Summitt's trek at Tennessee nears the pinnacle: 1,000 wins

When Pat Summitt became women's basketball coach at Tennessee in 1974, she was 22 and Title IX was 2.

Not that she had a clue the legislation and her career would help revolutionize women's sports.

Nor did she have designs on collecting NCAA titles. The NCAA was seven years away from taking control of women's sports from the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

Nor did she have any notion of getting rich.

Her concerns were basic: "I was trying to figure out how to organize a practice."

The coach with eight NCAA titles, the best drawing team in the country and a million-dollar salary is on the verge of a unique milestone — 1,000 wins — which could come as early as Feb. 2. No Division I college basketball coach has won as many games.

"It wasn't like I had this grand vision: This is where we're going," says the coach who used to drive the van to away games and now charters jets. "I never thought I'd coach 1,000 games."

The scary thought is how many games Summitt, 56 and in apparently good health, will win before retiring.

"No one will do what she has done," says Tennessee women's athletic director Joan Cronan. "No one will be a head coach that young anymore."

Or will be likely to win as often or stay as long at a school.

Leon Barmore, a Hall of Fame coach for his work at Louisiana Tech and now an assistant at Baylor, equates Summitt to men's coach John Wooden, who won 10 titles at UCLA.

"She's the best of our game. There's nothing in the game she can't do. She can administrate, coach x's and o's and motivate."

And not just players. "I've said it before: she made my career," Barmore says. "Me playing against Pat Summitt, she gave me that person and program that made me reach deeper than I ever thought I could reach, if I was going to play them. I really compliment that now."

Finally winning the big one

There was a time when Summitt and Tennessee had the reputation of not being able to win the big game. Before the first title in 1987, Summitt had been to seven Final Fours — four AIAW and three NCAA — and three title games without a championship.

"Always the bridesmaid but never the bride," she says.

She figured changes were needed including better players and more enlightened tactics such as more rest late in the season. The better players came via Mickie DeMoss, lured from Auburn to work her recruiting magic for the Lady Vols, but not before asking Summitt, "Will you know what to do, if I get the players here?"

In the summer of 1986, Summitt instructed DeMoss to land Tonya Edwards, who led Tennessee to titles in 1987 and '89.

The Lady Vols have won when favored and when discounted as in 1997 with a 10-loss team, the most ever by a champion. In the title game, Tennessee took a 68-59 win against Old Dominion, which had beaten the Lady Vols 83-72 in the regular season. The biggest win in the run may have been 91-81 in the regional final against Connecticut, which had beaten the Lady Vols 72-57 in the regular season.

"That (title) stands out," Summitt says. "Everybody beat us that year."

The unlikely title was chronicled by an HBO documentary, A Cinderella Season, which opened in the locker room after the ODU loss, with players crying and kicking over trash cans in frustration.

"They were at the end of their rope and I was, too," Summitt says. "I was like 'Pull it together.' That emotion allowed me to see how much (losing) hurt them. It always hurts coaches. That day it hurt our team."

Abby Conklin, a starter on the '96 and '97 title teams, called her four seasons under Summitt "the hardest thing I ever did but also the most rewarding." She went to Tennessee in part because she wanted to coach but had a rocky relationship with Summitt, who once threw a cup of water at her, and left without resolving matters, which she hopes to rectify.

An assistant coach and grad student at San Francisco, she had to write a report on a transformational leader. She chose Summitt.

After the heavily favored 1999 team lost to Duke in a regional final, there were times it appeared the team would not win another title. "The eight-year drought," as Summitt calls it.

Then came Candace Parker, who led the team to titles the last two years. "They're all special," Summitt says.

Never afraid of the big game

Growing up on a farm in Henrietta, Tenn., Summitt was expected to chop tobacco, bale hay, milk cows and fix tractors like her three older brothers. She learned basketball in two-on-two games with them on the court her father built in the hayloft of a barn.

The cutthroat contests helped prepare Summitt as a player who started on the 1976 Olympic team that won a silver medal. She overcame a torn anterior cruciate ligament when sports medicine wasn't as advanced as it is now.

Coming from hard work, Summitt prepares her team similarly.

"Tennessee wins because, in the end, our players feel they have worked too hard not to," she wrote in her 1998 book, Reach for the Summit.

Tennessee consistently plays the toughest schedule in the country. Over the years, nearly half Summitt's games have come against ranked teams. The idea is to prepare the team for the NCAA tournament.

"It's something to admire that she has the courage every year not only to challenge her team but herself and her staff," says retired Auburn coach Joe Ciampi. "It's obvious not many of us have ever tried to schedule that way. Maybe two or three shots (per season) but not the whole schedule."

The schedule also promotes the women's game — no big-time coach is as accessible to the news media as Summitt — even if the timing of some games is disadvantageous to Tennessee. In 1995, Summitt agreed to Tennessee's first game against then-emerging power Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., though her team was coming off a tough game at Auburn.

ESPN programming executive Carol Stiff, who arranged the matchup, recalls Summitt's post-game comment to her, the coach exasperated after the loss but understanding the bigger picture: "For the good of the game."

Understanding the times, her players

Summitt still kicks players out of practice or revokes locker room privileges. Her glare still can peel the paint off the rim. But, in part because of NCAA rules, practices right after a road trip are unlikely.

"It used to be: my way or the highway," says assistant coach Holly Warlick, Summitt's point guard from 1977-80 and an assistant for the last 24 seasons. "Now she says you pick and choose battles. It's a different way of motivating today's kid. She's adjusted to it. Her work ethic, intensity and those things are still the same."

Summitt's confrontations now are informed challenges. Tennessee players take personality tests and meet with a sports psychologist so Summitt knows what buttons to push. "We didn't take any personality tests," says Warlick, one of the 70 former Summitt players, assistants or managers who have gone into coaching.

Summitt wants every edge, psychological, physical or tactical.

"The work never ends. … We are constantly trying to be more thorough, more fit, more knowledgeable," she wrote in Reaching for the Summit.

In the offseason, she and her staff typically embark on professional improvement quests such as meeting with NBA coaches Phil Jackson and Tex Winter about the triangle offense, Villanova coach Harry Perretta about his spread offense or retired Auburn coach Joe Ciampi about his matchup zone defense.

"This game is so over-coached and under-taught," Ciampi says. "What she doesn't get enough credit for is the great teacher that she is. It's a step-by-step method for you to grow in their program."

Asked which she prefers, games or practices, Summitt answers with a smile: "Practice. I love practice. That's my favorite time of the day. If you said, 'What keeps you in coaching?' I just love teaching. (The gym's) my classroom."

SUMMITT BY THE NUMBERS

11: Countries in which Pat Summitt's teams have played 13: Southeastern Conference regular-season titles in 27 years 14: SEC tournament titles 18: NCAA Final Fours 27-for-27: Tennessee's run in reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 40: States in which Summitt's teams have played 46.7: Percentage of teams played that were ranked 70: The number of coaches from preps to the pros who played for, coached under or managed for Summitt 400-153: Record against ranked teams 453-44: Record in Knoxville 998-186: Overall record

Pat's Patience Has Ended

Manning replaces Bass, Stricklen moves to point

The number "23" was in play at Tennessee's women's basketball practice Monday.

This wasn't a case of former Lady Vols great Chamique Holdsclaw making an appearance and pulling on her retired jersey. Instead, the number served as a grim reminder of the 23 turnovers UT committed in Sunday's 82-68 loss at Auburn.

In one drill, the players had to record 23 defensive stops. In another, they performed 23 defensive slides in rapid-fire fashion.

UT coach Pat Summitt raised the workout's intensity, as well as her voice, in response to Sunday's rout along with a pattern of inconsistent play that has lasted more than three weeks.

"I was trying to be patient,'' she said. "I've lost my patience. It's gone."

Summitt wants to set a new course by demanding more from the players during practice. It won't be quantity - as in longer workouts - but quality, specifically the nature of their effort.

"I've probably been too nice,'' she said. "One thing I can do, I can demand every day. I can hold the bar higher."

Summitt also intends to revamp game-day shooting practices, shortening the length while increasing the pace. She's borrowing from the philosophy of former Tennessee men's coach Kevin O'Neill.

"Without the language,'' said Summitt in a joking reference to O'Neill's salty dialogue. "I love Kevin but the language was a little more than I can handle."

Along with altering practice, Summitt will change the starting lineup, replacing 5-foot-2 Briana Bass with 6-1 Alicia Manning and moving 6-2 Shekinna Stricklen to point guard in place of Bass. The change gives UT more size and sends a message to Bass about upgrading her play.

"I think Bree has got to commit to being a better defender one on one,'' Summitt said. "If she's not really aggressive defensively, that's a liability for us."

Summitt also said that she will consider shortening the player rotation as a means of regulating effort.

After Auburn's aggressive performance on Sunday, Summitt said she told her players: "They made us look like a high school team."

Baugh Update: Forward Vicki Baugh, who has been recovering from a left knee sprain, will not play Thursday against Ole Miss.

Baugh tried to play Sunday but lasted only 19 seconds.

Rankings: Tennessee dropped three spots back to No. 13 in the Associated Press' weekly top 25.

Judging by Auburn's new ranking, beating UT doesn't mean as much anymore. The Tigers, the only undefeated team other than Connecticut, moved up just one spot to No. 5.

Paying Their Respects: Summitt and associate head coach Holly Warlick will attend the funeral Friday of former North Carolina State coach Kay Yow, who died Saturday.

Summitt said that she expects Wolfpack assistant Stephanie Glance, the interim head coach, to become the new head coach.

Bonner, No. 6 Auburn race past Lady Vols

AUBURN, Ala. — DeWanna Bonner scored a career-high 35 points and unbeaten No. 6 Auburn raced to a late 24-point lead and earned an 82-68 victory over No. 10 Tennessee on Sunday.

Auburn (20-0, 5-0) set an attendance record and also ended Tennessee’s stranglehold on a one-sided series.

The showdown of Southeastern Conference powers drew an overflow crowd of 12,067, breaking the 20-year-old school mark by nearly 5,000 fans.

The Lady Vols had dominated the series, winning the past 16 meetings and routing the Tigers 85-52 last season.

Auburn hadn’t beaten Tennessee (15-4, 4-2) in 12 years or at home since 1991, losing 24 of the previous 25 meetings.

Auburn opened up 1,500 extra seats in the upper section of the arena for the game. The attendance topped the previous high of 7,150 against Tennessee in 1989.

The Tigers moved to their second-best start in school history.

Top-ranked Connecticut (19-0) is the only other unbeaten team in Division I.

Summitt comments on passing of Kay Yow

Opelika, Ala. – University of Tennessee Lady Vol basketball coach Pat Summitt was informed of the passing of longtime friend and N.C. State coach Kay Yow early this morning at her hotel in Opelika, Ala. Summitt and her number 10/12-ranked Lady Vol squad are preparing to take on number 6/5-ranked Auburn on Sun., Jan. 25 in a key Southeastern Conference meeting.

