As the No. 22 Vanderbilt Commodores celebrated their Southeastern Conference Tournament championship on Sunday night with a 61-54 victory over No. 6 Auburn, freshman guard Tia Gibbs acknowledged that there is still much to be done.
"We're hungry for the (NCAA) tournament," she said. "Winning the SEC is a big accomplishment, but it's not all that we want."
Gibbs is one who should know about big accomplishments, having been named Kentucky's Miss Basketball at the culmination of her career as a five-year starter for Butler Traditional High School in Louisville, Ky. As the school's career scoring leader, the 5-foot-9-inch Gibbs came to Vanderbilt with great hype and quickly worked her way into the regular rotation of coach Melanie Balcomb's four-guard lineup.
But even she admits that she was not completely prepared for the grind of the SEC Tournament.
"I knew we had three games back-to-back, and my body was way more tired than I thought it would be," she said. "No one's body felt good, so it was who had more heart who would win the game."
Having averaged about 11 minutes per game during the regular season, no one can fault Gibbs for being sore, as she played an average of 26 minutes in each of the Commodores' three consecutive victories in the tournament.
But despite the grueling nature of back-to-back-to-back games, Gibbs credits the team's practices with more than preparing them to take home the title. The Commodores entered the tournament having lost two games in a row to Ole Miss and Tennessee, and coach Balcomb put her players to work in the practice gym in order to get back on the winning track.
"Losing those two, practice was crazy of course," she said, "and I feel like the competing and tough practice made us more ready for the games. I can truly say that the practices were harder than the games."
Gibbs has had a busy season, averaging 5.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game as a freshman. The life of a college basketball player can be very taxing at times, but she has found a way to cope with it all in her free time.
"If I'm not going to the movies with the team or anything, I love to sleep," she said.
With the women's tournament field set to be decided on Monday evening, Gibbs is reluctant to throw out any predictions. But with Vanderbilt expected to receive at least a No. 3 seed, she knows that there is still much to accomplish.
"We're ready," she said. "We're not satisfied yet."
