INDIANAPOLIS - There was never any question that Nicky Anosike could handle the physical nature of playing college basketball at Tennessee, but like with every freshman Lady Vol, there were questions about the mental challenges of playing for legendary head coach Pat Summitt.
"Physically, it was demanding, but like the other freshman, I got used to it," said Anosike, a former New York Daily News all-city player out of St. Peter's on Staten Island. "The real transition has been getting used to how demanding Pat is. It was definitely different."
It has been different, demanding and so far rewarding. The 6-4 center will start Sunday night for the Lady Vols as they play Michigan State in one national semifinal at the RCA Dome. That game follows the first semifinal, Baylor against LSU.
The challenges of playing for Summitt have been well-documented by former players, newspaper articles, books and even a documentary. Her forcefulness and blunt way of speaking to players is a shock to the system.
But it really was not so foreign to Anosike.
Anosike's mother, Ngozi, is a Nigerian immigrant who raised eight children alone while also earning a nursing degree and working full-time. It was her mother who convinced Anosike that Summitt's discipline and strength would best help her to develop as a player and person.
"I remember Ngozi saying, `When Nicky gets to Tennessee,' and Nicky looked at her like, `Mom?'," said Summitt, recalling her recruiting visit to Anosike's home. "Ngozi just said to Nicky, `This is the place you need to be.' "
Her mother seems to have been right. Anosike came out of St. Peter's with the reputation as a fantastic athlete with a long way to go in terms of basketball skills.
"The afternoon I went to see her play, I had to look at the potential of a Nicky Anosike," Summitt said. "I really admired her drive and intensity and competitiveness. I saw something in her and in her mom that I knew was very, very special."
Anosike had to use every bit of her work ethic this season. She has struggled to improve her shooting, but has impressed almost everyone with her intensity on the court. Summitt put her in the starting lineup 22 games ago hoping to accelerate her learning curve.
"When I put her into the starting lineup, I went to each of my staff members and I said, `Do not let me take her out of the lineup, because I am going to want to,' " said Summitt. "I am going to see her turn it over and I am going to see her miss easy shots and I am going to want to take her out, but I can't."
Summitt's faith has been rewarded. Anosike leads the team in blocked shots (30) and is second in rebounding (5.9 rpg). Anosike, named to the All-SEC freshman team, still shoots just 37 percent from the floor, but she has raised her game in the NCAA Tournament. She scored 14 points, shooting 10-of-12 from the free throw line, as the Lady Vols beat Rutgers in the Philadelphia Regional final.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Girl power: All-woman Final Four
INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time since 1997, all four head coaches at the women's Final Four are female — Tennessee's Pat Summitt, LSU's Pokey Chatman, Michigan State's Joanne P. McCallie and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson.
Summitt is the only real veteran among that group of up-and-comers. McCallie and Mulkey-Robertson are making their first trips to the Final Four, and Chatman is making her second.
Chatman was filling in for ailing Coach Sue Gunter last year in New Orleans. She officially became head coach this season, as Gunter is still very ill.
''You are seeing a lot more administrators throughout the country look at some of the top females that have either played the sport or been involved with the game,'' Summitt said.
''Not that they are opposed by any means to hire men as there are certainly a lot of successful men in this profession. I do think that more and more women are being given opportunities for head coaching jobs.''
In 1997, the Final Four was full of female coaching veterans — Summitt, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, Old Dominion's Wendy Larry and Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw.
McGraw was the last female coach to win a national title, in 2001. UConn's Geno Auriemma has won the past three.
Anxious Ely: Lady Vols senior Shyra Ely was not willing to admit that she was a bit tight against Rutgers on Tuesday — with a trip to the Final Four and her hometown of Indianapolis on the line. Her coach admitted it for her though.
''I think without question she was probably a little overanxious at times,'' Summitt said. ''She had been to three consecutive Final Fours and on top of that Shyra was trying to get back home.
''Combine that with Rutgers' defensive intensity, and I think that without question, she might have forced some things.''
Ely went just 2-of-11 from the floor in the Lady Vols' 59-49 win over Rutgers to advance to the national semifinals.
''Now that we have made it there, I think that it should give her a chance to relax and play without being in some type of panic or mental anxiety,'' Summitt said.
Old haunt: If Ely wants to visit her alma mater Ben Davis High School while in Indianapolis, she will have to do it on her own time.
Summitt put in a request for the Lady Vols to practice there, but this is a dead period for recruiting.
''There are recruitable student-athletes at the high school,'' Summitt said. ''I had not thought about it being a dead period. I knew immediately it would not be a possibility for us.''
Summitt is the only real veteran among that group of up-and-comers. McCallie and Mulkey-Robertson are making their first trips to the Final Four, and Chatman is making her second.
Chatman was filling in for ailing Coach Sue Gunter last year in New Orleans. She officially became head coach this season, as Gunter is still very ill.
''You are seeing a lot more administrators throughout the country look at some of the top females that have either played the sport or been involved with the game,'' Summitt said.
''Not that they are opposed by any means to hire men as there are certainly a lot of successful men in this profession. I do think that more and more women are being given opportunities for head coaching jobs.''
In 1997, the Final Four was full of female coaching veterans — Summitt, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, Old Dominion's Wendy Larry and Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw.
McGraw was the last female coach to win a national title, in 2001. UConn's Geno Auriemma has won the past three.
Anxious Ely: Lady Vols senior Shyra Ely was not willing to admit that she was a bit tight against Rutgers on Tuesday — with a trip to the Final Four and her hometown of Indianapolis on the line. Her coach admitted it for her though.
''I think without question she was probably a little overanxious at times,'' Summitt said. ''She had been to three consecutive Final Fours and on top of that Shyra was trying to get back home.
''Combine that with Rutgers' defensive intensity, and I think that without question, she might have forced some things.''
Ely went just 2-of-11 from the floor in the Lady Vols' 59-49 win over Rutgers to advance to the national semifinals.
''Now that we have made it there, I think that it should give her a chance to relax and play without being in some type of panic or mental anxiety,'' Summitt said.
Old haunt: If Ely wants to visit her alma mater Ben Davis High School while in Indianapolis, she will have to do it on her own time.
Summitt put in a request for the Lady Vols to practice there, but this is a dead period for recruiting.
''There are recruitable student-athletes at the high school,'' Summitt said. ''I had not thought about it being a dead period. I knew immediately it would not be a possibility for us.''
Coach Summitt and the Lady Vols take on the Spartans Sunday at 9:30 p.m.
LADY VOL PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
DEBBIE BYRNE: We're going to have an opening statement from Coach Summitt, your questions to the student athletes so we can let them go back during the open locker room period and then we'll continue with questions for the Coach. So Pat, without further adieu.
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, obviously we're all very excited to be back at the Final Four and to our senior class for this to be their fourth trip. I think that speaks to the impact that they have had on our program. To have our two Indiana players be able to come back to their home state, of course Shyra in her hometown, it doesn't get any better than that when you think about the stage that they're on right now. I'm really proud of not only these three, but the entire team.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Questions for the student athletes.
Q. Shyra, they announced the sites for the Final Four action several years in advance; did you see this and think, "I want to go"?
Shyra Ely: I didn't know until last year or something like that. And I was really excited and from that moment on I knew that it was definitely a goal to be here my senior year and play in the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Q. Loree, I would like to ask you, were you ever fearful this season that you were not going to have a healthy day and be healthy, your best for this time of year?
Loree Moore: No, no doubt in my mind. I kind of went with it. Everything kind of got thrown at me and I didn't really know how to handle it. But I stuck with it and I knew that some time it will come together and it will work out for me and I'm glad it happened at this time.
Q. This is also for Loree. Loree, through all the injuries and so forth, the different things that you do on the court; the defense, the rebounding, the passing; did they go in progression? Did you learn one thing well and go to the next or did they all kind of pick up a little bit together? Describe how that came together.
Loree Moore: Kind of those things were I was already good at and it kind of progressed as my years went on and I kind of got better at each aspect of my game and I just always wanted to stay aggressive with that. I'm known for defense and pushing tempo and creating for my teammates and now I'm adding a part of being aggressive on the offense end and looking for my own shots as well.
Q. Shanna, shooting is such a big part of your game, have you gotten acclimated to the dome, to the rims; do you feel pretty comfortable out there.
Shanna Zolman: Yes, I do now. Coming in, the depth perception of everything is so vast and wide. That's what these shoot arounds are for. Just being able to get acclimated to the rims and being able to adjust to the lighting as well.
Q. To the two Indiana players, could you just talk about the demands for tickets and what sort of delegations you'll have here?
Shyra Ely: Well, I had people coming out of the woodwork. I really it was so I just left it up to my mother to deal with and she's done a great job and she's been just as busy as I am with phone calls and everything. I'm really expecting a lot of like a ton of family and friends and, yeah, I didn't want to get involved with it because it's just too much and I got too much on my plate right now to be focusing on rather than tickets. Shanna Zolman: Same with me, I left that up to my parents to handle.
Q. Shyra, you've been here quite a few times. Could you reflect upon the value, maybe it's a cumulative value of Final Four experience and having performed on this stage before and will that possibly give your team an edge this weekend?
Shyra Ely: Well, I think our team has a lot of experience in the Final Four. Obviously with the senior class being here for the fourth time, and I think that that will just allow us to not get caught up in the whole Final Four experience, but rather stick to what we came here for, and that's to win a national championship and I think that our maturity will help lead this team through as far as our six freshmen and just getting them focused on the price as well.
Q. Shyra, when Sidney got hurt you seemed to move inside more. How has that changed things for you this season the last 10 games or so?
Shyra Ely: Well, playing the floor is pretty natural to me and it's always been what I've played throughout high school and here. Certain things happen whether it's injuries or just a different feel for the game. And I think that one of my strengths is that I'm versatile and I can play where Coach needs me.
So in the beginning of the year that's where she thought I should play and with Sidney going out that kind of opened up the floor spot for me. But it's pretty natural and I feel like that's my bread and butter and I'm really happy that that's where I'm playing at this point in the season.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Final question? Okay. Ladies, I'm going to let you go back to the locker room and we're going to start with questions for the Coach.
Q. Pat, between Chamique and Nicky, how active have you tried to be recruiting in New York and if it appears to be not very or sporadically, what would be the reason for that? And also could you tell the story of recruiting Nicky Anosike and what you saw in her and why you think she came to Tennessee?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, first of all as a coaching staff, we try and identify the players that we think can keep us at a certain level and hopefully give us a chance to continue to compete in Final Fours for national championships. And certainly Chamique was a no brainer, she was the best player in the country and obviously was the most influential or impact player on our program of the history of Lady Vol basketball.
But Nicky Anosike was a little bit different in that I knew that she was a great athlete and I had heard a lot about her. The afternoon I went to see her play, I had to look at the potential of a Nicky Anosike. I really admired her drive and intensity and competitiveness. And when I made a home visit and met her mother and it was a done deal, I just fell in love with the family and a strong mother of eight children, a single parent. And I saw in her mom and in Nicky Anosike something that I thought was really, really special. She's very very committed to her academics, she's obviously a great student. But there's something special inside of her and I said last weekend, she's just cut out of a different cloth. And when I put her in the starting lineup I went to each one of my staff members and I said, do not let me take her out of the lineup. I'm going to want to, because I want to see her turn it over and I'm going to see her miss easy shots, but don't let me do it. And sure enough, when I even thought about it, they said, you can't do that.
Q. Did you take a walk with her?
COACH Pat Summitt: We did. We walked out we were on Staten Island and went out and watched the ferry coming across and just talked about her life and it was interesting. She couldn't look at me. We did a commercial yesterday and she couldn't look at me. I said, "Nicky, why aren't you looking at me?" And she says "Coach, I can't look at you, I couldn't look at you in the visit, I didn't look at you on campus." And I said, "Well, that's okay, just keep playing the way you're playing, you don't have to look at me. Maybe one of these days you will."
But just getting to know more about Nicky, and convincing Nicky that we would take care of her and provide her with a great family environment at Tennessee and that's no different from recruiting anyone else, that's how we have really disciplined our program in a lot of ways. But the family model has been key for us when kids are willing to leave from New York or California, and come to Knoxville, Tennessee, that's a big change for them. And we want them to know we'll be their family and their home away from home.
Q. I had one original question, but something since you just hit on, Nicky, how much did her mother play into that; it sounds like she recruited you as much as you recruited her maybe?
COACH Pat Summitt: I didn't know. Her mom told me that she watched a lot of games on TV and she liked the discipline. She's a woman of small stature and yet she's extremely disciplined and very demanding and challenging of her family, of her children. And when we talked about academics and we have a no mess up front rule, you go to class; you don't go to class, you don't play. You're there at the university first and foremost to get a degree. I just remember Ngozi saying, "Now, when Nicky gets to Tennessee," and Nicky looked at her like, "mom?" And she just kept on. She said, "No, this is the place you need to be." And I think she had a great influence on Nicky, but fortunately, when Nicky came to campus I thought she really liked the teammates that she would be joining and trusted the coaching staff, but I think her mom had a, obviously, a big influence on her final decision.
Q. What's it like, and I know you've done this obviously several times in your career, but now in a Final Four to look down at the opposite bench, you got two coaches over there that you're probably pretty close to, particularly with Semeka being so close to your last national championship?
COACH Pat Summitt: It was great to see Semeka Randall and also Al Brown and obviously two people that spent a lot of time at the University of Tennessee and had very positive impact on our success while they were with us. And I'm just really proud for them and I am sure they have had the same impact at Michigan State and been a real asset to the program there and they really seem to be enjoying it. Semeka, you know, is really I was curious to see how she was going to be as a coach. She was always a real competitive player and tough and I just, I was anxious to see if she could put those tennis shoes aside and really think about being a coach. And she said she really likes it. She said that this is something that she thinks that she could do for a long time.
Q. We were up at the concourse earlier for the autograph session. What's it like having so many fans, not just from Knoxville but you talked to some of these fans and they're from all over the country, and then to hear them talk to you and talk about how you've been able and the Lady Vols have been able to touch their lives.
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, it's obviously a tremendous compliment to our student athletes and to our basketball program. All of our student athletes understand that they're role models and they have to decide what kind of role models they want to be. And they're the first to sign autographs and talk to kids and you just never know whether it's an elderly person or a child, what something like that means to other people, and to me that's just part of our responsibility.
Basketball is one thing, but being able to touch lives is far more important when you look at the big picture. And I think that our student athletes understand that now better. I hope they never turn down an autograph. And I hope they take the time to really speak to the people that they make a difference for.
Q. Outside of the fact there was a pretty good team in the northeast, New England, has there been something about getting this 7th championship that has seemed so elusive, and has it begun to take on the characteristics of trying to win your first championship?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, I'll say this: I think I've managed to put things in perspective as a coach, and I think that's important to do, because as a friend of mine said the other day, this is not always a happy profession. And sometimes if we're unrealistic about our chances or what we accomplish in the end for us a national championship or absolutely nothing, I think I would be miserable at what I do. And I think I have to be realistic so I can be happy and enjoy the process. The journey is so important, and for that, as I've walked off the court while I've been disappointed, the disappointment is for the student athletes because I know how much they want to win a championship, every year, every team. And yet the fact that they haven't been able to do that doesn't mean they're not winners, doesn't mean they haven't been competitive.
If you look at in the last three years what Connecticut has accomplished, I think they have had the best talent in the country. I really do. And so sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due and continue to persevere and try and get back here and get on this stage where who knows what can happen. You got to be here for it to happen.
Q. Joanne P. McCallie yesterday said kind of jokingly that when she was at Northwestern she played you guys and scored 20. My question is do you remember her as a player, do you remember that game and how is your relationship with her changed now that she's in the coaching ranks?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, to be honest with you, I don't remember her as a player. We didn't do a lot of scouting reports. Obviously she got 20; I don't know how I could not remember that. I think I was more upset with Dawn Marsh that day than anybody else if it's the day I'm recalling, but she's done a great job as a coach and I certainly know her as a coach and will remember her and obviously Joanne's done a great job, so you think about the impact she's had. I don't think many people would remember my playing days either, but I am a little older than Joanne so let's don't offend her, don't mention that.
Q. Seimone Augustus is named National Player of the Year today and you faced her many times; can you just talk about the impact she's had on the women's game?
COACH Pat Summitt: Seimone Augustus is she's had a great impact on the game. And I'm not at all surprised by that. Watching her in high school, and I went to her last home game in which was standing room only, and she literally just scored in a variety of ways and at will, I mean just with no real effort.
She is she reminds me a lot then of Chamique Holdsclaw and still does. The pull up jump shot, her ability to put the ball on the floor. She obviously can go in and post up. The impact she's had on LSU obviously has taken them to two Final Fours now. And certainly she is one of the most talented players to come out of our conference and that says an awful lot.
Q. Pat, it seems like every time you reach a coaching milestone the chatter begins about maybe you should try coaching on the men's side. Does part of you find it, I don't know if "insulting" is the right word, that seems to be this thought that the only way you can validate yourself is if you try to coach males?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, it's not an insult. I mean it's the reality of the society we live in and I'm not I don't think that I have anything to prove as a coach. And a lot of people think, well, if a female coach is in the men's game, then you've arrived.
I love this game. I love the women's game. I do feel like that I can have much more influence here on the lives of these young women and that's what I want to do. I want to continue to help these young women understand life as well as basketball and learn to compete and to be able to leave here as confident young women that can make it in the real world, not just on the court.
Q. Obviously the Women's Final Four has grown in stature since the first time you were here. What do you remember about your first visit and as a follow to that, do you think there is a little bit of a shock for first timers?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, my first visit to the NCAA was obviously in Norfolk and I just of course going to the AIAW Tournament, just to take you back, there were 16 teams there. And our first trip was my third year of coaching and we were in Minnesota. And we had a consolation game in AIAW and we finished third. We lost in the opening game to Delta State. And when we went to Norfolk, I just remember it was not a happy ending for us. Louisiana Tech clearly took care of us in that game. But I could tell the difference. We had a nice bandwidth, there was a lot more media there, just NCAA Championship meant that we had instant credibility now in our game and we had a lot more attention from the media and from television and so it just took it to a whole different level. It was a level of respect, which the women's game had not had up until that point.
