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Her Life

Pat Summitt Left a Great Legacy and a Lot of Great Lessons

October 19, 2019
By Nellah Bailey McGough / Southern Living
University of Tennessee iconic Women’s Basketball Coach, Pat Summitt. Over her 38 year career at UT, Coach Summitt led the Lady Vols to 8 National Championships, 18 NCAA Final Fours, and 32 SEC Championships while having a 100% student-athlete graduation rate. At the time of her retirement in 2012, Pat Summitt was the winningest NCAA Basketball Coach in history among men and women (she still holds the title for Women today). These accomplishments led to the creation of a leadership model called “The Definite Dozen” which highlights what she feels are the twelve values one must have for success. She said, “The Definite Dozen is ultimately about paying attention to basics, those things that enable you to achieve a larger, more profound goal.”
“Left foot, right foot, breathe” is my favorite quote from the University of Tennessee iconic Women’s Basketball Coach, Pat Summitt. Over her 38 year career at UT, Coach Summitt led the Lady Vols to 8 National Championships, 18 NCAA Final Fours, and 32 SEC Championships while having a 100% student-athlete graduation rate. At the time of her retirement in 2012, Pat Summitt was the winningest NCAA Basketball Coach in history among men and women (she still holds the title for Women today). These accomplishments led to the creation of a leadership model called “The Definite Dozen” which highlights what she feels are the twelve values one must have for success. She said, “The Definite Dozen is ultimately about paying attention to basics, those things that enable you to achieve a larger, more profound goal.
  1. Respect yourself and others
  2. Take full responsibility
  3. Develop and demonstrate loyalty
  4. Learn to be a great communicator
  5. Discipline yourself so no one else has to
  6. Make hard work your passion
  7. Don’t just work hard, work smart
  8. Put the team before yourself
  9. Make winning an attitude
  10. Be a competitor
  11. Change is a must
  12. Handle success like you handle failure

Early Life and family

July 12, 2016

Summitt was born Patricia Sue Head on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee, the daughter of Richard and Hazel Albright Head. In her early years, she was known as Trish.

She had four siblings: older brothers Tommy, Charles and Kenneth, and a younger sister, Linda. She married Ross Barnes Summitt II in 1980 from whom she filed for divorce in 2007. They have one son, Ross Tyler Summitt, born in 1990.

When Summitt was in high school, her family moved to nearby Henrietta, so she could play basketball in Cheatham County because Clarksville did not have a girls team. From there, Summitt went to University of Tennessee at Martin where she was a member of Chi Omega Sorority and won All-American honors, playing for UT–Martin's first women's basketball coach, Nadine Gearin. In 1970, with the passage of Title IX still two years away, there were no athletic scholarships for women. Each of Summitt's brothers had gotten an athletic scholarship, but her parents had to pay her way to college.

She co-captained the United States women's national basketball team as a player at the inaugural women's tournament in the 1976 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal. Eight years later in 1984, she coached the U.S. women's team to an Olympic gold medal, becoming the first U.S. Olympian to win a basketball medal and coach a medal-winning team.

 

Coaching career

July 12, 2016

1970s

Just before the 1974–75 season, with women's college basketball still in its infancy and not yet an NCAA-sanctioned sport, 22-year-old Summitt became a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee, and was named head coach of the Lady Vols after the previous coach suddenly quit. Summitt earned $250 monthly and washed the players' uniforms – uniforms purchased the previous year with proceeds from a donut sale. Summitt recalled that era of women's basketball during a February 2009 interview with Time. "I had to drive the van when I first started coaching," Summitt said. "One time, for a road game, we actually slept in the other team's gym the night before. We had mats, we had our little sleeping bags. When I was a player at the University of Tennessee–Martin, we played at Tennessee Tech for three straight games, and we didn't wash our uniforms. We only had one set. We played because we loved the game. We didn't think anything about it."

During Summitt's first year as head coach, four of her players were only a year younger than she was and all were from Tennessee high schools, which until 1980 employed a six-person game where offensive and defensive players never crossed mid-court. She coached her first game for Tennessee on December 7, 1974 against Mercer University in Macon, Georgia; the Lady Vols lost 84–83. Her first win came almost a month later when the Lady Vols defeated Middle Tennessee State, 69–32 on January 10, 1975. The Lady Vols won the Tennessee College Women's Sports Federation (TCWSF) Eastern District Championship for the third straight year. However, the team finished 4th overall in the TCWSF (they had been second the previous two years), and were not invited to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament.

