Michelle Marciniak

Personal information
Born	October 29, 1973
Medal record Women's Basketball Competitor for the  United States Pan American Games Bronze 1999 Winnipeg Team Competition

Michelle Marciniak (born October 29, 1973 in Macungie, Pennsylvania) is a former All American collegiate and professional basketball player, who played point guard in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). As a floor general, Marciniak competed for two National Championships during her three year career at the University of Tennessee. Michelle led the Tennessee Lady Vols to their 4th National Championship and was named MVP in the 1996 Final Four held in Charlotte, NC. She was most recently the recruiting coordinator/assistant coach of the women's basketball team at the University of South Carolina from 2003-2008. Marciniak was responsible for two back to back top recruiting classes, rated #18 in 2007 and #7 in 2008, the highest ranked class ever recruited at South Carolina.

Marciniak participated on the USA team as part of the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada. The team went 4–3 and earned a bronze medal.^[1]

Marciniak is currently the co-founder and co-CEO of SHEEX, Inc., a bed linen company specializing in sheets and pillowcases constructed from advanced athletic-performance fabrics.

Allentown Central Catholic High School[link]

Marciniak was the top player in the nation during her high school senior year, named by Parade Magazine and Gatorade as the 1991 National High School Player of the Year as a senior at Allentown Central Catholic High School in Allentown. At Allentown Central Catholic, she competed in the highly respected East Penn Conference (the forerunner to the Lehigh Valley Conference), where she scored 3,025 points for Central Catholic. Her No. 23 jersey has since been retired by the school in recognition of her extraordinary high school basketball achievements. Sports Illustrated wrote about Marcinak playing with a picture of Michael Jordan in her sock, while Michelle was just a junior in high school, in an article titled "She's the Ponytailed Princess of Hoop."

University of Notre Dame and University of Tennessee[link]

After a year at the University of Notre Dame, Marciniak transferred to the University of Tennessee, where she quickly became a leader of the dominant University of Tennessee Lady Vols women's basketball team under head coach Pat Summitt. Summitt had recruited her in high school and in fact, went into labor as she was sitting in the Marciniak's home on a recruiting trip. Summitt quickly wrapped up the visit and flew back to Knoxville to give birth to her son, Tyler. "Spinderella" as Marciniak was affectionately known because of her free wheeling, spinning and slashing style, became a crowd favorite at Tennessee. She scored over 1,000 points and still is in Tennessee's top ten all-time in assists and three-point scoring, after only three years of play.

With Marciniak at point guard, the Lady Vols won consecutive Southeastern Conference championships in 1995 and 1996. In the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Tennessee came in second to the Connecticut Huskies in 1995. The next season, Tennessee wasn't expected to be as strong, but lost just four games during the regular season and eventually returned to the Final Four, where the Lady Vols earned a rematch with UConn. Marciniak led the team to an 88-83 overtime victory, then avenged an earlier loss to Georgia to claim Tennessee's fourth national championship.^[2] During the season, Marciniak became the focused leader and played a methodical style of basketball that Pat Summitt demanded from her point guards. Marciniak was chosen the Final Four's Most Valuable Player for her inspired play. She graduated in 1996 with a degree in psychology.

Professional career[link]

Marciniak began her professional career in the women's American Basketball League, playing all two and half seasons of that league's existence. She played for the ABL's Portland Power, Long Beach Stingrays, and Nashville Noise. After her first season as a professional, Marciniak was a first team All Star in a league loaded with talent. Marciniak was signed by the WNBA's expansion Portland Fire in 2000 where she was an integral part of Portland's success. She then^[when?] signed with the Seattle Storm eight days later. Michelle found her home in Seattle the next three seasons while playing for the Storm. She was a fan favorite, and received the WNBA Community Service Award due to the countless hours she put in to bring fans into KeyArena.

More significant was her extremely hard-nosed play on the court, as a nationally televised tussle with Los Angeles Sparks player Latasha Byears^[3] earned Marciniak a reputation as the Storm player that opponents least wished to foul. Byears intentionally threw a ball at Marciniak's face, and Marciniak, in response, charged the much larger and stronger Byears.

Marciniak retired at 29 years old, after the Storm's 2002 season, to become an assistant coach for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks in the powerhouse SEC Conference, where she had played as a collegian. Marciniak served as an assistant on the staff of head coach Susan Walvius from 2003-2008.^[4] She is also an occasional color analyst for WNBA and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball games on ESPN Radio and other media outlets.