Q. What about the first timers now?
COACH Pat Summitt: The first time, obviously I think now it's, I'm amazed at being back here a number of times, how much more comfortable I am. I can remember I didn't understand what I was going into and at that point I was nervous. And obviously you try and keep that from your players and just try to prepare them. I think I probably overprepared. I think I we probably practiced more than we do now. We don't prepare any less in terms of our scouting, but on the floor it's more about getting used to the floor and the rims and the lighting, same thing that Shanna is talking about, as opposed to putting in one more play or trying to change things at this point in time. So it is much better now because I'm not as confused about anything. We just have our routine.
Q. You were just talking a little bit about the importance of your players acting as role models. It seems that particularly of late people have been talking about you as a role model, not just for women in basketball and in coaching but sort of women in sport as a whole and is that something that you sort of constantly keep in mind and think of as an important responsibility of yours?
COACH Pat Summitt: I don't think about it that much, no. More than anything I just want to be Pat Summitt. I want to make sure that I always understand being successful and winning doesn't make you better than anyone else. I've been really fortunate and very blessed to have the job I have and be able to work with the young people that I work with and have the coaching staff. My coaching staff just doesn't get the credit that they deserve.
From that standpoint it's am I aware that I'm a role model? Yes. But all I want to do is be a good person and a good coach and hopefully a good ambassador for this game. When I'm thinking about what I do and the role that I play.
Q. Kim Mulkey has talked a lot about your story where you called her when she was pregnant and becoming a mom. I was wondering if she's so competitive if you'll talk about the mom side of Kim and what you see with that.
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, I'm sure it's changed her a little bit. It changed me a lot. But I see her with her kids and they're a big part of this. Tyler, I mean he's just grown up with the game. He was 14 days old when he took his first trip with us. And I think he was born on Friday and at practice on Tuesday the next week. But that's a great life for kids. And why? Because they're around kids and they're around the game. And he's learned so much. And I know Kim's children have probably benefited tremendously from it, just to have the role models that they have. Certainly for her son as for my son, I mean he has a whole different level of respect for women and for what these young women have accomplished.
Q. You mentioned that Semeka and Al earlier, for a program that doesn't play you regularly, do you think it helps in preparation to have a former player and a former coach from your staff on their team?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, I think just the fact that they are familiar with our team and our style of play. Of course there's not a lot of secrets when you're on TV as much as we are, but I think it may be just more what to expect from our team as an insider's look. But I think as far as the X's and the O's, I mean everyone knows what we're going to do, and it's just a matter of execution of players and I don't think that hopefully it's not going to be an edge that we can't overcome. I know they're going to be very prepared. I'm extremely impressed with Michigan State as a basketball team, the balance. They got four starters in double figures. They didn't just get here because they were a good team; they got here because they were a great team. We played Stanford. I know what they did to Stanford and I have tremendous respect for this team coming in, our players as well.
Q. Two questions. One, what impresses you about Kristin Haynie, their point guard, and also with their match up zone, is more important for Shyra to start off and get off to a good start or just let Shanna need to start hitting shots against that early?
COACH Pat Summitt: First of all to speak to Haynie, what a great point guard. You know obviously she can put it on the floor, she can catch and shoot. I think that the thing that I've been so impressed with is is that she makes great decisions whether it's to get the ball inside. When she gives it up, she moves extremely well without it. Or obviously to make a play herself, she just, to me, she's physically strong and very heady. And I told our basketball team I think she will be one of the best points guards they have faced this season and obviously we have faced a lot of good ones.
We didn't get here with one player having to step up early and play and I think that Michigan State can say the same thing. It's not like they don't have an All American and we don't have an All American. But we have players that can make All American plays and we rely on the team.
With the match up zone, the one thing I can tell you, I'm just glad we have Vanderbilt in our conference. We have played their match up three times and they're very, very good at it and a lot like Michigan State. I think you cannot get impatient. You have to be patient if you want to play against the match up. And certainly they have a lot of patience and we'll have to demonstrate the same patience offensively.
Q. Is there any aspect of tomorrow night's game that you do not want to see Michigan State dominate?
COACH Pat Summitt: The boards. We want to be real stingy when it comes to who gets the ball off the glass. I think that at this point in time in particular we understand typically games at this time of the year, or throughout the season, they're not won on first shots. And we have to be mindful of really controlling the board play. That's not anything new. Everyone knows. Defense and board play has just been the trademark of who we are and of our program year in and year out. So that's going to be a strong focus on the part of our team and our coaching staff.
Q. I was wondering if you were, if you had to leave the game and retire or something, not that I'm trying to push you out
COACH Pat Summitt: Well you wouldn't be the first.
(Laughter.)
Q. Are you pleased with the direction of the women's college game right now and would you feel like with coaches like Kim and Pokey that it would be in good hands?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, certainly I'm excited about the direction that the women's game is taking and has taken over the years. I get real emotional sometimes just when I turn on the tube and I see all the fans and just see the level of play and to see players like Kim and Pokey that are now coaching the game. To me that's what it's all about. You got a lot of great players, that have played this game. And they were two great, great point guards. We didn't have the success I wish we would have had against both of them as players. But certainly as coaches they have already been difference makers. What Kim's done in five years just it speaks volumes to her talent as a coach, a communicator, a teacher. And then you look at Pokey, and I think that it would be very, very difficult to lose your mentor to illness and then have to turn around and take over the team who obviously was very emotional, you know, stressed and upset about Coach Gunter and do what she did a year ago. And now this year it's more of Pokey's team and again, they're on the same path, on the same track. And she's just done an awesome job with this LSU team. So I think that if you take those two, they would be good examples of that great players can in fact become great coaches.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Pat. Thank you very much.
---
LADY VOL LOCKERROOM QUOTES
Tennessee Forward Brittany Jackson
On Michigan State's run this season: "They are playing great right now. They've beat some great teams. They play great as a team and we really respect them. We just really have to go out and play our game tomorrow night."
On the keys to beating Michigan State: "We have to go out and play our style of basketball. We are playing really great team basketball right now. We need to get it inside and our post players are doing a great job. We need to play our game and stop them right from the start. Defense and rebounding are key as well."
On Shyra Ely: "We are so happy to bring them home (to Indianapolis). We are so excited for this team and especially for them."
On Coach Pat Summitt: "She's the greatest coach in the country in my opinion. She's taught us so much. We are happy to bring her back in the Final Four."
Tennessee Forward Dominique Redding
On being in Indianapolis for the Final Four: "It has been great so far. The banquet last night was fun. We are just really excited to be here and ready to play tomorrow."
Tennessee Center Nicky Anosike
On Michigan State's inside play: "They are big and physical. We are going to try to run hard and they do the same thing, so we are going to have to concentrate on getting back in position. Overall, they look good and I think we are going be challenged this game."
On keys to beating Michigan State: "I think the key is not rushing and keeping our composure. We need to play our game and not let their style affect us."
Tennessee Guard Alexis Hornbuckle
On NCAA tournament experience: "I am excited and ready to get on the court. Everyone plays to make it to the NCAA tournament. The tournament starts with 64 teams and now there are four who are going to battle it out. I think it's great that we are one of those teams. I've been thinking about a day like today since I was in eighth grade. I told my self I want to be a Lady Vol and I am going to win a national championship. These are my goals and hopefully I can live my dream out. So far I have by just coming here, but I want to take it all the way."
On role on the team this season: "My role has changed this season. When I came in I was running a lot and just adjusting to the collegiate game itself. When Loree (Moore) went down, I had to step up and play point guard and had to learn a lot about leadership as a freshman. Coach pulled me aside and told me that the team needed leadership and everybody had to take ownership. As a point guard you already have to do that. So, I had to do that and step up. You have to be able to call the plays, see the defense, call out the defense, and get your team ready. It's helped me out and helped me grow up a little quicker."
DEBBIE BYRNE: We're going to have an opening statement from Coach Summitt, your questions to the student athletes so we can let them go back during the open locker room period and then we'll continue with questions for the Coach. So Pat, without further adieu.
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, obviously we're all very excited to be back at the Final Four and to our senior class for this to be their fourth trip. I think that speaks to the impact that they have had on our program. To have our two Indiana players be able to come back to their home state, of course Shyra in her hometown, it doesn't get any better than that when you think about the stage that they're on right now. I'm really proud of not only these three, but the entire team.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Questions for the student athletes.
Q. Shyra, they announced the sites for the Final Four action several years in advance; did you see this and think, "I want to go"?
Shyra Ely: I didn't know until last year or something like that. And I was really excited and from that moment on I knew that it was definitely a goal to be here my senior year and play in the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Q. Loree, I would like to ask you, were you ever fearful this season that you were not going to have a healthy day and be healthy, your best for this time of year?
Loree Moore: No, no doubt in my mind. I kind of went with it. Everything kind of got thrown at me and I didn't really know how to handle it. But I stuck with it and I knew that some time it will come together and it will work out for me and I'm glad it happened at this time.
Q. This is also for Loree. Loree, through all the injuries and so forth, the different things that you do on the court; the defense, the rebounding, the passing; did they go in progression? Did you learn one thing well and go to the next or did they all kind of pick up a little bit together? Describe how that came together.
Loree Moore: Kind of those things were I was already good at and it kind of progressed as my years went on and I kind of got better at each aspect of my game and I just always wanted to stay aggressive with that. I'm known for defense and pushing tempo and creating for my teammates and now I'm adding a part of being aggressive on the offense end and looking for my own shots as well.
Q. Shanna, shooting is such a big part of your game, have you gotten acclimated to the dome, to the rims; do you feel pretty comfortable out there.
Shanna Zolman: Yes, I do now. Coming in, the depth perception of everything is so vast and wide. That's what these shoot arounds are for. Just being able to get acclimated to the rims and being able to adjust to the lighting as well.
Q. To the two Indiana players, could you just talk about the demands for tickets and what sort of delegations you'll have here?
Shyra Ely: Well, I had people coming out of the woodwork. I really it was so I just left it up to my mother to deal with and she's done a great job and she's been just as busy as I am with phone calls and everything. I'm really expecting a lot of like a ton of family and friends and, yeah, I didn't want to get involved with it because it's just too much and I got too much on my plate right now to be focusing on rather than tickets. Shanna Zolman: Same with me, I left that up to my parents to handle.
Q. Shyra, you've been here quite a few times. Could you reflect upon the value, maybe it's a cumulative value of Final Four experience and having performed on this stage before and will that possibly give your team an edge this weekend?
Shyra Ely: Well, I think our team has a lot of experience in the Final Four. Obviously with the senior class being here for the fourth time, and I think that that will just allow us to not get caught up in the whole Final Four experience, but rather stick to what we came here for, and that's to win a national championship and I think that our maturity will help lead this team through as far as our six freshmen and just getting them focused on the price as well.
Q. Shyra, when Sidney got hurt you seemed to move inside more. How has that changed things for you this season the last 10 games or so?
Shyra Ely: Well, playing the floor is pretty natural to me and it's always been what I've played throughout high school and here. Certain things happen whether it's injuries or just a different feel for the game. And I think that one of my strengths is that I'm versatile and I can play where Coach needs me.
So in the beginning of the year that's where she thought I should play and with Sidney going out that kind of opened up the floor spot for me. But it's pretty natural and I feel like that's my bread and butter and I'm really happy that that's where I'm playing at this point in the season.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Final question? Okay. Ladies, I'm going to let you go back to the locker room and we're going to start with questions for the Coach.
Q. Pat, between Chamique and Nicky, how active have you tried to be recruiting in New York and if it appears to be not very or sporadically, what would be the reason for that? And also could you tell the story of recruiting Nicky Anosike and what you saw in her and why you think she came to Tennessee?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, first of all as a coaching staff, we try and identify the players that we think can keep us at a certain level and hopefully give us a chance to continue to compete in Final Fours for national championships. And certainly Chamique was a no brainer, she was the best player in the country and obviously was the most influential or impact player on our program of the history of Lady Vol basketball.
But Nicky Anosike was a little bit different in that I knew that she was a great athlete and I had heard a lot about her. The afternoon I went to see her play, I had to look at the potential of a Nicky Anosike. I really admired her drive and intensity and competitiveness. And when I made a home visit and met her mother and it was a done deal, I just fell in love with the family and a strong mother of eight children, a single parent. And I saw in her mom and in Nicky Anosike something that I thought was really, really special. She's very very committed to her academics, she's obviously a great student. But there's something special inside of her and I said last weekend, she's just cut out of a different cloth. And when I put her in the starting lineup I went to each one of my staff members and I said, do not let me take her out of the lineup. I'm going to want to, because I want to see her turn it over and I'm going to see her miss easy shots, but don't let me do it. And sure enough, when I even thought about it, they said, you can't do that.
Q. Did you take a walk with her?
COACH Pat Summitt: We did. We walked out we were on Staten Island and went out and watched the ferry coming across and just talked about her life and it was interesting. She couldn't look at me. We did a commercial yesterday and she couldn't look at me. I said, "Nicky, why aren't you looking at me?" And she says "Coach, I can't look at you, I couldn't look at you in the visit, I didn't look at you on campus." And I said, "Well, that's okay, just keep playing the way you're playing, you don't have to look at me. Maybe one of these days you will."
But just getting to know more about Nicky, and convincing Nicky that we would take care of her and provide her with a great family environment at Tennessee and that's no different from recruiting anyone else, that's how we have really disciplined our program in a lot of ways. But the family model has been key for us when kids are willing to leave from New York or California, and come to Knoxville, Tennessee, that's a big change for them. And we want them to know we'll be their family and their home away from home.
Q. I had one original question, but something since you just hit on, Nicky, how much did her mother play into that; it sounds like she recruited you as much as you recruited her maybe?
COACH Pat Summitt: I didn't know. Her mom told me that she watched a lot of games on TV and she liked the discipline. She's a woman of small stature and yet she's extremely disciplined and very demanding and challenging of her family, of her children. And when we talked about academics and we have a no mess up front rule, you go to class; you don't go to class, you don't play. You're there at the university first and foremost to get a degree. I just remember Ngozi saying, "Now, when Nicky gets to Tennessee," and Nicky looked at her like, "mom?" And she just kept on. She said, "No, this is the place you need to be." And I think she had a great influence on Nicky, but fortunately, when Nicky came to campus I thought she really liked the teammates that she would be joining and trusted the coaching staff, but I think her mom had a, obviously, a big influence on her final decision.
Q. What's it like, and I know you've done this obviously several times in your career, but now in a Final Four to look down at the opposite bench, you got two coaches over there that you're probably pretty close to, particularly with Semeka being so close to your last national championship?
COACH Pat Summitt: It was great to see Semeka Randall and also Al Brown and obviously two people that spent a lot of time at the University of Tennessee and had very positive impact on our success while they were with us. And I'm just really proud for them and I am sure they have had the same impact at Michigan State and been a real asset to the program there and they really seem to be enjoying it. Semeka, you know, is really I was curious to see how she was going to be as a coach. She was always a real competitive player and tough and I just, I was anxious to see if she could put those tennis shoes aside and really think about being a coach. And she said she really likes it. She said that this is something that she thinks that she could do for a long time.
Q. We were up at the concourse earlier for the autograph session. What's it like having so many fans, not just from Knoxville but you talked to some of these fans and they're from all over the country, and then to hear them talk to you and talk about how you've been able and the Lady Vols have been able to touch their lives.
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, it's obviously a tremendous compliment to our student athletes and to our basketball program. All of our student athletes understand that they're role models and they have to decide what kind of role models they want to be. And they're the first to sign autographs and talk to kids and you just never know whether it's an elderly person or a child, what something like that means to other people, and to me that's just part of our responsibility.
Basketball is one thing, but being able to touch lives is far more important when you look at the big picture. And I think that our student athletes understand that now better. I hope they never turn down an autograph. And I hope they take the time to really speak to the people that they make a difference for.
Q. Outside of the fact there was a pretty good team in the northeast, New England, has there been something about getting this 7th championship that has seemed so elusive, and has it begun to take on the characteristics of trying to win your first championship?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, I'll say this: I think I've managed to put things in perspective as a coach, and I think that's important to do, because as a friend of mine said the other day, this is not always a happy profession. And sometimes if we're unrealistic about our chances or what we accomplish in the end for us a national championship or absolutely nothing, I think I would be miserable at what I do. And I think I have to be realistic so I can be happy and enjoy the process. The journey is so important, and for that, as I've walked off the court while I've been disappointed, the disappointment is for the student athletes because I know how much they want to win a championship, every year, every team. And yet the fact that they haven't been able to do that doesn't mean they're not winners, doesn't mean they haven't been competitive.
If you look at in the last three years what Connecticut has accomplished, I think they have had the best talent in the country. I really do. And so sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due and continue to persevere and try and get back here and get on this stage where who knows what can happen. You got to be here for it to happen.
Q. Joanne P. McCallie yesterday said kind of jokingly that when she was at Northwestern she played you guys and scored 20. My question is do you remember her as a player, do you remember that game and how is your relationship with her changed now that she's in the coaching ranks?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, to be honest with you, I don't remember her as a player. We didn't do a lot of scouting reports. Obviously she got 20; I don't know how I could not remember that. I think I was more upset with Dawn Marsh that day than anybody else if it's the day I'm recalling, but she's done a great job as a coach and I certainly know her as a coach and will remember her and obviously Joanne's done a great job, so you think about the impact she's had. I don't think many people would remember my playing days either, but I am a little older than Joanne so let's don't offend her, don't mention that.
Q. Seimone Augustus is named National Player of the Year today and you faced her many times; can you just talk about the impact she's had on the women's game?
COACH Pat Summitt: Seimone Augustus is she's had a great impact on the game. And I'm not at all surprised by that. Watching her in high school, and I went to her last home game in which was standing room only, and she literally just scored in a variety of ways and at will, I mean just with no real effort.
She is she reminds me a lot then of Chamique Holdsclaw and still does. The pull up jump shot, her ability to put the ball on the floor. She obviously can go in and post up. The impact she's had on LSU obviously has taken them to two Final Fours now. And certainly she is one of the most talented players to come out of our conference and that says an awful lot.
