Here at KSR, we encourage making fun of Tennessee. They low down, they dirty, they some snitches, and we've seen that very little good comes out of Knoxville.
The good that does come out, we call Pat Summitt.
Pat has the most all time wins of any college basketball coach, men's or women's, and has eight national championships. Normally with the good comes the bad, but Summitt never had a losing season in 38 years, which is simply astounding. Her coaching years have been cut short by early-onset Alzheimer's, but even in the face of the diagnosis, Summitt was all orange-and-white grit:
"There's not going to be any pity party, and I'll make sure of that."
Heck yeah, Pat Summitt. We'll continue to make fun of the University of Tennessee, its fans, its colors, and its awful "garbage truck worker convention" football stadium,
but there's no making fun of Pat Summitt. Because she'd probably beat you up. (I'm writing this under duress of a full nelson as we speak.) And also because, along with Wooden, Phil, Popovich, Coach K, and our own Pat Riley, she's one of the greatest basketball minds we've seen. For fans of the sport, that's enough to get a:
Happy Birthday.
Some notes from today:
-Some people are watching soccer, or baseball, or even hockey (until last night), but June in Kentucky is just another time to think about basketball. Which is why UK's camps are the place to be this summer. I mean, who wouldn't want to be in the shoes of those kids getting autographs and meeting players at the Father Son camp this weekend? And for those of you who want a last chance to hang out with Julius Randle and James Young before they start their glamorous Pro careers, the
ProCamps are set for July 28-29th. Who needs the World Cup when you have ProCamps? All of Brazil, apparently.
-This newest iteration of the basketball
Wildcats will be taking their talents a little further south than South Beach this summer, all the way to the Bahamas. They'll join some of college basketball's elite programs in taking the pre-season seriously, unlike what Gillispie tried to do in Cancun in 2009:
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BasketBallroom[/caption]
Knowing what we know now, I'm just happy that "Billy Clyde in Cancun" only ended
that poorly. This August's Bahama trip looks much more rewarding.
-ESPN had a nice spot on
assistant-turned-head-honcho Mark Stoops, who took his time and waited until he had a good opportunity before making the leap. First of all, thanks Coach for calling Kentucky a "good opportunity." Just that small indication of his mindset shows his optimism for the program, and his willingness to work hard at it to make his teams successful.
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Kendra Harrison, Keffri Neal, and Raymond Dykstra medaled in their events in this weekend's NCAA Track and Field Championship. Harrison and Dykstra got silver, while Neal won bronze.
-Since we're talking about awards, A.J. Reed got another one: the National College Baseball Writers of America named him the league's Most Outstanding Player. Reed's got more awards this year than the LA Kings have had comeback wins. Did I do the hockey thing right?
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