Launching SHEEX[link]

In 2008, Marciniak and Walvius founded SHEEX, Inc., a company that is said to offer "the world's first athletic-performance sheets".^[5] Constructed from materials commonly found in modern athletic wear, SHEEX provide similar moisture-wicking, temperature-control, breathability and stretch not found in traditional cotton sheeting.^[6]

References[link]

1. ^ "THIRTEENTH PAN AMERICAN GAMES -- 1999". USA Basketball. http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=wpag_1999. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
2. ^ 1995-96 Lady Vols
3. ^ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003642597_uwom30.html
4. ^ Marciniak's SHEEX biography
5. ^ Marlin Magazine
6. ^ SHEEX features

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Michelle Marciniak biography at University of South Carolina Athletics Web Site
• Michelle Marciniak at WNBA.com
• SHEEX.com Official Site

Susan Walvius (born October 24, 1964) is the former head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of South Carolina. Her best success came in the 2001 and 2002 seasons, where she went 25-7 and 23-8 respectively. In those two seasons, the Gamecocks went 19-9 in SEC play. The 2002 team made it to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. On April 14, 2008, Walvius announced her resignation from South Carolina.^[1]

Walvius is currently the co-founder and co-CEO of SHEEX, Inc., a bed linen company specializing in sheets and pillowcases constructed from advanced athletic-performance fabrics.

Playing career[link]

Walvius attended Gar-Field Senior High School in Virginia, prior to attending Virginia Tech, where she was an all-American basketball player.

As a player at Virginia Tech, Walvius established herself as one of the most successful players to wear a Hokie uniform. The four-year letterwinner was named to Virginia Tech's All-Decade team, is the school leader in career blocked shots and ranks second in field goals made and third in scoring and rebounds. An All-Metro Conference selection in 1986, Walvius was named All-America by Converse and Street & Smith's. She graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in urban studies.

Early Coaching Career[link]

Walvius began her coaching career at Bradley University in 1986 as an assistant coach for two seasons. After spending a year in private business, she returned to coaching as an assistant at the University of Rhode Island from 1989 to 1990 before becoming the youngest head coach in the nation^[2] at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1990.

Walvius' ability to rebuild a program was first evident during the five years she spent at the helm of VCU. Only 25 years old when she was hired, Walvius coached at VCU from 1990 to 1995 and led the 1995 team to the Women's NIT after posting a 20-10 record. That 20-win season was just the second in the history of the VCU program. Walvius' effort did not go unnoticed as she was named the 1995 Virginia State Coach of the Year and was nominated for National Coach of the Year in District 3.

Leaving VCU in 1995, Walvius was the head coach at West Virginia University from 1995-1997. In just her second season at WVU, Walvius led the 1996-97 squad to its first winning season in five years with a 19-12 record. She displayed her ability as an outstanding recruiter by attracting a top-20 freshman class to West Virginia.

University of South Carolina[link]

Walvius was hired on April 28, 1997 as the head women's basketball coach at the University of South Carolina.

Susan Walvius led South Carolina into the postseason in five of her 11 seasons at helm, including five of the last seven. She took a floundering program to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments with an Elite Eight appearance in 2002, earning her SEC and WBCA District 3 Coach of the Year honors in just her fifth season on the job. Over her 11 seasons, she amassed a 165-160 record, giving her an 18-year career mark of 263-261.

Walvius built the program's success with a series of nationally-ranked recruiting classes. Between 2003 and 2008, she signed four classes ranked among the nation's top 20, including a 2008 group that was as high as seventh by Blue Star Index in the early signing period. In total, she attracted six top-25 recruiting classes to the South Carolina campus. The 2007-08 class was tabbed as the No. 18 group in the nation by The Collegiate Girls Basketball Report, and Blue Star Index rated the 2005-06 class as the 13th-best in the country. The 2003 class was ranked as the 10th-best class in the nation by All-Star Girls Report. The 1998-99 freshman class was named as the 10th-best in the country, while the freshmen who entered Carolina in the fall of 1999 were named the 22nd-best group in the country.

Under Walvius, the Gamecocks emerged as one of the best defensive and rebounding teams in the Southeastern Conference the last two years. In 2006-07, South Carolina led the SEC in blocked shots, rebounding margin and rebounds per game and ranked second in the league in field goal percentage defense and steals. In 2007-08, the Gamecocks were among the league's top five in all but one of those defensive categories as well.

