Parker gives Lady Vols high hopes

These are words - from a player yet to play a college game - that should produce concern among the 323 other Division I women's basketball teams:

"I'm back, 100 percent," Tennessee's Candace Parker says.

The two-time USA TODAY high school player of the year was speaking about the condition of her left knee, which had a ligament reconstructed in 2003 and last year had two cartilage repairs, forcing her to redshirt her freshman season.

Her game, which includes dunking, three-point shooting and ballhandling, also is coming along.

"I was basically out for two years," says Parker, listed at 6-3 but closer to 6-5. "I tore my ACL, came back and played five months, and then was out again. It took a while to get my timing back, to be honest with you. I think now I'm starting to get it back."

In an August pickup game, she dunked on a Tennessee men's player. But Parker, who won a high school all-star game dunk contest against boys, downplayed that moment:

"I definitely felt more confident in my knee after that. But dunking didn't mean my timing was back, my defense was back and everything like that. I honestly didn't feel back until (early October)."

Parker spent most practices last season doing rehabilitation exercises. That work plus time in the weight room has transformed her willowy frame.

"She has a different body from her high school days," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt says. "Her commitment to getting stronger and working on her skills is exactly what you'd want a player to do, particularly a player of her quality."

Parker has been getting to practice early and staying late to work on shooting. "I was able to shoot last year but couldn't jump," Parker says. "To be on the ground for so long and then have to come back and have to move and shoot, it takes a lot of adjustment. I've got to get my legs back into my shot. I think I'm doing better."

A healthy Parker could help the Lady Vols get their first title since 1998.

"The sky is the limit," Parker says. "This team has tremendous potential. But it's just that - potential - until we do something with that.

"A lot of teams had tremendous potential but never reached it. Our job is not to focus on what we could be but on what we can do with ourselves every day in practice."