Coach Summitt released the following thoughts about Yow:

“My heart goes out to the Yow family and the N.C. State Wolfpack nation on the passing of a truly remarkable lady and a dear friend in Kay Yow.

“In the two decades she fought the disease, Kay never allowed herself to be victimized by cancer. Kay never pitied herself. Instead, she tried to bring awareness to the horrible disease that was robbing her of her life. Through her foundation in conjunction with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) – The Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, in partnership with The V Foundation for Cancer Research, she did all that she could do to help others. That was just Kay.

“Helping to get the cancer fund off the ground put Kay on a mission. She fought for cancer funding the same way she fought the disease… positive and determined every step of the way.

“Kay was passionate about life and coaching. She was a giver and she gave so much to every life she touched. She made a difference in the lives of so many people, not just the life lessons she shared with her student-athletes at Elon or North Carolina State.”

Summitt on coaching with Kay Yow in the 1984 Olympics:

“I was a young coach of 32 when I was asked to coach the 1984 Olympic Team. When I decided who my number one assistant would be, I knew that I had to choose someone who would be loyal…who knew the game…someone I could trust and someone with great wisdom. When it came time to make that decision, I picked Kay Yow.

“Kay had great wisdom. She had a special way of telling you things that you really didn’t want to hear but needed to. Kay was not a ‘yes’ woman. She accepted the challenge of helping me to bring home the first gold medal to the United States in women’s basketball. It was a daunting task but Kay made it so much easier by helping to relieve the pressure.

“She was an excellent communicator and had such a great rapport with our Olympic players. I learned so much from her on how to better communicate with your players. She definitely always knew the pulse of our team and had a calmness about her that was so settling to me as a young coach trying to bring home the gold while playing in front of the home team USA fans.

“Those memories that I shared with Kay will last a lifetime and I will always look back at them fondly and think of her.”

Pat Summitt Uses Psychology, but With Some Fizz

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — To players who express an interest in becoming a basketball coach, Tennessee’s Pat Summitt offers a simple piece of advice: major in psychology.

“I wish I had,” she said last week. “Because you’re always trying to figure out the best way to motivate each individual.”

Despite having no formal training in the science of human behavior, Summitt has become a master motivator through 35 years of practical experience. The way she recruited Candace Parker provided a window into her genius.

Summitt said that Parker, a schoolgirl legend in Chicago, was initially interested in attending Tennessee, but that as the official signing period approached, her enthusiasm waned.

“Candace seems confused,” Summitt recalled thinking. “Something has colored her thinking.”

The day before Summitt was to fly to Chicago for her formal home visit, an idea popped into her head. She dropped two packets of cherry-flavored Alka-Seltzer tablets into her purse.

When she met the family, Summitt asked Parker what had happened to cloud her thinking on Tennessee. Parker hemmed and hawed and finally shrugged. She said she did not know. Summitt excused herself, disappeared into the Parkers’ kitchen and returned with a clear glass filled with water. She dropped the Alka-Seltzer into the glass, turning the water red and fizzy.

“What are you doing, Coach?” a wide-eyed Parker asked.

“Just look at that,” Summitt said. “The water was clear. Now something has colored it. Candace, Tennessee has always been very clear to you. Now something or someone has colored your thinking.”

Parker said, “Coach, that’s pretty awesome.”

The rest, as they say, is history. In the three seasons Parker played before the Los Angeles Sparks drafted her No. 1 in the 2008 W.N.B.A. draft, the Lady Volunteers compiled a record of 101-10 and won their seventh and eighth N.C.A.A. championships.

Pat Summitt Makes Tennessee a Cradle of Coaches

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It happens to every Lady Volunteers basketball player who has gone into coaching. She’ll be railing about a lazy pass in practice. Glaring at a player who failed to box out an opponent. Lecturing how leadership is about being respected, not liked.

Then it hits her. She has grown up to be just like her coach at Tennessee, Pat Summitt.

“That happens quite often, and it’s quite scary,” said Carla McGhee, who is on the coaching staff at South Carolina. “As a player, I couldn’t see why Pat would get so upset about a lack of effort, why she would say it was disrespecting the game. Now when I see a lack of effort, something about it just grates my nerves, and before I know it, I blow my top, and then, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m Pat.’ ”

Mimicking her is one thing. Matching her success will be a tall order. In 35 seasons at Tennessee, Summitt’s winning percentage is .844. She has guided her current team, which starts four freshmen and has one upperclassman, to a 15-3 record and No. 10 ranking in the Associated Press poll.

The Lady Volunteers, the two-time defending N.C.A.A. champions, will play Sunday at unbeaten and sixth-ranked Auburn, intent on securing career victory No. 999 for Summitt. No coach, man or woman, is within 30 victories of her total.

“People talk about 1,000 wins,” Summitt, 56, said last week in her office. “I remind them that I’ve never scored a basket for the University of Tennessee.”

A better measure of Summitt’s success — in her eyes, anyway — is this: 45 Lady Volunteers, about a third of the players who have passed through her program, have become coaches — from youth leagues to the pros. In her coaching tree, the first ring was formed this season with the arrival of Glory Johnson, whose high school coach was Shelley Sexton-Collier, whose college coach was Summitt.

“This job is all about the relationships,” Summitt said, “so obviously that’s rewarding.”

It is also a relief. When she was handed the reins of the Tennessee program in 1974, Summitt was a 22-year-old graduate student who was training for the Olympics and teaching classes in badminton, tennis and self-defense.

“I’d never coached a day in my life,” she said. “I had no idea what was going to happen to this program.”

She reasons that she must not have messed up too badly, if so many players are following in her footsteps.

“The ones that choose to go into coaching,” Summitt said, “people usually say, ‘Well, there’s a little Pat.’ ”

The sisterhood of traveling Pats includes Nikki Caldwell, who is in her first year at the helm at U.C.L.A. after serving apprenticeships at Virginia Tech and Tennessee, and Tanya Haave, a former all-American in her second year as the coach at San Francisco.

The Lady Volunteers opened this season against Haave’s Dons. The night before the game, Summitt organized a party at her home along the Tennessee River for Haave. Though known for her stare, which is cold enough to freeze time, Summitt is, away from the court, the perfect Southern hostess.

She invited a few women who played alongside Haave in the early 1980s. Over a few beers and some wine, they reminisced past midnight. The next afternoon, Summitt traded her honey glaze for a steely gaze and served Haave a 68-39 defeat.

Equal parts nurturing and schooling, that is the recipe for Summitt’s success. In a game at Rutgers this month, the Lady Volunteers trailed by 20 points at the break. It was the biggest halftime deficit in the program’s history. Huddling with her players, Summitt berated the sophomore guard Angie Bjorklund for not taking enough shots, then growled, “You do not want to go home with me tonight having played this way.”

Message received. Behind Bjorklund’s 12 second-half points, Tennessee rallied for a 55-51 victory.

To play for Summitt is to feel her glare everywhere. She has certain nonnegotiable rules, like requiring her players to sit in the first three rows at class. When they are broken, she has a way of finding out. Even after her players leave, Summitt keeps an eye on them. When Caldwell’s Bruins lost at home to Oregon, 73-56, Summitt called afterward to offer encouragement.

Some coaches come into their athletes’ lives for a few seasons, but when the wind blows, they fall away like leaves. Caldwell said she hoped to emulate Summitt, who lodges into her players’ lives like a root, providing steady nourishment.

“Pat just has a balance,” Caldwell said. “She makes time for people. She treats her players like family. It’s really admirable.”

Suzanne Barbre Singleton, a guard on Summitt’s first four Tennessee teams, planned to be a nurse until she fell under Summitt’s spell. She switched her major to physical education and has spent several years coaching high school, college and Amateur Athletic Union basketball.

In December, after several weeks of tending to her dying father, Barbre Singleton consented to taking him off a ventilator. Ten minutes later, she was outside her father’s room, gathering her emotions, when her cellphone rang. It was Summitt, whom she had not spoken to in a while.

“I just want you to know I’m thinking about you,” said Summitt, whose team was preparing for a game later in the day. Recalling the conversation, Barbre Singleton said, “You don’t know what that meant to me.”

At the start of every season, she sends a media guide to each of her former players, along with a handwritten note. After Haave was named the coach at San Francisco, she received a letter from Summitt saying how proud she was.

The communication goes both ways. Last Tuesday, Summitt and her 83-year-old mother, Hazel, spent the morning opening piles of holiday mail, including 300 Christmas cards. It was the first opportunity Summitt, who was divorced in April, had had since Thanksgiving to sift through her correspondence.

She hears from former players regularly. Some are looking for a box-out drill to use in practice. Others seek career advice or want to know how to motivate an underachieving player. Trish Roberts, who played in the Montreal Olympics alongside Summitt before playing for her at Tennessee, said, “I could pick up the phone and talk to Pat anytime, and she’ll take the time out.”

A half-hour before the Lady Volunteers were scheduled to take the floor against Stanford in the 2008 N.C.A.A. title game in Tampa, Fla., Roberts sent Summitt a text message wishing her luck. Less than five minutes later, she received a reply.

“People say: ‘You played for Pat. Oh, my God, she looks so mean on TV,’ ” said Roberts, who guided the programs at Maine, Michigan and Stony Brook and also coached in the American Basketball League. “I always have to defend her.”

Even Lady Volunteers who did not always get along with Summitt during their playing days tend to come around. Michelle Marciniak, a guard who was an integral part of Tennessee’s 1996 national championship, said: “I have a great deal of respect for Pat. I didn’t always like her when I was playing for her.”

After stints in the A.B.L. and the W.N.B.A., Marciniak turned to coaching. When she was a South Carolina assistant two years ago, she wrote a letter to Summitt.

“The gist of it was, Thank you for all you’ve done for me,” Marciniak said. “I may not have appreciated it then, but I’m very grateful now.”

Summitt was pregnant with her son Tyler when she was recruiting Marciniak in 1990. During her official visit to Marciniak’s home in Pennsylvania, Summitt went into labor. She stayed long enough to deliver her pitch before returning to Tennessee to give birth.

Tyler, who turned 18 in September, is a senior at the Webb School of Knoxville. He takes notes on the Lady Volunteers’ games and leaves them for his mother. After a 1-point loss to Virginia in November, his observations filled two pages.

“Point guards passed to corners too much, and ball got stuck down there,” he wrote, adding: “A lot of time, posts were late on help side. When they did help, there was no one there for the weakside rebound. That gave them at least five rebounds.”

And so sprouts another branch in Summitt’s coaching tree.

“He’s already told me he wants my job,” she said. She laughed. “I told him the list is long.”

