Baylor’s Melissa Jones still hasn’t shaken the strains of “Rocky Top” out of her head from the first time the Lady Bears played Tennessee.

“We hate that song!” cried teammate Morghan Medlock.

Well, not all of them hate it. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, a country music diehard, finds the University of Tennessee’s fight song so catchy that she frequently listens to a CD of it in her car.

Baylor post Brittney Griner (left) breaks up laughing as head coach Kim Mulkey talks of her affinity for Tennessee’s fight song at a Wednesday press conference.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“I like that song! Y’all need to look up the words to that song,” she said. “It’s one of the greatest fight songs in college sports, I’m telling you. ... We’ll listen to it for two days out here at practice, just because I like it, and every now and then I get to do what I want to do.”

While Mulkey’s players may not share their coach’s affinity for hillbilly ditties, every last one of them is looking forward to Saturday’s Sweet 16 game against Tennessee.

How could they not?

In the one-and-done extravaganza that is the NCAA tournament, one seldom gains an opportunity at a second chance. Call it redemption or call it revenge — it’s one of those to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to kind of things — but that’s exactly what awaits the Lady Bears should they upend the tradition-rich and top-seeded Lady Vols in Memphis.

Beat me once, shame on you. Beat me twice?

You get the picture.

“(The Tennessee game) feels like it was forever ago, but it’s still on my mind,” Baylor post Brittney Griner said.

Much has changed since Tennessee’s 74-65 win in the season opener in Knoxville, Tenn. The Lady Bears, who had five players seeing their first college basketball action, have grown up and matured.

Of course, the Lady Vols have improved, too. Pat Summitt’s teams generally do.

To me, that’s what makes this matchup so enticing — arguably the most delicious on the NCAA tournament menu.

I mean, let’s face it. Connecticut against anyone, save maybe the Los Angeles Lakers, is a mismatch. People can talk about how women’s basketball fans would love to see Geno Auriemma and Summitt lock horns again — and most would — but the Huskies will still be a double-digit favorite over anyone in the field, Lady Vols (or Lady Bears) included.

But the Tennessee-Baylor game was a pretty good’un the first time around, and both teams are even better now. At the forefront of that improvement for the Lady Bears is Griner, who scored 15 points and blocked four shots the first time around against Tennessee but has advanced light-years in her development since then. She’ll duel with Tennessee’s 6-6 sophomore Kelley Cain, who averages 10.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and shoots better than 61 percent from the floor.

Then you’ve got the Summitt-Mulkey summit. Two great coaches, yet with contrasting personalities — Mulkey with her heart-on-her-sleeve emotional outbursts, Summitt with a steely-eyed stare that could cause even the most confident referee to shrink into his shell, like a frightened turtle. Despite their differences, both are tougher than advanced calculus.

In their first meeting as head coaches, back in the Sweet 16 in 2004, Tennessee slipped past Baylor, 71-69, due to a controversial foul call on BU’s Jessika Stratton with a tenth of a second left.

The next year, the Lady Bears used that bitter ending as the motivational fuel that carried them to a national championship.

All the players from those teams are long gone. It’s ancient history, Mulkey says, an outcome that has no bearing on what happens now.

But has she forgotten about it? In a word — no.

In two words — hell, no.

“I won’t personally ever forget about it,” Mulkey said. “Coaches tend to remember those things.”

Who knows? Should Baylor be so fortunate as to get past the Lady Vols Saturday, Mulkey’s steel-trap mind might even drift back to that game for a moment.

Remember, she never forgets.

If you don’t believe me, just ask her the lyrics to “Rocky Top.”

bcherry@wacotrib.com

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