In her second season, Summitt coached the Lady Vols to a 16–11 record while earning her 1976 master's degree in physical education and training as the co-captain of the 1976 U.S. Women's Olympic basketball team that won a silver medal in Montreal. Starting with the 1976–77 season, Summitt directed two 20-win teams, winning back-to-back AIAW Region II championships. The Lady Vols defeated 3-time AIAW champion Delta State by 20 points in 1978, and earned Tennessee its first number one ranking. 1978 saw the Lady Vols participate in their first AIAW Final Four, where they finished third. Summitt also recorded her 100th win during this season, a 79–66 victory over NC State. Tennessee closed the 1970s by winning the first-ever SEC tournament, and returning to the AIAW Final Four, where they finished runner-up to Old Dominion, 68–53.

1980s

During the 1980–81 season, the Lady Vols went 25–6, and avenged their championship game loss to Old Dominion by defeating them three times. The team made it to the AIAW Final Four for the third straight year; finished runner-up for the second consecutive year, losing to Louisiana Tech, 79–59.

The 1981–82 season featured the first ever NCAA Women's basketball tournament. The Lady Vols were one of 32 teams invited and named a 2 seed in their region. In the region championship, the Lady Vols upset top-seeded USC 91–90 in overtime to advance to the Final Four. They lost their Final Four match-up with Louisiana Tech, which went on to win the tournament.

The next season, the Lady Vols won the regular season SEC title but fell in the SEC tournament to Georgia. Tennessee was invited to the now-36 team NCAA tournament and awarded its first-ever 1 seed. Tennessee made it to the regional championship, but fell to Georgia again, 67–63. Summitt won her 200th game on December 3, a 69–56 victory over St. John's during the Coca-Cola Classic in Detroit.

The 1983–84 season saw Tennessee start out 6–4. However, Summitt rallied her team and finished 22–10, for her eighth straight 20-win season, a streak that still continues. Tennessee not only made it to the NCAA Final Four for the second time in the first three tournaments, but also made it to the title game. However, Tennessee lost by 11 to USC, which also had won the title the previous year. Pat Summitt earned Coach of the Year honors. This season was followed up by another 20-win year in which Tennessee earned both the regular season SEC title (despite only going 4–4) and the tournament title. However, the Lady Vols fell in the NCAA Tournament to Ole Miss during the round of 16. The next season was a similar story – the Lady Vols had a good regular season, played a great tournament (reaching the Final Four for the second time in three years), but fell before winning the title.

In 1986–87, Tennessee broke through and defeated perennial power Louisiana Tech 67–44 to win the Lady Vols first national title. Tennessee's Tonya Edwards was named the Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four. During the regular season, Summitt also earned her 300th win, an 87–66 victory over North Carolina. The next year in 1987–88, the Lady Vols were positioned to repeat as Tennessee made it to the Final Four yet again. However,Louisiana Tech avenged the previous year's championship game loss with a 9-point victory and went on to win the title.

In 1988–89, the Lady Vols reached the Final Four for the fourth straight year. After eliminating Maryland by 12 points, Tennessee faced SEC rival Auburn for the national title. Auburn had lost by two points to Louisiana Tech in the NCAA title game the previous year and had suffered its only loss in the SEC Championship game by 15 points to Tennessee. The championship game was similar as Tennessee took home its second title in three years with a 76–60 victory. It was Tennessee's best season yet; the Lady Vols won 35 games while losing only a two regular season contests to Auburn and Texas. The Lady Vols won every NCAA tournament game by at least 12 points.

In 1989–90, the Lady Vols started off the season well, winning the SEC title. However, the team fell by 1 point to Auburn in the SEC Championship Game and lost in overtime to Virginia in the regional finals, one game shy of making a trip to the Final Four, which that year was held in Knoxville. Summitt accomplished another milestone that season with her 400th win, a 70–69 victory over South Carolina on January 25.