With Walvius stalking the sidelines, Carolina turned the Colonial Center into a difficult place for opponents to play in 2006-07, compiling a 15-5 record at home that included an 80-48 pounding of in-state rival Clemson, a 95-35 wipeout of SEC foe Alabama and an 81-40 second-round Women's NIT victory over America East Conference champion Hartford. In fact, the Gamecocks outscored the opposition by an average margin of just under 22 points per game in home games played during the 2006-07 campaign en route to matching a school record total for home victories.

Walvius' crew posted a nine-game improvement in 2005-06 from the year prior, a mark that led all Southeastern Conference schools and ranked as the fifth-largest improvement in any of the power conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, Big East). A significant factor in the Gamecocks' improvement was suffocating defense, as Carolina led the SEC and ranked second nationally in field goal percentage defense, holding the opposition to 34.7 percent shooting. Walvius' team also ranked among the national leaders in blocked shots (third; 6.7 per game) and rebounding margin (fifth; 8.3 per game) and ranked among the top 30 teams nationally in scoring margin (16th; +12.2 points per game), field goal percentage (22nd; 45.0%) and scoring defense (26th; 56.8 points per game).

The Gamecocks set the school record for blocked shots and field goal percentage defense in 2004-05, then came back to break both of those records in addition to setting a new school mark for scoring defense in 2005-06.

During the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons, Walvius posted a combined 48-15 mark with the Gamecocks and a 19-9 mark in the SEC. For her efforts, Walvius was honored as a finalist for Naismith Coach of the Year in each of those seasons.

Under Walvius in 2001-02, the Gamecocks recorded a 25-7 overall mark and finished second in the SEC with a 10-4 record. South Carolina advanced to the NCAA Tournament and into the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. The team achieved its first national ranking in 10 years and finished the season ranked sixth in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll. For her achievements, Walvius was selected as the SEC Coach of the Year by her peers and by the Associated Press, and was named as the WBCA District 3 Coach of the Year.

In 2002-03, Walvius directed South Carolina to a 23-8 record and a 9-5 SEC mark. Ranked 18th in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, South Carolina secured a 20-win season for the second consecutive year and posted the school's first back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 12 years. The Gamecocks defeated Tennessee-Chattanooga in the first round, marking the first back-to-back first round NCAA Tournament victories in South Carolina's history. The Gamecocks fell in the second round to host Penn State.

To celebrate the team's Elite Eight appearance in the 2002 NCAA Tournament, the Gamecock women were also chosen to open the state-of-the art Colonial Center on Nov. 22, 2002. The inaugural game attracted a state of South Carolina basketball record crowd of 17,712 to witness Carolina's victory over in-state rival Clemson. The record attendance was also the fifth-highest figure in the NCAA during the 2002-03 season.

While at South Carolina, Walvius worked hard to establish South Carolina's reputation as one of the up-and-coming women's basketball programs in the country. Her dedication to the program was critical to helping build top-notch facilities for the student-athletes, renewing the team's focus on academic success and developing the Mentors Program. Walvius is extremely involved with the marketing of the team and is a frequent guest speaker in the community and on radio and television.

Thanks to her work behind the scenes and on the sidelines, Gamecock home game attendance tripled. During the 2001-02 season, South Carolina established another precedent by selling out the Carolina Coliseum for the January 17th game against Tennessee. The announced attendance of 12,168 was the largest at any Carolina Coliseum sporting event all year.

Walvius' teams consistently achieved a high grade-point average and set a new team record with a 3.347 mark in the Spring 2005 semester. In addition, seven Gamecock players were named to the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll in 2005. Carolina led the league and set a new school record by placing 10 players on the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll in 2007, just one year after leading the conference with eight honor roll selections in 2006.

Walvius also recognized the importance of student-athletes receiving guidance in the real world before graduation, as she engineered the Mentors Program, which teamed up female leaders of the Columbia community with members of the Gamecock basketball team to further their real-world education, cultural and networking skills. The mentors helped the student-athletes work on their cultural and business education for life after basketball.