Q. Pat, it seems like every time you reach a coaching milestone the chatter begins about maybe you should try coaching on the men's side. Does part of you find it, I don't know if "insulting" is the right word, that seems to be this thought that the only way you can validate yourself is if you try to coach males?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, it's not an insult. I mean it's the reality of the society we live in and I'm not I don't think that I have anything to prove as a coach. And a lot of people think, well, if a female coach is in the men's game, then you've arrived.
I love this game. I love the women's game. I do feel like that I can have much more influence here on the lives of these young women and that's what I want to do. I want to continue to help these young women understand life as well as basketball and learn to compete and to be able to leave here as confident young women that can make it in the real world, not just on the court.
Q. Obviously the Women's Final Four has grown in stature since the first time you were here. What do you remember about your first visit and as a follow to that, do you think there is a little bit of a shock for first timers?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, my first visit to the NCAA was obviously in Norfolk and I just of course going to the AIAW Tournament, just to take you back, there were 16 teams there. And our first trip was my third year of coaching and we were in Minnesota. And we had a consolation game in AIAW and we finished third. We lost in the opening game to Delta State. And when we went to Norfolk, I just remember it was not a happy ending for us. Louisiana Tech clearly took care of us in that game. But I could tell the difference. We had a nice bandwidth, there was a lot more media there, just NCAA Championship meant that we had instant credibility now in our game and we had a lot more attention from the media and from television and so it just took it to a whole different level. It was a level of respect, which the women's game had not had up until that point.
Q. What about the first timers now?
COACH Pat Summitt: The first time, obviously I think now it's, I'm amazed at being back here a number of times, how much more comfortable I am. I can remember I didn't understand what I was going into and at that point I was nervous. And obviously you try and keep that from your players and just try to prepare them. I think I probably overprepared. I think I we probably practiced more than we do now. We don't prepare any less in terms of our scouting, but on the floor it's more about getting used to the floor and the rims and the lighting, same thing that Shanna is talking about, as opposed to putting in one more play or trying to change things at this point in time. So it is much better now because I'm not as confused about anything. We just have our routine.
Q. You were just talking a little bit about the importance of your players acting as role models. It seems that particularly of late people have been talking about you as a role model, not just for women in basketball and in coaching but sort of women in sport as a whole and is that something that you sort of constantly keep in mind and think of as an important responsibility of yours?
COACH Pat Summitt: I don't think about it that much, no. More than anything I just want to be Pat Summitt. I want to make sure that I always understand being successful and winning doesn't make you better than anyone else. I've been really fortunate and very blessed to have the job I have and be able to work with the young people that I work with and have the coaching staff. My coaching staff just doesn't get the credit that they deserve.
From that standpoint it's am I aware that I'm a role model? Yes. But all I want to do is be a good person and a good coach and hopefully a good ambassador for this game. When I'm thinking about what I do and the role that I play.
Q. Kim Mulkey has talked a lot about your story where you called her when she was pregnant and becoming a mom. I was wondering if she's so competitive if you'll talk about the mom side of Kim and what you see with that.
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, I'm sure it's changed her a little bit. It changed me a lot. But I see her with her kids and they're a big part of this. Tyler, I mean he's just grown up with the game. He was 14 days old when he took his first trip with us. And I think he was born on Friday and at practice on Tuesday the next week. But that's a great life for kids. And why? Because they're around kids and they're around the game. And he's learned so much. And I know Kim's children have probably benefited tremendously from it, just to have the role models that they have. Certainly for her son as for my son, I mean he has a whole different level of respect for women and for what these young women have accomplished.
Q. You mentioned that Semeka and Al earlier, for a program that doesn't play you regularly, do you think it helps in preparation to have a former player and a former coach from your staff on their team?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, I think just the fact that they are familiar with our team and our style of play. Of course there's not a lot of secrets when you're on TV as much as we are, but I think it may be just more what to expect from our team as an insider's look. But I think as far as the X's and the O's, I mean everyone knows what we're going to do, and it's just a matter of execution of players and I don't think that hopefully it's not going to be an edge that we can't overcome. I know they're going to be very prepared. I'm extremely impressed with Michigan State as a basketball team, the balance. They got four starters in double figures. They didn't just get here because they were a good team; they got here because they were a great team. We played Stanford. I know what they did to Stanford and I have tremendous respect for this team coming in, our players as well.
Q. Two questions. One, what impresses you about Kristin Haynie, their point guard, and also with their match up zone, is more important for Shyra to start off and get off to a good start or just let Shanna need to start hitting shots against that early?
COACH Pat Summitt: First of all to speak to Haynie, what a great point guard. You know obviously she can put it on the floor, she can catch and shoot. I think that the thing that I've been so impressed with is is that she makes great decisions whether it's to get the ball inside. When she gives it up, she moves extremely well without it. Or obviously to make a play herself, she just, to me, she's physically strong and very heady. And I told our basketball team I think she will be one of the best points guards they have faced this season and obviously we have faced a lot of good ones.
We didn't get here with one player having to step up early and play and I think that Michigan State can say the same thing. It's not like they don't have an All American and we don't have an All American. But we have players that can make All American plays and we rely on the team.
With the match up zone, the one thing I can tell you, I'm just glad we have Vanderbilt in our conference. We have played their match up three times and they're very, very good at it and a lot like Michigan State. I think you cannot get impatient. You have to be patient if you want to play against the match up. And certainly they have a lot of patience and we'll have to demonstrate the same patience offensively.
Q. Is there any aspect of tomorrow night's game that you do not want to see Michigan State dominate?
COACH Pat Summitt: The boards. We want to be real stingy when it comes to who gets the ball off the glass. I think that at this point in time in particular we understand typically games at this time of the year, or throughout the season, they're not won on first shots. And we have to be mindful of really controlling the board play. That's not anything new. Everyone knows. Defense and board play has just been the trademark of who we are and of our program year in and year out. So that's going to be a strong focus on the part of our team and our coaching staff.
Q. I was wondering if you were, if you had to leave the game and retire or something, not that I'm trying to push you out
COACH Pat Summitt: Well you wouldn't be the first.
(Laughter.)
Q. Are you pleased with the direction of the women's college game right now and would you feel like with coaches like Kim and Pokey that it would be in good hands?
COACH Pat Summitt: Well, certainly I'm excited about the direction that the women's game is taking and has taken over the years. I get real emotional sometimes just when I turn on the tube and I see all the fans and just see the level of play and to see players like Kim and Pokey that are now coaching the game. To me that's what it's all about. You got a lot of great players, that have played this game. And they were two great, great point guards. We didn't have the success I wish we would have had against both of them as players. But certainly as coaches they have already been difference makers. What Kim's done in five years just it speaks volumes to her talent as a coach, a communicator, a teacher. And then you look at Pokey, and I think that it would be very, very difficult to lose your mentor to illness and then have to turn around and take over the team who obviously was very emotional, you know, stressed and upset about Coach Gunter and do what she did a year ago. And now this year it's more of Pokey's team and again, they're on the same path, on the same track. And she's just done an awesome job with this LSU team. So I think that if you take those two, they would be good examples of that great players can in fact become great coaches.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Pat. Thank you very much.
---
LADY VOL LOCKERROOM QUOTES
Tennessee Forward Brittany Jackson
On Michigan State's run this season: "They are playing great right now. They've beat some great teams. They play great as a team and we really respect them. We just really have to go out and play our game tomorrow night."
On the keys to beating Michigan State: "We have to go out and play our style of basketball. We are playing really great team basketball right now. We need to get it inside and our post players are doing a great job. We need to play our game and stop them right from the start. Defense and rebounding are key as well."
On Shyra Ely: "We are so happy to bring them home (to Indianapolis). We are so excited for this team and especially for them."
On Coach Pat Summitt: "She's the greatest coach in the country in my opinion. She's taught us so much. We are happy to bring her back in the Final Four."
Tennessee Forward Dominique Redding
On being in Indianapolis for the Final Four: "It has been great so far. The banquet last night was fun. We are just really excited to be here and ready to play tomorrow."
Tennessee Center Nicky Anosike
On Michigan State's inside play: "They are big and physical. We are going to try to run hard and they do the same thing, so we are going to have to concentrate on getting back in position. Overall, they look good and I think we are going be challenged this game."
On keys to beating Michigan State: "I think the key is not rushing and keeping our composure. We need to play our game and not let their style affect us."
Tennessee Guard Alexis Hornbuckle
On NCAA tournament experience: "I am excited and ready to get on the court. Everyone plays to make it to the NCAA tournament. The tournament starts with 64 teams and now there are four who are going to battle it out. I think it's great that we are one of those teams. I've been thinking about a day like today since I was in eighth grade. I told my self I want to be a Lady Vol and I am going to win a national championship. These are my goals and hopefully I can live my dream out. So far I have by just coming here, but I want to take it all the way."
On role on the team this season: "My role has changed this season. When I came in I was running a lot and just adjusting to the collegiate game itself. When Loree (Moore) went down, I had to step up and play point guard and had to learn a lot about leadership as a freshman. Coach pulled me aside and told me that the team needed leadership and everybody had to take ownership. As a point guard you already have to do that. So, I had to do that and step up. You have to be able to call the plays, see the defense, call out the defense, and get your team ready. It's helped me out and helped me grow up a little quicker."
Summitt changed game, but she's stayed the same
DALLAS - Texas A&M coach Gary Blair painfully recalls his first encounter with Pat Summitt, at a North Texas State basketball camp in 1977.
Blair was fresh from winning a state title with the South Oak Cliff (Texas) girls team. Summitt, then Pat Head, had just begun her coaching career at Tennessee. The two were on opposite sides in a pickup game. Blair quickly discovered Summitt's competitive instincts.
"I got the total hell beat out of me," Blair said. "Everything was either a behind-the-back pass or an elbow in the ribs."
Since then, Summitt's win total and reputation have skyrocketed.
She has taken Tennessee to the Final Four for the 16th time and eighth time in 11 years.
The Lady Vols meet Michigan State on Sunday. When she surpassed North Carolina's Dean Smith for the most wins of any NCAA Division I coach, it became a major media event. At 52, she has become the dominant personality in her sport.
The qualities that helped her win six national titles and 83.8 percent of her games endure. She retains a steely blue-eyed stare, the one that resembles a bird of prey.
"She still has that fight, she still wants perfection and she still wants things done a certain way," Tennessee senior point guard Loree Moore said.
To understand Summitt's career is to travel back to the formative years of women's basketball.
She began as an assistant at Tennessee in 1974 and was promoted to coach two months later at 22. Then, women's basketball was more of a novelty than a sport.
Zero scholarships.
No off-campus recruiting.
Free admission to games.
"It was just a step above intramurals," Summitt said.
Summitt and Tennessee didn't grow with the game as much as they led it. Her teams were seldom flashy, even with rosters brimming with high school All-Americans. They were sound, dedicated to defense and hard to play against.
"I think you have to be tough, and that starts in practice," Summitt said. "Our practices are really tougher than a lot of our games. You get from players what you demand, not what you expect. We demand a lot from our players."
The wins started coming with regularity, although many early ones were against schools such as Tennessee-Martin and Maryville.
But Tennessee soon put together the nation's toughest schedule, playing such powers as Texas, USC, Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech anywhere, anytime.
Summitt didn't win a national title until 1987. Then five more followed in a 12-year span. She had defined the women's game.
Blair built a national-caliber program at Arkansas, and beat Summitt only once in 10 years. "And I cherish that win," he said.
Even though Tennessee is making its fourth consecutive Final Four appearance, the Lady Vols haven't won a title since 1998.
Another title is a distinct possibility, especially with recent nemesis Connecticut eliminated.
"Do I see her slowing down at all?" Blair said. "Not a bit."
---
TOP SHELF
Pat Summitt's record in 16 Final Four appearances as Tennessee's coach:
17 Wins
9 Losses
6 Titles
5 Runners-up
Blair was fresh from winning a state title with the South Oak Cliff (Texas) girls team. Summitt, then Pat Head, had just begun her coaching career at Tennessee. The two were on opposite sides in a pickup game. Blair quickly discovered Summitt's competitive instincts.
"I got the total hell beat out of me," Blair said. "Everything was either a behind-the-back pass or an elbow in the ribs."
Since then, Summitt's win total and reputation have skyrocketed.
She has taken Tennessee to the Final Four for the 16th time and eighth time in 11 years.
The Lady Vols meet Michigan State on Sunday. When she surpassed North Carolina's Dean Smith for the most wins of any NCAA Division I coach, it became a major media event. At 52, she has become the dominant personality in her sport.
The qualities that helped her win six national titles and 83.8 percent of her games endure. She retains a steely blue-eyed stare, the one that resembles a bird of prey.
"She still has that fight, she still wants perfection and she still wants things done a certain way," Tennessee senior point guard Loree Moore said.
To understand Summitt's career is to travel back to the formative years of women's basketball.
She began as an assistant at Tennessee in 1974 and was promoted to coach two months later at 22. Then, women's basketball was more of a novelty than a sport.
Zero scholarships.
No off-campus recruiting.
Free admission to games.
"It was just a step above intramurals," Summitt said.
Summitt and Tennessee didn't grow with the game as much as they led it. Her teams were seldom flashy, even with rosters brimming with high school All-Americans. They were sound, dedicated to defense and hard to play against.
"I think you have to be tough, and that starts in practice," Summitt said. "Our practices are really tougher than a lot of our games. You get from players what you demand, not what you expect. We demand a lot from our players."
The wins started coming with regularity, although many early ones were against schools such as Tennessee-Martin and Maryville.
But Tennessee soon put together the nation's toughest schedule, playing such powers as Texas, USC, Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech anywhere, anytime.
Summitt didn't win a national title until 1987. Then five more followed in a 12-year span. She had defined the women's game.
Blair built a national-caliber program at Arkansas, and beat Summitt only once in 10 years. "And I cherish that win," he said.
Even though Tennessee is making its fourth consecutive Final Four appearance, the Lady Vols haven't won a title since 1998.
Another title is a distinct possibility, especially with recent nemesis Connecticut eliminated.
"Do I see her slowing down at all?" Blair said. "Not a bit."
---
TOP SHELF
Pat Summitt's record in 16 Final Four appearances as Tennessee's coach:
17 Wins
9 Losses
6 Titles
5 Runners-up
Women hit big time: Vegas takes action
NCAA, FBI officials give Final 4 teams primer on gambling.
The women's Final Four is drawing much more than local and television interest. It's drawing action in Las Vegas.
Yes, the women's basketball NCAA Tournament is on the big board in casino sports books.
It's a coming of age of sorts. The wagering interest has grown along with the TV coverage. Only the championship game was televised in 1982, the first year the NCAA sponsored the women's tournament. For the past three years, all 63 games have been televised.
"The key to sports betting is if people can see it on TV," said Robert Walker, who sets the lines and the odds on the women's tournament for the MGM Mirage casinos in Las Vegas. "TV drives everything."
In response, the NCAA is making sure the women get the same education about what gambling can mean to them, and to their game, that the men hear at their Final Four, football bowl games and Frozen Four hockey playoffs.
Deana Garner, the NCAA's associate director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities, will meet with the four teams separately today, explaining the NCAA rules and consequences regarding gambling. An FBI agent will speak about how some student-athletes have landed in prison for helping to "fix" games.
"The first year I did this presentation, in 2000, the young ladies were amazed, and they wondered why the FBI needs to be in their locker room," Garner said.
In addition, Michael Franzese, a former member of an organized crime family who spent time in prison on gambling-related charges, will speak to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association on Tuesday at its convention here.
Simply put, NCAA Bylaw 10.3 says any kind of wagering on sports, or sharing information that is used for wagering, can cost an athlete his or her scholarship. The athlete could be suspended from competition or permanently banned from college sports.
As is the practice for athletes competing in bowl games, the men's basketball tournament, the Frozen Four and the College World Series, all of the athletes competing in the women's basketball NCAA Tournament (and all of the officials) were required to sign a notarized affidavit swearing to the truth of their answers on a series of questions about gambling.
Since 2000, NCAA student-athletes have noticed a stepped-up anti-gambling campaign. There are posters for the locker rooms, brochures to accompany the videos and speakers, even wristbands in NCAA blue warning: DON'T BET ON IT.
So far, there has not been evidence of a major problem with betting on the women's tournament, either from inside or out.
Last May, the NCAA released a gambling survey of 21,000 student-athletes, men and women. The results showed that 17.2 percent of Division I men reported wagering on collegiate sports, as did 5.9 percent of Division I women. The numbers are higher among basketball players: 21.2 percent of men, 8.2 percent of women.
No women's players or teams have received major penalties for betting on sports. Not so with the men, for whom serious trouble dates to the point-shaving scandal at City College of New York in the 1950s.
There were incidents involving Boston College basketball in the 1970s and Tulane basketball in the 1980s, and, in the mid-1990s, a scandal that involved Northwestern basketball players shaving points in a deal set up by former Notre Dame kicker Kevin Pendergast.
Northwestern guard Dion Lee and Pendergast eventually pleaded guilty to sports bribery.
Bill Saum, director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities for the NCAA since 1996, uses that case as an example of why the NCAA takes such a strong stand, even on pools so popular at this time of year.
In last May's poll, 15.4 percent of the men said they had gambled on a category of wagering that included "football cards and pools," as did 3.8 percent of women.
"We have to take a zero tolerance position," Saum said. "We can't tell our student-athletes that gambling is sort of OK at a dollar, but it's not at $2. That's why we take the position that pools are gambling."
While gambling on women's basketball has increased in the 12 years the sport has been on the boards in Las Vegas, it's nowhere near as popular as the men's event. The men's NCAA Tournament rivals the Super Bowl in wagering interest, with some $80 million spent in Nevada in March. An estimated $2 million is wagered on the women's tournament in that same period.
Walker said most casinos take action starting with the Sweet Sixteen in the women's event. He said he takes a chance being the "lone wolf" setting lines on the entire bracket.
But he also stresses that money is for legal betting, and that illegal gambling far outpaces it. On that point he and Saum agree.
Saum says he is concerned that student-athletes who begin betting with pools -- as Pendergast told Saum he did -- could end up on the wrong side of the law.
