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 didn't feel calm out there. When I looked at the schedule, I thought 'What have I done?
I'm really proud of what this team has accomplished this year. They have faced tremendous adversity and come through it. They have great character and have been a great group to coach.
I just want her to play the game under control. And for her, it's much different from any player I've ever coached in that she can be flat-footed and go up and dunk. So it's not like things have to be perfect in her basketball world for her to dunk. If she goes up inside and dunks it, more power to her.
I want to keep coaching as long as I can. I love teaching and working with student athletes and I love being at the University of Tennessee.
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.
Actually, when I saw it in USA Today, I just, Candace Parker was, we were warming up in practice and she was underneath the basket shooting and I just said, 'Hey Candace! I enjoyed what I read in the paper today about your decision [to stay].' She just started laughing and I did too. So I haven't discussed it with her.
I think helped our players in terms of being able to fight through some adversity along the way.
I never ask Candace Parker if she was thinking about leaving because I never had any reason to believe she would. I just kept the focus on the team and on Candace and the role she played for us.
I haven't ever really had a goal to break that record or catch John Wooden.
I really felt like we had to have a go to player.
I think sometimes for me that sounds like almost being selfish. I am not about personal records.
I am about helping each and every student athlete that selects to wear the orange, you know, be successful at Tennessee individually and as a team. That type of record is certainly not anything that I have aspirations to reach.
I just think they were just a team that really enjoyed the process and allowed our coaching staff to enjoy the process.
I think that it was a great feeling and probably a little bit more special because of the length of time that had passed before we won, but I think more importantly, it was just a great feeling because this team had such strong leadership and they had great chemistry.