Coaching Timeline[link]

South Carolina, head coach 1997-2008

West Virginia, head coach 1995-97

VCU, head coach 1990-95

Rhode Island, assistant coach 1989-90

Bradley, assistant coach 1986-88

Launching SHEEX[link]

In 2008, Walvius and former South Carolina assistant Michelle Marciniak founded SHEEX, Inc., a company that is said to offer "the world's first athletic-performance sheets".^[3] Constructed from materials commonly found in modern athletic wear, SHEEX provide similar moisture-wicking, temperature-control, breathability and stretch not found in traditional cotton sheeting.^[4]

Notable[link]

Susan Walvius coached three players who went on to play in the WNBA after their careers at South Carolina. Under Walvius, the Gamecocks advanced to the Elite Eight in 2002 with Walvius earning SEC Coach of the Year recognition. Carolina had consecutive top-20 finishes in 2002 and 2003 with Walvius at the helm. Under Walvius, South Carolina made five trips to the postseason in her last seven years, including consecutive postseason appearances in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In her 11th year at Carolina, Walvius was the fourth-longest tenured SEC coach at her current school, trailing only Pat Summitt (34 years, Tennessee), Andy Landers (29 years, Georgia) and Sharon Fanning (13 years, Mississippi State). Under Walvius' direction, the Gamecocks were one of the SEC's elite defensive teams. Carolina has ranked in the top three in the conference each of the last four years in field goal percentage defense and blocked shots. Walvius led Carolina to a nine-game improvement and a trip to the postseason in 2005-06. Walvius was responsible for the inception of the Mentors Program, in which successful women from the community work with South Carolina's female student-athletes to help them achieve their goals both in and out of the classroom. From 2004 through 2008, Walvius' players have appeared on the SEC Winter Sports Academic Honor Roll 38 times, a figure that leads all SEC schools during that time. In fact, South Carolina's 38 honorees is more than twice as many as seven SEC schools during that same time (Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.) During the 2001-02 season, the Gamecocks were ranked in the top 10 nationally for the first time since the 1981-82 season.

External links[link]

• Walvius bio
• SHEEX.com Official Site

References[link]

1. ^ ESPN report on Walvius resignation
2. ^ Walvius' SHEEX biography
3. ^ Marlin Magazine
4. ^ SHEEX features

Pat Head Summitt
Sport(s)	Women's college basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach emeritus
Team	Tennessee
Biographical details
Born	(1952-06-14) June 14, 1952 (age 60) Clarksville, Tennessee
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1974-2012	Tennessee
Head coaching record
Overall	1098–208 (.841)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships 8 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championships (1987,1989,1991,1996,1997,1998,2007,2008) 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)
Awards 8 Time SEC Coach of the Year (1993,1995,1998,2001,2003,2004,2007,2011) 7 Time NCAA Coach of the Year (1983,1987,1989,1994,1995,1998,2004) Naismith Coach of the 20th Century 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom
Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2000

Medal record
Pan American Games
Competitor for  United States
Gold	1975 Mexico	Player
Olympic Games
Silver	1976 Montreal	Player
Gold	1984 Los Angeles	Head Coach

Patricia "Pat" Head Summitt (born on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is a former women's college basketball head coach. She now serves as the head coach emeritus of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history of either a men's or women's team in any division. She coached from 1974 to 2012, all with the Lady Vols, winning eight NCAA national championships, second only to the record 10 titles won by UCLA men's coach John Wooden. Summitt is the only coach in NCAA history, and one of three college coaches overall, with 1,000 victories. She was named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in April 2000. In 2009, the Sporting News placed her number 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time in all sports; she was the only woman on the list. In 38 years as a coach, she never had a losing season. On April 20, 2012, the White House announced that Pat Summitt would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Summitt has written two books: Reach for the Summitt, which is part a motivational book and part biography, and Raise the Roof about the Lady Vols' 1997–1998 undefeated and NCAA-championship winning season.

Early life and family[link]

Summitt was born Patricia Sue Head in Clarksville, Tennessee. She has three siblings: older brothers Tommy, Charles and Kenneth. She married R. B. Summitt in 1980; the two filed for divorce in 2007.^[1] They have one son, Ross Tyler Summitt (b. 1990), who played as a walk-on for the Tennessee men's basketball team,^[2] is set to graduate from Tennessee in May 2012, and has been hired as an assistant coach for the Marquette University women's team effective with the 2012–13 season.^[3] In what ESPN.com columnist Gene Wojciechowski called "a bittersweet irony", Tyler's hiring by Marquette was announced on the same day his mother announced her retirement.^[4]

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 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 later co-captained the first United States women's national basketball team as a player at the inaugural women's tournament at 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[link]

1970s[link]

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 Magazine. "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 the early-1970s employed an antiquated 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.^[5] Her first win came almost a month later when the Lady Vols defeated Middle Tennessee State, 69-32 on January 10, 1975.^[5] 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 masters 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.^[6] 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.^[7] Tennessee finished up 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.^[5]

1980s[link]

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.^[7]