Saum lists "the well-being of our student-athletes" first and the integrity of the college game second when he explains why the NCAA is so concerned with betting. "We want the athletes to understand all of these things so they don't end up associating with the wrong people."
The women's Final Four is drawing much more than local and television interest. It's drawing action in Las Vegas.
Yes, the women's basketball NCAA Tournament is on the big board in casino sports books.
It's a coming of age of sorts. The wagering interest has grown along with the TV coverage. Only the championship game was televised in 1982, the first year the NCAA sponsored the women's tournament. For the past three years, all 63 games have been televised.
"The key to sports betting is if people can see it on TV," said Robert Walker, who sets the lines and the odds on the women's tournament for the MGM Mirage casinos in Las Vegas. "TV drives everything."
In response, the NCAA is making sure the women get the same education about what gambling can mean to them, and to their game, that the men hear at their Final Four, football bowl games and Frozen Four hockey playoffs.
Deana Garner, the NCAA's associate director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities, will meet with the four teams separately today, explaining the NCAA rules and consequences regarding gambling. An FBI agent will speak about how some student-athletes have landed in prison for helping to "fix" games.
"The first year I did this presentation, in 2000, the young ladies were amazed, and they wondered why the FBI needs to be in their locker room," Garner said.
In addition, Michael Franzese, a former member of an organized crime family who spent time in prison on gambling-related charges, will speak to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association on Tuesday at its convention here.
Simply put, NCAA Bylaw 10.3 says any kind of wagering on sports, or sharing information that is used for wagering, can cost an athlete his or her scholarship. The athlete could be suspended from competition or permanently banned from college sports.
As is the practice for athletes competing in bowl games, the men's basketball tournament, the Frozen Four and the College World Series, all of the athletes competing in the women's basketball NCAA Tournament (and all of the officials) were required to sign a notarized affidavit swearing to the truth of their answers on a series of questions about gambling.
Since 2000, NCAA student-athletes have noticed a stepped-up anti-gambling campaign. There are posters for the locker rooms, brochures to accompany the videos and speakers, even wristbands in NCAA blue warning: DON'T BET ON IT.
So far, there has not been evidence of a major problem with betting on the women's tournament, either from inside or out.
Last May, the NCAA released a gambling survey of 21,000 student-athletes, men and women. The results showed that 17.2 percent of Division I men reported wagering on collegiate sports, as did 5.9 percent of Division I women. The numbers are higher among basketball players: 21.2 percent of men, 8.2 percent of women.
No women's players or teams have received major penalties for betting on sports. Not so with the men, for whom serious trouble dates to the point-shaving scandal at City College of New York in the 1950s.
There were incidents involving Boston College basketball in the 1970s and Tulane basketball in the 1980s, and, in the mid-1990s, a scandal that involved Northwestern basketball players shaving points in a deal set up by former Notre Dame kicker Kevin Pendergast.
Northwestern guard Dion Lee and Pendergast eventually pleaded guilty to sports bribery.
Bill Saum, director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities for the NCAA since 1996, uses that case as an example of why the NCAA takes such a strong stand, even on pools so popular at this time of year.
In last May's poll, 15.4 percent of the men said they had gambled on a category of wagering that included "football cards and pools," as did 3.8 percent of women.
"We have to take a zero tolerance position," Saum said. "We can't tell our student-athletes that gambling is sort of OK at a dollar, but it's not at $2. That's why we take the position that pools are gambling."
While gambling on women's basketball has increased in the 12 years the sport has been on the boards in Las Vegas, it's nowhere near as popular as the men's event. The men's NCAA Tournament rivals the Super Bowl in wagering interest, with some $80 million spent in Nevada in March. An estimated $2 million is wagered on the women's tournament in that same period.
Walker said most casinos take action starting with the Sweet Sixteen in the women's event. He said he takes a chance being the "lone wolf" setting lines on the entire bracket.
But he also stresses that money is for legal betting, and that illegal gambling far outpaces it. On that point he and Saum agree.
Saum says he is concerned that student-athletes who begin betting with pools -- as Pendergast told Saum he did -- could end up on the wrong side of the law.
Saum lists "the well-being of our student-athletes" first and the integrity of the college game second when he explains why the NCAA is so concerned with betting. "We want the athletes to understand all of these things so they don't end up associating with the wrong people."
Summitt masters changes
Injuries caused Tennessee women's coach to adjust her lineup, find new stars.
DETROIT -- When the season began, coach Pat Summitt anticipated having another strong team at Tennessee.
The women's Final Four at the RCA Dome was a realistic expectation after last season's young Lady Vols reached the NCAA championship game. The three departing seniors were not dominant players, and the incoming freshman class was considered the best in the history of the women's game.
But then knee injuries hit. The Lady Vols are down four players from the start of the season -- freshmen Candace Parker and Alex Fuller missed the entire season, freshman Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood battled knee pain before February surgery, and sophomore Sidney Spencer suffered torn knee ligaments during a February practice, ending her season.
That solved Tennessee's preseason question about playing time, but the group now playing in the NCAA Tournament looks a bit different from what Summitt expected, even in early February.
The Lady Vols play Michigan State in Sunday's second national semifinal game.
"If you'd told me going into the year we'd be without the (missing players), I would say it's a long and very challenging year for us," Summitt said.
Spencer's loss was the toughest, she said.
"The others arrived with complications, but with Sid, I'll tell you that was the hardest one to take because of the timing of it and all the dimensions of her game because she can play multiple positions," Summitt said. "But the team handled it so well."
All of the Lady Vols' losses came against top-15 teams. Tennessee is similar to Michigan State, though with far less stable parts. There are only two double-figure scorers -- Shyra Ely at 14.5 points and Shanna Zolman at 12.5. With 30 starts, Ely is the only Lady Vol to have started more than 24 games.
Eight players have started this season. Among the biggest surprises has been Alexis Hornbuckle, one of the freshmen who survived and thrived. She averages 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds.
Even though Michigan State assistant coach Al Brown was an assistant at Tennessee in 1995-2002, that doesn't help much this week. Most of the players he knew have moved on, and Summitt never lets anything remain stagnant.
"Part of it is personnel and part of it is Pat because she is constantly changing," Brown said. "She's constantly upgrading; that's what makes her so unique. It's an ongoing change with her, often by the month. It's not a static situation."
As successful as Summitt has been, she's disturbed by the expectation that Tennessee should win solely on reputation.
When someone pointed out that the Lady Vols haven't won a national title since 1998 -- their longest drought since their first championship in 1987 -- Summitt said she had no reservations about her program.
"I'm proud of the teams that have been there and played in the championship games and have gotten us to the Final Four," she said. "In the role we're in, if we don't win a championship, somehow that's a failure? That's not true."
DETROIT -- When the season began, coach Pat Summitt anticipated having another strong team at Tennessee.
The women's Final Four at the RCA Dome was a realistic expectation after last season's young Lady Vols reached the NCAA championship game. The three departing seniors were not dominant players, and the incoming freshman class was considered the best in the history of the women's game.
But then knee injuries hit. The Lady Vols are down four players from the start of the season -- freshmen Candace Parker and Alex Fuller missed the entire season, freshman Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood battled knee pain before February surgery, and sophomore Sidney Spencer suffered torn knee ligaments during a February practice, ending her season.
That solved Tennessee's preseason question about playing time, but the group now playing in the NCAA Tournament looks a bit different from what Summitt expected, even in early February.
The Lady Vols play Michigan State in Sunday's second national semifinal game.
"If you'd told me going into the year we'd be without the (missing players), I would say it's a long and very challenging year for us," Summitt said.
Spencer's loss was the toughest, she said.
"The others arrived with complications, but with Sid, I'll tell you that was the hardest one to take because of the timing of it and all the dimensions of her game because she can play multiple positions," Summitt said. "But the team handled it so well."
All of the Lady Vols' losses came against top-15 teams. Tennessee is similar to Michigan State, though with far less stable parts. There are only two double-figure scorers -- Shyra Ely at 14.5 points and Shanna Zolman at 12.5. With 30 starts, Ely is the only Lady Vol to have started more than 24 games.
Eight players have started this season. Among the biggest surprises has been Alexis Hornbuckle, one of the freshmen who survived and thrived. She averages 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds.
Even though Michigan State assistant coach Al Brown was an assistant at Tennessee in 1995-2002, that doesn't help much this week. Most of the players he knew have moved on, and Summitt never lets anything remain stagnant.
"Part of it is personnel and part of it is Pat because she is constantly changing," Brown said. "She's constantly upgrading; that's what makes her so unique. It's an ongoing change with her, often by the month. It's not a static situation."
As successful as Summitt has been, she's disturbed by the expectation that Tennessee should win solely on reputation.
When someone pointed out that the Lady Vols haven't won a national title since 1998 -- their longest drought since their first championship in 1987 -- Summitt said she had no reservations about her program.
"I'm proud of the teams that have been there and played in the championship games and have gotten us to the Final Four," she said. "In the role we're in, if we don't win a championship, somehow that's a failure? That's not true."
Summitt's Intensity Stokes Tennessee's Fire
Normally, coaching milestones come packaged with an inevitable discussion about retirement - particularly when the milestone becomes as weighty as 880 victories - and people begin wondering aloud how much longer the coach in question can muster the energy for the job.
Except when the coach in question is Tennessee's Pat Summitt.
Summitt, the coach with the most N.C.A.A. victories in college basketball, flew past that career marker on March 22 the way an express train goes by a local station. She passed the former North Carolina coach Dean Smith with a sincere but decidedly brief acknowledgement.
If you caught even a few seconds of her on the sideline at any game in this year's N.C.A.A. women's tournament, waving her arms, shouting instructions and willing her team through every possession on the way to this weekend's Final Four in Indianapolis, retirement is not a word that leaps to mind.
"We just talked on the phone, and I said, 'You'll still be coaching when you're 80 years old,' " said Michelle Marciniak, a former player of Summitt's and now an assistant coach at South Carolina. "She said, 'You think so?'
"She still has that fire. She'll put that number way over 1,000. Definitely."
Part of the reason is that Summitt started racking up victories when she was 22 and Tennessee handed her its fledgling program while she was still playing basketball. So she has eclipsed Smith at the age of 52. Smith, who coached 36 seasons, retired with his 879 victories at age 66.
The other reason is that Summitt's 882 victories, offset by 171 defeats, have not begun to sap her trademark intensity. Ask her players if she has mellowed over time and they often respond by laughing.
"If you looked up passion, if you looked up focus in the dictionary, you'd find the definition of her," Joan Cronan, Tennessee women's athletic director, said. "That's what she is all about. And it's my job to keep her here coaching."
In her 31 seasons at Tennessee, Summitt has become the standard by which dynasty-makers are judged. This is the 16th time she has led the Lady Vols to the Final Four, and she is trying to add to six N.C.A.A. titles, starting with tonight's national semifinal against Michigan State. Summitt has averaged 28 victories and 5 losses a season.
She has done it in her now-famous style: hard-driving and intense during games and practices, genteel and gracious when they end.
Although she has changed little, her sport has been transformed. It was not until Summitt's eighth season, 1981-82, that the National Collegiate Athletic Association began running a women's tournament or had a Final Four. Before that, she reached the championship round of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament four times.
Summitt was hired in 1974, shortly after she graduated from Tennessee at Martin. She was trying to recover from a knee injury so she could play on the 1976 Olympic team. The job - which was supposed to be as an assistant coach to Margaret Hudson, who unexpectedly decided to pursue a doctorate instead - was attractive to Summitt largely because she could use the university's facilities to rehabilitate and stay in shape. She was hardly prepared to start a program.
"I was absolutely overwhelmed and scared to death, but I said yes," Summitt recalled last week before the N.C.A.A.'s Philadelphia Regional final. "I'm glad I said yes."
Under A.I.A.W. rules, she was not allowed to recruit players, so she picked her team from campus tryouts. There were no scholarships. Tickets were free. She had no trainer. She drove the van to away games, which were against local teams, taped her players' ankles and turned the gym lights off when she was done. Her assistants received no salary and hers was $250 a month.
Now, her shoes are likely to cost $250.
"It was just a step up from an intramural level," she said. "I remember when we got to go to Rock Hill, S.C. We thought we were headed for New York."
She won in that era, and all the ones to follow. None of the changes fazed her. When the N.C.A.A. supplanted the A.I.A.W., Summitt became the best recruiter, stocking her team in Knoxville with national talent.
As the players became more athletic and played at a faster pace, Summitt adjusted. The field of top teams grew, and Summitt kept her program at or near the head of the pack: 14 of her last 19 teams have reached the Final Four.
She now has former players taking over programs. Point guard Kellie Jolly, now Kellie Harper, coached Western Carolina to a first-round loss to Tennessee in the N.C.A.A. tournament. Summitt has had at least some effect on the careers of many of today's women's coaches.
"What people will remember her for are the championships," said Marciniak, whom Summitt has counseled on her career. "But the people close to her will remember her for influencing lives. She has helped so many people and keeps in touch with a lot of her players. It means a lot to her."
Michigan State's Joanne P. McCallie, who will coach against Summit tonight, used Summitt as a reference on her résumé when she was trying to get a head coaching job while an assistant at Auburn. Baylor Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson played for Summitt on the 1984 Olympic team and said she turned to Summitt for advice on how to mix coaching and motherhood. (Summitt's son, Tyler, is 14; Mulkey-Robertson now has a daughter and a son.)
"I think Pat is a terrific person, a fabulous coach, and I just think what she's done for women's basketball, it's so hard to talk about because it's just so incredible and will never be duplicated," McCallie said after a practice last week.
This group of coaches will ensure a genteel atmosphere between games at this Final Four, in sharp contrast to last year's. Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, on his way to a third straight national title, had made a public show of hostility to Summitt in recent seasons that seemed to come to a head last year.
Summitt, who talks about other coaches with a reflexive congeniality, was at a loss. She would not retaliate, and in fact endlessly praised Auriemma's team and its accomplishments. But by the end of the Final Four, having lost to UConn in the championship game, Summitt looked unusually drained.
That struggle seemed to take its toll on the normally imperturbable Summitt, but with a new crop of freshman talent headed to Knoxville, she found her peace with it and moved on. "Our expectations are so high here," Cronan said. "Last year we had a team that was an overachiever. It was not our most talented team. I think once she had a chance to step back, Pat realized that, too. It may have been one of her best coaching jobs ever."
With UConn having lost in the Round of 16, Summitt enters this Final Four as the unchallenged center of attention, last year's loss a distant memory, her record victory total the topic of the tournament.
And the coach in question shows no sign of letting that express train slow down.
"I've never seen anything like her," Marciniak said.
Retirement will have to wait.
Except when the coach in question is Tennessee's Pat Summitt.
Summitt, the coach with the most N.C.A.A. victories in college basketball, flew past that career marker on March 22 the way an express train goes by a local station. She passed the former North Carolina coach Dean Smith with a sincere but decidedly brief acknowledgement.
If you caught even a few seconds of her on the sideline at any game in this year's N.C.A.A. women's tournament, waving her arms, shouting instructions and willing her team through every possession on the way to this weekend's Final Four in Indianapolis, retirement is not a word that leaps to mind.
"We just talked on the phone, and I said, 'You'll still be coaching when you're 80 years old,' " said Michelle Marciniak, a former player of Summitt's and now an assistant coach at South Carolina. "She said, 'You think so?'
"She still has that fire. She'll put that number way over 1,000. Definitely."
Part of the reason is that Summitt started racking up victories when she was 22 and Tennessee handed her its fledgling program while she was still playing basketball. So she has eclipsed Smith at the age of 52. Smith, who coached 36 seasons, retired with his 879 victories at age 66.
The other reason is that Summitt's 882 victories, offset by 171 defeats, have not begun to sap her trademark intensity. Ask her players if she has mellowed over time and they often respond by laughing.
"If you looked up passion, if you looked up focus in the dictionary, you'd find the definition of her," Joan Cronan, Tennessee women's athletic director, said. "That's what she is all about. And it's my job to keep her here coaching."
In her 31 seasons at Tennessee, Summitt has become the standard by which dynasty-makers are judged. This is the 16th time she has led the Lady Vols to the Final Four, and she is trying to add to six N.C.A.A. titles, starting with tonight's national semifinal against Michigan State. Summitt has averaged 28 victories and 5 losses a season.
She has done it in her now-famous style: hard-driving and intense during games and practices, genteel and gracious when they end.
Although she has changed little, her sport has been transformed. It was not until Summitt's eighth season, 1981-82, that the National Collegiate Athletic Association began running a women's tournament or had a Final Four. Before that, she reached the championship round of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament four times.
Summitt was hired in 1974, shortly after she graduated from Tennessee at Martin. She was trying to recover from a knee injury so she could play on the 1976 Olympic team. The job - which was supposed to be as an assistant coach to Margaret Hudson, who unexpectedly decided to pursue a doctorate instead - was attractive to Summitt largely because she could use the university's facilities to rehabilitate and stay in shape. She was hardly prepared to start a program.
"I was absolutely overwhelmed and scared to death, but I said yes," Summitt recalled last week before the N.C.A.A.'s Philadelphia Regional final. "I'm glad I said yes."
Under A.I.A.W. rules, she was not allowed to recruit players, so she picked her team from campus tryouts. There were no scholarships. Tickets were free. She had no trainer. She drove the van to away games, which were against local teams, taped her players' ankles and turned the gym lights off when she was done. Her assistants received no salary and hers was $250 a month.
Now, her shoes are likely to cost $250.
"It was just a step up from an intramural level," she said. "I remember when we got to go to Rock Hill, S.C. We thought we were headed for New York."
She won in that era, and all the ones to follow. None of the changes fazed her. When the N.C.A.A. supplanted the A.I.A.W., Summitt became the best recruiter, stocking her team in Knoxville with national talent.
As the players became more athletic and played at a faster pace, Summitt adjusted. The field of top teams grew, and Summitt kept her program at or near the head of the pack: 14 of her last 19 teams have reached the Final Four.
She now has former players taking over programs. Point guard Kellie Jolly, now Kellie Harper, coached Western Carolina to a first-round loss to Tennessee in the N.C.A.A. tournament. Summitt has had at least some effect on the careers of many of today's women's coaches.
