Pat Summitt
Pat Summitt
Patricia Sue "Pat" Summittwas an American college basketball head coach whose 1,098 career wins are the most in NCAA basketball history. She served as the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012, before retiring at age 59 because of a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. She won eight NCAA championships, a number surpassed only by the 10 titles won by UCLA men's coach John Wooden and the 11 titles won by UConn...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth14 June 1952
CityClarksville, TN
CountryUnited States of America
I don't think I've mentioned it to the players one time,
Obviously Candace wanted the ball in her hands. She's a player that can see over people as well as go around people.
What she did is unacceptable in our program. I've never approved of players talking smack or taunting. You let your game do the talking. If you want to get excited, you get excited for the team.
We have a chance to learn volumes from this. I've said before, this is a talented, but young, team. Hopefully we can learn from this. It's a long season, and I have to believe these players will respond.
There are some coaches who believe you just let the best players get all the points they can and stop everybody else. Others limit the best player and make other people beat you. For us, we want to guard everybody. But we really want to make sure that we make it hard or at least difficult for that player to continually make the plays.
We know it's going to be a pretty hostile environment, but our team has been exposed to that. All the players that have played here understand that we go on the road.
As a great long-range shooter, she has drawn the best defender, usually the most athletic, sometimes players with a lot of size. In essence, with her ability to shoot the ball the way she can, she has become a target for every team we play.
I think with the players who have been here, regardless of whether they've been in that No. 1 position, that's what we're always trying to be -- the best team.
I think they understand there is a lot of tradition here, and there's a lot of players that are upset. I've had phone calls. That just speaks volumes to what they've invested in this program. Still, they are like family. When we lose, they lose.
Candace commented that she had a lot of shots that seemed to go halfway down and come back out. We had to grind it out, and I wasn't particularly happy with that, but was proud at the end. Our ball movement and player movement was stagnant at times.
There is not that many players that really can take over games, signed Candace Parker, I really felt like at that time that a National Championship was certainly in reach.
I really felt like we had to have a go to player.
Bringing together disparate personalities to form a team is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have to ask yourself: what is the whole picture here? We want to make sure our players all fit together properly and complement each other, so that we don't have a big piece, a little piece, an oblong piece, and a round piece. If personalities work against each other, as a team you'll find yourselves spinning your wheels.
She taught me that it's ok to let down your guard and allow your players to get to know you. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.