Summitt disappointed with lack of leadership

KNOXVILLE — The energy of Tasha Butts is still leaving an impact on the Lady Vols basketball program.

Butts, a year removed from being a guard at Tennessee, is now a graduate assistant in the program, and she did her part to energize her former teammates following the Lady Vols' uninspired 52-48 win over Temple on Sunday.

The former emotional leader of the team made a compilation video of the most emotional moments from last season — whether it be one of her own last-second shots, Shyra Ely taking a charge or former center Ashley Robinson screaming.

She showed it to the team after practice yesterday.

''Even when I was watching the tape, I felt excited about it,'' senior point guard Loree Moore said. ''I wanted to get out there and get going.

''I was like cheering for Ashley.''

No. 4 Tennessee (4-1) has not had much of a spark in its game so far this season, and the Lady Vols will need that tonight when they play host to No. 10 Duke (5-1).

''We don't have the same type of energy, the same type of emotion we had on last year's team,'' Moore said. ''We're just bland.''

Things got so bad yesterday that Coach Pat Summitt dismissed Dominique Redding from practice after a series of mistakes by the sophomore.

Summitt said she has been disappointed with the lack of leadership from the Lady Vols this year, especially considering the way Tennessee started the season at Chattanooga with a 68-34 win.

''We have not sustained that consistently,'' Summitt said.

While the Lady Vols are searching for some sort of personality for this team, it seems only fitting that the Duke game last year was the game that set the identity for that team.

The Lady Vols upset then-No. 1 Duke 72-69 in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 24. They also lost Moore for the season with an ACL injury from that game.

''While we lost Loree, it really gave the other players a lot of confidence that they could go in and play that way in that environment,'' Summitt said.

When Moore went down with the injury, she said she knew immediately what had happened, but she still managed to come back into the game and make a key 3-pointer.

''I wanted to still play,'' Moore said. ''We were down still. I felt like some way I can help my team out. The main thing I was thinking about was I knew I did it, but I didn't want my teammates to see that.''

That's the emotion that Moore and the rest of the Lady Vols have been missing this season.

''It's amazing when you do feel that energy, when you get excited,'' Moore said. ''We're not right now. We're not having fun.''