"What people will remember her for are the championships," said Marciniak, whom Summitt has counseled on her career. "But the people close to her will remember her for influencing lives. She has helped so many people and keeps in touch with a lot of her players. It means a lot to her."
Michigan State's Joanne P. McCallie, who will coach against Summit tonight, used Summitt as a reference on her résumé when she was trying to get a head coaching job while an assistant at Auburn. Baylor Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson played for Summitt on the 1984 Olympic team and said she turned to Summitt for advice on how to mix coaching and motherhood. (Summitt's son, Tyler, is 14; Mulkey-Robertson now has a daughter and a son.)
"I think Pat is a terrific person, a fabulous coach, and I just think what she's done for women's basketball, it's so hard to talk about because it's just so incredible and will never be duplicated," McCallie said after a practice last week.
This group of coaches will ensure a genteel atmosphere between games at this Final Four, in sharp contrast to last year's. Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, on his way to a third straight national title, had made a public show of hostility to Summitt in recent seasons that seemed to come to a head last year.
Summitt, who talks about other coaches with a reflexive congeniality, was at a loss. She would not retaliate, and in fact endlessly praised Auriemma's team and its accomplishments. But by the end of the Final Four, having lost to UConn in the championship game, Summitt looked unusually drained.
That struggle seemed to take its toll on the normally imperturbable Summitt, but with a new crop of freshman talent headed to Knoxville, she found her peace with it and moved on. "Our expectations are so high here," Cronan said. "Last year we had a team that was an overachiever. It was not our most talented team. I think once she had a chance to step back, Pat realized that, too. It may have been one of her best coaching jobs ever."
With UConn having lost in the Round of 16, Summitt enters this Final Four as the unchallenged center of attention, last year's loss a distant memory, her record victory total the topic of the tournament.
And the coach in question shows no sign of letting that express train slow down.
"I've never seen anything like her," Marciniak said.
Retirement will have to wait.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Summitt leaves mark on game, players
Tennessee coach is driven to succeed and expects nothing less from her athletes.
Those Summitt eyes.
They are penetratingly blue and intense.
Clearly, they are not what define Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, but they leave an unforgettable impression.
Just ask any of the women who have played for her.
"Those blue eyes ... they are very serious eyes," said Deadra Charles-Furlow, a Detroit native and two-time All-American at Tennessee (1988-91) who is an assistant coach at Detroit Mercy.
"She could look at you with those blue eyes like they were piercing right through you. She just wanted you to appreciate the game like she does -- 'We're here to compete, and we're here to win.' Her players develop that mentality."
Summitt has guided the Lady Vols to their fourth straight Final Four -- and 16th in the last 24 years -- to face Final Four first-timer Michigan State in the second semifinal Sunday night at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Summitt's remarkable résumé is a tribute to her ability to make winners out of her players.
She can make them understand what it takes to succeed. She is a product of a farming family in middle Tennessee, where she developed her work ethic, rising early and toiling long hours, still managing school and sports.
Summit, 52, began coaching at Tennessee in 1974. During those early years, when she was barely older than the players she was coaching, she washed the team uniforms and drove the team van. Her salary? $8,900.
Now she makes $824,500, which includes compensation for TV / radio and public-relations appearances and a shoe / apparel contract, and she gets the use of a Mercedes-Benz for a year every time she wins a national championship, which she has done six times. Renowned as the greatest coach in the women's game, she recently passed North Carolina coaching legend Dean Smith to become the leader in career NCAA victories. Her total is 882.
Because she is so good, so successful, so linked to the women's game as its most recognized ambassador, she is asked about the disappointment of not winning a national title in six years.
Coaches dream of winning one championship. But because expectations at Tennessee are so high and winning has seemed like a given there, Summitt has to address national title droughts.
"I am proud of the teams that have been there and have played in championship games, and got us to the Final Four," Summitt said Thursday during a teleconference with reporters. "That is no easy task. I think sometimes when you are in the role we are in, people think that if you do not win a championship then you somehow fail, and that is not true.
"Last year's team (which lost to Connecticut in the final), I thought if anything, people said they probably overachieved. There is no shame to playing in a national championship game and losing to a team that has been really dominant for the last three years like a Connecticut. I think you have to accept it for what it is and try to keep getting back there, because if you get back there enough times, hopefully you will win."
Summitt and the Lady Vols keep getting back to the Final Four for a multitude of reasons. Obviously, there's the coaching. There's also the success-breeds-success motto that pretty much guarantees stellar recruiting and the best players in the country.
Al Brown, a first-year assistant at Michigan State, coached on Summitt's staff for seven years. While he was with the Lady Vols, they had a winning percentage of .885 and won national titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Brown said Summitt's secret is that she never rests.
"When this season is over, she'll look back on it and it won't make any difference if it was the '98 season where we won by an average of 30 points, it's 'how do we get better next year?' " Brown said. "We had basically the same team back in '99, and her question was, 'How do we get better?'
"She holds everybody in the program accountable, from the custodians, to the secretaries."
But Summitt wants to make her players successful in whatever way she believes necessary.
Charles-Furlow was in her junior season at Tennessee when she one day reached a breaking point. It had been a bad day at school, but she obviously had to practice.
"Pat really hit a nerve that day," Charles-Furlow said. "She kept riding me and riding me, and I finally yelled, 'I am doing the best I can do!' The arena became silent. My teammates looked at me like, 'No she didn't (just do that).'
"Pat called me over. She was kneeling on one knee. She said, 'Not in a million years did I think you would disrespect me.' I said, 'Disrespect you?'"
The two women spoke the next day, and Charles-Furlow apologized.
"She told me, 'The day you should worry is the day I say nothing to you,'" Charles-Furlow said. "I had a better love for her after that as a person and as a friend. Once you have gone through that program, you are prepared for anything that happens to you in life. And you're not going to walk out of Tennessee without your degree. I'm glad Pat is that way. I think if she had been nice to me (on the court), I don't think I'd be the person I am today."
Those Summitt eyes.
They are penetratingly blue and intense.
Clearly, they are not what define Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, but they leave an unforgettable impression.
Just ask any of the women who have played for her.
"Those blue eyes ... they are very serious eyes," said Deadra Charles-Furlow, a Detroit native and two-time All-American at Tennessee (1988-91) who is an assistant coach at Detroit Mercy.
"She could look at you with those blue eyes like they were piercing right through you. She just wanted you to appreciate the game like she does -- 'We're here to compete, and we're here to win.' Her players develop that mentality."
Summitt has guided the Lady Vols to their fourth straight Final Four -- and 16th in the last 24 years -- to face Final Four first-timer Michigan State in the second semifinal Sunday night at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Summitt's remarkable résumé is a tribute to her ability to make winners out of her players.
She can make them understand what it takes to succeed. She is a product of a farming family in middle Tennessee, where she developed her work ethic, rising early and toiling long hours, still managing school and sports.
Summit, 52, began coaching at Tennessee in 1974. During those early years, when she was barely older than the players she was coaching, she washed the team uniforms and drove the team van. Her salary? $8,900.
Now she makes $824,500, which includes compensation for TV / radio and public-relations appearances and a shoe / apparel contract, and she gets the use of a Mercedes-Benz for a year every time she wins a national championship, which she has done six times. Renowned as the greatest coach in the women's game, she recently passed North Carolina coaching legend Dean Smith to become the leader in career NCAA victories. Her total is 882.
Because she is so good, so successful, so linked to the women's game as its most recognized ambassador, she is asked about the disappointment of not winning a national title in six years.
Coaches dream of winning one championship. But because expectations at Tennessee are so high and winning has seemed like a given there, Summitt has to address national title droughts.
"I am proud of the teams that have been there and have played in championship games, and got us to the Final Four," Summitt said Thursday during a teleconference with reporters. "That is no easy task. I think sometimes when you are in the role we are in, people think that if you do not win a championship then you somehow fail, and that is not true.
"Last year's team (which lost to Connecticut in the final), I thought if anything, people said they probably overachieved. There is no shame to playing in a national championship game and losing to a team that has been really dominant for the last three years like a Connecticut. I think you have to accept it for what it is and try to keep getting back there, because if you get back there enough times, hopefully you will win."
Summitt and the Lady Vols keep getting back to the Final Four for a multitude of reasons. Obviously, there's the coaching. There's also the success-breeds-success motto that pretty much guarantees stellar recruiting and the best players in the country.
Al Brown, a first-year assistant at Michigan State, coached on Summitt's staff for seven years. While he was with the Lady Vols, they had a winning percentage of .885 and won national titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Brown said Summitt's secret is that she never rests.
"When this season is over, she'll look back on it and it won't make any difference if it was the '98 season where we won by an average of 30 points, it's 'how do we get better next year?' " Brown said. "We had basically the same team back in '99, and her question was, 'How do we get better?'
"She holds everybody in the program accountable, from the custodians, to the secretaries."
But Summitt wants to make her players successful in whatever way she believes necessary.
Charles-Furlow was in her junior season at Tennessee when she one day reached a breaking point. It had been a bad day at school, but she obviously had to practice.
"Pat really hit a nerve that day," Charles-Furlow said. "She kept riding me and riding me, and I finally yelled, 'I am doing the best I can do!' The arena became silent. My teammates looked at me like, 'No she didn't (just do that).'
"Pat called me over. She was kneeling on one knee. She said, 'Not in a million years did I think you would disrespect me.' I said, 'Disrespect you?'"
The two women spoke the next day, and Charles-Furlow apologized.
"She told me, 'The day you should worry is the day I say nothing to you,'" Charles-Furlow said. "I had a better love for her after that as a person and as a friend. Once you have gone through that program, you are prepared for anything that happens to you in life. And you're not going to walk out of Tennessee without your degree. I'm glad Pat is that way. I think if she had been nice to me (on the court), I don't think I'd be the person I am today."
Saying Summitt should coach men is insult
INDIANAPOLIS - Whenever Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt reaches a coaching milestone, the dumb idea starts to surface that maybe Summitt should try coaching men.
It's understandable. The number of records she breaks is absurd. She is in Indianapolis this weekend for her 16th Final Four, which is more than that of legendary coach John Wooden. She has won more games than any college basketball coach. And certainly handing over the Tennessee men's team to Summitt instead of former Wisconsin-Milwaukee coach Bruce Pearl would have made the program more relevant than it has been in years.
But why is it when a woman becomes ultra-successful in a sport, the first thing we want to do is say how much better she would be if she proved herself among men?
Saying Summitt should coach guys is an insult to everything she's done for both Tennessee and the women's game. The message seems to be Summitt's 882 victories, six NCAA titles, her 83 percent winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament and 24 straight NCAA bids are good, but she would be more respected if she made it coaching guys.
"It's the reality of the society we live in," Summitt said. "I don't think I have anything to prove as a coach. A lot of people think, well if a female coach is in the men's game, then you've arrived."
Tennessee has been so good for so long under Summitt it's hard to remember when she actually did "arrive." A Lady Vol has never left the program without participating in a Final Four. Summitt has won 89 of 106 NCAA Tournament games.
When Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski was offered the Los Angeles Lakers job last summer, nobody said his success at Duke would be validated if he turned the Lakers around. (How smart does he look now because he didn't take that job?) And you could argue that what Summitt did for Tennessee was more than what Krzyzewski did for Duke.
This isn't to say Summitt couldn't cut it with male players or against male coaches. If there is any woman suited to coach men at the college level, it's her. Her recruiting, player development and competitiveness are extraordinary. Along with a penetrating gaze, she's got enough star power to make her gender a non-issue.
But there is nothing Summitt could add to the men's game_at least not on the level that she's contributed to women's basketball. Little boys wouldn't look up to Summitt like little girls do. If she coached a men's team, she'd be a novelty for a moment and then just another coach. For women's players and coaches, Summitt is the standard and the biggest role model in her sport.
"I do feel like I can have much more influence here on the lives of these young women and that's what I want to do," Summitt said.
For Summitt, the jump just isn't worth it. It's not like she would take over a men's team on the same level as the Tennessee women. She would have to start from scratch. And why, if you've won more than 800 games, would you ever want to start from scratch?
If Summitt failed in the men's game, her impeccable record would be diminished slowly. Women's coaches everywhere would never hear the end of it because Summitt's failure would become the rule, not the exception.
Summitt is just better off without the men. Not many women can say that.
It's understandable. The number of records she breaks is absurd. She is in Indianapolis this weekend for her 16th Final Four, which is more than that of legendary coach John Wooden. She has won more games than any college basketball coach. And certainly handing over the Tennessee men's team to Summitt instead of former Wisconsin-Milwaukee coach Bruce Pearl would have made the program more relevant than it has been in years.
But why is it when a woman becomes ultra-successful in a sport, the first thing we want to do is say how much better she would be if she proved herself among men?
Saying Summitt should coach guys is an insult to everything she's done for both Tennessee and the women's game. The message seems to be Summitt's 882 victories, six NCAA titles, her 83 percent winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament and 24 straight NCAA bids are good, but she would be more respected if she made it coaching guys.
"It's the reality of the society we live in," Summitt said. "I don't think I have anything to prove as a coach. A lot of people think, well if a female coach is in the men's game, then you've arrived."
Tennessee has been so good for so long under Summitt it's hard to remember when she actually did "arrive." A Lady Vol has never left the program without participating in a Final Four. Summitt has won 89 of 106 NCAA Tournament games.
When Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski was offered the Los Angeles Lakers job last summer, nobody said his success at Duke would be validated if he turned the Lakers around. (How smart does he look now because he didn't take that job?) And you could argue that what Summitt did for Tennessee was more than what Krzyzewski did for Duke.
This isn't to say Summitt couldn't cut it with male players or against male coaches. If there is any woman suited to coach men at the college level, it's her. Her recruiting, player development and competitiveness are extraordinary. Along with a penetrating gaze, she's got enough star power to make her gender a non-issue.
But there is nothing Summitt could add to the men's game_at least not on the level that she's contributed to women's basketball. Little boys wouldn't look up to Summitt like little girls do. If she coached a men's team, she'd be a novelty for a moment and then just another coach. For women's players and coaches, Summitt is the standard and the biggest role model in her sport.
"I do feel like I can have much more influence here on the lives of these young women and that's what I want to do," Summitt said.
For Summitt, the jump just isn't worth it. It's not like she would take over a men's team on the same level as the Tennessee women. She would have to start from scratch. And why, if you've won more than 800 games, would you ever want to start from scratch?
If Summitt failed in the men's game, her impeccable record would be diminished slowly. Women's coaches everywhere would never hear the end of it because Summitt's failure would become the rule, not the exception.
Summitt is just better off without the men. Not many women can say that.
Pat Pix
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt watches the Lady Vols practice for the NCAA Women's Final Four Saturday, April 2, 2005, in Indianapolis.
Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt hugs Nicky Anosike during practice for the NCAA Women's Final Four Saturday, April 2, 2005, in Indianapolis. Tennessee plays Michigan State in a semifinal game on Sunday.
Spartans not fearful of Lady Vols
INDIANAPOLIS -- Tennessee has it all: a gym full of trophies, rafters crawling with NCAA championship banners, the winningest coach in history and All-Americans who could line the highway halfway back to Knoxville.
They are the Lady Vols, and they enter this year's Final Four with history on their side.
Michigan State couldn't seem to care less.
``They have a tradition,'' Spartans 6-foot-4 senior center Kelli Roehrig said, smiling. ``But the thing with us is when we step on the floor, it's us versus them. Michigan State of now versus Tennessee of now.''
Now, there's some confidence.
To those with only a passing interest in women's college basketball, Sunday night's second semifinal between Tennessee (30-4) and Michigan State (32-3) would appear to be a mismatch.
On one side, you have the Lady Vols, making their fourth straight Final Four appearance and seeking their seventh national title under Pat Summitt, who recently passed Dean Smith for the most career coaching wins -- 882 and counting.
Over yonder is Michigan State with well, a solid football program, Sparty the helmet-wearing, muscle-bound mascot and a men's hoops team playing in the Final Four at St. Louis.
But that naive assessment is totally unfair to these Spartans.
With a headache-inducing matchup zone defense, four starters averaging double figures and a strong inside game, Michigan State comes in riding a 16-game winning streak while driving over some high-profile programs on the road to Indy.
This is their first Final Four and first time in the national spotlight. But the Spartans don't expect to be blinded by the glare.
``It's another game,'' said senior point guard Kristin Haynie. ``We've played great teams this season. We've had a great schedule, and we're ready.''
The Tennessee-Michigan State winner will play either Baylor (31-3) or LSU (33-2) in Tuesday's title game.
Although the Spartans are dismissing Final Four experience as being a factor, someone older and wiser knows better.
For Summitt, a trip to the Final Four has become a personal rite of spring. This is her 16th time in the national semifinals in 31 years since she took over the UT program as a 22-year-old.
On Saturday, Summitt recalled a jittery first visit ending with a loss to Delta State.
``I can remember I didn't understand what I was going into and at that point I was nervous,'' said Summitt, a mind-boggling 882-171 at Tennessee. ``And obviously, you try and keep that from your players and just try to prepare them. We probably practiced more than we do now.
``We don't prepare any less in terms of scouting, but on the floor it's more about getting used to the floor and the rims and the lighting.''
Michigan State's players got to experience the spaciousness of the RCA Dome for the first time on Saturday during a one-hour practice. They've played in big arenas before but nothing on the scope of the 40,000-seat home of the Indianapolis Colts.
Although the game is in Indiana, Spartans coach Joanne P. McCallie didn't make like Gene Hackman's character in ``Hoosiers'' and measure the rims to prove to her players that 10 feet is 10 feet no matter the court.
McCallie, who once scored 20 points for Northwestern in a game against Tennessee, is confident her players won't be intimidated.
Why is she so sure her team won't succumb to stage fright?
``Well, beating UConn by 16 in front of 15,000 people,'' said McCallie, the AP's coach of the year. ``Beating Notre Dame at Notre Dame in front of 7,000 in overtime. Beating Ohio State in front of 14,000. To me, our schedule has prepared these kids. We're not even in Knoxville.''
