Tra'Cee Tanner's fondest memory of playing basketball at Auburn with her sister Tyrese isn't what most would expect.
Tra'Cee said it was the first conditioning practice of her freshman season when she was still trying to get back in shape. Tyrese was a junior and considered a leader on the team, and even though Tra'Cee was her younger sister, Tyrese wasn't going to go easy on her.
"(Tyrese) just kept yelling at me to the point where I got frustrated and yelled out, 'Stop yelling at me!' at the top of my lungs," Tra'Cee said. "Everyone in the gym just stopped and looked and were probably thinking, 'This is what the season's gonna be like.'"
Tra'Cee said the memory sticks out because she and her sister spent the next two years proving they could play together as a powerful duo, with Tyrese as the versatile perimeter player and Tra'Cee as the low post scorer.
They also proved to be a support system for each other instead of bickering all the time.
That will all change this upcoming season, as Tyrese graduated in May and is now playing professionally overseas, leaving Tra'Cee and the women's basketball team with a void to fill.
"It's weird playing without my sister because she was always there to pick me up in high school and in college when things weren't going right," Tra'Cee said. "Now that she's overseas, I can't talk to her as frequently. She's still a big part of my life. It's just hard because Ty was the captain of our team last year."
While her sister's departure from the team has been tough for Tra'Cee, she also said she is excited for the opportunity to be more of a leader heading into her junior season, which hasn't gone unnoticed by teammates.
"She's stepped it up," said sophomore shooting guard Brandy Montgomery. "Knowing that her sister's gone, I feel like she's stepped up as far as being a leader and is trying to fill Ty's shoes, which are some big ones."
Tra'Cee said she admits she wasn't always as passionate about basketball, something she said led to her feeling as if she was in her sister's shadow growing up.
Both of her parents were basketball players in college, and Tyrese had been playing since she was old enough to walk.
But Tra'Cee didn't have an interest in the sport and instead dreamed of being a cheerleader or tennis player. She said this didn't go over well with her mother, and by middle school she was playing on the basketball team.
Although Tra'Cee found the same passion her sister had and followed her to Auburn, they still were almost complete opposites both on and off the court.
Tyrese was described by Montgomery as the more outgoing and talkative of the two, who was never afraid to command leadership of the team.
Tra'Cee is more quiet and reserved, according to her coach. Tyrese also played small forward while Tra'Cee is a center.
Even the way they were coached by Williams-Flournoy was different.
"With Tyrese, I could get on her and yell at her all the time," Williams-Flournoy said. "All that did was motivate her to go harder on the court and push herself more. Tra'Cee's a little more sensitive. You can't yell at her too much."
Despite their differences, Tra'Cee said she plans to surprise a lot of people this upcoming season in her first season on the Plains without Tyrese.
"I know people think that since Ty's gone this is going to be a down year, but I think people are underestimating our team," Tra'Cee said. "We can come in to the season as the underdogs because the underdogs usually come out on top."
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