1990s

Tennessee failed to win the SEC regular season or the tournament championship in 1990–91, but after a close win in the NCAA regional semifinals against Western Kentucky, the Lady Vols eliminated Auburn for the second time in three years. In the national semifinals, the Lady Vols beat Stanford, 68–60, to earn the chance to avenge the previous year's tournament loss against Virginia. Just as the previous year's game had gone into overtime, so did this one. Tennessee escaped with a 70–67 win and its third national title in five years. The next season in 1991–92, the Lady Vols did not make it to the regional championship, falling 75–70 to the same Western Kentucky team they had beaten in that round the previous year. In 1992–93, Tennessee defeated the defending champions Stanford twice and swept the SEC season for the first time. However, the Lady Vols were unable to win the SEC tournament title and fell 72–56 in the NCAA tournament to Iowa in the regional finals.

Early in the 1993–94 season, Summitt grabbed her 500th win, an 80–45 win over Ohio State on November 21. Tennessee went on to win the regular season and tournament SEC titles before falling 71–68 to Louisiana Tech in the regional semifinals. The next season marked Tennessee's return to the Final Four. Tennessee went undefeated in the SEC regular season for the third straight year, but failed to win the tournament title. The top-seeded Lady Vols breezed their way to atj fifth national title game, with no other tournament game being closer than 21 points. However, in the national championship game, the Lady Vols fell 70–64 to the undefeated UConn Huskies, coached by her rival, Geno Auriemma, in the first of eleven championships for UConn. During the off-season, Pat Summitt recruited high school stand-out Chamique Holdsclaw.

In 1995–96, with freshman Holdsclaw and senior Michelle Marciniak, the Lady Vols won the SEC tournament and made a second straight Final Four trip. In the semifinals, the Lady Vols avenged the previous year's tournament loss to UConn by ousting Auriemma and the Huskies with a hard-fought 5-point win in overtime. The championship game was not that close as Tennessee easily won its fourth title with an 83–65 win over Georgia.

The 1996–97 Lady Vols posted one of the worst records ever for a Summitt-coached team. In addition to losses to powerhouses such as Louisiana Tech (twice), Stanford, Old Dominion, and Connecticut, Tennessee fell to teams such as Florida, against whom they had been previously undefeated. After the tenth loss of the season, in the SEC semifinals to Auburn, the team pulled together in time for the NCAA Tournament. After avenging a regular-season loss to undefeated Connecticut, Tennessee continued on its way to the championship game, where it avenged another loss, defeating Old Dominion by 9 for a second straight national title. Summitt also earned her 600th win during the season, a 15- point victory over Marquette on November 23, 1996.

Main article: 1997–98 Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team

In many aspects, the 1997–98 team was Summitt's best. With the top-ranked recruiting class as well as Chamique Holdsclaw, the Lady Vols ran the table to a 39–0 season while playing one of the top-ranked schedules in the country. Only three teams came within 10 points of beating the team, and the Lady Vols won a 93–75 victory over Louisiana Tech for their third straight national championship.

Holdsclaw (who by then had won national championships every season she was with the Vols) had predicted the 1998–99 team would be the greatest ever. However, Tennessee didn't claim another national title or make it to the Final Four. Injuries to several players decimated the team and the Lady Vols ultimately fell to Duke in the regional finals. A landmark was set during this season however, as Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings, and Semeka Randall became the first trio from one team to be named Kodak All-Americans.

The Lady Vols ended the decade with a third straight 30-win season, third straight SEC title, and third straight SEC Tournament title. Additionally, they defeated UConn in the regular season, 72–71, in UConn's only loss of the year. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee breezed its way to the title game, winning all five games by at least 10 points. In the championship game the Lady Vols were beaten soundly by UConn, 71–52. This marked the fourth time in six years that either Tennessee or UConn had eliminated the other from the tournament. UConn's two wins in that period came in championship games, adding more intensity to the Summit-Auriemma rivalry. During the season, Summitt earned her 700th win, 85–62 at Wisconsin.

At the 2000 ESPY awards, the Lady Vols basketball team was named co-team of the decade, along with the Florida State Seminoles football team. Additionally, Pat Summitt was named the Naismith Coach of the Century and Chamique Holdsclaw earned recognition as Naismith Women's Collegiate Player of the Century.

