Lady Vols need Anastasia Hayes in full sprint to make NCAA tournament run

When Holly Warlick and her Tennessee staff were done dicing up the South Carolina film, they had a number: 34.

“That’s how many shots we missed in the paint,” Warlick said, and many of those were flat-out, uncontested layups, the story of a maddening 73-62 loss in the SEC Tournament semifinals at Bridgestone Arena that left the Lady Vols with two weeks to wait for their next opportunity.

But there was greatness in that film, too. It came through in bursts and flurries of Anastasia Hayes plays that nearly flipped the game a couple times. This was the Hayes the Lady Vols recruited, the one they need to see often in an NCAA tournament that begins Friday at Thompson-Boling Arena against Liberty. This was the fastest player on the court. The most desperate to win, too.

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She went for a steal and nearly ended up on press row. She found Jaime Nared for a jumper. She made a slick pass in transition to Meme Jackson (blown layup). She got a steal and scored. She got a steal and drew a foul. She got free with a vicious first step and got to the rim (blown layup).

She made a ridiculous pass in transition, catching the ball and redirecting it back to Jackson, all in one motion with her right arm (blown layup). She drew a charge. She used that first step for another blow-by, this one finished plus the foul. She got another steal, looked up and made what can only be called a touchdown pass, a beautiful 50-foot loft over a defender that hit Nared in stride (blown layup).

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And then she actually did crash into press row chasing a ball out of bounds. Hayes stayed on the ground for a few seconds before teammates lifted her to her feet. When it was over, the Riverdale product had nearly 20 family members and friends to hug —Riverdale coach Randy Coffman told her, “I’ve never been more proud to be your coach” — and career highs with 17 points and 30 minutes.

“Didn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t like losing.”

Hayes also says of the tournament to come: “We can win a national championship.”

How Hayes provides spark for a team that needs it

The No. 3 seed in the Lexington Region, the Lady Vols didn’t get a bad draw. Any draw that avoids UConn’s region is a not-bad draw. If they can get past this weekend and into Lexington, they likely would have to beat Baylor and Louisville to reach the Final Four in Columbus, Ohio. That’s not impossible. And that would be a success in Warlick’s sixth season.

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Seniors Nared and Mercedes Russell will leave big holes to fill next season, so even with another top-5 incoming class to pair with the current crop of freshmen who were ranked No. 1, there’s no guarantee the 2018-19 team will be better. This is a crucial opportunity. And in the madness of a month in which every team has to have an “X factor,” Hayes is exactly that for this team.

“She definitely brings that spark,” Russell said of the SEC's Sixth Woman of the Year.

“We know what she can do,” said freshman Evina Westbrook, who starts at point guard with Hayes coming off the bench, though they play together often.

The 5-foot-7 Hayes can change the pace of a game, and she can win one with her speed and playmaking. If that sounds like a lot to put on someone averaging 9.3 points and 24.7 minutes, Hayes has made a habit of defying expectations.

The daughter of former high school players Arnett (Pearl-Cohn) and Sherry Hayes (LaVergne), Hayes didn’t start playing the game until she was 12. She wasn’t supposed to be able to play much if at all in the Class AAA state title game as a senior because of an ankle Coffman said was “the size of a grapefruit,” but she led Riverdale to the championship with 33 points.

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Playing SEC basketball is demanding, but Hayes is a pre-dentistry major who wants to be an orthodontist — she made that decision when she got her braces off as a freshman and decided she wanted to make people as happy as she was that day. She had two exams on the day the Lady Vols played South Carolina in the SEC tournament, one in biology, and she has chemistry, microbiology and other classes most of us wouldn’t touch in her near future.

“She’s doing amazing,” Sherry Hayes said. “I check her grades online — I don’t tell her I do that, but I do — and her lowest grade is an A-minus in racquetball.”

Why confidence, trust needed to be rebuilt 

And then there were this season’s outside expectations, which were a bit out of hand considering Hayes was a McDonald’s All-American ranked the No. 3 point guard in the nation by the major recruiting services. She has not instantly starred as some may have expected, and she still has to work on the skills of shooting and putting bad plays behind her. Hayes has burst into tears at times during games this season but said “I feel like I’ve really grown up a lot just in the past year.”

"She’s really tough on herself, and that’s one thing I wish she would get better at,” Warlick said. “She’ll get down on herself and stop playing. But she’s growing up, and that’s what they do.”

And if there was any expectation that Hayes was going to be a chemistry concern, well, that was never fair in the first place. By all accounts it’s completely untrue. But that’s how the game of telephone can work in a situation like hers.

Arnett and Sherry sued the Sumner County Board of Education in 2014, claiming the district was responsible for allowing Anastasia to be bullied because of her race by teammates while a freshman at Hendersonville High. A Nashville jury ruled in favor of the school district in 2016.

The family had moved on to a happy situation in Murfreesboro by then, but this is the kind of story that can create a reputation. And it wasn’t easy for Anastasia to get over the experience at Hendersonville.

“Evil and mean things,” Sherry said. “I still get emotional talking about it. But it ultimately made her stronger.”

Hayes said she had a hard time trusting her new coaches at first, but Coffman and his staff helped rebuild her confidence. He had to win over her parents, too.

“It’s hard to get in their circle,” Coffman said, “but once you are, you are. It’s just a trust thing because of what they had gone through before.”

Hayes became a star at a program that just won its third straight state title — younger sisters Aislynn and Alasia helped lead the way, and the youngest of four girls and five children, Acacia, will be a freshman next season. All have offers from the Lady Vols. Just as Coffman had to work to earn the trust of the Hayes family, so did Warlick. And she has it now.

“Her parents can be tough on coaches, and I just stuck with them,” Warlick said. “And I told them, ‘Look, no one’s going to love your daughter, other than you, more than I do. Annie may not play another minute on the basketball court, but she’s a Lady Vol and I’m going to take care of her.’”

Hayes is on her way to playing a lot of important minutes on the basketball court and putting together a special career with the Lady Vols. Even now, as a freshman still growing and learning to forget what just happened, her bursts and flurries can make the difference.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.