Candace Parker Is Balancing Career and Family

The Los Angeles Sparks’ Candace Parker is carrying a child this year when she was being counted on to carry a league. If the W.N.B.A. is not roundly thrilled with her pregnancy, which became public earlier this month, Parker has decided she can live with that.

“My whole career has been trying to please people in basketball,” Parker, a 22-year-old newlywed, said Friday in a telephone interview. “Now it’s time to please myself.” She added, “For me, family has always come first.”

Parker, who was married in November to her longtime boyfriend, Sacramento Kings forward Shelden Williams, is due in the spring. The W.N.B.A. season starts in June and runs through September.

“I’m very stubborn,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to play this season.”

It has been done before. In 2005, Tina Thompson, who was with the Houston Comets, gave birth to a son in May and played in a game in July. In 1997, Sheryl Swoopes, who emerged as the women’s answer to Michael Jordan after starring at Texas Tech, returned for the last nine games of the W.N.B.A.’s inaugural season six weeks after the birth of her son.

There are a dozen moms playing in the league. But none — not even Parker’s accomplished teammate Lisa Leslie, who was 35 when she gave birth to her daughter and missed the 2007 season — was being counted on to nurture women’s basketball like Parker, the face of the league’s marketing campaign.

Parker’s appeal is undeniable. She can cover the floor better than wax. At Tennessee, she played at forward, center and guard. In 2006, she became the first woman to dunk in the N.C.A.A. tournament. The combination of her beauty and her ability to take the women’s game above the rim earned her a following among fans of the men’s game. She was the W.N.B.A.’s most valuable player as rookie last season, averaging 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds.

W.N.B.A. Commissioner Donna Orender said her initial reaction to Parker’s pregnancy was a quiet sigh of resignation. Then she thought of all the women in the more traditional workplace struggling with the issue of when or if to start a family, and she realized that Parker’s pregnancy provided a perfect modeling moment.

“Here she is, front and center, and people are discussing the timing of her reproductive life,” Orender said Friday in a telephone interview. “That’s a very public discussion that hasn’t happened before. I do think that’s a good thing for women who go through these issues often in silence or alone.”

She added, “Candace can be a very usable symbol of how you can have a family and a career.”

Women who cannot imagine dunking a basketball can relate to being tugged by the seemingly competing dreams of pursuing a family and a career.

Even the world’s most successful female athletes have imagined themselves at a loss to juggle both. The golfer Annika Sorenstam retired from the L.P.G.A. Tour in December because, at 38, she is eager to have children. The world’s No. 1 women’s golfer, Lorena Ochoa, is 27 and newly engaged and has spoken often of wishing to retire before she is 30 so she is free to raise a family.

Unlike athletes in individual sports like golf, swimming or running, Parker has teammates who will be affected by her pregnancy. On Internet message boards, people have described Parker as “selfish” and argued that she should not have become pregnant while under contract with the Sparks. Her pregnancy prompted her to forfeit a $1.5 million payday to play for a Russian club this winter.

“I think there’s always doubt,” Parker said. “From what I’ve learned from basketball growing up is you can’t be a people pleaser.”

Last year was a cornucopia of riches for Parker, who led the Lady Vols to their eighth N.C.A.A. title, the United States Olympic team to a gold medal, and the Sparks to the Western Conference finals. The pregnancy, she believes, was a blessing in more ways than one.

“After the year I had, my body needed the rest,” she said.

But Parker said her heart was pounding as she punched in the cellphone number of her college coach, Pat Summitt, to tell her the news.

Summitt’s opinion was the only one in the basketball world that mattered to Parker. When Summitt said she was thrilled, that was all Parker needed to hear.

“You want your coach’s blessing,” Parker said.

Bjorklund scores 18 to lead No. 10 Tenn. over Ark.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Angie Bjorklund scored 18 points and Glory Johnson added 15 points and No. 10 Tennessee held off Arkansas for a 76-67 victory Thursday night.

The victory for Tennessee (15-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) gave coach Pat Summitt her 998th career victory. Summitt will have her first chance at win No. 1,000 on Jan. 29 when the Lady Vols host Mississippi.

Tennessee didn't have an easy time as Arkansas (11-8, 0-4) played physical and grabbed 29 rebounds.

Arkansas was led by Ceira Ricketts with 22 points and Ashley McCray added 12. The players also combined for 16 rebounds.

In the second half, there were eight lead changes. Arkansas managed to build a six-point lead before the Razorbacks went cold, missing eight straight shots while the Lady Vols went on an 11-0 run.

Tennessee shot 70.4 percent (19-of-27) from the foul line to maintain its lead late in the game and hold on for the victory.

In the first half, Tennessee got off to a quick start with back-to-back 3-pointers from freshmen Shekinna Stricklen and Brianna Bass.

The Razorbacks shot 33.3 percent from the floor, but outrebounded Tennessee 19-16 in the first half.

The Lady Vols led by seven points at 26-19 before Arkansas went on a 10-2 run to get its first lead at 29-28 with 2 minutes left before the half after Ricketts got a steal near midcourt. She took it in for an easy layup.

But Tennessee's Sydney Smallbone hit a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left to give the Lady Vols a three-point edge, but Arkansas responded when sophomore Shanita Arnold made a 3-pointer with seven seconds left to tie the game at 32 at halftime.

No. 13 Tennessee beats South Carolina 68-56

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Alex Fuller’s new jersey was a little bit small, but it didn’t hinder her from carrying her team through a slow first half.

The 6-foot-3 Fuller, who wore the No. 2 jersey belonging to 5-foot-4 Cait McMahan on Sunday to honor her injured teammate, scored 14 points, lead No. 13 Tennessee to a 68-56 win over South Carolina on Sunday for the 36th consecutive time.

“There’s a lot of heart in the No. 2 jersey,” Fuller said.

The senior forward will wear the jersey instead of her usual No. 44 for the rest of the season now that McMahan has chosen to end her playing career after recurring injuries.

Coming out of halftime with a 33-30 lead, the Lady Vols (14-3, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) used a 15-4 run to take over the game. A layup by Glory Johnson with 12:12 left gave Tennessee a 50-34 lead.

From there, the Gamecocks (8-9, 0-4) could only get as close as seven points when Samone Kennedy kicked out the ball to Lakeisha Sutton for a wide-open 3 with 6:13 left.

“It took us a while to figure out how important our commitment to defense would be,” said Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, who grabbed her 997th win. “When we defended better we obviously played a lot better together on the offensive end as well.”

Shekinna Stricklen added 13 points for the Lady Vols and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Summitt charged Stricklen at halftime with working harder to contain South Carolina’s lead scorer, Brionna Dickerson, who had 14 points by halftime, including four 3-pointers. Dickerson finished with 17 points.

Charenee Stephens had 11 boards for South Carolina.

The Gamecocks took an early lead with an 8-2 run. Demetress Adams hit a layup with 13:41 in the first half to give South Carolina a 16-9 lead.

“That was our mentality to come out fighting and come out swinging,” Dickerson said.

The Lady Vols used their own 9-2 run to take a 29-28 lead with 4:28 before the break, and entered halftime with a 33-30 lead.

“A loss is a loss,” said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. “We’re 0-4 in the SEC and we need a win. Moral victories for us right now just won’t get it.”

The Gamecocks struggled to stop Tennessee in transition, and the Lady Vols hit 12 fast-break points. Tennessee shot 42.9 percent from the field, while South Carolina could only manage 37.9 percent.

South Carolina is one of six SEC teams without a victory in Knoxville and has struggled to even come close to beating the Lady Vols. The Gamecocks have lost by a double-digit margin in all but eight of those losses.

Summitt attempted to play Vicki Baugh for the first time in four games after the sophomore post sprained her surgically repaired left knee preparing for Rutgers on Jan. 1. Baugh played only 3 minutes, hitting one layup while continuing to favor her knee, which was wrapped in a brace.

Kelley Cain, who came down hard on her surgically repaired right knee in the first half at Mississippi State on Thursday, did not play.

“I put Vicki in, and she’s rebounding off one foot. She’s got to get where I think she’s ready. I don’t want to run any risks,” Summitt said.

No. 13 Tennessee beats Mississippi State 63-58

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Shekinna Stricklen scored 15 points to lead Tennessee to a 63-56 victory over Mississippi State on Thursday night.

Tennessee (13-3) made seven of 13 3-pointers and improved to 29-0 against Mississippi State (13-4).

The Lady Vols led 32-30 at the half, but Mississippi State used a 9-1 run midway through the second half to take the lead.

Alyssa Brewer made a layup with 3:29 left to tie it 54-all. Stricklen’s 3-pointer with 1:30 left gave the Volunteer’s the lead.

Angie Bjorklund added 14 points for the Lady Vols and Brewer chipped in 10 points and six rebounds.

Alexis Rack and Chanel Mokango had 15 points each to lead MSU. Mokango also had seven blocked shots. Robin Porter added 12 points and nine rebounds.

Lady Vols find themselves doing laundry after loss

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Coach Pat Summitt wanted her Tennessee Lady Volunteers to dwell extra long on their wash out at Vanderbilt earlier in the week.

So, she's got them laundering their own practice clothes indefinitely — a task that usually falls to the team managers.

"I'm sure some of the players — the real competitors — it bothered them," Summitt said of the 74-58 loss on Sunday to the Commodores.

Summitt said she found it disturbing that several of her young players are struggling to compete hard enough to succeed in Southeastern Conference play.

She's not worried about her veterans like guard Angie Bjorklund and forward Alex Fuller. Even freshmen Glory Johnson, Shekinna Stricklen and Briana Bass have lived up to Summitt's expectations with their efforts.

The loss dropped Tennessee (12-3, 1-1 SEC) to No. 13 in The Associated Press rankings, their lowest spot in the poll in 23 years.

Summitt once forced her Lady Vols to wear their practice jerseys inside out after back-to-back losses against Duke and Kentucky in 2006 because she didn't feel they deserved to wear the Lady Vols logo.

The Lady Vols drew more of Summitt's ire this week with long practices and drills focused on improving defense.

And if having to wash their own jerseys wasn't enough, associated head coach Holly Warlick put the Vanderbilt score on the scoreboard at Thompson-Boling Arena during practice and plastered it around the Lady Vols' locker room.

Tennessee might be able to relinquish their laundry duty with a strong showing at Mississippi State (13-3, 1-1). The Lady Bulldogs have never beaten the Lady Vols in 28 tries, but this could be their best opportunity to do so.

The veteran Commodores team ran into little defensive pressure from Tennessee as five players scored in double figures.

The Lady Bulldogs are just as dangerous.

"They're a veteran team. We are going to again be in a situation where we know we have to step up and do a much better job on both ends of the floor — particularly our defense and our board play — and have a different level of commitment," Summitt said.

Tennessee is suffering from having its best defensive player, sophomore starting forward Vicki Baugh, sitting out with a left knee sprain. Baugh has missed the past three games and remains day-to-day.

