Sunday, August 05, 2007

Summitt rested, ready for more challenges

Fresh off her seventh national championship, Pat Summitt has navigated her way through what's been a pretty eventful offseason.

There was the harrowing ambulance ride to the hospital in June after the Lady Vols Hall of Fame head coach fainted at her Alcoa home and was kept overnight to be treated for dehydration.

Not long after that, the news broke that Tennessee was discontinuing its series with arch-rival Connecticut, a move that reverberated throughout the women's college basketball world and one UT officials haven't shed much light on.

Summitt, in a recent sitdown with Volquest, was quick to clear up a couple of things.

For starters, she's well and hasn't experienced any ill effects from her bout with dehydration. The challenge now is simply getting through the mountain of cards and letters that came pouring in after fans learned that she was in the hospital.

Secondly, Summitt is unfazed by any criticism that might have come her way for the Lady Vols canceling the hottest rivalry in women's college basketball and than taking a silence stance on all the reasons why.

By no means was it an abrupt decision, Summitt said. She also said that she talked with Connecticut head coach Gene Auriemma by phone and made it abundantly clear what her reasons were.

"We talked, and he knows exactly how I feel," Summitt said. "I'm a very principled person, and I felt strongly that I needed to move in a different direction."

Summitt said her reasons were more professional than personal, but she declined to elaborate further.

However, Volquest has learned that the final straw in the cancellation of the series came when Summitt received information that top prospect Caroline Doty (who plans to sign with UConn in November) allegedly had lunch with former UConn stars Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird while visiting the Storrs campus.

Such a meeting would constitute an NCAA violation, because former players are not allowed to be a part of the recruiting process. The Lady Vols were also recruiting Doty, who's from Pottstown, Pa.

Summitt understands the disappointment of women's hoops fans that the Lady Vols and Huskies won't be playing any longer in the regular season. She said that UConn officials also were none too pleased. But she thinks the women's game has moved on from the days where one game defines a season.

"It's not like that was going to be a popular decision because of the rivalry and interest in that game," Summitt said. "But we're at a different place now in women's basketball. You look at the number of quality teams. Plus, we picked up Rutgers and Oklahoma."

Summitt remains the highest paid coach in the women's game. She earned $1.125 million last year as part of a new deal that runs through the 2011-12 season. She also collected a $250,000 bonus for winning the national title.

With Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl recently getting a bump in pay that will take him to $1.3 million next season, some have wondered if Summitt will push for a comparable deal.

She insists that she's not caught up in making more money than Pearl, who has two different retention bonuses in his new deal that he won't collect unless he's still the coach in 2009-10 and 2012-13.

"I want to feel like that I'm compensated for my longevity," said Summitt, who's been at Tennessee for 34 years. "I don't want to be compared to the men's game or to Bruce. I want to be compared to what others are doing in the women's game."

Asked if she was content with her current contract, Summitt said, "Overall, I am. But I think the landscape in women's basketball with the contracts is different now. Gail (Goestenkors) goes to Texas for $1 million and (Baylor's) Kim Mulkey is making more than $1 million for the next 10 years.

"I give the university credit. My contract really helped change the landscape of women's basketball in that regard. But I think other people will step up to the plate as well, particularly when there's a coaching change. That's usually when you see an increase in the coaching salaries."

Summitt, 55, said she's told Tennessee women's athletics director Joan Cronan that she'd like to coach five more years.

"After that, I told her, 'I'll just have to let you know,' " Summitt said. "But I feel great. Unless I have any health issues, I think I can keep going."

Her 947 career victories are already the most ever by an NCAA coach (men or women), and it's not out of the realm of possibility that she could match John Wooden's record of 10 national titles.

"You know, it took nine years to get No. 7, so I don't ever think about Coach Wooden's record," Summitt said. "I hope I'm fortunate enough to coach another team and see it cut down nets. I've always thought of (10 national titles) as being untouchable, what all he accomplished."

The most pleasing thing about ending the Lady Vols' national title drought last year, according to Summitt, was seeing that group of players justly rewarded.

"It was a great feeling," Summitt said. "I forget what it felt like, actually. For me, it was all about helping this team. They wanted to play together. Not all teams think they need each other. But this team … they got it. They understood it.

"I think not winning it the year before and maybe having some of their own personal agendas … to have this team do what they did, I didn't want them to lose. I said, 'This team deserves to win this championship.' "

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