Nicky Pushed to Summitt

April 3, 2005 -- INDIANAPOLIS — It's all about getting there, insist both Roy Williams, who has never won it all, and Pat Summit, who has won six times. She can point to the tangible benefits of merely showing up at five of the last seven Final Fours since Tennessee's last NCAA women's title in 1998.

All that banging of Summitt's head on UConn's brick wall obviously didn't knock any of the charm out of her or her storied program. "Best recruiting class ever" is what many have called this year's freshmen, or what's left of them.

Candace Parker, who has a chance to be one of the best ever, and Alex Fuller missed the entire season with bum knees, and Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood succumbed to knee surgery in February.

But somehow two freshmen starters, guard Alexis Hornbuckle and center Nicky Anosike, survived.

No surprise in Anosike's case, she's from New York, specifically Staten Island, and therefore has to be tough as they come. So tough, in fact, Anosike could make herself leave Mom and seven siblings for Knoxville, Tenn.

"I never thought I could do it," she said.

"My mom bought a house [in East Orange, N.J.], and waited for me to finish high school [St. Peter's] to move there, only 45 minutes from Rutgers. I was thinking about Rutgers for awhile.

"UConn first wanted Laura Harper. When she withdrew [to go to Maryland], they tried to recruit me again, but I had scratched them off my list. My heart was already at Tennessee. When my mother looks at Pat, she sees a lot of herself. They've both defeated a lot of adversity in their lives."

If Ngozi Anosike's sixth of her eight children didn't want to play for Summitt, then could she maybe use a registered nurse?

"I remember during the visit Ngozi saying, 'Now, when Nicky gets to Tennessee, and Nicky looked at her like, 'Mom?' and Ngozi just kept on, 'No, this is the place you need to be.' " recalled Summitt. "Her Mom had watched [Tennessee] on TV and liked the discipline.

"She's a woman of small stature, yet extremely disciplined and very demanding. We talked about academics. Here, you don't go to class, you don't play."

Tennessee got a terrific student (3.65 first semester GPA) and its first big New York recruit since its greatest recruit of all, Christ the King's Chamique Holdsclaw.

"Chamique was a no-brainer, the best player in the country and obviously the most influential in the history of Lady Vol basketball," said Summitt. "Nicky was a little different.

"The afternoon I saw her play, I had to look at the potential. admire her drive and intensity. I saw something special, a great student cut out of a different cloth."

Summitt, whose Lady Vols play Michigan State after Baylor faces favored LSU tonight, wears pantsuits that, after 882 wins, hardly are the Empress' clothes. When she sat with Anosike on a bench near St. Peters, watching the Staten Island ferry and delivering the pitch, Anosike couldn't bring herself to look at the coach.

For reason she "can't explain," Anosike still can't. But it's much more important Summitt likes what she sees, like 11.3 points, 8.0 rebounds in four tournament games, plus eight trips per game to the free-throw line. There, Anosike has nailed 77 percent, only 23 per cent less perfect than her coach's and mother's instincts about each other.