Baugh, who is averaging 7.8 points and nearly 9.7 rebounds a game, has helped bail the Lady Vols out of several tight games.

"Obviously we miss her so much. She changes the way we defend. She changes how we get up and down," Summitt said. "She's one of our most competitive players."

AP poll: Lady Vols hold lowest ranking in 23 years

Tennessee keeps dropping in the women’s basketball poll, falling to its lowest ranking in 23 years.

Connecticut remained the unanimous No. 1 choice for the seventh straight week Monday in The Associated Press Top 25.

North Carolina is No. 2 and plays Connecticut next Monday in Chapel Hill. Oklahoma, Duke and Baylor round out the first five.

The Lady Vols’ streak of 211 consecutive weeks in the top 10 ended earlier this season. They fell six spots to No. 13 and hold their lowest ranking since the final poll of 1986 when they finished 15th. Tennessee lost at Vanderbilt 74-58 on Sunday.

The Blue Devils host Maryland on Monday night.

Auburn moved up three spots to sixth—its highest ranking since Jan. 3, 2000. Louisville climbed three places to seventh. Texas A&M dropped five spots to eighth after losing to Florida State.

Stanford moved up two places into ninth after routing Washington and Washington State. Notre Dame finished off the first 10.

The Irish were followed by California, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia and Ohio State.

Texas, which was No. 4 two weeks ago, dropped eight places to No. 16 after losing to Purdue and Texas Tech. The Longhorns had started the season 12-0 before losing three of their last four games.

Kansas State (14-0), which is off to the best start in school history, moved up three places to 17th. The Wildcats visit Oklahoma on Wednesday.

Vanderbilt made the biggest leap, climbing six spots to No. 18. Florida was 19th. Iowa State entered the poll for the second time this season at No. 20 after beating Oklahoma State on Sunday. The Cyclones were ranked 25th in the third poll of the season before falling out a week later.

Marist moved up four places to equal its highest ranking ever at No. 21. The Red Foxes have won 12 straight games.

Oklahoma State, Rutgers, Georgia Tech and New Mexico rounded out the poll. Rutgers fell six places after losing at Syracuse and Louisville. New Mexico rejoined the Top 25 a week after falling out.

Pittsburgh and South Dakota State fell out of the poll this week.

Vanderbilt grabs just 7th win ever over Lady Vols

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jessica Mooney led five Commodores in double figures with 15 points, and 24th-ranked Vanderbilt beat No. 7 Tennessee 74-58 on Sunday for only their seventh win all-time in this interstate rivalry and coach Melanie Balcomb's first in her seventh season here.

Tennessee (12-3, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) has simply dominated this series between schools separated by 190 miles along Interstate 40, winning the last 16 and 52 of the first 58 by the Lady Vols' count. This loss keeps coach Pat Summitt stuck on 995 wins as she closes in on 1,000 for her career.

But Vanderbilt (13-4, 2-0) was the preseason pick to win the Southeastern Conference title, and the Commodores used their speed and experience to grab their first win over the Lady Vols since Feb. 2, 2002, also on their home floor at Memorial Gym.

Jennifer Risper and Hannah Tuomi each had 12 for Vanderbilt. Merideth Marsh added 11, and Christina Wirth had 10.

Alex Fuller led the Lady Vols with 12.

These teams last met in the SEC tournament semifinals with the Lady Vols winning by 25 before winning their second straight national championship and eighth overall.

The Lady Vols came in having won five straight, a streak that included a comeback from 23 down at Rutgers on Jan. 3. But Summitt has a much younger team this season, starting three freshmen and a sophomore. That makes Vandy seem grizzled in comparison with two seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup.

The teams swapped the lead in the first half before the Commodores blew open the game by finishing the period with a 12-0 run for a 31-23 lead at halftime. They took the lead on Jence Rhoads' basket with 2:22 left at 25-23, taking advantage as Tennessee went scoreless after Johnson scored with 4:40 to go.

Vanderbilt stayed hot in the second half and pushed its lead to 38-25 as Wirth hit a 3-pointer from the right corner in front of her bench.

Angie Bjorklund's 3 pulled Tennessee within 47-42 with 10:51 left. Tuomi hit two free throws, then Risper drove the lane for a layup as the Commodores scored nine of the next 10 points.

Then the Commodores just kept padding their lead and were up as much as 21 twice. They just missed matching their biggest win over Tennessee, a 17-point margin back in 2002.

Cait McMahan decides to stop playing basketball

University of Tennessee Lady Vol redshirt sophomore basketball player Cait McMahan has decided to change her role with the team.

The 5'4" guard has experienced continuing pain, swelling and dysfunction in her right knee following a number of surgeries and procedures, the most recent on Sept. 3, 2008.

After consulting with her orthopedic physicians, Dr. Greg Mathien and Dr. Russ Betcher, Lady Vol Head Coach Pat Summitt, and Jenny Moshak, University of Tennessee Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine, McMahan arrived at the joint decision this afternoon that it was time for her to step away from a playing role and move into that of a student assistant coach on the Lady Vol sideline for the remainder of the season.

"Cait had been experiencing discomfort in the knee and conservative treatments did not address the problems. Her last scope eliminated some loose bodies, smoothed out joint surface irregularities and addressed a small lateral meniscus tear. Her knee is not able to withstand the rigors of Division I basketball on a day-to-day basis," said Moshak.

Her last surgery came after McMahan sat out the 2007-08 season following an extensive surgery on June 6, 2007, to repair a lesion on the articular cartilage in her right knee. The guard from Maryville, Tenn., originally tore the anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee on Nov. 29, 2005, while playing at Heritage H.S.

"I have to face reality and accept the fact that my knee can't take the day-to-day pounding to play for this team," said McMahan. "I'll try to continue to be a leader for my team from the sidelines."

As a Lady Vol rookie in the 2006-07 NCAA Championship season, she played in 35 games and earned one starting assignment. She averaged 2.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 1.4 apg while logging almost 14 minutes per contest.

This season, McMahan earned a spot in the starting line-up at point guard before her knee became chronically sore. She played in nine games and started six while averaging 4.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg and 1.5 apg in 14.4 minutes of play.

"I know how disappointed Cait is," said Summitt. "The last thing she wanted to do was step away from her position on the floor because she is such a great competitor. I welcome Cait's addition in her new role as a student assistant coach bringing that same leadership and determination to the bench."

No. 7 Tennessee hangs on to beat Kentucky, 69-64

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.: Tennessee coach Pat Summitt never stops looking for the next lesson for her young Lady Vols.

Shekinna Stricklen scored 18 points, including two late free throws, as No. 7 Tennessee hung on to beat Kentucky 69-64 on Thursday night.

"As I told our team, fortunately you can win sometimes when you don't play well. We'll learn from it," said Summitt, who earned her 995th win.

Glory Johnson added 14 points for Tennessee (12-2, 1-0 Southeastern Conference), Alicia Manning scored a career-high 13 points and Alex Fuller had 10.

Summitt is hoping her team learns how to hold a lead for more than a half. The Lady Vols had to come from behind in the second half for a second straight game after using the largest comeback in team history to beat Rutgers on Saturday.

"Our desire is to be a 40-minute team. I think the watch stopped in the first half," Summitt said. "We'll get there."

Down 35-27 at halftime, the Wildcats — who have only beaten the Lady Vols once in the past two decades — opened the second half with a 9-2 run to take a 40-39 advantage with 16:02 left.

The teams traded the lead for the next 13 minutes. The Lady Vols scored 10 straight points, with a 3-pointer by Manning giving them a 61-58 lead with 2:47 left.

Kentucky all but shut down Angie Bjorklund, who entered the game leading Tennessee with 13.9 points per game. The sharpshooter was limited to seven points, including one 3-pointer, leaving Manning and Stricklen available around the perimeter.

"They just left me open, so I took the shot," said Manning, who went 3-for-3 from behind the arc.

Amber Smith stole the ball from Stricklen and drove for a layup to pull to 64-60 with 1:27 left. Smith later fouled Stricklen with 51.3 seconds left, and the freshman calmly hit both shots to give Tennessee a 66-60 lead.

Smith and Victoria Dunlap hit two more shots in the last minute, but the Wildcats (10-6, 0-1) would only get one more shot as the Lady Vols hit three more free throws.

"For us it was not a lack of effort, it was a lack of execution," Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said. "In this league, you don't get a lot of medals for trying."

Carly Morrow led the Wildcats with 16 points, Brittany Edelen added 13 and Smith had 12.

Kentucky, normally a 27.2 percent 3-point shooting team, made 57.1 percent of their shots from behind the arc against Tennessee. However, the Lady Vols outrebounded the Wildcats 43-30 and scored 17 second-chance points compared to Kentucky's 9.

The scrappy Wildcat team hung close with Tennessee for part of the first half, forcing eight turnovers.

A fastbreak layup by Alyssia Brewer set up by a long pass from Stricklen capped an 8-0 run to give Tennessee a 28-20 lead with 3:46 left in the first half.

"There are a lot of positives that we can just go back and look back on," Smith said. "It wasn't a lot about what they were doing. We just missed a lot of easy shots. We had the opportunities, we just didn't get them in the end. I think we are going to get better after this."

The two teams will meet again on Feb. 19 as part of the SEC's last season of rotating schedules. Next season the conference will divide into divisional play.

Candace Parker is pregnant

Last year was a year of firsts for Candace Parker. In 2008 she was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks, she was the first woman in the WNBA to win both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player and she captured her first Olympic Gold Medal at the Summer Games in Beijing. Entering a new year, Parker has another special first to look forward to. This spring, she and husband Shelden Williams of the Sacramento Kings are expecting their first child.

“Shelden and I are very excited to be expanding our family,” said Parker. “We feel blessed and look forward to becoming parents.”

“We are happy to welcome a new addition into the Sparks family and on behalf of the entire organization we congratulate both Candace and Shelden,” said Penny Toler, Los Angeles Sparks General Manager.

Parker will continue to work out in preparation to participate in the 2009 WNBA season.

Parker’s collegiate head coach at Tennessee, Pat Summitt, was excited about her news. “Candace and I visited about this,” said Summitt. “She’s excited and I’m really excited for her. I told her that if she has a little girl, I hope she’ll be a future Lady Vol.”

Parker nearly averaged a double-double her rookie season (18.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg) and she led the WNBA in rebounds. She earned the 2008 WNBA Rookie of the Year award and the Most Valuable Player award marking the first time in the WNBA’s 12 seasons that a rookie has won MVP. Parker won back-to-back NCAA championships with the Lady Vols in 2007 and 2008. She led the team in scoring (20.6 ppg) and rebounding (8.8 rpg) her final season at Tennessee. Parker was named the 2007 and 2008 Collegiate Female John R. Wooden Player of the Year, State Farm Player of the Year, Basketball Writers Association National Player of the Year and Kodak All-American. She earned the NCAA Final Four MVP award in 2007 and 2008.

