KNOXVILLE — Tennessee women's basketball Coach Pat Summitt told her players earlier this week the only thing they really needed to know about Florida.
This was the team that kept them out of the Final Four for the first time in five years.
Summitt maintains that the Gators' 95-93 victory in a regular-season finale last year kept the Lady Vols from getting a top seed in the NCAA Tournament and ultimately led to their Elite Eight loss to No. 1-overall seed North Carolina.
Fourth-ranked Tennessee (14-1, 1-0 SEC), fresh off its 70-64 win Saturday over archrival Connecticut, gets its first shot at revenge against the Gators (6-10, 0-1) at 6 p.m. tonight at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla.
"All of the returning players understand how costly that loss was," Summitt said. "I think they're mindful of that. I've got to believe we'll be ready to play, probably even more so because of what happened last year."
Florida's come-from-behind, overtime win Feb. 26 was Tennessee's first loss to an unranked team at Thompson-Boling Arena, which opened in 1987.
It also might have been one of the Lady Vols' most damaging regular-season losses in recent memory.
Still not forgotten
A Tennessee team already sputtering into the postseason with a depleted backcourt was dropped to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Cleveland Region, which most experts considered the most difficult of the four regions.
If not for the Florida loss, a No. 1 seed could have been within reach for the Lady Vols, who played the nation's toughest schedule. They could have avoided playing North Carolina in the Elite Eight, perhaps making a fifth straight Final Four appearance a more realistic goal.
"It kept us from getting a No. 1 seed," senior forward Sidney Spencer said. "Who knows where we would have ended up?
"That's such great motivation, and I'm glad that (Summitt) brought it up."
Even before Summitt mentioned it during Monday's practice, no one needed a reminder.
"I never thought they would ever beat us," said senior forward Dominique Redding, who grew up in Clearwater, Fla., about two hours from Gainesville.
Easier time
A loss to Florida might not be as much of a threat for UT this year.
The Gators have dropped their last three games and six of their last eight, including last week's SEC opener against Georgia. But don't expect Tennessee to overlook Florida this time.
"They took away our one seed," junior guard Alexis Hornbuckle said. "We don't want that to be repeated this year."
Still no Moats: Summitt said freshman forward Nicci Moats, who hasn't played since Dec. 22, will not travel with the team for tonight's game. It will be the fourth straight game missed by Moats, who returned to campus Monday after leaving Dec. 28 for undisclosed personal reasons.
Junior guard/forward Alberta Auguste, meanwhile, is expected to play after briefly leaving practice Monday with a shoulder injury.
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