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.^[8] 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.^[7] 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 made it to the Final Four for the fourth straight year. After dispatching Maryland by 12, Tennessee faced SEC rival Auburn for the national title. Auburn had lost by two 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. Record-wise, it was Tennessee's best season yet, as the Lady Vols won 35 games while losing only a pair of regular season contests to Auburn and Texas. The Lady Vols won every NCAA tournament game by at least 12 points.^[5]

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.^[7]

1990s[link]

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 their 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 seven 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 semi-finals, 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 their fourth title with an 83-65 win over Georgia.^[9]

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 their tenth loss of the season, in the SEC semi-finals to Auburn, the team pulled together in time for the NCAA Tournament. After avenging a regular-season loss to undefeated Connecticut, Tennessee continued on their way to the championship game, where they avenged another loss, defeating Old Dominion by 9 for their second straight national title.^[10] Summitt also earned her 600th win during the season, a 15- point victory over Marquette on November 23, 1996.^[7]

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.^[5]

The Lady Vols ended the decade with their third straight 30-win season, third straight SEC title, and third straight SEC Tournament title. Additionally, the Lady Vols defeated UConn in the regular season, 72-71, in what would be the Huskies 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. However, in the championship game the Lady Vols were beaten soundly by the Huskies, 71–52. This marked the fourth time in six years that 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.^[5]

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.^[11] Additionally, Pat Summitt was named the Naismith Coach of the Century and Chamique Holdsclaw earned recognition as player of the century.^[5]

2000s[link]

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.^[7] 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. 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.^[7] 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.^[7]

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.^[12] During the season, Summitt earned her 800th win, 76-57 over DePaul and was the fastest coach to reach this milestone.^[7]

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.^[13]

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.^[14][15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17] Later, in Baton Rouge, the Lady Vols clinched the SEC title against LSU in a game where Candace Parker scored 27.^[18] However in the SEC tournament semifinals, Tennessee fell to the Tigers.^[19] In the NCAA tournament, Summitt's team easily made it to the Final Four, dispatching teams that included SEC foe Mississippi and 13-seeded Cinderella, Marist, winning each game by at least 14. In the Final Four, Tennessee again faced North Carolina. Despite shooting poorly,^[20] the Lady Vols came back from a 12-point deficit with 8:18 remaining to win 56-50.^[21] In the championship game against Rutgers, Tennessee won its seventh title.^[22] 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^[23] and 22nd-ranked Texas. The win over Texas was Summitt's 950th.^[24] 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.^[25] 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.^[26] 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.^[27] 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.

Health and end of coaching career[link]

In August 2011, Summitt announced that she had been diagnosed three months earlier with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.^[28] Despite the diagnosis, she did complete the 2011-2012 season, but with a reduced role, while longtime assistant Holly Warlick, an assistant under Summitt since 1985, assuming most of the responsibilities.^[29][30] In an interview with GoVolsXtra.com, she stated, "There's not going to be any pity party and I'll make sure of that."^[31]

After the season, which ended with the Lady Vols losing to the eventual unbeaten national champion Baylor Lady Bears in the Elite Eight in Des Moines, on April 18, 2012, Pat Summitt officially stepped down as head coach, ending her 38-year coaching career. Warlick was named Summitt's successor. In a statement accompanying her resignation, Summitt said, ""I feel like Holly’s been doing the bulk of it, She deserves to be the head coach..." Summitt was given the title Head Coach Emeritus upon her resignation.^[32] According to NCAA regulations, as head coach emeritus, she will not be allowed to sit on the team bench.^[33]

Summitt finished her coaching career with 1,098 wins in 1,306 games coached in AIAW and NCAA Division I play. No other Division I basketball head coach, men's or women's, has more than 927 career wins as of the end of the 2011-12 season.

Coaching style[link]

Summitt is best known for giving her players an icy stare in response to poor play. However, by her own admission, she has mellowed considerably over the years. In 2007 she told U.S. News and World Report that she does not yell at her players nearly as much as she did earlier in her career.^[34] Tennessee at least twice asked Summitt to consider coaching the men's team, once before 1997^[35] and again in 2001.^[36]

Tournament record[link]

Summitt has 15 Southeastern Conference regular season titles with the Lady Vols, as well as 14 tournament titles. Summitt's Lady Vols have made an appearance in every NCAA Tournament, as well as every Sweet 16, except for 2009, and have appeared 18 times in the Final Four.^[8] When she made her 13th trip to the Final Four as a coach in 2002, she surpassed John Wooden as the NCAA coach with the most trips to the Final Four. Summitt is a seven-time SEC Coach of the year and a 7-time NCAA Coach of the year and has won eight national titles, including three consecutive titles from 1996 to 1998.^[8] Summitt is known for scheduling tough opponents for her team to play in the regular season, in order to prepare them for the post-season. In her years of coaching, her teams have played top ten ranked teams over 250 times.^[8]

