Parker, Vols' size wipe out Pitt's home court edge

	Candace Parker's first-half block of a shot by Marcedes Walker was one of three she registered against the Panthers. AP

By Andrew Lawrence, SI.com

PITTSBURGH -- Never in 112 NCAA appearances had Tennessee ever had to play on an opponent's home floor before a Final Four, and their dedicated fans made sure the indignity wasn't one the top-seeded Lady Vols would have to suffer alone.

The Volunteer Army was in full force for their team's second-round matchup against eighth-seeded Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Their charges were among the first to find parking spaces outside the arena, the earliest to their purple seats inside the lavish Peterson Events Center and the loudest of the visiting fanbases that would descend on the Dayton/Dallas subregional here. As a Lady Vols cheerleader scurried through the Peterson Center maze on her way to the court, there waiting outside the tunnel was another, Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, with a friendly directive. "Cheer good," she said. "I will!" the cheerleader replied on the run.

Despite the familiar fare, Summitt knew her team wouldn't be able to draw on all the comforts of home. If her Vols were to advance to their 26th straight Sweet 16, she said in her pregame comments the day before, they would have to unpack their "defense and board play" -- critical cargo for competing in a hostile environment.

It didn't appear as if either was left behind in transit. Thanks to their stalwart frontline, the Lady Vols jumped out to a 19-9 rebounding advantage, which begat a 14-8 scoring advantage in the paint, which begat a 16-point advantage at halftime. Candace Parker's monster block on 6-foot-3 junior center Marcedes Walker was the first of three in the game to go along with 30 points, 18 of them scored in the second half. Walker, the Lady Vols' primary defensive concern heading into this game, seemed on her way to a quiet night until the Lady Vols hit her with a pancake block going up for a rebound that left her splayed in the paint and staring up at the cup as time expired in the first half. Though she'd go off for 15 of her 19 points in the second half, teaming with guard Shavonte Zellous to keep the Panthers close in the second half, Pitt (despite a valiant overall effort) didn't have the defense to pull closer. The net result was 68-54 victory that puts Summitt's Lady Vols three wins closer to bringing that elusive seventh championship, well, home (as in not Pittsburgh).

PLAYER WHO MOST IMPRESSED ME

Much has been made of Lady Vols redshirt sophomore Candace Parker, but you can't appreciate her until you've seen her en vivo. Put aside for a moment that she's dunked more times this season than Larry Bird did his 13 NBA seasons. At 6-foot-4, she palms the ball like a dude, handles like a point, can finish with either hand, is dead-eye from inside the 3-point arc, and has the kind of footwork that keeps bigs rooted in the post. On defense, there isn't a mark in the country that can get past her when she's in position -- or out. Take Pitt's Zellous, who early in the second half appeared to have beaten Parker with a crossover to get inside the left wing. Just as Zellous returned her dribble to dominant hand, then stepped back to rise for her shot, there was Parker -- who moments ago seemed headed for press row -- in Zellous' grill, arm extended with a piece of the Pitt sophomore's shot on her hand. (Zellous nonetheless finished with 18 points.) Every time Pitt made a run, Parker was there with either the points or the defensive stop to snuff it out. If she were a dude, I'd have bumped into William Wesley at least three times by now.

COURTSIDE CONFIDENTIAL

The few of us who timed our walk from the media workroom back courtside just before the second half were treated to an especially impassioned halftime speech by Brooklyn native Nicky Anosike. The pep talk was blue enough to tempt one into thinking of the junior Vol as a Lady in name only. A snippet, cleaned up: "Don't let these betties score no more. Forget that stuff. We're about to run these harriets into the ground. Let's do this stuff now." Those harriets who'd draw her ire went on a second-half run that pulled them as close as eight before Anosike and her teammates' effort on the boards allowed the Vols to wrest control of the game. Brooklyn, please, stand up.

LOOKING AHEAD

A word of advice, Dayton region: don't poke the bear. If you want to beat Tennessee, be nice to Anosike. Send flowers. Compliment her on sense of style. Tell her how closely her fashion sense mirrors that of her idol, Beyonce. Ask about any one of her seven siblings. But whatever you do, do not make her mad. As she made quite clear at halftime, the 10 points and five rebounds she collected against Pittsburgh aren't the only ways she can rip you.