Summitt at the pinnacle of the Tennessee women's game

Tennessee's Pat Summitt is at the peak of her game with the most coaching victories in NCAA men's and women's basketball.

Summitt's orange-and-white clad Lady Vols are the standard by which other women's basketball teams are measured.

In 33 years pacing the sideline, Summitt has won 941 games, 25 Southeastern Conference titles, six national championships and has made 25 consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 since the NCAA's first Division I basketball tournament in 1982.

Before that, the Lady Vols were a powerhouse in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

"I'm not a person who focuses on numbers, but sometimes when I look at the numbers I shake my head and really think about how consistent we have been," Summitt said. "I never want to take that for granted."

The vaunted Lady Vols (28-3), seeded No. 1 in the Dayton Region, will meet No. 16 Drake (14-18) at 7 p.m. Sunday in the first round of the NCAA Division I women's tournament at Petersen Events Center.

The Tennessee-Drake winner will face the Pitt-James Madison winner Tuesday night.

Summitt was asked if she has a problem with possibly playing Pitt on the home court of the Panthers.

"In an ideal basketball world, all the games would be played on a neutral court, but I would be the last person to complain about playing somebody on their home court because we've done it probably more times than most any other team in the NCAA tournament," she said. "I think [the tournament] is moving in the direction of all neutral sites, but not yet. That's still part of where we are in the women's game."

Drake, decimated by injuries throughout the season and one of two teams in the field with a losing record, should provide little more than a good sweat for the talent-laden Lady Vols. The Bulldogs, seeded eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, earned a bid with a 65-64 victory against Creighton in the championship game.

Tennessee's storied program is the headliner in the marquee subregional of the tournament that also includes No. 1 seed North Carolina (30-3) playing No. 16 Prairie View (19-13) at noon Sunday at Petersen Events Center. North Carolina is in the Dallas Region along with No. 8 California (23-8) and No. 9 Notre Dame (19-11), whose game is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Petersen Events Center.

The North Carolina-Prairie View winner will meet the California-Notre Dame winner Tuesday night.

"I don't know if two No. 1 seeds have ever been at the same place in the first two rounds," Summitt said of Tennessee and North Carolina. "I'm looking forward to some big crowds."

The Lady Vols are used to playing in front of a lot of people because they averaged 14,678 for 16 home games this season.

Tennessee is coming off a 64-53 loss to LSU in the semifinals of the SEC tournament.

"Actually, if we hadn't lost and played as poorly as we played and win that game I would be very worried," said Summitt, 55. "That might have given us a false impression of who we were at that time and who we needed to be. I thought that was one of the best things that could have happened to us.

"I hate losing," she said after a pause. "I don't care if we're playing pool. I don't even know how to play pool, but I hate losing. I guess that's why I don't play pool."

With just 180 losses on her resume, Summitt has won nearly 84 percent of her games.

But the number that gives her the most satisfaction is the 100 percent graduation rate of all the players who completed their eligibility at Tennessee.

"That shows you can be successful on the court with players who are just as successful in the classroom," she said. "We take a lot of pride in that."

The pride of these Lady Vols is 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore Candace Parker, the SEC player of the year and one of 16 finalists for the John Wooden Award presented to the most outstanding female collegiate basketball player in NCAA Division I. The Wooden winner will be announced March 28.

Parker leads the team in scoring (19.7 ppg), rebounding (9.7 rpg) and shot-blocking (85).

"A year ago, she could post up, face up and take you off the dribble," Summitt said. "Now she is drawing a lot of different defensive schemes and she makes people pay for the double team. She gets her teammates involved."

Parker and Pitt's 6-3 Marcedes Walker represent a new breed of centers in the women's game.

"This is the best we've seen in many years," Summitt said of the proliferation of players with a post presence. "There are more players that are skilled. We're seeing within our game coaches who understand the value of playing inside-out and instead of outside-in the way the women's game used to be."

Summitt's teams, as always, are out front when it comes to the way women play the game of basketball.