2000s

In the 2000–01 season, the Lady Vols claimed another SEC title, winning all 14 SEC games. Additionally, they split the season series with the UConn Huskies and headed into the SEC tournament with a 28–1 record. However, the Lady Vols were upset by Vanderbilt in the semifinals and then lost in the Sweet Sixteen to Xavier, their worst finish since 1993–94. During the regular season, Summitt earned her 750th win in the second game against UConn, a 92–88 victory. The team also finished with its fourth straight 30-win season.

In the 2001–02 season, The Lady Vols won their fifth straight SEC championship, but fell again in the conference tournament, this time to LSU. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee reached the Final Four again, with a 5-point win over Vanderbilt University. This trip to the Final Four marked Summitt's 13th appearance, which broke Coach John Wooden's record of 12, and earned her 788th win, which tied Summitt with Jody Conradt for the winningest coach in women's basketball history. However, the Lady Vols fell in the national semifinals to Connecticut, which wound up winning the championship and capping an undefeated season. This loss ended the season at 29–5, one win shy of extending Summitt's streak of 30-win seasons. Summitt did achieve more milestones during the season; a 106–66 win over USC marked Summitt's 200th win at home, a victory against Louisiana Tech was her 300th win against a ranked opponent and her 93–65 win over Arkansas was her 1,000th game as a coach, including international contests.

During the 2002–03 season, the Lady Vols compiled their 6th perfect SEC season and beat powerhouses Duke and Louisiana Tech, among others, during the regular season, but lost to Texas and UConn. In the NCAA tournament, the Lady Vols made it to the title game only to lose to the Huskies again 73–68. During the season, Summitt earned her 800th win, 76–57 over DePaul and was the fastest coach to reach this milestone.

The 2003–04 season was similar to the previous year. The Lady Vols defeated most of their regular season opponents, including Duke and Louisiana Tech, but dropped games to UConn and Texas. The Lady Vols again went 14–0 in the regular season against SEC competition, but again fell in the conference tournament. Tennessee won five games in the NCAA tournament only to lose 70–61 to Connecticut in the championship game for the second year in a row and third time in five years.

In 2004–05, Tennessee broke its losing streak against Connecticut with a narrow 68–67 regular season victory. Candace Parker, a highly regarded and nationally known high school player joined the Lady Vols. However, because of injuries, she was redshirted and didn't play that sesson. Tennessee suffered losses during the regular season to Duke, Rutgers, and LSU, while beating Stanford and Louisiana Tech. LSU's win over Tennessee gave the Tigers the SEC title, breaking Tennessee's streak of seven straight regular season conference championships. However, Tennessee won its first tournament title in four years by avenging its earlier loss to LSU loss with a 67–65 win in the SEC Championship game. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee advanced to its fourth Final Four in a row by defeating a Rutgers team that had beaten them earlier in the year. In the Final Four, the Lady Vols blew a 16-point lead to fall 68–64 to underdog Michigan State. In the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Vols defeated Purdue. This victory gave Pat Summitt her 880th win, breaking North Carolina coach Dean Smith's record of 879 wins, and making her the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history.

By 2005–06, Candace Parker had recovered from her injuries and became a starter. During the season, the Lady Vols dropped three games to SEC foes, LSU, Florida, and Kentucky, to record their worst SEC season since the 1996–97 season. However, they won their second straight game against Connecticut and rebounded from a sub-par SEC season to win the conference tournament for the second year in a row. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee received a number two seed instead of the one seed Summitt believed her team deserved, and played North Carolina in the regional finals. Tennessee trailed from the beginning, fell behind by as many as 16, rallied to cut the lead to five, but ultimately fell 75–63. This loss marked the first time in five years Summitt would not appear in the Final Four.

In the 2006–07 season, Tennessee defeated four ranked teams in a row: UCLA, Stanford, Arizona State, and Middle Tennessee, lost a regular season rematch with North Carolina and another game against top-ranked Duke, and defeated UConn for the third time in a row. Later, in Baton Rouge, the Lady Vols clinched the SEC title against LSU in a game where Candace Parker scored 27. However, in the SEC tournament semifinals, Tennessee fell to the Tigers. In the NCAA tournament, Summitt's team easily made it to the Final Four, dispatching teams that included SEC foe Mississippi and 13-seeded CinderellaMarist, winning each game by at least 14. In the Final Four, Tennessee again faced North Carolina. Despite shooting poorly, the Lady Vols came back from a 12-point deficit with 8:18 remaining to win 56–50. In the championship game against Rutgers, Tennessee won its seventh title. During the season, Summitt appeared at a men's basketball game dressed in a cheerleader outfit and led the crowd in a rendition of "Rocky Top" to show her support for the team. A month earlier, her men's counterpart, Bruce Pearl, showed up at a Lady Vols game in orange body paint.