Tennessee rallies from 20 down to stun Rutgers

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Pat Summitt has been in all sorts of crazy games in her Hall of Fame career. She couldn’t remember one quite like this.

Her Lady Volunteers, led by Shekinna Stricklen’s 16 points and 11 rebounds, pulled off the biggest comeback in school history by rallying from a 20-point halftime deficit to stun Rutgers 55-51 on Saturday.

“Never in my 35 years of coaching have I seen a game like that,” said Summitt, who earned the 994th win of her career. “I’ve been in a lot of games, I’ve been behind a lot in my career, this one stands out as one of the most special.”

The only game that came close to this was when the Lady Vols rallied from a 17-point second-half deficit to stun Virginia in the regional finals of the 1996 NCAA tournament.

“This group will go down in the record books,” Summitt said.

Trailing 33-13 at the half, Summitt ripped into her inexperienced team telling them it would be a long plane ride home for the Lady Vols if they didn’t start playing with some “Tennessee pride.”

The Lady Vols, who had never trailed by 20 points at halftime before, responded, with the first 11 points of the second half.

“We came in and regrouped at halftime,” said Angie Bjorklund, who scored all of her 12 points in the second half. “It doesn’t matter how much we’re down, we look at it that it’s a zero-zero game. I give a lot of credit to Rutgers. They did a great job defending us and we didn’t know how to handle it. They were shooting lights-out.”

Trailing 49-40 with 6:40 left, Tennessee (11-2) went on a 13-0 run. Bjorkland’s jumper with 1:30 left gave the Lady Vols their first lead of the game at 51-49. Prince missed a floater on the other end and Stricklen hit two free throws with 39.8 seconds left.

Prince made a tough jumper in the lane to cut it to two with 21.8 seconds left. She then forced a jump ball, giving Rutgers a chance to tie the game, but Kia Vaughn missed underneath and Bjorklund sealed the game from the free throw line.

“They were keying on (Bjorklund) big-time in the first half,” Summitt said. “We had a one-sided conversation. She stepped up.”

The rivalry between the two schools has become more intense over the last two seasons. Tennessee beat Rutgers for the 2007 national championship. Last season, the Lady Vols topped the Scarlet Knights in a controversial game when Tennessee’s Nicky Anosike made two free throws with two-tenths of a second left.

The free throws followed a fast-paced sequence in which Candace Parker missed a shot with 1.8 seconds left. Anosike grabbed the offensive rebound under the basket and was fouled—after the final buzzer should have sounded.

Tennessee turned the ball over on 11 of its first 14 possessions and Rutgers took a 14-0 lead. The Lady Vols trailed 23-4 with 7 1/2 minutes left in the half before managing to finish with 13 at intermission. The previous lowest was 14 points in the first half against Virginia at the regional finals in 1996.

“Obviously this was a tale of two halves,” Summitt said. “We couldn’t do anything right in the first half. We missed shots and turned the ball over.”

Tennessee’s previous largest first-half deficit was 19 against Mississippi in 1996.

The Lady Vols cut Rutgers’ lead to 33-24 on Glory Johnson’s jumper with 15:20 left.

“We told each other in the locker room that the first four minutes was the most important of the game,” Lady Vols forward Alyssia Brewer said. “We knew that if we came together and took it one possession at a time we could get it done.”

Brittany Ray, who scored 14 points, ended Rutgers’ drought by hitting a deep 3-pointer from the corner as the shot clock went off to restore a 12-point advantage. Tennessee kept chipping away and trailed by eight when Stricklen hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

“We came out a little sluggish in the second half and we didn’t have the same intensity,” Ray said. “When they scored the first 8 points we got a little complacent on offense.”

The teams traded baskets before Prince’s jumper made it 49-40 with 6:40 left, but Rutgers went scoreless over the next six minutes.

Bjorkland had five points during the spurt and Stricklen hit three free throws.

“When you let people like that believe that they can win you’re in trouble,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. “This group is champions. They didn’t have a hesitation about playing. We’re afraid to lose. You don’t understand the great benefit of playing to win. You have to risk failure for success. There’s no such thing as a moral victory. It stings as much as we lost at their place.”

Summitt earned her 400th win against a ranked opponents and is 13-2 against Stringer, a fellow Hall-of-Famer.

Tennessee was able to pull off this improbable comeback without starting forward Vicki Baugh, who was sidelined with a sprained left ankle she injured in practice on Thursday.

“It’s a huge statement we won this game without Vicki,” Brewer said.

No. 8 Tennessee rallies past No. 15 Rutgers 55-51

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Shekinna Stricklen scored 16 points and No. 8 Tennessee rallied from the biggest deficit in school history to beat No. 15 Rutgers 55-51 on Saturday.

After the Lady Vols trailed 33-13 at the break, scoring the fewest points ever in a half, Tennessee regrouped to give coach Pat Summitt her 994th career win.

The loss ended a 20-game home winning streak for Rutgers (8-3), led by Epiphanny Prince with 25 points.

Trailing 49-40 with 6:40 left, Tennessee (11-2) went on a 13-0 run. Angie Bjorkland’s jumper with 1:30 left gave the Lady Vols their first lead at 51-49. Stricklen made two free throws for 53-49 lead with 39.8 seconds left.

Prince’s jumper cut it to 53-51 with 21.8 seconds left. She then forced a jump ball giving Rutgers one last chance, but Kia Vaughn missed underneath.

Bjorklund, who scored 12 points, sealed the game from the free throw line.

No. 8 Tennessee beats Gonzaga 77-58

SPOKANE, Wash. — Angie Bjorklund had a triumphant homecoming with 14 points to help lead No. 8 Tennessee past Gonzaga 77-58 on Tuesday night in the community where she was a high school star.

Alyssia Brewer also scored 14 points and Vicki Baugh had 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Lady Vols (10-2). Coach Pat Summitt now has 993 wins in her quest to become the first NCAA coach—male or female—to win 1,000 games.

Heather Bowman led Gonzaga (11-4) with 19 points and Courtney Vandersloot had 13 points and 10 assists.

The Zags played without Jami Schaefer, Bjorklund’s older sister, who is out for six weeks with a knee injury. The game pitting the two sisters against each other was arranged two years ago after Bjorklund signed with Tennessee.

Tennessee, the two-time defending national champions, shot 50 percent and made 6-of-14 from 3-point range. Gonzaga made only 3-of-13 3-point attempts.

After a slow start, Gonzaga made 6-of-7 field goals to take a 23-20 lead, helped in part by eight Tennessee turnovers. But Glory Johnson’s layup tied the score at 24, and Bjorklund’s long 3-pointer put the Lady Vols up 27-24 and they never relinquished the lead.

Tennessee led 38-33 at halftime despite 11 turnovers. Gonzaga shot 43 percent in the half after starting just 4-of-18.

That five-point margin held into the second half, until Tennessee scored seven consecutive points for a 53-41 lead with 11:51 left. The Zags, plagued by poor shooting in the second half, could not make up the difference. They made just 9-of-30 shots in the second half.

The Lady Zags, who average about 1,900 fans per game, sold out the 6,000-seat McCarthey Athletic Center for the first time.

Many in the crowd wore t-shirts saying “TennZaga,” a nod of support for the popular Bjorklund. Gonzaga traveled to Tennessee last season, and Bjorklund scored 23 points in the Vols’ 93-73 victory.

Tennessee was coming off a 79-69 overtime win over Stanford.

The Bjorklund sisters were both stars at University High in the Spokane Valley. Angie became Tennessee’s first recruit from Washington. She scored 2,103 points in high school, averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds as a senior. She started as a freshman at Tennessee last year.

Basketball star Candace Parker selected AP female athlete of year

It's been a whirlwind year for Candace Parker.

She led Tennessee to a second straight national championship in women's basketball, was the first pick in the WNBA draft, took the league's MVP and rookie of the year awards, and helped the U.S. win a fourth-straight Olympic gold medal.

Now Parker has been selected female athlete of the year by members of The Associated Press.

"Wow, that's amazing," the 22-year-old Parker said. "It's been a great year from so many standpoints. I haven't really had a chance to sit back and let it all sink in."

Her selection Tuesday ended a five-year run in which a golfer (Annika Sorenstam, then Lorena Ochoa) won the award - the longest streak of any sport. Parker's accomplishments weren't lost on Tennessee coach Pat Summitt.

"Talk about hitting all the high points of one's life. She enjoyed an incredible run of back-to-back national championships, Olympic gold and all of her individual accolades," the Hall of Famer said. "It was an exceptional year for an exceptional athlete and person."

Parker received 36 votes from members of The Associated Press, barely edging Ochoa, who had won the previous two years. Ochoa won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including her second major at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and led the money list for the third consecutive season.

Ochoa finished one vote shy of becoming only the fourth three-time winner of the award. Rounding out the top five were gymnast Nastia Liukin, swimmer Dara Torres, and gymnast Shawn Johnson.

Liukin took home the biggest prize in her ongoing rivalry with Johnson, edging her teammate and Olympic village roommate for the all-around title in Beijing. The gold medal had extra meaning for Liukin, coming 20 years after her father and coach, Valeri, finished a close second to his teammate at the Seoul Games. Liukin finished with five medals, one more than her father won in 1988.

The 41-year-old Torres won three silver medals at the Olympics. Johnson won four medals, saving the best for last. After getting silvers in the team competition, all-around and floor exercise, she finally won gold on balance beam, the last event.

Michael Phelps was a runaway selection for the AP's top male athlete, announced Monday. Besides Phelps, only Olympic sprinting sensation Usain Bolt and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning got more than a single vote. Phelps was named on 172 ballots, becoming just the third swimmer to claim the award.

Parker, the sister of Toronto Raptors guard Anthony Parker, is only the third basketball player to win the women's award, joining Sheryl Swoopes in 1993 and Rebecca Lobo in 1995. Parker averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in leading Los Angeles to the Western Conference semifinals before the Sparks lost in three games to the San Antonio Silver Stars.

"Losing has made me hungry to get better for next year," Parker said. "It's been on my mind since we lost to San Antonio."

She had a high of 40 points and grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 17 games. She led the league in double-doubles with 17, led the league in rebounding and led rookies in scoring, blocks (2.3) and minutes (33.6).

Losing is one thing that Parker didn't do often at Tennessee. Playing with a bruised and braced shoulder, she helped the Lady Vols win consecutive championships. She became the fourth player to win back-to-back Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four honours and left Tennessee with a year left of eligibility. She was clearly ready for the next level.

"Candace has invested so much time in her game and her skills. That's been the difference. Candace has separated herself by her competitive drive and her hard work," Summitt said. "She spends countless hours in the gym on her own. She knows her roles being the go-to player and a great teammate. How much more can one person accomplish in a year?"

