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
That's a slap in your face. It's a slap in our program's face ... and I don't understand it.
The ladies had great energy today. The communication was key, and I could definitely see an improvement in their physical condition. They had an incredible off-season in the weight room.
At Duke, they played great and we played bad. At times, North Carolina overwhelmed us with their speed and quickness.
They are one impressive basketball team. If they play like they did tonight, it'll be hard for this team to lose.
They are very familiar with our program and our philosophy, ... but when you have been in the game as long as I have and been on television as much as we have, I think everyone knows pretty much every move we make.
You could put our entire basketball team and our entire coaching staff in one room, and she has more poise and more composure than any of us. It shows up on the court. I could be about to lose my mind and she's just calm.
You can't win games in the first half but you certainly can lose them. We just dug ourselves too deep a hole in that first half. In the second half we played them even but in that first half we were not comfortable.
You can't win a basketball game in the first half, but you can lose one. We just dug ourselves too big a hole.
The friendship goes beyond basketball. When she lost her husband, and I lost my father, it was like I knew I'd be there for her and she'd be there for me.
(The loss to Florida) hopefully will make us refocus on our defense. We have been a poor defensive team all year. That is our biggest concern -- defense and turnovers.
I think their bench is probably a little more productive at this point in time than ours has been. We've been very inconsistent there. That's where we have to be better in terms of matching their depth in being able to put up numbers off the bench.
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.
I think they took ownership of what did or did not happen. Obviously there was a glaring lack of leadership during the game, which was I thought a real factor in how we responded and our lack of being able to pull together during some adversity. I think we'll learn volumes from this loss. Now we understand how much better we have to be at that level.
It's awesome to see where she is now. Even for me as a coach, it's hard to believe how much better she is coming off screens, creating her own shot and scoring in transition.