Pat Summitt has stepped down as women’s basketball head coach at the University of Tennessee. Her long-time assistant Holly Warlick will take over as head coach.
Color me stunned.
Look, I know this day was coming sooner rather than later after Summitt revealed that she was diagnosed with early onset dementia. I just cannot associate women’s college basketball without Summitt – let alone Tennessee women’s basketball.
Simply put, Summitt put women’s college basketball on the map. She begat other women’s coaching legends such as UConn’s women’s coach Geno Auriemma, Baylor’s coach Kim Mulkey, and Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.
In fact, could you picture Auriemma and Summitt not going at it? Neither can I. Those two helped make women’s college basketball cool to watch – even for the casual fan.
Oh, since I am a numbers guy, here is what Summitt leaves behind:
- A 1,098-207 record
- 16 regular season Southeastern Conference championships
- 16 SEC tournament titles
- 18 Final Fours
- Eight national titles
Not only is Summitt the best women’s coach, she is one of the best coaches in basketball, period.
Categories: college basketball, sports story
I agree that she is one of the greatest coaches of all-time. She will be missed, but I’m wondering was Holly Warlick the right choice to be her successor? Some coaches seem to just be ready for the assistant role their whole careers and I think that’s Holly. But I hope I’m wrong for UT’s sake. Good article and Pat will definitely be missed.
I don’t know about Warlick, only time will tell. It’s just going to be weird as hell not seeing Summitt roaming the sidelines with that icy stare of her’s…