Pat Summit ruined legacy

What a stupid thread! How can someone be so small minded, give Coach Summit credited for trying to keep the Women's game civilized. I am glad she cancelled the games, last thing this sport needs is giving Geno comments any relevance. You have to be very, very desperate to say such things to recruits, just to get them to talk to you. Obliviously, the players that bought into Geno's "insights" are just as ignorant as he is, good riddance! Uconn vs. Tennessee, the biggest rivalry? Give me a break, that is a East Coast/ESPN rivalry, people in the west can care less about this game. By the way, the team of “now” lost to Stanford! What a final it will be!

> >> Could you imagine gays fighting they would run the other way. 

You don't know much about history. Alexander the Great led quite a few "homos" into battle and they had conquered the known world by the time he was 33.

Plenty of gays have served in the US Armed Forces and have given their lives for their country.

And if you like movies.... you've got 100 years of mostly homosexual people putting together the best and most uplifting entertainment you've ever watched.

> >> civilized. I am glad she cancelled the games, last thing this sport needs is giving Geno comments any relevance.

Pat Summitt has certainly tarnished her legacy. It's not because she ended the UConn series, it's *how* she ended it.

By refusing to say why, she let rumor run rampant.  "OH, Geno must have done something horrible for her, to  have ended the series."

And what did it turn out to be? A tour arranged that shouldnt' have been arranged. A minor violation.

Geno's got a big mouth and if he said something that Pat found offensive, she should have continued to have their two teams meet on the court, her Lady Vols could have continued to trounce the Huskies, and she could have made Geno shake her hand and like it. That's the way a competitor would have reacted.

But she just took her ball and went home.

Frankly - Geno has given her the perfect line to use when anyone in future asks her about why she ended the series. Instead of her pathetic, "Geno knows, ask him." she should say, "I ended it because I don't like Geno. Never have, never will. And on that basis alone, I decided to move on. So stop trying to destroy the guy's reputation with unfounded rumors and just move on too."

