HOOVER, Ala. — Two months after her shocking announcement that she was diagnosed with early onset dementia, Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt is preparing for a season in which her team once again will be favored to win the SEC championship.
“I’m not ready to retire,” Summitt, 59, said at the annual SEC basketball media day Thursday. “I may be old as dirt, but I’m still trying to win ballgames.”
Meeting with reporters from around the Southeast, Summitt said she has a “good game plan” for battling her medical condition. She said she is sticking to a daily routine, “keeping my mind sharp” by doing puzzles on her iPad, relying on the support of her staff and friends, and reveling in coaching her Lady Vols.
“What I want everybody to know is that I’m doing great,” Summitt said. “Every day I get up, and I want to go to work. That’s what keeps me going.
“Overall, I don’t really feel like I have dementia, but I have dementia. Everyone is asking about it all the time.
“I don’t think it’s something that is slowing me down. If anything, it’s revving me up.”
Entering her 38th season as Tennessee’s coach, Summitt has won 1,071 games, more than any other college basketball coach, men’s or women’s. She has won eight national championships, and her team is expected to contend for a ninth this season.
“She is at every practice; she is heavily recruiting, and she is involved in everything we do,” Tennessee assistant coach Holly Warlick said. “She is doing a heck of a job.
“Coach Summitt believes it is not about her; it’s about her program.”
Down on realignment
Auburn men’s coach Tony Barbee is hardly a fan of the conference realignment sweeping college athletics.
“I’m a traditionalist, so it kind of saddens me to see,” Barbee said. “When I say it doesn’t make sense, it makes sense — it’s dollars and cents. It’s money. It makes total sense. But if we’re truly concerned about the welfare of our student-athletes, if that was our No. 1 priority, then you wouldn’t be seeing these changes.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said every NCAA committee should include an athlete from a major-college program.
Preseason concerns
Asked their biggest concern entering the season, Georgia’s coaches had this to say:
Men’s coach Mark Fox: “My list of concerns. It’s too long.”
Women’s coach Andy Landers: “We lost Porsha Phillips, the best rebounder in the Southeastern Conference a year ago. You got to be worried about how you’re going to bridge that gap.”
On Caldwell-Pope ...
Two weeks into preseason practice, highly recruited freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is, by all accounts, fitting in well with the Georgia team.
“He has come into our program with a boatload of accolades, and you would never know it,” Fox said. “He has come in with the attitude that he’s joining our team, not that the team is joining him.”
Said senior guard Dustin Ware: “He listens to the older guys, listens to the coaches. ... He’s really one of those do-it-all kind of guards. There are very few weaknesses he has out there on the floor. He’s still learning how to play and all that, but he’s coming right along. He’s going to be just fine.”
High on Vandy
While Kentucky was the media’s preseason pick to win the SEC men’s championship, expectations also are high for Vanderbilt, predicted to finish second in the league.
The Commodores return all five starters from a 23-win team, including four seniors and two members of the media’s preseason All-SEC first team (guard John Jenkins and guard/forward Jeffery Taylor).
“If this team can stay healthy, I think we have a chance to have the best team we have ever had,” coach Kevin Stallings said.
“He’s got NBA-level players on that team, and they’re seniors, too,” Calipari said. “It’s unusual.”
Nationally, three SEC teams were ranked in the top 10 of the preseason coaches’ poll: Kentucky No. 2, Vanderbilt No. 7 and Florida No. 10. Alabama was No. 17.
About the Author