 

2007–2008 Lady Vols basketball team at the White House after they won their second consecutive national championship

The 2007–08 season started off with the top-ranked Lady Vols going 3–0, including wins over 9th-ranked Oklahoma and 22nd-ranked Texas. The win over Texas was Summitt's 950th. After two more wins, top-ranked Tennessee knocked off fourth-ranked North Carolina, 83–79, in a rematch of the previous year's Final Four match-up. Tennessee won their next four games, then headed to California for a match-up with 5th-ranked Stanford. Down by 4 with less than 30 seconds remaining, the Lady Vols managed to tie the game up and send it to overtime, but lost, 73–69. The Lady Vols responded by winning their next seven games, giving them a 17–1 record going into a match-up with Duke. Candace Parker's 17 points and 12 rebounds, including a bucket with 22 seconds remaining, helped the Lady Vols defeat the Blue Devils for the first time in four years, 67–64. Tennessee would win the rest of their regular season games and defeat LSU for the SEC Tournament Championship. The Lady Vols won four straight games in the NCAA Tournament heading toward their third matchup of the year against the LSU Lady Tigers in the Final Four. Alexis Hornbuckle tipped in a Nicky Anosike missed layup with 0.7 seconds left to win the game, 47–46. On April 8, 2008, Tennessee won its second consecutive national championship (and eighth overall) by beating Stanford 64–48.

Summitt's first milestone of the 2008–09 season was a 73–43 win over the Georgia Lady Bulldogs on February 5, 2009 at Thompson–Boling Arena in Knoxville. The win was number 1000 for Coach Summitt. The Thompson–Boling Arena's court was named "The Summitt" in her honor. The 2008–09 season ended with a dubious first, as the Lady Vols lost 71–55 in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Ball State in Bowling Green, Kentucky, marking the first time Tennessee would not appear in the Sweet 16 since the NCAA first sanctioned championships in women's basketball for the 1981–82 season.

Pat Summitt | Tennessee Orange | The Players

July 13, 2016

"I remember every player — every single one — who wore the Tennessee orange, a shade that our rivals hate, a bold, aggravating color that you can usually find on a roadside crew, 'or in a correctional institution,' as my friend Wendy Larry jokes. But to us the color is a flag of pride, because it identifies us as Lady Vols and therefore as women of an unmistakable type. Fighters. I remember how many of them fought for a better life for themselves. I just met them halfway."

47 Remarkable Pat Summitt Quotes

July 12, 2016

“Change equals self improvement. Push yourself to places you haven’t been before.”

“Class is more important than a game.”

“Combine practice with belief.”

“Competition got me off the farm and trained me to seek out challenges and to endure setbacks; and in combination with my faith, it sustains me now in my fight with Alzheimer’s disease.”

“Discipline helps you finish a job, and finishing is what separates excellent work from average work.”

“Everyone thinks we might curl up and die, both programs. I don’t think it’s going to happen, so put away your hankies.”

“God doesn’t take things away to be cruel. He takes things away to make room for other things. He takes things away to lighten us. He takes things away so we can fly.”

“Group discipline produces a unified effort toward a common goal.”

“Handle Success Like You Handle Failure. You can’t always control what happens, but you can control how you handle it.”

“I can remember trying to coach, trying to figure out schemes, and it just wasn’t coming to me.”

“I didn’t leave her there for long. When a player makes a mistake, you always want to put them back in quickly—you don’t just berate them and sit them down with no chance for redemption.”

“I didn’t say a lot. I didn’t throw anything. That’s not my style. I did think about it though.”

“I don’t give out compliments easily.”

“I don’t want to sit around the house. I want to be out there. I want to go to practice. I want to be in the huddles. That’s me.”

“I hate to sound this way but, ‘Why me? Why me with dementia?”‘

“I learned so much from Sue about the X’s and O’s of the game of basketball.”