Michigan State went 15-3 this season against NCAA tourney teams. Awarded a No. 1 seed for the first time, the Spartans then beat Vanderbilt in the opening round before toppling top-ranked Stanford in the regional final.
Tennessee and all its lore is next. The Spartans can't wait.
``It's pretty much poetic justice that we would play Tennessee, given the schedule we have had this year,'' McCallie said. ``Why not bring on such a great program. It seems fitting, really.''
They are the Lady Vols, and they enter this year's Final Four with history on their side.
Michigan State couldn't seem to care less.
``They have a tradition,'' Spartans 6-foot-4 senior center Kelli Roehrig said, smiling. ``But the thing with us is when we step on the floor, it's us versus them. Michigan State of now versus Tennessee of now.''
Now, there's some confidence.
To those with only a passing interest in women's college basketball, Sunday night's second semifinal between Tennessee (30-4) and Michigan State (32-3) would appear to be a mismatch.
On one side, you have the Lady Vols, making their fourth straight Final Four appearance and seeking their seventh national title under Pat Summitt, who recently passed Dean Smith for the most career coaching wins -- 882 and counting.
Over yonder is Michigan State with well, a solid football program, Sparty the helmet-wearing, muscle-bound mascot and a men's hoops team playing in the Final Four at St. Louis.
But that naive assessment is totally unfair to these Spartans.
With a headache-inducing matchup zone defense, four starters averaging double figures and a strong inside game, Michigan State comes in riding a 16-game winning streak while driving over some high-profile programs on the road to Indy.
This is their first Final Four and first time in the national spotlight. But the Spartans don't expect to be blinded by the glare.
``It's another game,'' said senior point guard Kristin Haynie. ``We've played great teams this season. We've had a great schedule, and we're ready.''
The Tennessee-Michigan State winner will play either Baylor (31-3) or LSU (33-2) in Tuesday's title game.
Although the Spartans are dismissing Final Four experience as being a factor, someone older and wiser knows better.
For Summitt, a trip to the Final Four has become a personal rite of spring. This is her 16th time in the national semifinals in 31 years since she took over the UT program as a 22-year-old.
On Saturday, Summitt recalled a jittery first visit ending with a loss to Delta State.
``I can remember I didn't understand what I was going into and at that point I was nervous,'' said Summitt, a mind-boggling 882-171 at Tennessee. ``And obviously, you try and keep that from your players and just try to prepare them. We probably practiced more than we do now.
``We don't prepare any less in terms of scouting, but on the floor it's more about getting used to the floor and the rims and the lighting.''
Michigan State's players got to experience the spaciousness of the RCA Dome for the first time on Saturday during a one-hour practice. They've played in big arenas before but nothing on the scope of the 40,000-seat home of the Indianapolis Colts.
Although the game is in Indiana, Spartans coach Joanne P. McCallie didn't make like Gene Hackman's character in ``Hoosiers'' and measure the rims to prove to her players that 10 feet is 10 feet no matter the court.
McCallie, who once scored 20 points for Northwestern in a game against Tennessee, is confident her players won't be intimidated.
Why is she so sure her team won't succumb to stage fright?
``Well, beating UConn by 16 in front of 15,000 people,'' said McCallie, the AP's coach of the year. ``Beating Notre Dame at Notre Dame in front of 7,000 in overtime. Beating Ohio State in front of 14,000. To me, our schedule has prepared these kids. We're not even in Knoxville.''
Michigan State went 15-3 this season against NCAA tourney teams. Awarded a No. 1 seed for the first time, the Spartans then beat Vanderbilt in the opening round before toppling top-ranked Stanford in the regional final.
Tennessee and all its lore is next. The Spartans can't wait.
``It's pretty much poetic justice that we would play Tennessee, given the schedule we have had this year,'' McCallie said. ``Why not bring on such a great program. It seems fitting, really.''
Michigan State may have inside track on Tennessee
INDIANAPOLIS -- Michigan State has the inside edge. Maybe not on the court, but certainly in the scouting room.
Spartans coach Joanne P. McCallie has two assistants, Al Brown and Semeka Randall, who will provide insight into what coach Pat Summitt might do Sunday when Michigan State faces Tennessee in the second national semifinal game. Brown served as Summitt's assistant for seven seasons, while Randall played on Summitt's last national championship team in 1998.
Will it help?
``I think the mistake you make as a coach is thinking you know something just because you're a couple of years removed,'' Brown said Saturday. ``Unless you walk out of Tennessee's practice facility today and go to Michigan State, I think you still have a lot of work to do.''
Brown and Randall probably have more inside knowledge of Tennessee's program than anyone else in Indianapolis outside the Lady Vols' program, something that could help mightily when the Spartans play in their first women's Final Four.
Tennessee is more accustomed to the environment.
The Volunteers (30-4) have made the Final Four almost a personal showcase. They've reached the semifinals 16 times, played in 11 championship games and won six national titles. This also marks the fourth straight year Summitt has taken the Vols to the Final Four.
So expectations, as usual, are high.
``I think we won't get caught up in the experience,'' senior Shyra Ely said. ``We can focus on our goal, which is winning the national championship.''
Michigan State players insist they're not intimidated by Tennessee's reputation, success or its record-breaking coach. Summitt recently passed Dean Smith to top the NCAA career wins list.
All the Spartans (32-3) want to do is play their game.
But if they need any pointers, Brown and Randall will help.
``I'll tell them about the emotions you go through in the first five minutes,'' Randall said. ``You don't want to get those little fouls, you just have to settle down.''
LOUISIANA CONNECTION
It seems fitting LSU coach Pokey Chatman and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson would face each other in the Final Four because their careers have been so similar.
Both were high school stars in Louisiana. Chatman was a point guard at LSU, then became an assistant coach. Mulkey-Robertson grew up half an hour from the LSU campus but ended up at Louisiana Tech, where she also played guard and became an assistant coach.
``LSU was all I ever heard of growing up until I left to go to Louisiana Tech to play,'' Mulkey-Robertson said. ``I could sing their fight song for you.''
Everything was in place for Mulkey-Robertson to succeed Leon Barmore at Louisiana Tech, but she wanted a five-year contract and the school only offered four. So she left after 19 years at Tech to take the Baylor job in 2000.
But she still remembers her roots.
``Thirty-eight years of my life were spent in one state,'' Mulkey-Robertson said. ``I'll always be a Louisiana girl.''
And she'll always crave Louisiana food.
``The only thing about playing LSU that bothers me is they're going to go home and eat crawfish and I'm not,'' Mulkey-Robertson said.
GETTING THE POINT
Three of the Final Four coaches were point guards in college. The other, Summitt, had all the court sense of one, according to Texas A&M coach Gary Blair.
Mulkey-Robertson was an All-America point guard at Louisiana Tech, Chatman played the position for the Lady Tigers before joining the coaching staff and McCallie was a point guard at Northwestern. McCallie even scored 20 points as a senior against the Volunteers.
``I wish I was as good as they were,'' McCallie said with a laugh. ``They were really good. I coached against Pokey when I was at Auburn, so I'm well aware of how great she was. And Kim is a terrific person. She was just a pistol as a player.
``I think I shared the same attitude, I'll put it like that, maybe not the same talent.''
Blair said he's not surprised to see point guards become successful coaches because he sees it as a natural transition.
``Point guards are always going to make your best coaches because they have to be accountable for everybody else on their team,'' he said. ``They have to be an extension of ourselves as coaches.''
Summitt played at Tennessee-Martin and was on U.S. teams that competed in the world championships, Pan American Games and the Olympics. Blair was a high school coach in Dallas when he found himself in a pickup game against Summitt during a camp at North Texas in 1977.
``She was horsing around and kicked my butt from one end to the other,'' Blair said. ``Behind the back pass here, elbow here, elbow there. It humbled me real quick that women of that magnitude could play that well. Because I never played against somebody like that before.
``If she wasn't a point guard, she was a point guard up here, directing her team,'' Blair said, pointing to his head.
TOUGH TICKET: Two Tennessee players, Shyra Ely and Shanna Zolman, gave their toughest job this week to their parents -- paring down the ticket request list.
Ely, an Indianapolis native, and Zolman, from Syracuse, Ind., were both Ms. Basketball winners in high school, and as soon as Tennessee beat Rutgers 59-49 to reach the Final Four, everyone back home wanted tickets.
``It was like a wedding list,'' Ely said. ``Everyone was calling. The aunt of my ninth grade boyfriend even called wanting tickets.''
The NCAA allows each player to have six comp tickets. They can buy more from the school's allotment of 800, but the player or player's family must pay for them.
That didn't make it easy for the Indiana natives. In December 2002, Zolman's hometown fans came down on buses to watch Tennessee play Notre Dame at Conseco Fieldhouse and there could be a similar showing Sunday.
``I don't how many people are coming, but I'd be surprised if we didn't have a huge bus caravan again,'' Zolman said.
QUICK-HITTERS: The Spartans have beaten teams ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 when they played this season (Stanford, Ohio State and Notre Dame). ... LSU is 15-2 against NCAA tournament teams, including a 71-70 win over Baylor in December and a 68-58 win over Tennessee in February. The Tigers also lost 67-65 to the Volunteers on March 6. ... Five Baylor players have shot 50 percent or better from the floor in its first four tournament games. ... Ely had written ``Homeward Bound'' on her sneakers as motivation to reach the Final Four in Indianapolis. She said Saturday she hadn't decided what message she'd have on her shoes Sunday.
Spartans coach Joanne P. McCallie has two assistants, Al Brown and Semeka Randall, who will provide insight into what coach Pat Summitt might do Sunday when Michigan State faces Tennessee in the second national semifinal game. Brown served as Summitt's assistant for seven seasons, while Randall played on Summitt's last national championship team in 1998.
Will it help?
``I think the mistake you make as a coach is thinking you know something just because you're a couple of years removed,'' Brown said Saturday. ``Unless you walk out of Tennessee's practice facility today and go to Michigan State, I think you still have a lot of work to do.''
Brown and Randall probably have more inside knowledge of Tennessee's program than anyone else in Indianapolis outside the Lady Vols' program, something that could help mightily when the Spartans play in their first women's Final Four.
Tennessee is more accustomed to the environment.
The Volunteers (30-4) have made the Final Four almost a personal showcase. They've reached the semifinals 16 times, played in 11 championship games and won six national titles. This also marks the fourth straight year Summitt has taken the Vols to the Final Four.
So expectations, as usual, are high.
``I think we won't get caught up in the experience,'' senior Shyra Ely said. ``We can focus on our goal, which is winning the national championship.''
Michigan State players insist they're not intimidated by Tennessee's reputation, success or its record-breaking coach. Summitt recently passed Dean Smith to top the NCAA career wins list.
All the Spartans (32-3) want to do is play their game.
But if they need any pointers, Brown and Randall will help.
``I'll tell them about the emotions you go through in the first five minutes,'' Randall said. ``You don't want to get those little fouls, you just have to settle down.''
LOUISIANA CONNECTION
It seems fitting LSU coach Pokey Chatman and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson would face each other in the Final Four because their careers have been so similar.
Both were high school stars in Louisiana. Chatman was a point guard at LSU, then became an assistant coach. Mulkey-Robertson grew up half an hour from the LSU campus but ended up at Louisiana Tech, where she also played guard and became an assistant coach.
``LSU was all I ever heard of growing up until I left to go to Louisiana Tech to play,'' Mulkey-Robertson said. ``I could sing their fight song for you.''
Everything was in place for Mulkey-Robertson to succeed Leon Barmore at Louisiana Tech, but she wanted a five-year contract and the school only offered four. So she left after 19 years at Tech to take the Baylor job in 2000.
But she still remembers her roots.
``Thirty-eight years of my life were spent in one state,'' Mulkey-Robertson said. ``I'll always be a Louisiana girl.''
And she'll always crave Louisiana food.
``The only thing about playing LSU that bothers me is they're going to go home and eat crawfish and I'm not,'' Mulkey-Robertson said.
GETTING THE POINT
Three of the Final Four coaches were point guards in college. The other, Summitt, had all the court sense of one, according to Texas A&M coach Gary Blair.
Mulkey-Robertson was an All-America point guard at Louisiana Tech, Chatman played the position for the Lady Tigers before joining the coaching staff and McCallie was a point guard at Northwestern. McCallie even scored 20 points as a senior against the Volunteers.
``I wish I was as good as they were,'' McCallie said with a laugh. ``They were really good. I coached against Pokey when I was at Auburn, so I'm well aware of how great she was. And Kim is a terrific person. She was just a pistol as a player.
``I think I shared the same attitude, I'll put it like that, maybe not the same talent.''
Blair said he's not surprised to see point guards become successful coaches because he sees it as a natural transition.
``Point guards are always going to make your best coaches because they have to be accountable for everybody else on their team,'' he said. ``They have to be an extension of ourselves as coaches.''
Summitt played at Tennessee-Martin and was on U.S. teams that competed in the world championships, Pan American Games and the Olympics. Blair was a high school coach in Dallas when he found himself in a pickup game against Summitt during a camp at North Texas in 1977.
``She was horsing around and kicked my butt from one end to the other,'' Blair said. ``Behind the back pass here, elbow here, elbow there. It humbled me real quick that women of that magnitude could play that well. Because I never played against somebody like that before.
``If she wasn't a point guard, she was a point guard up here, directing her team,'' Blair said, pointing to his head.
TOUGH TICKET: Two Tennessee players, Shyra Ely and Shanna Zolman, gave their toughest job this week to their parents -- paring down the ticket request list.
Ely, an Indianapolis native, and Zolman, from Syracuse, Ind., were both Ms. Basketball winners in high school, and as soon as Tennessee beat Rutgers 59-49 to reach the Final Four, everyone back home wanted tickets.
``It was like a wedding list,'' Ely said. ``Everyone was calling. The aunt of my ninth grade boyfriend even called wanting tickets.''
The NCAA allows each player to have six comp tickets. They can buy more from the school's allotment of 800, but the player or player's family must pay for them.
That didn't make it easy for the Indiana natives. In December 2002, Zolman's hometown fans came down on buses to watch Tennessee play Notre Dame at Conseco Fieldhouse and there could be a similar showing Sunday.
``I don't how many people are coming, but I'd be surprised if we didn't have a huge bus caravan again,'' Zolman said.
QUICK-HITTERS: The Spartans have beaten teams ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 when they played this season (Stanford, Ohio State and Notre Dame). ... LSU is 15-2 against NCAA tournament teams, including a 71-70 win over Baylor in December and a 68-58 win over Tennessee in February. The Tigers also lost 67-65 to the Volunteers on March 6. ... Five Baylor players have shot 50 percent or better from the floor in its first four tournament games. ... Ely had written ``Homeward Bound'' on her sneakers as motivation to reach the Final Four in Indianapolis. She said Saturday she hadn't decided what message she'd have on her shoes Sunday.
Tennessee duo feel "at home" at Final Four
INDIANAPOLIS - Imagine playing in the Final Four. Now imagine playing in the Final Four in your home state.
That is the situation facing a pair of Tennessee starters - senior forward Shyra Ely and junior guard Shanna Zolman - before their team's national semifinal matchup with Michigan State on Sunday.
Not only do these two players have the pressure of trying to re-establish the Lady Volunteers atop the women's college basketball pecking order, but the now face the daunting task of trying to fill the numerous ticket requests of family and friends.
Those acquaintances will want to go to open practices and luncheons, even hang out with the team, so that they will have their own piece of what could be a memorable championship season. And when are Ely and Zolman supposed to study?
So how do these two student-athletes avoid all the distractions? They rely on their parents.
"Well, I had people coming out of the woodwork," said Ely. "I just left it up to my mother to deal with and she's done a great job. She's been just as busy as I am with phone calls and everything."
Indiana's Miss Basketball in 2001, Ely starred in three sports, including volleyball and track, at Ben Davis High School right here in Indianapolis. If it were possible, her devoted fans could fill half of the RCA Dome.
"I'm really expecting a lot of, like a ton of family and friends and, yeah, I didn't want to get involved with it because it's just too much. I got too much on my plate right now to be focusing on rather than tickets," said Ely, who is appearing in her fourth Final Four, but remains in search of her first title.
For Zolman, who captured the Hoosier State's Miss Basketball title in 2002 out of Wawasee High School in the northern part of the state, the demand is not as great but still there.
"Similar to Shyra, I left that up to my parents to handle," Zolman said.
With that distraction out of the way, Zolman can focus on more important things like adjusting to the environment of the RCA Dome.
"Coming in, the depth perception of everything is so vast and wide," Zolman said. "That's what these shootarounds are for - just being able to get acclimated to the rims and being able to adjust to the lighting as well."
Having confidence in her shot will be of the utmost importance for Zolman, who is averaging a team-high 16.8 points per game in the NCAA Tournament.
On the season, Zolman ranked second in the Southeastern Conference in both 3-point shooting percentage (.430) and free-throw percentage (.870). She has made 67 3-pointers this season and ranks second on the all-time list at Tennessee with 162.
For the 6-2 Ely, she will have to deal with the physical inside presence of the Spartans, highlighted by forward Liz Shimek and 6-4 center Kelli Roehrig.
The team's leading scorer in all games this season at 14.5 points per contest, Ely has pick up her play since moving from small forward to power forward following teammate Sidney Spencer's injury on February 24.
"With Sidney going out, that kind of opened up the fourth spot for me," Ely said. "It's pretty natural to me and I feel like that's my bread and butter and I'm really happy that that's where I'm playing at this point of the season."
Based upon the number of ticket requests the mothers of Ely and Zolman have fielded, the daughters are not alone.
That is the situation facing a pair of Tennessee starters - senior forward Shyra Ely and junior guard Shanna Zolman - before their team's national semifinal matchup with Michigan State on Sunday.
Not only do these two players have the pressure of trying to re-establish the Lady Volunteers atop the women's college basketball pecking order, but the now face the daunting task of trying to fill the numerous ticket requests of family and friends.
Those acquaintances will want to go to open practices and luncheons, even hang out with the team, so that they will have their own piece of what could be a memorable championship season. And when are Ely and Zolman supposed to study?
So how do these two student-athletes avoid all the distractions? They rely on their parents.
