday win over Racing Louisville, 2024 expansion team-turned-playoff debutante Bay FC earned three points, while last season’s stragglers San Diego Wave, Seattle Reign, and Houston Dash also put important points on the board — and scored some spectacular goals in the process.

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Rookie class fuels big NWSL second matchday wins

In the wake of a superstar exit, the Wave's 3-2 Saturday win over the Utah Royals helped buoy San Diego's early season.

Meanwhile, for Seattle and Houston — last season’s two lowest-ranked finishers — the weekend victories were especially sweet.

The Reign notched a 2-1 road victory over the North Carolina Courage on Saturday, secured by absolute screamers from Seattle's midfield mainstay Jess Fishlock, who scored in her 200th cap with the Reign, and 18-year-old center back Jordyn Bugg, whose stellar strike was her first-ever professional goal.

"Not only are we different, we’re really young," said Seattle head coach Laura Harvey after the match. "To come here with that youth and energy really helped us, matched with the experience of some of the older ones."

The Dash also snagged a 2-1 road win after a scrappy Sunday battle with the Chicago Stars.

After trailing by an early goal from Chicago forward Jameese Joseph, Houston quickly answered back with a corner-kick equalizer off of veteran defender Paige Nielsen in the match's 20th minute.

Notching her career's second-ever goal, rookie midfielder Maggie Graham ultimately put the Dash on top with a second-half game-winner.

Though this season's rookie class enters with an air of uncertainty thank to the elimination of the college draft, it's their young firepower that's pushing last year’s bottom-dwellers up the league's ladder — and perhaps, in a few months, into NWSL playoff contention.

With the first round and half of the second round in the books, March Madness tipped off with massive wins, narrow upsets, busted brackets, and the survival of every team seeded No. 3 and above.

While seven of those elite squads will square off against lower seeds in their second-round matchups on Monday, five have already snagged spots in the Sweet Sixteen — No. 1-seeds UCLA and South Carolina, No. 2 seeds TCU and Duke, and No. 3 seed Notre Dame all advance with Sunday victories.

Sunday's second round also saw No. 5-seeds rule the day, as Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Kansas State all booked Sweet Sixteen berths behind wins over their No. 4-seed hosts — Baylor, Ohio State, and Kentucky, respectively.

The clash between the two Wildcat teams proved to be the game of the weekend, as Kentucky pushed Kansas State to brink before falling 80-79 in overtime to the Big 12's big 'Cats.

The lights-out play of forward Temira Poindexter secured Kansas State's first Sweet Sixteen trip in 23 years, as the senior led Sunday's game with 24 points — all of which she scored from beyond the arc.

For fellow senior Serena Sundell, who had an impressive 19-point, 14-assist performance of her own, the win helped erase memories of last March Madness, when Kansas State was ousted in a second-round upset loss.

"That loss, we all just took it so personal," remarked Sundell after Sunday's victory. "I'm just so proud of our program, and to be able to bring [this win] back to our community and our university is so special."

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Top seeds show out with blockbuster offense

Before tackling second-round matchups, March Madness's biggest names dominated the first two days of games, making NCAA tournament history with six teams scoring over 100 points in their first-round wins.

No. 1-seeds South Carolina and Texas, No. 2-seed UConn, No. 3-seeds Notre Dame and LSU, and No. 5 seed Tennessee all surpassed the century mark in their 2025 March Madness debuts, tying the record for the most 100+ point team performances in a single NCAA tournament — all before the second round.

While each of those teams had at least one star score 20 or more points, UConn guard Azzi Fudd led the six-team field, posting 27 points to help the Huskies defeat No. 15-seed Arkansas State 103-34 on Saturday — Fudd's first NCAA tournament game in two years.

Notre Dame standouts Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron closely trailed Fudd on the stat sheet, with each Irish guard scoring 24 points en route to a 106-54 Friday win over No. 14-seed Stephen F. Austin.

Those six blockbuster performances ultimately ballooned the first round's margin of victory to a whopping 26.5 points —the highest for any non-championship round in NCAA history.

Even more, the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first round claimed a historic level of chalk, marking the first time in 31 years that no seed higher than No. 10 escaped the round of 64. Only two double-digit teams advanced — No. 10-seeds Oregon and South Dakota State.

Those arguably expected early-round oustings, however, bring top-tier matchups to the tournament's subsequent rounds — meaning the coming weeks will likely inject even more Madness into March.