Parker joined the short list of rookies to win the MVP in their first year in the major sports. Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld did it in the NBA, Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki in major league baseball, and Jim Brown in the NFL.

"I had no idea coming into the season that I would have the chance to be an MVP," said Parker, who became only the second player ever to dunk in the WNBA. "There are so many talented players in that league that I idolized growing up."

More than just a star on the court, Parker has become the face of the league. Her jersey was the WNBA's top seller and being a role model to so many young fans is important to the young star.

"It means a lot to me and is a huge responsibility," Parker said. "You want to continue to carry yourself in a positive way. I was lucky to have Pat Summitt as a coach and she taught us how to be role models."

Parker's already had a busy off-season, getting married to Sacramento Kings forward Shelden Williams. She also plans to head to Russia next month to play overseas.

No. 11 Tennessee upsets No. 3 Stanford 79-69 in OT

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Shekinna Stricklen was so sick with a stomach virus a few days ago that she couldn't play or eat.

"I'm a 100 percent now," she said after carrying the 11th-ranked Lady Vols through overtime in a 79-69 upset of No. 3 Stanford on Sunday night.

Stricklen, who sat out Tennessee's win at Old Dominion on Thursday, scored eight of her season-high 25 points in the extra period of the 2008 national championship game rematch.

"She had a big game," Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said. "I guess she was kind of sick for the last game. She made me sick in this game."

Stanford's Jeanette Pohlen knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 68 with 54 seconds left.

"I definitely felt set and I felt like my feet were under me and I wasn't off balance," Pohlen said.

Tennessee's Glory Johnson attempted a layup with 23 seconds left, but was charged with a foul. Lady Vol Alicia Manning blocked a shot by Melanie Murphy with 3 seconds left, but Stricklen couldn't get a shot off before time expired.

Stricklen entered the extra period hot, though, knocking down a long jumper and two 3s in succession to give the Lady Vols a 76-69 lead with 2:48 left.

Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said she thought her players grew from a loss at No. 5 Texas a week earlier.

"In the first half against Texas, we came back to tie the game then we had some players who hit the wall. A lot of that was because of youth," she said. "We're getting better at understanding how to compete."

Angie Bjorklund added 16 points for Tennessee (9-2), and Stricklen and Vicki Baugh had seven rebounds each.

Jayne Appel lead the Cardinal (8-3) with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Pohlen added 16 points, and Kayla Pedersen added 15.

Stanford led early as Tennessee's shooting was cold for the first two minutes, but the Lady Vols slowly built and held onto a lead with help from four first-half 3s, three from Bjorklund.

Tennessee had a scare when Johnson collided with Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Stricklen and hit the floor, grasping her leg. She struggled to get up even with the help of trainers, but a checkup revealed a right thigh contusion instead of a major injury.

"We might have just dodged a big bullet there," Summitt said.

The game was similar to last year's regular-season meeting between the teams, a 73-69 Stanford win that broke the Cardinal's 11-game skid to Tennessee. The Lady Vols later avenged that loss — one of only two losses last season — with a 64-48 win in the national championship game for their eighth title.

The win prevented the young Tennessee team from dropping three games against ranked opponents before the end of the year. The Lady Vols haven't done that since the 1996-97 season.

Stanford takes home two losses from a three-game road trip through the South this week, having also dropped a game at No. 8 Duke.

"We missed a lot of five-foot shots, and we missed a lot of free throws. You can't make those mistakes," VanDerveer said. "We paid for it."

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Bjorklund’s 3s lift Vols past Old Dominion, 81-76

NORFOLK, Va. — Angie Bjorklund matched her career high with 29 points and hit two huge 3-pointers Thursday night as No. 11 Tennessee got back to its winning ways by prevailing in a back-and-forth battle with longtime rival Old Dominion, 81-76.

Tennessee (8-2), coming off a 73-59 loss at Texas that knocked it out of the top 10 after a record 211 consecutive weeks there, won for the 13th straight time in the series between two of the schools that first brought women’s college basketball to prominence.

Old Dominion (5-3) got 17 points from Tiffany Green and 14 from Jasmine Parker, but couldn’t overcome a major size deficiency as the Lady Vols outrebounded them 56-58.

Tennessee scored 23 second-chance points, and Old Dominion had just 13.

Jessica Canady’s putback and Jazzmin Walters’ layup gave the Lady Monarchs a 67-65 lead with 4:56 left but, just as the crowd whipped itself into an upset-minded frenzy, Bjorklund’s fifth 3-pointer put the Lady Vols back in front. It was the first of her two daggers.

The second came with 1:51 to play, after Shadasia Green’s putback gave the Lady Monarchs the lead at 71-70, again igniting the crowd. This time, Bjorklund connected from deep on the left wing to restore Tennessee’s lead to 73-71. She added a 15-footer with 1:03 to play, pushing the Lady Vols’ lead to four, and Old Dominion couldn’t recover.

Alyssia Brewer added 15 points for Tennessee and Glory Johnson had 10. Vicki Baugh and Alex Fuller each grabbed 12 rebounds for the Lady Vols, who had 26 offensive boards.

Canady and Jen Nuzzo added 11 each for Old Dominion.

Tennessee led 50-45 with 14:12 to play before Tiffany Green scored inside on a feed from Nuzzo, and Parker’s fourth 3-pointer 36 seconds later pulled the Lady Monarchs even.

Neither team led by more than four the rest of the way.

The Lady Vols led 24-18 until Tiffany Green’s two free throws with 6:39 left in the half sparked a 14-4 run for Old Dominion capped by consecutive 3-pointers by Parker.

The burst gave the Lady Monarchs a 32-28 lead, but just as quickly, Tennessee responded with an 11-4 spurt to end the half, getting two 3-pointers from Bjorklund in the run.

Pat Summitt: Texas Loss Was Eye-Opener For Lady Vols

Pat Summitt Teleconference – December 17, 2008

Opening statement:
“I think the Texas loss was really an eye-opener for our entire basketball team. It was a tale of two halves. The first half we managed to close it out and tie the game. Then Texas did a much better job in the second half and we didn’t defend well in transition. I think the experience they had versus our youth showed and you have to give them all the credit for how they played in the second half. Looking at Old Dominion, this is going to be quite a challenge. Watching their team, size, quickness, they do a great job of putting pressure on you in transition and that was something we struggled with a bit at Texas. They have a senior point guard that is a great advantage, which is where I think we really have to identify the ball and match-up and be better overall in transition game and in our board play. I haven’t had a chance to see Stanford except for the game last night at Duke, which was a heartbreaker for them at the end. We know Stanford is always going to bring in a team that is going to play well in the high-low, they space really well, and they can shoot the ball from the three, as well as focus on going inside. Certainly, coming off of our championship win over them last year, I can’t imagine them not being motivated to the max and we, obviously lost our starting five, so it could be a challenge for this young team from the standpoint of taking on a team like Stanford, who is so talented and well-coached, with I’m sure some revenge on their mind. But, we’ll take them one at a time and hopefully get better. We’ve had some good practices. I think our team is much more focused now and I think they better understand what you have to do for 40 minutes. We’ve yet consistently perform for 40, so it’s a big challenge.”

How is this coaching experience different for you from the past few years?
“It’s made me really have to think about how I can be patient, patient, patient, because I am not a real patient person. I knew going into this year that it was going to be a different experience and that it would be a teaching experience. And as I’ve told our staff that every moment is a teaching moment. We must be very mindful of that as opposed to losing our patience as coaches. Of course that happens from time to time. It is important that we teach and re-teach, show film, challenge them to watch game tape as well, and invest in preparation. I think they are starting to get it. I think the loss at Texas hurt them. It hurts coaches all the time because it’s our livelihood, but sometimes players can walk away from it and not feel what the coaches feel. I think the loss at Texas really got the attention of our team. I think because of that, once they got over being very down because of the loss and how they played in the second half, they’ve responded in practice pretty well throughout our workouts.”

Is it similar to parenting younger children as opposed to teenagers?
“Yes, it could definitely be that. I think that I’ve already calling in individuals one-on-one and encouraging them to not get down and discouraged, and just focus on the things they can control every day. And that’s coming to practice every day and trying to understand being a student of the game, and investing. Investing in the system, your teammates and keeping things very, very positive.”

Reflect back on the championship game, and how much did UT feel disrespected going in and how much did that factor in:
“Our team gave our staff confidence and it started with our preparation on the floor and having that day to prepare, and then in pregame. They were so loose, and I just thought they’re either going to be awful or they’re going to be great. You never know. As a coach sometimes you think the worst, but I liked the fact that they were pretty loose. When we got to the arena, even before we went, I just felt like our defensive pressure, if we could sustain it, would give us a chance to be right in the game and have a chance to win. Stanford looked so strong and was so good. We knew that if we had a chance to win, we had to definitely make Candice Wiggins our priority. As we put together the game plan, Dean Lockwood was in charge of that scout and I thought he did a phenomenal job, but players have to make that commitment. I just thought defensively, they did everything we asked them to do. I felt very good going in to the game, but it’s never like ‘hey, we’re going to go in and win this game’. It’s always touch-and-go until you see how they play on the floor. I have so much respect for Tara and her team, but for us it was one of our better performances of the year.”

How much did experience factor in there?
“There’s no doubt that we had a lot of experience on our team and I thought that was a key for us. We graduated five seniors so that’s very telling when you have that experience on the court. Even when we went to the bench and played Vicki Baugh, playing with four seniors gave Vicki Baugh a lot of confidence. I think that there is no doubt that experience matters. It was a real key for us in that game. Now that we don’t have experience, it shows you how much it can affect a team.”

On the Old Dominion series and Thursday’s game:
“I think the series has been a great one. We always know when we go to Old Dominion that we are going to have a battle. Their preparation, what they bring on the court and their toughness; just watching them I know we have our hands full in the paint with Tiffany (Green) and Jazzmin (Walters), having a senior point guard being able to step up and dribble and create, not only for herself but for her team, and watching how hard they push the ball, this is typical to me. This team reflects how Old Dominion typically plays the game and they play with great passion. Wendy has done a tremendous job, year-in, year-out. No question it’s going to be a challenge for our young team. For us to hang 40 minutes of effort and intensity and execution because we’ve yet to prove we’re a 40 minute team, that’s going to be key, going to be real key. And our bench is going to be key because we’re playing a lot of people. I think that could be a positive for us if the players coming off the bench can step in and be very effective for us.”

On playing time and the lineup:
“We’ll probably tinker with this all year. We’re starting now Vicki Baugh and Glory Johnson inside and Briana Bass at the point. I think that’s really been a good move in terms of having a point guard that reminds me an awful lot of Shannon Bobbitt, certainly not the experience that Shannon brought to the program. Her quickness, her speed with the basketball is as good as we’ve had. I’m encouraged by that. Angie Bjorklund in the lineup gives us a couple veterans in there and I think Angie is gaining more and more confidence from early on, but she seems to be committing more to getting open and is getting better at creating shots. I think she’s a better player all around. Shekinna Stricklen will be on the other wing. She’s young, but she is certainly a very gifted player and can play multiple positions, and will probably have to because Cait McMahan right now, we’re giving her some time to rest. It will be up to Shekinna and Alicia Manning to help fill in behind Briana.

