How Jasmine Powell made the most of her second season with Lady Vols basketball
When Jasmine Powell went to the Final Four in 2012, there was one player she had to meet.
Her mom had surprised her with tickets for her birthday, and Powell was a huge fan of Skylar Diggins-Smith. The Notre Dame great led the Irish to their second straight Final Four, and she scored 19 points against UConn to advance to the championship game against Baylor.
Powell got her picture with Diggins-Smith, and seeing the games in person left an impression on the young point guard from Detroit. All three games were sold out at the Pepsi Center in Denver to see players like Diggins-Smith, Baylor's Brittney Griner, UConn's Tiffany Hayes and Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike.
"Being able to see that in person, see the intensity, the competition – it really made me want to play for a big school," Powell said. "It made me want to strive for that. So that’s something that I will always remember, that really kind of start my passion for the game."
Ten years later, Powell is playing for Lady Vols basketball, one of the big schools she grew up watching. She never imagined in high school that she would get the opportunity to play at a school like Tennessee, on a stage this big. But after spending the first three seasons of her career at Minnesota, Powell entered the transfer portal – and the Lady Vols reached out. The fact that they wanted her and believed in her meant "everything for me and my family," Powell said.
“Just trying to have fun and smile more (this season) is really helping me, because no matter what, win or lose, this is an opportunity that I’ve always wanted in life, to play for the Lady Vols," Powell said. "And to just know that I’m out there on the court every day representing them, it’s fun for me. So win or lose, we still won in the end."
And after two seasons in Knoxville, Powell will play her last home game for Tennessee (16-10, 9-5 SEC) against Texas A&M (18-9, 6-8) on Thursday (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network).
How Jasmine Powell reset after 'worst season' in college
Powell's first season at Tennessee didn't go how she envisioned.
Her role changed after starting the first 10 games of the season. Powell's minutes off the bench and her production fluctuated throughout the season. Playing in the SEC – while Tennessee also played the hardest nonconference schedule in the nation – wasn't the same as playing in the Big Ten.
"I had a lot of ups and downs," Powell said. "Last year, there were times where I just wasn't confident in myself. I wasn't confident in my game and that showed ... that was probably my worst season in college basketball."
So after the season ended, Powell decided she was going to watch film – a lot of it.
She rewatched all 37 games, a task she thought she could knock out in a few days. It ended up taking her a couple weeks, because she was watching the entirety of the games. Powell wasn't just studying herself, she was watching former Lady Vols guards Jordan Walker and Jordan Horston, who were veterans in the SEC.
It prepared her to take on a load that kept getting bigger this season with injuries to leading scorer Rickea Jackson and then Destinee Wells, who's out for the season, which left Powell as the only true point guard on the roster.
It has also shown in the uptick in her production. Powell has averaged 10 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists, her points and rebounds double her averages from last season. She's a more consistent playmaker – her 5 assists per SEC game rank third in the conference – and she became a better defender, one who often takes the hardest assignment on the perimeter.
"That's what they need from me. When I go out there, I know I need to get this stop," Powell said. "I need to perform on a defensive level that I'm not really used to. It's what kind of propels me, the competitor in me is like, OK, whatever they throw at me, I can handle."
Powell proved to herself she could play at this level, and that she was resilient enough to come back better in her final season. And all the preparation helped her enjoy her last season in college basketball even more.
"Last year, I felt like there was so much pressure on me to perform well, and basketball was like the top thing, it was end all, be all," Powell said. "But coming into this year, I really had to give myself grace ... It’s helped me enjoy the game much more, and that’s helped me to have fun on the court and enjoy the time with my teammates."
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Jasmine Powell made the most of her second season with Lady Vols
