The Pat on Sports: Dynasty

Despite the fact that I didn’t get to watch the second half due to a power outage I know that the Lady Vols won their seventh national title. It has been a while since a Women’s basketball title made its way back to Knoxville. Last night the Lady Vols brought the first one in going on a decade home with a 59-46 win over Rutgers.
Coach Pat Summitt has inched closer to UCLA legend John Wooden in terms of number of national titles won. At the rate she is going she will very probably surpass him.
In fact with most of this season’s championship squad intact her eighth title could be only a year away. Candace Parker will return to a team that lost only WNBA second round draft pick Sydney Spencer and Dominique Redding to graduation.
With Parker’s return the Lady Vols have another Chamique Holdsclaw on their hands. If Parker can live up to her hype she could match Holdsclaw’s three national titles.
I went to UT during the Holdsclaw era and I have to say it was an exciting time. I think this could be just as fun for fans of the Lady Vols.
People can say what they want about the program but it is the most consistently successful athletic program at UT period. Phil Fulmer and Bruce Pearl may get a lot of press and talk about them on the various sports talk shows and message boards, but it is Pat Summitt that is the queen of Knoxville.
She has an advantage that the men’s program will never have. She practices her squad against a group of male basketball players. A lot of these guys could have played on the small college level. These guys are the unsung heroes of Lady Vols basketball. There is no choice, but to improve when you are playing against people who are, for the most part, bigger and stronger than you.
Stay tuned folks the next couple of years could see more titles for the Lady Vols.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the Florida Gators winning back to back national titles. This is a rare feat. It is even rarer that they won both the football and basketball titles in the same year. Rarer still is the fact that they beat Ohio State to win both titles.
The Gators have had quite a success story in basketball of late. I am sure some of their fans fear losing Billy Donovan to Kentucky. I don’t think they have anything to worry about.
I mean I have a dear friend who lives there and is stunned the way that the Kentucky fans treated poor Tubby Smith.
Why would anybody go to a school where fans take out full page ads in the major paper in Lexington calling for his dismissal despite a 20+ win season? I’d have left the first time some unappreciative fan put a for sale sign in my yard.
I am afraid as a Vol fan that the Gators are here for a long time to come in both football and basketball.

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