“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 won 1,098 games, and eight national championships, and coached in four different decades. But what I see are not the numbers. I see their faces.”

“I’d wake up in the morning and I would think, ‘Where am I?’ I’d have to gather myself.”

“If it doesn’t bother you, it won’t bother them.”

“If you want to be in the game you better shoot 75% from the line.”

“I’m interested to see where a combination of faith and science will take me.”

“In the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don’t care about them or don’t like them.”

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts the most.”

“It’s harder to stay on top than it is to make the climb, Continue to seek new goals.”

“I’ve got a great staff and great support system, and I’m going to stick my neck out and do what I always do.”

“Kay very calmly and sweetly said, “You know, Pat, how much better do you think Lea Henry and Cindy Noble are going to get at this point?” She was saying ease up—it’s enough. I had reached
the point of diminishing returns. “I think they are both trying really hard to please you, but how much more can they possibly do?” she said. “I just wonder if you’ve really thought about that.’”

“Know your strengths, weaknesses, and needs.”

“Losing the way we lost is unacceptable in this program. We will learn from it.”

“Make Winning an Attitude.”

“Most people get excited about games, but I’ve got to be excited about practice, because that’s my classroom.”

“Obviously, this was a tough battle for both teams. A great basketball game I’m sure to watch, a challenging one to play in and coach.”

“Our philosophy has always been you better pack your defense and your board work on the road. Because those ugly nights and those poor shooting nights — you just have to grind games out.
Today, we just had to grind it out.”

“Our team respects Texas. They have beaten us four in a row and beat us by 10 last year in Knoxville. We were not surprised.”

“Parker has been handling the ball and bringing it up the floor, running some point as well. Ideally we’d like her closer to the basket, but it’s not like she has to stay on the perimeter.”

“Rebounding wins championships, you need to emphasize it and work with kids on it.”

“See yourself as self employed.”

“Silence is a form of communication, too. Sometimes less is more.”

“Sit up straight, listen and participate.”

“Someday, I suppose I’ll give up, and sit in the rocking chair. But I’ll probably be rocking fast, because I don’t know what I’ll do without a job.”

“Teamwork doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught.”

“There is an old saying: a champion is someone who is willing to be uncomfortable.”

“We feel like we get everybody’s best shot because we’re Tennessee, but we have to learn how to give everybody our best shot.”

“What this tells me is that facts are only the smallest components of memory.”

“When she took off, I thought she’s going to try to dunk the ball. I was good with it. I thought she just committed to it a little too early.”

“When you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don’t take a day off. So you work every day and my dad always said, ‘No one can outwork you.’”

“You have to make shots. That’s the bottom line.”

 

Awards and titles

July 12, 2016

16-time SEC Champions (1980, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011)

16-time SEC Tournament Champions (1980, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012)

8-time SEC Coach of the Year (1983, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2011)

7-time NCAA Coach of the Year (1983, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2004)

8-time NCAA Champions (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008)

What LeBron James says about Pat Summit's basketball legacy

April 6, 2020
April 5, 2020

On Sunday afternoon, the SEC Network took the bold step of comparing Pat Summitt’s all-time starting five on Rocky Top to Dawn Staley’s all-time starting five with the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Now, Staley deserves a ton of respect for what she has built at South Carolina. In 12 years, she has built a powerhouse, and she is easily the best coach in the SEC right now. However, she still only has one national title. And when it comes to talent, it’s not even close.

Let’s break this down. South Carolina’s all-time team under Staley, according to SEC Network, would be A’ja Wilson, Alaina Coates, Kaela Davis, Tiffany Mitchell and Ty Harris. Only three of those players are All-Americans, and only one, Wilson ever earned National Player of the Year honors.

Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker, Tamika Catchings, Kara Lawson and current head coach Kellie Harper (then Kellie Jollie) made up the Tennessee Lady Vols. Four of those players were All-Americans, and three earned National Player of the Year honors: Holdsclaw, Catchings and Parker. The comparison is so ridiculous that even LeBron James slammed it.

" In what universe did anybody think this was a good idea? Nobody should ever compare anything about the greatness of the Tennessee Lady Vols program to anybody else in the SEC. Only the UConn Huskies are worthy of debate. "


With no need for two point guards, Harper should not be in Summitt’s all-time starting five. Lawson can stay on there, but Daedra Charles should be the fifth player. Parker would play the four with Charles and the five, and Holdsclaw and Catching would be the two and the three.