“Cait is having some knee issues. She has her fair share of swelling and pain to go along with it. So I said ‘that’s it. Let’s rest.’ We’re going to rest her as long as it takes. She will not play tomorrow night.”

You were the last team to beat Old Dominion at home. Would that be motivation for you if the shoe was on the other foot?
“I hate you mention that. I’m not real good with numbers, Debby can tell you that. I just move on and live in the moment. I’m sure that’ll be great motivation. And as coaches we always try to use anything that is going to inspire our team and have a reason for revenge. That’s just another incentive, as if they need any, because any time we play, those teams bring great competitive intensity.”

Coach Wendy Larry said playing teams like Tennessee is to see what it’s like to play like the best:
“You just look at the parity in our game now. It’s probably the best ever as far as the depth on a given night that can knock off the top-ranked teams. Obviously, we’re experienced in that with such a young team. I knew that there would be a lot of growing pains, but felt like going and playing Old Dominion on their home floor, that’s going to be a huge test. I don’t see us going into a lot of gyms as top dogs anymore. We’re going to be underdogs and we’re going to have to fight because of our youth. We struggled at UTC, but we were able to close that one out. We struggled at George Washington and managed to win that game. We lose to Virginia on our home court. We go to Texas and play 20 minutes of good basketball and then we struggle. I think that’s going to be something, that right now, I’m focusing on what we have to do, but I’ll tell you that Old Dominion as a team, if you’re not ready to play against that kind of pressure, it’s going to be a long night, because they do a great job of getting pressure on you both ways, offensively and with their defense.”

On matching up with Stanford and it looked like Stanford struggled with the Duke pressure:
“Well, that was an interesting game and I’m not going to comment on anything that happened in the end. I watched that game closely. Stanford is very skilled and spread you out. They’ve got size on the inside. Last year, when we lost at Stanford, their high-low game just wore us out. They got so many good looks in the paint. I think they couldn’t afford to lose a point guard. At this point, all of us, each and every day, we can’t lose players. I think that with Duke’s pressure really did bother them, but you’re talking about a Duke team that has some experience. We don’t have that kind of experience, but we certainly will press because we’re too young. You have to give it every game. I don’t think we’ve played a game in years that we haven’t pressed at some point in time.”

On the rivalry with Stanford:
“I think it’s been great for us. Obviously, Palo Alto is a place we love to go and get some decent shopping out there. At the same time, we know we’re going to play an opponent that most likely we can see in the postseason and it’s going to be a great challenge. I love playing out there; I don’t like losing out there, or anywhere. I think Tara does such a great job. It’s good for us to play against a team that has the skill and the discipline and the competitive edge to them that Stanford does. They’ve made us better. I doubt that Tara would think the series hasn’t made them better. Again, it’s a team that last year that lost to our team, but our team is different team now. But good sets of players don’t forget. I know they don’t just forget what happened and I’m sure they are coming here very fired up with a score to settle.”

On Glory Johnson playing the three:
“I think it’s something we’re going to wait and see. It all depends on how the game unfolds with Old Dominion and Stanford and where we think we need Kelley Cain and Vicki Baugh to play inside together. We know that Glory can get to the rim any place on the floor in a timely fashion and rebound for us. She just has to keep herself out of foul trouble and have more composure at both ends. She’s an incredible athlete, but at times, she is over-anxious, and just has to learn to have more composure and settle down.”

Dream Acquires Rights to Chamique Holdsclaw

The Atlanta Dream acquired the rights to forward Chamique Holdsclaw from the Los Angeles Sparks today in exchange for the 13th overall pick (first round) in the 2009 WNBA Draft. Holdsclaw, an eight-year veteran, is returning to the WNBA after a two year hiatus.

“We are very excited to bring one of the best players in Tennessee women’s basketball history to our roster,” said Team President & COO Bill Bolen. “The excitement this will bring to our fans is huge.”

Holdsclaw had a legendary career at the University of Tennessee where she was a four-time Kodak All-American. She finished her collegiate career with 3,025 points and 1,295 rebounds, making her the all-time leading scoring and rebounder in school history (men’s and women’s), the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in SEC women's history, and the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in the history of the NCAA Women’s Tournament. Holdsclaw won the Naismith player of the year trophy twice (1998 and 1999) and posted a 134-17 win/loss record during her remarkable career as a Lady Vol. In 2000, she was named Naismith's Player of the Century for the 1990s.

University of Tennessee Head Coach Pat Summit echoed the sentiments of Meadors. “I’m excited for her [Holdsclaw] and I’m excited for the Atlanta Dream,” she said. “Great players usually make everyone around them better and I see Chamique doing that for Atlanta right away. She will bring a different dimension to the court for her team. She is tremendously skilled, she knows how to win, and she is an exciting competitor.”

Tennessee’s record Top 10 streak ends at 211 weeks

Tennessee’s record run in the top 10 is over.

The Lady Vols’ streak of 211 straight weeks in the top 10 ended Monday when they were ranked 11th in The Associated Press Top 25 poll. Tennessee, which lost at then-No. 6 Texas 73-59 on Sunday, was last out of the first 10 on March 3, 1997. The run went 56 weeks longer than the men’s record of 155 set by UCLA.

Meanwhile, Connecticut remained an unanimous No. 1 choice for the third straight week.

North Carolina, which stayed No. 2 this week, now has the longest active streak in the Top 10 with 70 consecutive weeks. It would take them nearly eight years to match the Lady Vols’ run.

Stanford and Texas A&M remained third and fourth. The Cardinal will visit Duke on Tuesday night. Texas switched places with Oklahoma after its win over Tennessee. The Longhorns are 9-0 for the first since 1987-88. It’s the first time they’ve cracked the first five since Dec. 27, 2004. Texas will host No. 21 Arizona State on Thursday.

Baylor, Duke, Louisville, and Auburn each moved up three places to round out the first 10.

It’s only the second time Tennessee has been ranked so low since opening the season at No. 3 in 1986—an almost unbelievable run for the Lady Vols, who have won all eight of their national titles during the stretch.

The Lady Vols schedule doesn’t get easier. They visit Old Dominion on Thursday before hosting Stanford on Sunday.

California fell three places to 12th after blowing a 26-point halftime lead to Oklahoma on Saturday. Notre Dame dropped five spots to 13th following an overtime loss to Michigan.

Rutgers was 14th, followed by Maryland, Pittsburgh, Virginia and Ohio State. Vanderbilt moved up one spot to 19th. Florida climbed three places to No. 20.

Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, TCU and Georgia Tech rounded out the top 25. TCU fell five places after losing at Oklahoma State on Sunday. Georgia Tech entered the poll for the first time this season. The Yellow Jackets were in it for one week last season at No. 23 before falling out the next week.

Purdue was the lone team to fall out after losing to Valparaiso 71-60.

Raven’s 21 lead No. 6 Texas over Tennessee, 73-59

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas was already off to its best start in 20 years and shooting up the rankings under second-year coach Gail Goestenkors.

Still, there’s no measuring stick quite like the Tennessee Lady Vols, the defending national champs and winners of eight titles overall.

The No. 6 Longhorns measured up in every way Sunday, thumping No. 7 Tennessee 73-59 behind 21 points from Brittainey Raven and a dominant effort on defense and rebounding.

“We knew we could win,” said Kat Nash, who scored 12 points and hit a big 3-pointer in a 10-1 Texas run in the second half. “We knew if we played our hardest, we would win.”

Texas is 9-0 for the first time since the 1987-88 season.

“We are growing,” Goestenkors said. “We are going to be a national power and a team to always be reckoned with.”

Tennessee (7-2) lost five key players, including national player of the year Candace Parker, from last year’s national title team that pounded Texas 92-67 last season. The loss left Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt 10 wins shy of career No. 1,000.

“Night and day,” Summitt said in comparing this Texas team to last season.

A quick look at the stat sheet showed just how far the Longhorns have come.

Texas held Tennessee to 33 percent shooting, forced 18 turnovers and dominated the rebounding 52-41, including 19 offensive boards that led to 17 second-chance points.

“We missed so many, easy, easy shots in the paint,” Summitt said. “You’ve got to give Texas an awful lot of credit. They were tough.”

The young Lady Vols hurt themselves with fouls and 11 of 24 free throw shooting. Freshman Glory Johnson, Tennessee’s leading scorer this season, played less than three minutes of the first half because of foul trouble and was 7-of-14 from the line with several key misses in the second.

Johnson picked up two fouls in the first two minutes and went to the bench for the next 13. She was back in the game only 44 seconds before she picked up her third and went right back to her seat.

“I just had to play smarter,” Johnson said. “I just wasn’t as physical, wasn’t as aggressive.”

Texas started fast, hitting four of its first five shots, then went cold, going 5-of-26 for the rest of the half. The Lady Vols, even with Johnson spending most of the half on the bench and Angie Bjorkland picking up three fouls in the half, rallied from eight points down to make it 31-31 at halftime.

Johnson gave Tennessee it’s only lead the first time she touched the ball in the second and had eight of the Lady Vols’ first 10 points of the half. The game was tied 41-all when Texas cobbled together the big run that changed the game.

Raven started it with a baseline layup off a nifty no-look pass from Carla Cortijo before Raven and Nash hit consecutive 3-pointers to put Texas up 51-42.

“That’s what we’re known for, driving in and kicking it out to our shooters,” Raven said. “Once we got that going in the second half, we hit those threes,”

Another 3-pointer by Nash made it 57-46. Tennessee got back within six before Johnson and Vicki Baugh missed four straight free throws that could have pulled the Lady Vols back into the game.

After the misses, Texas steadily built its lead to put the game away. Raven made a pair of free throws and Cortijo drove for a layup to push the lead back to 11.

Cortijo, who played only six minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, finished with 11 points and five assists and Ashley Lindsey had 11 points, eight rebounds and six blocks.

“This was a big win for us,” Raven said. “We’ve been waiting for a big game like this.”

Basketball power couple: Candace Parker, Williams are newlyweds

The Sacramento Bee said that former University of Tennessee basketball star Candace Parker and NBA player Shelden Williams, her fiance', eloped Nov. 13 at Lake Tahoe.

'We just decided that with both of our schedules, it would be better to elope,' Williams told the newspaper.

Parker, who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks, was named MVP and Rookie of the Year in September by the WNBA.

The newlyweds live in Sacramento with their three dogs.