In the 1997–98 season, her team went unbeaten, winning all 30 regular and 9 tournament games, earning Summitt's sixth championship. Some sportswriters^[who?] considered that year's team the greatest team ever in college women's basketball. This was the third consecutive championship for the Lady Vols, and the third for heralded players Chamique Holdsclaw and Kellie Jolly. Holdsclaw was named a consensus All-American, as was freshman Tamika Catchings.

Summitt and the 1996-1997 championship team were the subject of an HBO documentary titled A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back. That year, the Lady Vols posted just a 23–10 record heading into the NCAA tournament, with two losses to Louisiana Tech, setbacks against national powers Georgia, Stanford and UConn, but also shocking losses to SEC lesser lights Arkansas, Auburn, and LSU (which was 7–20 just two seasons prior and had not yet established itself as a perennial national power). However, Tennessee righted itself during the tournament, shocking previously undefeated UConn in the regional final, 91–81, before defeating Notre Dame and Old Dominion in the Final Four in Cincinnati.

Awards and titles[link]

• 16-time SEC Champions (1980, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,^[8] 2007,^[37] 2010, 2011)
• 16-time SEC Tournament Champions (1980, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012)^[8]
• 8-time SEC Coach of the Year (1983, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2011)^[38]
• 7-time NCAA Coach of the Year (1983, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2004)^[8]
• 8-time NCAA Champions (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008)^[8]

Honors[link]

• 1990: Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame as a coach, the first year coaches were honored.^[39]

• 1999: Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural class.^[40]

• 2000: Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.^[41]

• April 2000.: Named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century.

• 2008: Named Best Coach/Manager ESPY Award. Award encompasses all sports college and professional

• 2009: Named to Sporting News' list of the 50 greatest coaches of all time (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, college basketball, and college football). She is listed in position 11.^[42]

• 2011: Named Sports Illustrated's Sportswoman of the Year, Dec. 6th, 2011 in NYC. (She shared the Sportsman/Sportswoman honor with Duke University men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski.)

• Summitt is the only person to have two courts used by NCAA Division I basketball teams named in her honor: "Pat Head Summitt Court" at the University of Tennessee at Martin, and "The Summitt" at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

• She also has two streets named after her: "Pat Head Summitt Street" on the University of Tennessee campus and "Pat Head Summitt Avenue" on the University of Tennessee at Martin campus.

• 2012: Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Records[link]

Note: The first season for NCAA Division I women's basketball was the 1981-82 season. Prior to that, Tennessee played women's basketball in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in Division I.

• Most NCAA women's basketball championships (8)
• Most seasons coached in NCAA/AIAW play without a losing record (38, lost more than 9 games in a season only 6 times and more than 10 games in a season only twice)
• Most consecutive NCAA/AIAW postseason appearances (38, never missed a tournament)
• Most number 1 seeds in NCAA Division I postseason play (20)
• Most wins as an NCAA/AIAW Division I basketball head coach (1,098; in second place is Mike Krzyzewski with 927 wins)
• Most wins in NCAA postseason play (109)
• Most NCAA Final Four appearances (18, six more than John Wooden, who holds the men's records)
• Most NCAA/AIAW Championship game appearances (15)
• Most 20-win seasons in NCAA/AIAW play (36, all consecutive seasons)
• Most 30-win seasons in NCAA/AIAW play (20)
• Third all-time in winning percentage (minimum 10 seasons) (.841, bested only by Geno Auriemma (.862) and Leon Barmore (.869)
• 45 former players have become coaches.^[43]
• Every Lady Vol player who completed her eligibility at Tennessee under Summitt graduated with a degree or is in the process of doing so.^[44][45]
• Every Lady Vol player who completed her eligibility at Tennessee under Summitt played in at least one Elite Eight.

Head coaching record[link]

Sources: SEC records;^[46] Conference champions^[47]

See also[link]

• List of college women's basketball coaches with 600 wins

References[link]

External links[link]

• Selected coverage of Pat Head Summitt , Knoxville News Sentinel

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pat Summitt

• coachsummitt.com
• Summitt biography
• "Eyes of the Storm" - a 1998 Sports Illustrated feature article about Summitt by Gary Smith