That would make the entire Tennessee Lady Vols starting five made up of players who were All-Americans compared to only three for South Carolina. Meanwhile, four would either have been National Player of the Year or a Wade Trophy winner, with Parker having won both. South Carolina has only one player to earn that award, and again, she is Wilson.

Simply put, Wilson is the only player from South Carolina who could start on the Tennessee Lady Vols all-time team. The rest of the players on that list would not even be in the two-deep rotation with Summitt’s all-time team.


Lady Vols who made US Olympic basketball teams

November 5, 2023
Here are all the Lady Vols who have made U.S. Olympic team rosters.

Cindy Brogdon – 1976 (Silver). Cindy Brogdon played with Summitt at the 1976 Olympics and then went to play for her at Tennessee. In her two seasons at UT, Brogdon scored 1,458 points and went to the AIAW Final Four twice.

Patricia Roberts – 1976 (Silver). Patricia Roberts also went to play for Summitt after playing alongside her in 1976. Roberts averaged 29.9 points and 14.2 rebounds – the highest averages in program history.

Pat Summitt – 1976 (Silver), 1984 (Gold). Summitt, a co-captain for the U.S., won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics, which was the first to include women's basketball. Summitt then coached the USA women to their first Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984. She became the first female coach to be inducted to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2022.

Jill Rankin, Holly Warlick – 1980 (Boycott). Holly Warlick and Jill Rankin made the Olympic roster in 1980. They never got to play because of the U.S.-led boycott of the Summer Olympics to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Cindy Noble – 1980 (Boycott), 1984 (Gold). Cindy Noble got her chance to play in the 1984 Olympics after the 1980 boycott, and she won a gold medal playing for Summitt again. Noble was a Kodak All-American and led Tennessee to three AIAW Final Fours and two runner-up finishes.

Lea Henry – 1984 (Gold). Lea Henry went to three Final Fours at Tennessee before graduating in 1983. The next summer, she got one more chance to play for Summitt and won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics.

Bridgette Gordon – 1988 (Gold). Bridgette Gordon won an Olympic gold medal during an unprecedented college career. She led Tennessee to four straight Final Fours and won NCAA championships in 1987 and 1989 – and she won a gold medal in 1988 in between.

Daedra Charles – 1992 (Bronze). Daedra Charles won a bronze medal at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics a year after winning the 1991 Wade Trophy as a senior at Tennessee. Charles was also part of the 1989 NCAA championship team with Gordon.

Nikki McCray-Penson – 1996 (Gold), 2000 (Gold). McCray-Penson was a key member of the 1996 Olympic team, which led to the creation of the WNBA. After winning gold in 1996, McCray-Penson returned in 2000 to help lead the team to a repeat gold medal run.
Carla McGhee – 1996 (Gold). Carla McGhee is one of the great comeback stories in basketball. She was in a coma for 47 hours after a car crash in the summer of 1987 and was told she would never play again. But McGhee went on to win a second NCAA championship in 1989 and a gold medal with the 1996 team.
Chamique Holdsclaw – 2000 (Gold). USA won all eight games en route to the 2000 gold medal, but Chamique Holdsclaw was unable to compete due to a right foot stress fracture. However, Holdsclaw did get to play in 1998 when the U.S. won gold at the FIBA World Championships.
Tamika Catchings – 2004 (Gold), 2008 (Gold), 2012 (Gold), 2016 (Gold). Tamika Catchings is one of the most decorated basketball players ever, winning four Olympic gold medals from 2004-16. She also won an NCAA championship, a FIBA World Cup and a WNBA championship.
Kara Lawson – 2008 (Gold). Kara Lawson was a key member of the 2008 team. She led the team with 15 points in the gold medal game against Australia, shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line.
Candace Parker – 2008 (Gold), 2012 (Gold). What Candace Parker accomplished in 2008 will never be repeated. Parker won the 2008 NCAA Championship, an Olympic gold medal and both the WNBA Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. After winning her second gold medal in 2012, Parker was snubbed. She didn't make the final roster in 2016, which Parker believes was because of UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who was the USA coach that year.