Former Lady Vols basketball forward Sara Puckett is set to begin her professional playing career.
Puckett has signed a contract with Vimpelin Veto, an organization based out of Vimpeli, Finland. She is the first foreign signee for the team for the upcoming season.
Puckett just concluded her four-year college career this past season. She played her entire tenure at Tennessee. This included three seasons under Kellie Harper and one year under Kim Caldwell.
This past season, Puckett played in 34 games while starting in nine. She averaged 4.6 points per game on 35% shooting from the field and 27.1% on 3-pointers. She also contributed 3.1 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game.
Puckett also set career-best marks with 26 steals and eight blocks on the season inside Caldwell’s system. Over the course of her career, she produced 876 points, 483 rebounds, 140 assists, 110 three-pointers and 80 steals in 138 games and 59 starts.
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Prior to the coaching change, Puckett played three seasons under Harper. As a junior, she averaged a career-high 9.9 points per game on 44.7% shooting from the field and 35.2% on threes. She produced a career-high 4.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists, as well.
Her sophomore year featured an average of 4.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. As a true freshman, she had a breakout season. She notched 6.4 points per game on 43.3% shooting from the field and 29.9% from range.
For her debut year, she was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team and won the conference’s Freshman of the Week award in December. This came after scoring a then-career-high 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the floor in a comeback win at Virginia Tech.
Her finest moment came in the NCAA Tournament on Tennessee’s home floor as she buried a 3-pointer with 18 seconds to play. This gave the Lady Vols the lead over Belmont and sent the program back to the Sweet 16. She finished the game with 12 points and four rebounds.
She is from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where she became a highly-touted recruit. Puckett was named the No. 28 overall player in her class and No. 8 forward in the country, via ProspectsNation.com. ESPN had her as the No. 43 overall recruit.
Her recruitment came down to Louisville and Georgia before she chose Tennessee.