No. 7 Tennessee beats Middle Tennessee 81-52

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —Tennessee coach Pat Summitt drilled her seventh-ranked Lady Volunteers this week in shooting, and it showed.

The young Tennessee squad had its best shooting game of the season, including a career-high 20 points by freshman Shekinna Stricklen, in an 81-52 victory over Middle Tennessee on Thursday night.

“We devoted one whole practice this week just to shooting. We were able to get in a lot of reps,” Summitt said. “We’ve been doing so much teaching that I think we’ve suffered a little bit time-wise not getting reps.”

The result was a season-high 52-percent effort from the field and 77-percent shooting at the line by the Lady Vols (7-1). Angie Bjorklund added 16 points for the Lady Vols, and Glory Johnson had 11.

The improvement came as Summitt fielded her youngest starting lineup in history with freshmen Stricklen, Johnson and Briana Bass and sophomores Vicki Baugh and Bjorklund.

“I think we as a team, we’re about to shock the world,” said the 5-foot-2 Bass, whose play energized both her team and the fans. “Even though we’re young, we’re about to bring some heat, so they better get ready for us.”

Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Tennessee return to the Final Four, even after losing all five starters from last year’s national championship team.

“They’re one of the youngest teams in the country, but I thought tonight they played a lot better than I’d seen them on film,” he said.

Despite the Lady Vols’ improved shooting, Insell’s Blue Raiders (5-4) never let them get too comfortable, especially thanks to Alysha Clark’s 28 points. Brandi Brown added 11.

“We knew (Clark) was going to be tough to defend,” Summitt said. “She’s a tough-minded player. She’s tough with the ball. She’s a player that keeps them in the game.”

Tennessee missed its first four shots—grabbing the offensive rebound each time—before Baugh hit a jumper. The Lady Vols jumped out to a 20-6 lead on a jumper by Johnson with 11:58 in the first half.

Middle Tennessee starting making shots as Tennessee began missing, hitting 13 straight to cut the Lady Vols’ lead to 20-19 with a jumper by Clark with 6:21 to go in the first half.

Tennessee responded with a 12-1 run.

Alyssia Brewer grabbed two steals in the last minute before the half, using one to set up Stricklen and driving the other to the hoop. Stricklen hit a 27-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer, giving Tennessee a 41-23 lead, the largest of the half.

The Blue Raiders threatened again after the half, going on a 17-2 run. Chelsia Lymon’s layup in the paint cut Tennessee’s lead to 55-44 with 8:56 left, but it was as close as Middle Tennessee got.

Lymon fouled out with 7:43 left in the game, leaving the Blue Raiders with sophomore Anne Marie Lanning and freshman Tina Stewart to play at the point.

“We’ve just got to have other players step up,” Clark said. “We can’t have inexperience there. They’re going to have to grow up quick.”

Pat Summitt On The DePaul Game And Facing Middle Tennessee

Lady Vol Coach Pat Summitt teleconference

Opening statement:
'I think our DePaul game was a good challenge for us and we responded very well. Overall, I am pleased with the exception of not closing out the first half. I thought we brought a lot of energy. We probably had better spacing in that game than we had prior to that. That was good because I really felt like DePaul was coming in playing very, very well; I was pleased there. Last night was a different kind of challenge for us. George Washington, certainly, brought a lot of energy and played us tough. The physicality in that game was a challenge at times. I thought it really affected the inside game defensively, took us out of what we wanted to do. We didn't do a good job of running to the rim. We got pushed off the block. I thought our post people were over anxious, but at the same we found a way to win. I thought our defense really had to have it. We did some good things, particularly the margin we had on the boards. Not that we were missing shots, but getting 25 offensive rebounds was a big help for us. We have a long way to go to get where we need to be as a team. Some of our freshmen didn't seem to be ready for the intensity and the pace of that game, so we definitely shortened our bench. Now we're on break for exams; we're off today, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we'll probably practice three of those four days. I'll probably give them another day off to prepare for exams. It's a good time for them to re-focus, not only for basketball, but for exams coming up and what they have to do to heading into exam week.'


'Middle Tennessee beat LSU so that speaks to what they are capable of doing as a team. We have to be ready. It's like when we played at UT-Chattanooga and you playing teams in your state, it's always a hard-fought, intense game. Preparation will be key. In particular, you know you're trying to play as we've been trying to play a number of players, I'm not sure that our bench is going to be as deep as I've anticipated, so we have to get ready for a tough Middle Tennessee team. Going on the road at Texas and at Old Dominion, having those games, will be a tremendous test for us. Probably, without question, in terms of road games, that should be the two toughest to date. I think we have a lot of work to do between now and then.'


On the team's shooting:
'Watching the tape, and watching the game tape and the breakdown tape and just focused on our inside game, that's probably my biggest disappointment. The lack of composure against the size and it was physical game in the paint. I really felt like Vicki and Glory both, as well as Kelley, just really rushed. A lot had to do, I'm sure, with the physicality of the post game and what they were doing a lot of times. They dribbled two, three, four times to try and make something happen as opposed to catch and read. We talked about it on the plane and I'm sure Dean will be right on top of that. We ran to the block, we didn't run to the rim, we were so inconsistent in establishing the paint points that we typically have been much better at. Again, we talked about it as a staff, we've got to be more mindful. When that happens, our eyes have got to be on it, see it and correct it right away. I thought that was costly for us. And I think that's why our posts shot so poorly because they were having to dribble too much to create scoring opportunities and we got in to rushing and forcing. That obviously hurt us. I was a little disappointed with our perimeter game. Angie was two for six, but hit a great three for us. Cait didn't score'we need a little bit more scoring out of our point guard, particularly if they're going to be left open, and she got some good looks. We just didn't shoot the ball well. Does that happen on the road' Yes. More so than at home, but at the same time, I thought we had a lot to do with it. They played tough defense on us and we were impatient offensively and didn't screen, didn't assist, didn't work well together.

On being over-anxious:
'First and foremost, they didn't run to the rim. They got pushed off the block early. That's where I take responsibility for that. I just did not feel in watching the game we ever really got the kind of post-up opportunities and I think that we settled for just going on the block and trying to score from there as opposed to just beating people down the floor. That's where Glory and Vicki have been so good and we have to re-visit that every day in practice as we want to run rim to rim. We didn't do that consistently.'

Free throw and outside shooting has improved, is this reason to believe this is a way this team will evolve:
'I think it's obviously going to take time and its going to take on the part of the people that I got frustrated last night with'lack of help that I felt like we got from Brewer, Manning'I didn't give Manning a chance, so I told her last night 'I got really focused after Brewer and Gray' and decided early on to shorten the bench. I don't regret that because I thought we had to have some people that had been producing and that's why I wanted to go with Baugh, Johnson and Cain. Stricklen, once she got re-focused, I thought she stepped up and was key for us. If you look at point guard play, we didn't get a lot of scoring there. That kind of put even more pressure on our post game.

On point guard play:
'I think looking to be more aggressive and looking for their shots. Like I said Cait didn't shoot well and Briana only took two shots. I didn't mind the fact that we went inside, but I do think we have to establish some balance on the perimeter. We've got to have inside-outside. There are a lot of people, just like last night, they're just going after our post game.

On post play:
'They were sagging off and felt like our perimeter game could've really helped us just by knocking down a couple shots. That's where Angie's got to get in a better rhythm and probably should've played Syd more just looking at the tape. She's really starting to play with confidence and not forcing things and knocking down some shots for us. We're still learning as we go and sometimes it's wait and see, and its wait and see during the game who is going to be driven. I thought at the end Angie stepped up and made big three for us and Stricklen came back in and definitely had an impact. It's there it's just a lack of consistency.'

If last night was good preparation for future road games:
'Certainly it was a good challenge for us and we know we have those road games that are going to be a huge test for our basketball team. Being in that environment was probably a good thing for us in terms of preparation and hopefully it did things for the players that didn't come ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work right away. Hopefully it will have a positive impact when we get ready to play again on the road.'

On finding a way to win:
'In both of those (road) games we found a way to close it out. The little bit of difference in last night's game is being able to answer everything they came at us with. In the end, being able to close out the game we did. At Chattanooga, we're down and fighting to get back. Last night we're fighting to hold on to the lead. I think both were valuable learning experiences for our basketball team and that's good. At the same time, because of the lack of performance in certain areas, I think, we won, but it still gives us an opportunity to teach because they know we did not play the way we wanted to play. Granted, George Washington had something to do with it. They were physical, aggressive and tough-minded. They played inside and outside. It was a good challenge for us, but also good preparation for the future.'

On zone play:
'I thought there was an important change'I was a little hesitant to go to it. I felt like they were in such a rhythm going against our man, trying to break us down off the dribble. I thought we did a really nice job in particular defending Booker. I thought we extended pretty well.'

On the team's communication:
'I think there was a sense of urgency in our zone, when we went to it, and that hasn't always been the case. Because we play so much man-to-man, there are times we've been in zone and it seems like a resting defense. It wasn't last night, I thought it was a very active defense for us last night. It did make a difference and it was a good change at that time.'

Lady Vols Hold Off George Washington, 71-59

The Tennessee Lady Vols scored seven unanswered points in the final 1:24 of play and passed their second road test of the season with a 71-59 triumph over George Washington University Tuesday night in the nation's capital.

Seventh-ranked UT (6-1) was leading 64-59 with 84 seconds remaining, but Angie Bjorklund, playing in just her second game this season after being afflicted with back spasms, and Alex Fuller each sank three-pointers to end GWU's hopes of getting their first win over the Lady Vols in 10 meetings.

Glory Johnson, who was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on Monday for the second time this young season, had a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds along with four steals.

Fuller, the lone Lady Vol senior, added 13 points while freshman Shekinna Stricklen scored 12 to go with her five steals.

Bjorklund added eight points and Vicki Baugh had 10 rebounds.

Three GWU players finished in double figures led by Tara Booker's 14 points followed by Jazmine Adair with 12 and Tiana Myers' 10.

The Lady Vols will host Middle Tennessee Thursday night in Knoxville at 7 p.m. in an intrastate showdown that will be televised on FSN South.

Lady Vols handle DePaul 88-67

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Glory Johnson tied a career high with 19 points and No. 9 Tennessee rolled to an 88-67 victory against DePaul on Sunday.

The Lady Vols (5-1) also got 16 points from freshman Shekinna Stricklen and 12 from freshman Kelley Cain as coach Pat Summitt notched career victory No. 988.

DePaul (5-2) put four players in double figures, but shot 37.3 percent from the field. Sam Quigley led the Blue Demons with 15 points and Deirdre Naughton added 14.

It was the third time this season Johnson, a freshman from Knoxville, has hit the 19-point mark. She added seven rebounds.

Tennessee made an early statement with a 13-0 run to begin the game, but DePaul managed a 10-0 run and trailed 44-34 at the half.

Tennessee improved to 18-0 in its series against DePaul.