"Well, I had people coming out of the woodwork," said Ely. "I just left it up to my mother to deal with and she's done a great job. She's been just as busy as I am with phone calls and everything."
Indiana's Miss Basketball in 2001, Ely starred in three sports, including volleyball and track, at Ben Davis High School right here in Indianapolis. If it were possible, her devoted fans could fill half of the RCA Dome.
"I'm really expecting a lot of, like a ton of family and friends and, yeah, I didn't want to get involved with it because it's just too much. I got too much on my plate right now to be focusing on rather than tickets," said Ely, who is appearing in her fourth Final Four, but remains in search of her first title.
For Zolman, who captured the Hoosier State's Miss Basketball title in 2002 out of Wawasee High School in the northern part of the state, the demand is not as great but still there.
"Similar to Shyra, I left that up to my parents to handle," Zolman said.
With that distraction out of the way, Zolman can focus on more important things like adjusting to the environment of the RCA Dome.
"Coming in, the depth perception of everything is so vast and wide," Zolman said. "That's what these shootarounds are for - just being able to get acclimated to the rims and being able to adjust to the lighting as well."
Having confidence in her shot will be of the utmost importance for Zolman, who is averaging a team-high 16.8 points per game in the NCAA Tournament.
On the season, Zolman ranked second in the Southeastern Conference in both 3-point shooting percentage (.430) and free-throw percentage (.870). She has made 67 3-pointers this season and ranks second on the all-time list at Tennessee with 162.
For the 6-2 Ely, she will have to deal with the physical inside presence of the Spartans, highlighted by forward Liz Shimek and 6-4 center Kelli Roehrig.
The team's leading scorer in all games this season at 14.5 points per contest, Ely has pick up her play since moving from small forward to power forward following teammate Sidney Spencer's injury on February 24.
"With Sidney going out, that kind of opened up the fourth spot for me," Ely said. "It's pretty natural to me and I feel like that's my bread and butter and I'm really happy that that's where I'm playing at this point of the season."
Based upon the number of ticket requests the mothers of Ely and Zolman have fielded, the daughters are not alone.
SEC powers Tennessee, LSU headline Women's Final Four
INDIANAPOLIS - A possible rubber match between Southeastern Conference heavyweights Louisiana State and Tennessee could cap the women's college basketball season. Michigan State and Baylor will have plenty to say about that.
LSU (33-2) entered the NCAA Tournament as the overall top seed and advanced to its second straight Final Four with a 59-49 victory over Duke in the Chattanooga Region final. The Tigers face Baylor (31-3) in the first national semifinal on Sunday.
Tennessee (30-4), which has won six national championships under coach Pat Summitt, meets Michigan State (32-3) in the second semifinal.
LSU won a regular season meeting with the Bears, 71-70, on November 14 after leading by 19 points at halftime. It was LSU's third game of the season and Baylor's first and was played on a neutral floor in Austin, Texas.
Much has changed since that earlier encounter as Baylor blossomed into one of the strongest teams in the nation under coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson and LSU posted a sterling 27-1 regular-season record.
What has not changed is the play of LSU's Seimone Augustus and how Baylor defends her, which will be a key to the game.
"There are very few girls in the game as you watch it that have the ability to elevate and shoot it right in your face. Seimone Augustus is that type of player," Mulkey-Robertson said. "I said it when we played them back in November, that she's the best player in the game today and my mind has not changed."
The region's outstanding player, Augustus is averaging 23.0 points and five rebounds in the Tournament and helped the Tigers overcome a 12-point deficit against Duke with 24 points. Look for Baylor sophomore defensive stopper Abiola Wabara to draw the assignment of guarding the outstanding junior.
"For us it's going to take a tremendous defensive effort if we are to be victorious," LSU coach Pokey Chatman said. "And I go back to our previous outing with Duke. It was nice to see our kids go down by 12 and not panic and hang their hats on the defensive end of the floor and go to work on the boards and lead us to a victory."
While the Tigers are in the Final Four for the second straight year, the Bears are in uncharted territory. Baylor, which never made the NCAA Tournament prior to Mulkey-Robertson's arrival in 2000, defeated No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Tempe Region final to earn the school's first Final Four berth.
Tennessee is the polar opposite of Baylor, making its 16th Final Four visit and fourth in a row. The Lady Vols avenged a regular-season loss with a 59-49 victory over Rutgers in the Philadelphia Region final. Summitt passed North Carolina's Dean Smith for all-time coaching wins with 880 in a 75-54 second-round victory over Purdue.
With all of its success, Tennessee is in search of its first title in six years and will have to get by a Final Four newcomer.
"We are all very excited to be back at the Final Four," Summitt said. "For our senior class for this to be their forth trip, I think that speaks to the impact that they have had on our program."
The Spartans beat Stanford, 76-69 in the Kansas City region final. The Cardinal ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in both polls.
Michigan State should match up well with Tennessee. The Spartans have played 18 of their 35 games against NCAA Tournament teams and four starters averaging in double figures.
"We have played some great teams and we have been able to get better and move on, which is a lot of fun," Michigan State coach Joanne McCallie said. "And we are definitely looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow night. Again, another great team."
Forward Liz Shimek (15.0 points) and Kelli Roehrig (13.5) anchor the post for the Spartans while Lindsay Bowen (13.5) and Kristin Haynie (10.8) provide perimeter scoring.
"We have played great teams this season. We have played a great schedule and we're ready," Haynie said. "It's definitely a fun experience. It's every kid's dream to make it to the Final Four and it's just been a lot of fun."
The winners meet Tuesday for the national championship.
LSU (33-2) entered the NCAA Tournament as the overall top seed and advanced to its second straight Final Four with a 59-49 victory over Duke in the Chattanooga Region final. The Tigers face Baylor (31-3) in the first national semifinal on Sunday.
Tennessee (30-4), which has won six national championships under coach Pat Summitt, meets Michigan State (32-3) in the second semifinal.
LSU won a regular season meeting with the Bears, 71-70, on November 14 after leading by 19 points at halftime. It was LSU's third game of the season and Baylor's first and was played on a neutral floor in Austin, Texas.
Much has changed since that earlier encounter as Baylor blossomed into one of the strongest teams in the nation under coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson and LSU posted a sterling 27-1 regular-season record.
What has not changed is the play of LSU's Seimone Augustus and how Baylor defends her, which will be a key to the game.
"There are very few girls in the game as you watch it that have the ability to elevate and shoot it right in your face. Seimone Augustus is that type of player," Mulkey-Robertson said. "I said it when we played them back in November, that she's the best player in the game today and my mind has not changed."
The region's outstanding player, Augustus is averaging 23.0 points and five rebounds in the Tournament and helped the Tigers overcome a 12-point deficit against Duke with 24 points. Look for Baylor sophomore defensive stopper Abiola Wabara to draw the assignment of guarding the outstanding junior.
"For us it's going to take a tremendous defensive effort if we are to be victorious," LSU coach Pokey Chatman said. "And I go back to our previous outing with Duke. It was nice to see our kids go down by 12 and not panic and hang their hats on the defensive end of the floor and go to work on the boards and lead us to a victory."
While the Tigers are in the Final Four for the second straight year, the Bears are in uncharted territory. Baylor, which never made the NCAA Tournament prior to Mulkey-Robertson's arrival in 2000, defeated No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Tempe Region final to earn the school's first Final Four berth.
Tennessee is the polar opposite of Baylor, making its 16th Final Four visit and fourth in a row. The Lady Vols avenged a regular-season loss with a 59-49 victory over Rutgers in the Philadelphia Region final. Summitt passed North Carolina's Dean Smith for all-time coaching wins with 880 in a 75-54 second-round victory over Purdue.
With all of its success, Tennessee is in search of its first title in six years and will have to get by a Final Four newcomer.
"We are all very excited to be back at the Final Four," Summitt said. "For our senior class for this to be their forth trip, I think that speaks to the impact that they have had on our program."
The Spartans beat Stanford, 76-69 in the Kansas City region final. The Cardinal ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in both polls.
Michigan State should match up well with Tennessee. The Spartans have played 18 of their 35 games against NCAA Tournament teams and four starters averaging in double figures.
"We have played some great teams and we have been able to get better and move on, which is a lot of fun," Michigan State coach Joanne McCallie said. "And we are definitely looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow night. Again, another great team."
Forward Liz Shimek (15.0 points) and Kelli Roehrig (13.5) anchor the post for the Spartans while Lindsay Bowen (13.5) and Kristin Haynie (10.8) provide perimeter scoring.
"We have played great teams this season. We have played a great schedule and we're ready," Haynie said. "It's definitely a fun experience. It's every kid's dream to make it to the Final Four and it's just been a lot of fun."
The winners meet Tuesday for the national championship.
Up for grabs in Indy
INDIANAPOLIS – For the first time in six years Connecticut isn't one of the last four teams standing. For the first time in four years the Huskies won't cut down the nets.
That is the beauty of this Final Four.
There is no true favorite among Baylor, LSU, Michigan State and Tennessee. Only the Lady Vols have won a national title, but it's been seven years since their last one.
Too often, women's basketball's showcase event has been a predictable coronation rather than a hotly contested clash for the championship.
"I don't think people totally care [that] an underdog has to win it," Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie says. "I guess the more important thing is the quality of competition and the battles."
Quality of competition shouldn't be a problem here. While these schools don't have much of a Final Four history, they have a history with one another.
In Baylor's season opener, LSU escaped with a 71-70 win after the Lady Bears trailed by 19 at halftime. Both teams have lost just twice since.
"I definitely had a good feeling that we would see them again," Baylor post Steffanie Blackmon said. "And you always want a second shot. What if we don't have a first half like that; what's going to be the outcome?"
Then there are the coaches. Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson is Louisiana through and through – "LSU was all I ever heard of growing up until I left to go to Louisiana Tech to play," she said. As an assistant with the Lady Techsters, she recruited Pokey Chatman, who decided to attend LSU.
Now LSU's coach, Chatman can become the first person to lead a team to the NCAA title in her first full season.
Both Baylor and LSU would relish a chance to upend Tennessee in the title game – if, of course, the Lady Vols get past Michigan State.
The Lady Tigers lost last month's SEC tournament championship game to the Lady Vols. And LSU's first-ever Final Four trip ended in a 52-50 loss to Tennessee in a national semifinal last season.
Baylor's loss to Tennessee in last year's tourney may have been even more bitter. The Lady Bears wore a shirt with "0.2" on it this season to remind them of the controversial finish of their 71-69 loss to the Lady Vols in last year's Sweet 16 (a hotly disputed foul with two-tenths of a second left sent Tennessee to the line for the winning free throws).
So if the Lady Vols reach the final, they'll meet a motivated opponent with the talent to deny Tennessee a record seventh title.
But Michigan State, Tennessee's semifinal opponent, is more than the token "happy to be here" team. The Spartans beat Stanford when it was No. 1, Ohio State when it was No. 2, and Notre Dame when it was No. 3. They won by 16 at UConn.
They don't fear the Lady Vols.
"They have a tradition. They really do," MSU center Kelli Roehrig said. "[But] when we step on the court it's Michigan State of now versus Tennessee of now."
No matter which team ultimately comes out on top, you won't find anyone associated with this Final Four that doesn't appreciate what's about to happen here.
"You're always going to see the Tennessees and those guys because they committed long ago when nobody else did and they've got a legendary coach," Mulkey-Robertson said. "But it's good for some of us new folks to get a little bit of exposure."
Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt agrees.
"I get real emotional sometimes just when I turn on the tube and I see all the fans and just see the level of play and to see players like Kim and Pokey that are now coaching the game," Summitt said.
"To me that's what it's all about."
That is the beauty of this Final Four.
There is no true favorite among Baylor, LSU, Michigan State and Tennessee. Only the Lady Vols have won a national title, but it's been seven years since their last one.
Too often, women's basketball's showcase event has been a predictable coronation rather than a hotly contested clash for the championship.
"I don't think people totally care [that] an underdog has to win it," Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie says. "I guess the more important thing is the quality of competition and the battles."
Quality of competition shouldn't be a problem here. While these schools don't have much of a Final Four history, they have a history with one another.
In Baylor's season opener, LSU escaped with a 71-70 win after the Lady Bears trailed by 19 at halftime. Both teams have lost just twice since.
"I definitely had a good feeling that we would see them again," Baylor post Steffanie Blackmon said. "And you always want a second shot. What if we don't have a first half like that; what's going to be the outcome?"
Then there are the coaches. Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson is Louisiana through and through – "LSU was all I ever heard of growing up until I left to go to Louisiana Tech to play," she said. As an assistant with the Lady Techsters, she recruited Pokey Chatman, who decided to attend LSU.
Now LSU's coach, Chatman can become the first person to lead a team to the NCAA title in her first full season.
Both Baylor and LSU would relish a chance to upend Tennessee in the title game – if, of course, the Lady Vols get past Michigan State.
The Lady Tigers lost last month's SEC tournament championship game to the Lady Vols. And LSU's first-ever Final Four trip ended in a 52-50 loss to Tennessee in a national semifinal last season.
Baylor's loss to Tennessee in last year's tourney may have been even more bitter. The Lady Bears wore a shirt with "0.2" on it this season to remind them of the controversial finish of their 71-69 loss to the Lady Vols in last year's Sweet 16 (a hotly disputed foul with two-tenths of a second left sent Tennessee to the line for the winning free throws).
So if the Lady Vols reach the final, they'll meet a motivated opponent with the talent to deny Tennessee a record seventh title.
But Michigan State, Tennessee's semifinal opponent, is more than the token "happy to be here" team. The Spartans beat Stanford when it was No. 1, Ohio State when it was No. 2, and Notre Dame when it was No. 3. They won by 16 at UConn.
They don't fear the Lady Vols.
"They have a tradition. They really do," MSU center Kelli Roehrig said. "[But] when we step on the court it's Michigan State of now versus Tennessee of now."
No matter which team ultimately comes out on top, you won't find anyone associated with this Final Four that doesn't appreciate what's about to happen here.
"You're always going to see the Tennessees and those guys because they committed long ago when nobody else did and they've got a legendary coach," Mulkey-Robertson said. "But it's good for some of us new folks to get a little bit of exposure."
Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt agrees.
"I get real emotional sometimes just when I turn on the tube and I see all the fans and just see the level of play and to see players like Kim and Pokey that are now coaching the game," Summitt said.
"To me that's what it's all about."
Friday, April 01, 2005
McCallie, MSU set to face a legend in Tennessee's Summitt
INDIANAPOLIS -- Pat Summitt, the Tennessee basketball coaching legend, was once listed on the resume of Joanne P. McCallie, the current Michigan State coach, as a reference.
As references go, it's gold in women's basketball, reference No. 1 from No. 1, akin to being anointed by the queen.
McCallie assumes it helped her get her first head coaching job at the University of Maine.
It's clear McCallie thinks the world of Summitt, who she will coach against head-to-head for the first time Sunday in the Final Four.
Michigan State and Tennessee meet in a national semifinal at 9 p.m., following the other semifinal between LSU and Baylor. The winners meet Tuesday for the national championship.
Summitt, 52, will be trying to land a seventh national title for the Tennessee program. McCallie, who coached against Summitt-coached teams several times in her days as an assistant coach, is leading the first Michigan State women's team to get past the second round of the tournament, let alone take a shot at a national title.
"I'm not surprised she's doing this one bit," Summit said. "You could see the fire, the toughness, the passion and the work ethic when she was an assistant at Auburn. You could see it when she was recruiting."
Fire, passion, toughness and work ethic are things often cited by the McCallies and others in the sports world regarding Summitt, who earlier in this NCAA tournament gained the 880th win of her coaching career.
It made national news for being one more than North Carolina legend Dean Smith had in the men's game. Though it's comparing apples and oranges in a way, and certainly doesn't diminish what Smith achieved, it lends perspective to just how well this woman has coached women basketball players at Tennessee for 31 years.
The numbers are incredible, just in terms of the NCAA tournament. Summitt-coached teams have won six national titles, and made it to 17 Final Fours. Her teams have also won 22 SEC tournament and regular-season titles and we haven't started to discuss her building a nationally recognized program in a sport that still runs a distant second to what the men do with almost any type of ball.
And she maintains the fire, maintains the excellence in her program. This senior class is the fourth class to have visited the Final Four in all four of their years.
She recruits, she coaches and she wins. She showed everybody else in women's hoops how to coach. She also never ducked anybody. According to the power ratings, her team faced the nation's toughest Division I schedule this season.
And all the while, as busy as she is keeping top players coming and going and learning and winning at Tennessee, she fits in being the No. 1 ambassador for the women's game, too.
Summitt didn't just build the women's program at Tennessee. She created the market for it, too. She used to fear public speaking, but overcame it to speak to civic groups as small as six folks about women's basketball for free. She estimated she did 75 such talks, often three in one day in the weeks after coaching the Olympic team in 1984.
Today, she charges corporations big bucks for such talks, and they line up to hear her motivate. When they list the people who know how to win in sport, any sport, she should be on the list.
Pokey Chatman, the women's coach at LSU, told SEC reporters earlier this season that she marveled at the length of time in which Summitt has excelled.
"Pat is women's basketball as we know it," she said.
And to a lot of folks, she is all they know of women's basketball, the only one who can get them to pause to notice.
When she started her coaching career at Tennessee in the fall of 1974, Summitt was unsure of herself.
"I wasn't even sure what my philosophy, my style would be like," she said.
She was 22, working with some 21-year-old players. She remembers being excited, frightened and in over her head when she settled on a basic course of action.
"Go in and be tough," she told herself. "You can always let up."
The let up part hasn't happened yet.
It won't happen when she squares off against McCallie, that spunky kid who used to help Joe Ciampi try to beat her at Auburn, the same McCallie who now has a former seven-year assistant to Summitt on her staff in Al Brown, and one of those former Tennessee star players, Semeka Randall, on the staff, as well.
Summitt let up?
Not a chance, no matter the outcome this weekend. She's driven, she's special, she's the best at what she does -- and she is revered by many.
Indianapolis Colt's star quarterback Peyton Manning, then in his football days at Tennessee, was struggling to decide if he should leave early for the pros. He met with Summitt to discuss it.
Think about it. At the worst, her name was going to look good on a resume.