 CANDACE PARKER, YOU ARE #1 WITH YOUR HANDS TIED BEHIND YOUR BACK!!!  REALLY!!!  I want to thank you, the Tennessee Lady Vols for all of the joy that you have brought to my life these past few years.  I have played on a basketball team and have enjoyed watching the game for years but never have I seen so much versatility from a player than from you, MS. CANDACE PARKER!  It has been such an honor to have you live, play basketball, and get a good education in one of the best cities in America, Knoxville, Tn.  We truly are proud of our women's basketball program and the tradition here at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and of especially Ms. Pat Summitt!  She has brought the game of women's basketball so far and the game is so much better because of you Pat and I thank you so much for giving us that!  One thing that I always noticed about you Pat after the games is that you thanked all of the fans for being there and yo let them know how much you appreciated them for being there.  If you could go back and watch all of Tennessee's games these past two years then you will know why Tennessee Lady Vols have such good fans and why these players are destined to be number one in the nation!!!  Yes, these championship games will undoubtedly make the teams a bit nervous when playing on such a national stage and even players that score double figures about every game might not be able to score so well in these tournaments but how do you think Tennessee got to this point in the first place - somebody on the team had to know how to score as well as defend and during all of the previous 30 games that Tennessee won that is what they did.  Everyone has been going on about Candice Wiggins making all of those shots.  Listen, if they are scoring that many points then that means that there is not any good defense or yet they wouldn't be scoring that many points.  Here is some of Pat Summitt's famous words.  She says that "Offense Sells Tickets, Defense Wins Games, and Rebounding Wins Championships!!!  It makes good sense to me!!!  Oh Yes, Tennessee's freshmen Angie Bjorklund shot one three after another during the season and fell short somewhat in the tournaments but boy oh boy did she make up for it with her defense(as Pat Summitt also says, "You might not be able to depend on making your shots all of the time but one thing you can count on is how you handle your defense and as we all know well by now that excellent defense can shut a hot handed shooting team completely down and that is what the lady vols did to the Stanford Cardinals), Alexis Hornbuckle scored high points at many of the games and the steals you made - YOU GO GIRL!!!, Nicky Anosike can play defense like nobody I have ever seen before and during the season she hit almost every one of her foul shots and many other shots and also scored high(ESPN never shows that, they mostly always point out the players faults - anyone that knows anything about sports at all knows that), Shannon Bobbitt is the fastest guard I have ever seen and can dribble that ball around in circles compared to many others I have seen, during the season she scored high scoring points as well and got the ball inside where it needed to be when necessary, to Ms. Parker, Alberta Auguste is also the greatest on defense and has also had high scoring during the season and has made points when we needed them most, Vicky Baugh, thank you for coming to Tennessee all the way from California and making such a contribution to this precious & tough Tennessee team, Alex Fuller, don't think that I have forgotten you, you stepped up many times when your team needed you scoring eighteen (18) pts. and more in some games and you are a tough defender as well as a very good shooter and your kindness and good looks has made it all the better for this team,  Cait MacMahan, we haven't forgotten and I am glad that you will be there to play and support our team next year as one of our guards who has experience and we also love your Mom and we hope that her cancer is in remission, tell her we love her too, now Sydney Smallbone, we have watched you also grow with the team this year and are looking forward to you doing great things in 2009 and after and we also appreciate your hustle on defense and trying to make yourself a better player for the team, and Kelley Cain I have not seen you play any this year because of your injury but you have been around the whole season to see what it takes to win a national championship and I know that you will be there next year and be a force to be reckoned with and we fans can't wait.  LADY VOLS, YOU LITERALLY SHUT THE CARDINALS DOWN, I MEAN SHUT THEM DOWN AND WE LOVED IT!!!  TO ALL OF THE NAYSAYERS, ESPN AND FORMER LADY VOL KARA LAWSON, WE LOVE YOUR SUPPORT - NOT!!!  We do love you Kara but you should know better!  Anyway, thank to all who made these past few years of Tennessee womens basketball the best.  WE LOVE ALL OF YOU GIRLS THAT ARE LEAVING AND WE HOPE THAT YOU KEEP IN TOUCH AND THAT WE SEE YOU ON THE NEWS LOCALLY FROM TIME TO TIME AND WE WILL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU CANDACE AND OTHERS PLAYING IN THE WNBA!  GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!

Kind Regards to All,

Mark T.
Kingston, Tn.

Wow, whys so much hate from the UT fans? I live in CT, outside of here you only see very limited exposure on coach Auriemma. Same for us on coach Summitt. If you believe only what was presented to you, which is slanted to cater to the UT or UCONN fans, you would think that Geno and Pat are both maniacal jerks. Sorry to break it to you, Pat doesn't come across as the nicest lady in the world but please remember there's more to these two people then their game day personailities.

As for stealing recruits, there is no evidence. The tour through ESPN hardly swayed Maya Moore to go to UCONN. Give her a little more credit than that.

As for the schools records, both are great. Tennessee has done more but let's be fair, the woman's game didn't get to the level it's at today until UCONN hit the scene. The UCONN - UT rivalry clearly pushed the game to the next level. Alot of the Tennessee prowess came in a time whn the competition was limited. But, Summitt has also been successful now that the game is more competitive so no dig intended there.

Congrats to Tennessee on another win. Well done. W'e're all really upset here in CT that Summit decided to end the rivalry. Regardless of the motive it's a HUGE disappointment and I believe a mistake on her part. It comes across as bitter move on her part.

I think the beef Pat has with UConn has more to do with negative recruiting, than cheating.  The cheating allegations will come to light.  Pat does not ever talk bad about another program when recruiting athletes.  She simply sells UT.  I think she is very disappointed that recruiting in the womens game is getting as nasty as it is in the mens game and football. 

As far as ending the series with UConn..............UT does not need it.  The Lady