PITTSBURGH — Pat Summitt displays intensity any time that her Lady Vols take the floor, but she somehow finds a higher gear at tournament time.
"We always used to joke as players, but never in front of her of course, that you can always tell when it's tournament time because she definitely ratchets it up a little bit," said Kara Lawson, a former Lady Vol who is working the tournament as an ESPN analyst. "It's just more intense focus. It's just her desire to win."
The focus is evident in the practices between the SEC Tournament and the start of the NCAA Tournament.
"She has a very short level of patience during those practices. At that point in the season, if you're still repeating mistakes, she has little tolerance for it," Lawson said.
Summitt broke up a casual shooting session during Saturday's practice and had her front line run a half-court sprint to get it to concentrate on drills.
A slam-dunk memory: Tennessee's Candace Parker said there was no pre-meditation in planning her two dunks in last year's Army game, and she's not thinking about individual feats this year either.
"My focus is on winning the national championship," Parker said. "Just get through one game at a time. We tell ourselves that we have a six-game season in front of us. (Dunking) is not on my mind right now. That's last year. I proved that I could do it."
Prodding Parker: At Saturday's practice, fans braved a snowstorm that covered southwestern Pennsylvania to watch the workouts.
With many of them wearing orange, they prodded Parker to show off her stuff, chanting "Dunk it! Dunk it!" She smiled and acknowledged the fans, but she left the court without a slam.
By the numbers: The Lady Vols are the only program in the country to have appeared in all 26 of the NCAA women's tournaments. This is the 18th time they've been seeded No. 1, eight more than runners-up Louisiana Tech and Connecticut.
The Lady Vols have won 92 of their 111 NCAA Tournament games, more than any other women's or men's program. Second on the all-time women's tournament win list is Connecticut with 58.
Remembering Dixon: A series of circumstances came full circle for Candace Parker regarding the late Maggie Dixon, who coached Army last season and whose brother, Jamie, is the men's coach at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dixon recruited Parker when she was at DePaul but lost her to Tennessee. Last year, Parker became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA Tournament game when she did it twice against Dixon's Army team. And this year's first and second rounds are at the Petersen Events Center, where Jamie Dixon has helped build a basketball power.
"Coming here is a bit ironic. It has really had me thinking about her a lot," Parker said. "She went out on top. We're blessed to have known her. She was a great coach and even a better person."
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