As references go, it's gold in women's basketball, reference No. 1 from No. 1, akin to being anointed by the queen.
McCallie assumes it helped her get her first head coaching job at the University of Maine.
It's clear McCallie thinks the world of Summitt, who she will coach against head-to-head for the first time Sunday in the Final Four.
Michigan State and Tennessee meet in a national semifinal at 9 p.m., following the other semifinal between LSU and Baylor. The winners meet Tuesday for the national championship.
Summitt, 52, will be trying to land a seventh national title for the Tennessee program. McCallie, who coached against Summitt-coached teams several times in her days as an assistant coach, is leading the first Michigan State women's team to get past the second round of the tournament, let alone take a shot at a national title.
"I'm not surprised she's doing this one bit," Summit said. "You could see the fire, the toughness, the passion and the work ethic when she was an assistant at Auburn. You could see it when she was recruiting."
Fire, passion, toughness and work ethic are things often cited by the McCallies and others in the sports world regarding Summitt, who earlier in this NCAA tournament gained the 880th win of her coaching career.
It made national news for being one more than North Carolina legend Dean Smith had in the men's game. Though it's comparing apples and oranges in a way, and certainly doesn't diminish what Smith achieved, it lends perspective to just how well this woman has coached women basketball players at Tennessee for 31 years.
The numbers are incredible, just in terms of the NCAA tournament. Summitt-coached teams have won six national titles, and made it to 17 Final Fours. Her teams have also won 22 SEC tournament and regular-season titles and we haven't started to discuss her building a nationally recognized program in a sport that still runs a distant second to what the men do with almost any type of ball.
And she maintains the fire, maintains the excellence in her program. This senior class is the fourth class to have visited the Final Four in all four of their years.
She recruits, she coaches and she wins. She showed everybody else in women's hoops how to coach. She also never ducked anybody. According to the power ratings, her team faced the nation's toughest Division I schedule this season.
And all the while, as busy as she is keeping top players coming and going and learning and winning at Tennessee, she fits in being the No. 1 ambassador for the women's game, too.
Summitt didn't just build the women's program at Tennessee. She created the market for it, too. She used to fear public speaking, but overcame it to speak to civic groups as small as six folks about women's basketball for free. She estimated she did 75 such talks, often three in one day in the weeks after coaching the Olympic team in 1984.
Today, she charges corporations big bucks for such talks, and they line up to hear her motivate. When they list the people who know how to win in sport, any sport, she should be on the list.
Pokey Chatman, the women's coach at LSU, told SEC reporters earlier this season that she marveled at the length of time in which Summitt has excelled.
"Pat is women's basketball as we know it," she said.
And to a lot of folks, she is all they know of women's basketball, the only one who can get them to pause to notice.
When she started her coaching career at Tennessee in the fall of 1974, Summitt was unsure of herself.
"I wasn't even sure what my philosophy, my style would be like," she said.
She was 22, working with some 21-year-old players. She remembers being excited, frightened and in over her head when she settled on a basic course of action.
"Go in and be tough," she told herself. "You can always let up."
The let up part hasn't happened yet.
It won't happen when she squares off against McCallie, that spunky kid who used to help Joe Ciampi try to beat her at Auburn, the same McCallie who now has a former seven-year assistant to Summitt on her staff in Al Brown, and one of those former Tennessee star players, Semeka Randall, on the staff, as well.
Summitt let up?
Not a chance, no matter the outcome this weekend. She's driven, she's special, she's the best at what she does -- and she is revered by many.
Indianapolis Colt's star quarterback Peyton Manning, then in his football days at Tennessee, was struggling to decide if he should leave early for the pros. He met with Summitt to discuss it.
Think about it. At the worst, her name was going to look good on a resume.
Tennessee-Michigan St. Preview
(1) Tennessee (30-4) vs. (1) Michigan St. (32-3)
Game Info: 9:30 pm EDT Sun Apr 3, 2005
National Semifinals - RCA Dome (Indianapolis, IN)
Although Michigan State is playing in its first Final Four, the Spartans say their focus Sunday will be squarely on Tennessee -- and not the hype surrounding the tournament's last days.
``The Final Four is a circus. It's crazy,'' said Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie, who made the trip twice as an Auburn assistant coach more than a decade ago. ``But we've got players who are pretty good at handling their stuff. We'll be ready.''
Michigan State's rise to national prominence under McCallie, now in her fifth season, has the Spartans in uncharted territory. They had not advanced past the second round in five previous trips to the tournament.
Tennessee, on the other hand, is in its fourth straight Final Four. The Vols have been there 16 times in the last 24 years under Pat Summitt, who became the winningest coach in college basketball history this season.
The Lady Vols have won six national titles, most recently in 1998. But the Spartans say that doesn't faze them as they prepare for Sunday.
``You have respect for their program, where it's come from and where it's been,'' Michigan State guard Victoria Lucas-Perry said. ``But we're just playing the five people they put on the court. We're not focused on the legend that they have because we're creating our own legend here this year.''
Michigan State relies on a balanced attack and a deep bench, allowing it to survive off nights from its top players.
The Spartans beat second-seeded Stanford 76-69 in Tuesday's Kansas City Regional final despite getting just four points on 1-for-8 shooting from Lindsay Bowen, their top perimeter scoring threat.
Leading scorer Liz Shimek had 24 points, Kristin Haynie added 20 and two other Spartans scored in double figures, marking the fourth time in as many games of this tournament that four Michigan State players reached double digits.
Tennessee is also deep, led by Shyra Ely's 14.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Shanna Zolman is the only other Lady Vol scoring in double figures at 12.5 points per game, but five other players average at least 5.9 points.
Along with depth, Tennessee's vast experience -- and the presence of Summitt -- have been invaluable in the Lady Vols' return to the Final Four. Three of the team's highly touted freshmen were sidelined by knee problems this season, including the most acclaimed member of that group, Candace Parker.
Late in the season, reserve Sidney Spencer was lost to a knee injury. Summitt, as usual, made the right adjustments.
``If you had told me going into the year that come March we would be without (those) players, I would have said that it was going to be a long and very challenging year for us,'' Summitt said.
``Yet this team just handled it so well and just pulled it together. I think coaches, behind the scenes, sometimes panic. But it is all about the players handling adversity and they have done it very well and played with maturity.''
Summitt's three seniors, Ely, Loree Moore and Brittany Jackson, are making their fourth trip to the Final Four.
``As a team and a coach that's been there, you do know what to expect, but every trip for me has been different as I'm sure it has for the players,'' Summitt said.
Michigan State's players don't plan on dwelling on Tennessee's experience as they chase the title.
``I don't think it will be hard to focus at all,'' Lucas-Perry said. ``We don't want to just get to the Final Four. We want to get a national championship.''
Sunday's game will be just the second meeting between Michigan State and Tennessee. The Lady Vols won the first matchup 76-62 on March 23, 1977 in Minneapolis.
The winner will face LSU or Baylor in Tuesday night's championship game.
PROBABLE STARTERS: Tennessee - F Ely (14.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg), F Alexis Hornbuckle (8.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg), C Nicky Anosike (6.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg), G Shanna Zolman (12.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg), G Moore (5.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.4 apg). Michigan State - F Kelli Roehrig (13.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg), C Shimek (14.7 ppg, 9.1 rpg), G Haynie (10.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg), G Bowen (13.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg), G Lucas-Perry (7.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg).
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Tennessee - Automatic bid, SEC tournament champion; beat No. 16 Western Carolina 94-43, first round; beat No. 9 Purdue 75-54, second round; beat No. 4 Texas Tech 75-59, Philadelphia Regional semifinals; beat No. 3 Rutgers 59-49, regional final. Michigan State - Automatic bid, Big Ten tournament champion; beat No. 16 Alcorn State 73-41, first round; beat No. 8 USC 61-59, second round; beat No. 5 Vanderbilt 76-64, Kansas City Regional semifinals; beat No. 2 Stanford 76-69, regional final.
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Tennessee - 89-17, 24 years. Michigan State - 7-5, 6 years.
Game Info: 9:30 pm EDT Sun Apr 3, 2005
National Semifinals - RCA Dome (Indianapolis, IN)
Although Michigan State is playing in its first Final Four, the Spartans say their focus Sunday will be squarely on Tennessee -- and not the hype surrounding the tournament's last days.
``The Final Four is a circus. It's crazy,'' said Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie, who made the trip twice as an Auburn assistant coach more than a decade ago. ``But we've got players who are pretty good at handling their stuff. We'll be ready.''
Michigan State's rise to national prominence under McCallie, now in her fifth season, has the Spartans in uncharted territory. They had not advanced past the second round in five previous trips to the tournament.
Tennessee, on the other hand, is in its fourth straight Final Four. The Vols have been there 16 times in the last 24 years under Pat Summitt, who became the winningest coach in college basketball history this season.
The Lady Vols have won six national titles, most recently in 1998. But the Spartans say that doesn't faze them as they prepare for Sunday.
``You have respect for their program, where it's come from and where it's been,'' Michigan State guard Victoria Lucas-Perry said. ``But we're just playing the five people they put on the court. We're not focused on the legend that they have because we're creating our own legend here this year.''
Michigan State relies on a balanced attack and a deep bench, allowing it to survive off nights from its top players.
The Spartans beat second-seeded Stanford 76-69 in Tuesday's Kansas City Regional final despite getting just four points on 1-for-8 shooting from Lindsay Bowen, their top perimeter scoring threat.
Leading scorer Liz Shimek had 24 points, Kristin Haynie added 20 and two other Spartans scored in double figures, marking the fourth time in as many games of this tournament that four Michigan State players reached double digits.
Tennessee is also deep, led by Shyra Ely's 14.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Shanna Zolman is the only other Lady Vol scoring in double figures at 12.5 points per game, but five other players average at least 5.9 points.
Along with depth, Tennessee's vast experience -- and the presence of Summitt -- have been invaluable in the Lady Vols' return to the Final Four. Three of the team's highly touted freshmen were sidelined by knee problems this season, including the most acclaimed member of that group, Candace Parker.
Late in the season, reserve Sidney Spencer was lost to a knee injury. Summitt, as usual, made the right adjustments.
``If you had told me going into the year that come March we would be without (those) players, I would have said that it was going to be a long and very challenging year for us,'' Summitt said.
``Yet this team just handled it so well and just pulled it together. I think coaches, behind the scenes, sometimes panic. But it is all about the players handling adversity and they have done it very well and played with maturity.''
Summitt's three seniors, Ely, Loree Moore and Brittany Jackson, are making their fourth trip to the Final Four.
``As a team and a coach that's been there, you do know what to expect, but every trip for me has been different as I'm sure it has for the players,'' Summitt said.
Michigan State's players don't plan on dwelling on Tennessee's experience as they chase the title.
``I don't think it will be hard to focus at all,'' Lucas-Perry said. ``We don't want to just get to the Final Four. We want to get a national championship.''
Sunday's game will be just the second meeting between Michigan State and Tennessee. The Lady Vols won the first matchup 76-62 on March 23, 1977 in Minneapolis.
The winner will face LSU or Baylor in Tuesday night's championship game.
PROBABLE STARTERS: Tennessee - F Ely (14.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg), F Alexis Hornbuckle (8.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg), C Nicky Anosike (6.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg), G Shanna Zolman (12.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg), G Moore (5.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.4 apg). Michigan State - F Kelli Roehrig (13.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg), C Shimek (14.7 ppg, 9.1 rpg), G Haynie (10.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg), G Bowen (13.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg), G Lucas-Perry (7.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg).
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Tennessee - Automatic bid, SEC tournament champion; beat No. 16 Western Carolina 94-43, first round; beat No. 9 Purdue 75-54, second round; beat No. 4 Texas Tech 75-59, Philadelphia Regional semifinals; beat No. 3 Rutgers 59-49, regional final. Michigan State - Automatic bid, Big Ten tournament champion; beat No. 16 Alcorn State 73-41, first round; beat No. 8 USC 61-59, second round; beat No. 5 Vanderbilt 76-64, Kansas City Regional semifinals; beat No. 2 Stanford 76-69, regional final.
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Tennessee - 89-17, 24 years. Michigan State - 7-5, 6 years.
Summitt Prepares for 16th Final Four
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The ceiling at Thompson-Boling Arena would be crowded if the Tennessee Lady Vols hung a banner for all their trips to the Final Four.
There already are six national title banners squeezed up there, and coach Pat Summitt would like to make room for another.
But as she prepares for her 16th Final Four, Summitt still believes that just making the national semifinal is a great accomplishment — no matter whether the Lady Vols win or lose.
"I'm proud of the teams that have been there and played in championship games and just got us to the Final Four. That's no easy task," she said Thursday. "I think sometimes when you're in the role we're in, people think if you don't win a championship you've somehow failed. That's not true."
The Lady Vols (30-4) face Michigan State (32-3) in the national semifinals Sunday, while LSU and Baylor meet in the other game.
Tennessee last won it all in 1998, but has come up emptyhanded in four trips to the Final Four since then, losing to Connecticut in the title or semifinal game each time.
"There's no shame to playing in a national championship game and losing to a team that has really been dominant for the last three years like a Connecticut," Summitt said. "I think you have to accept it for what it is and then try to keep getting back there. Because if you get back there enough times, hopefully you put yourself in a position to win."
This time, Connecticut didn't reach the Final Four, and Summitt is by far the most experienced coach going to Indianapolis. Michigan State's Joanne P. McCallie and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson are making their first trips while LSU's Pokey Chatman is returning for a second straight year.
Summitt, who broke Dean Smith's NCAA record for career wins in the second round, believes there is some advantage to being a Final Four veteran. Her three seniors — Shyra Ely, Loree Moore and Brittany Jackson — are making their fourth trip.
"As a team and a coach that's been there, you do know what to expect, but every trip for me has been different as I'm sure it has for the players," Summitt said.
She says it is important to manage time well, not get distracted by family or friends and still have fun.
McCallie has been to Final Fours before when she was an assistant at Auburn, and her staff includes former Lady Vols assistant coach Al Brown and former Lady Vols player Semeka Randall.
McCallie credits Summitt with helping her get on the way toward becoming a head coach. While at Auburn, McCallie used Summitt as one of her references when she applied for the head coaching job at Maine, which she held before going to Michigan State.
"I think Pat is a terrific person, a fabulous coach, and I just think what she's done for women's basketball — it's so hard to talk about because it's just so incredible and will never be duplicated," McCallie said.
Summitt took the Lady Vols to the Final Four in 1982, 1984 and 1986, losing to Louisiana Tech and twice to Southern California, before winning a national championship in 1987 by finally beating Louisiana Tech.
She learned some important lessons each time to help the team be more prepared.
One lesson was "get a few more players if you want to beat the people that have been beating you," Summitt said.
The other was dealing with open practices. Fans are allowed to watch some of the practices, which end up being more like spectacles than real drills. Summitt now has her team work on strategy in closed practices away from the Final Four arena either before or after the open practices. She learned that lesson in 1986 when Tennessee lost in the semifinals.
"The next day when we lost to Southern Cal and it was over I remember Dawn Marsh saying to me, 'You know coach, my legs were tired,'" she said. "I just thought I will never make that mistake again. It will be all about us and not about what's going on around us. Actually I thought that helped us a lot."
There already are six national title banners squeezed up there, and coach Pat Summitt would like to make room for another.
But as she prepares for her 16th Final Four, Summitt still believes that just making the national semifinal is a great accomplishment — no matter whether the Lady Vols win or lose.
"I'm proud of the teams that have been there and played in championship games and just got us to the Final Four. That's no easy task," she said Thursday. "I think sometimes when you're in the role we're in, people think if you don't win a championship you've somehow failed. That's not true."
The Lady Vols (30-4) face Michigan State (32-3) in the national semifinals Sunday, while LSU and Baylor meet in the other game.
Tennessee last won it all in 1998, but has come up emptyhanded in four trips to the Final Four since then, losing to Connecticut in the title or semifinal game each time.
"There's no shame to playing in a national championship game and losing to a team that has really been dominant for the last three years like a Connecticut," Summitt said. "I think you have to accept it for what it is and then try to keep getting back there. Because if you get back there enough times, hopefully you put yourself in a position to win."
This time, Connecticut didn't reach the Final Four, and Summitt is by far the most experienced coach going to Indianapolis. Michigan State's Joanne P. McCallie and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson are making their first trips while LSU's Pokey Chatman is returning for a second straight year.
Summitt, who broke Dean Smith's NCAA record for career wins in the second round, believes there is some advantage to being a Final Four veteran. Her three seniors — Shyra Ely, Loree Moore and Brittany Jackson — are making their fourth trip.
"As a team and a coach that's been there, you do know what to expect, but every trip for me has been different as I'm sure it has for the players," Summitt said.
She says it is important to manage time well, not get distracted by family or friends and still have fun.
McCallie has been to Final Fours before when she was an assistant at Auburn, and her staff includes former Lady Vols assistant coach Al Brown and former Lady Vols player Semeka Randall.
McCallie credits Summitt with helping her get on the way toward becoming a head coach. While at Auburn, McCallie used Summitt as one of her references when she applied for the head coaching job at Maine, which she held before going to Michigan State.
"I think Pat is a terrific person, a fabulous coach, and I just think what she's done for women's basketball — it's so hard to talk about because it's just so incredible and will never be duplicated," McCallie said.
Summitt took the Lady Vols to the Final Four in 1982, 1984 and 1986, losing to Louisiana Tech and twice to Southern California, before winning a national championship in 1987 by finally beating Louisiana Tech.
She learned some important lessons each time to help the team be more prepared.
One lesson was "get a few more players if you want to beat the people that have been beating you," Summitt said.
The other was dealing with open practices. Fans are allowed to watch some of the practices, which end up being more like spectacles than real drills. Summitt now has her team work on strategy in closed practices away from the Final Four arena either before or after the open practices. She learned that lesson in 1986 when Tennessee lost in the semifinals.
"The next day when we lost to Southern Cal and it was over I remember Dawn Marsh saying to me, 'You know coach, my legs were tired,'" she said. "I just thought I will never make that mistake again. It will be all about us and not about what's going on around us. Actually I thought that helped us a lot."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)