10 replies to this topic

[SportsGuy]

http://espn.go.com/w... ... volunteers

[BSLChrisStoner]

What a terribly scary, and debilitating disease. Best to her and her family. It is profound how much impact she had on Women's Basketball, and Women's sports in general.

[SBTarheel]

They said this was her first Senior class that didn't make the Final Four. Wow.

[SportsGuy]

They said this was her first Senior class that didn't make the Final Four. Wow.

Is it more stunning that she has always had this or that the class didn't make the final four?

[BSLChrisStoner]

Is it more stunning that she has always had this or that the class didn't make the final four?

It is a credit to her, that it did not happen with this class. She helped grow the game so much, that talent is far more spread out.

[SBTarheel]

Amazing that she's been in that many final Fours, just insane the consistency. So impressive.

[Nuclear Dish]

Here's the most amazing thing to me:

She has over 1000 wins and she is under 60 years old. She started coaching at Tennessee when she was 22 years old!

[DBean]

I knew she was thinking of stepping down soon, but didn't know it was going to be this soon. I guess she still has stuff she wants to do before this disease starts to eat at her. Very sad.

[Oriole85]

It is a credit to her, that it did not happen with this class. She helped grow the game so much, that talent is far more spread out.

Yeah I agree with this, Tennessee was the gold standard for so long and then UConn became another super-power. They're really hasn't been another super-power in the women's game like those two programs. But other programs are clearly growing in prominence and trying to emulate Tennessee.

Women's basketball is the number three sport (after football and men's basketball) as well as the biggest women's sport. Colleges are taking the sport more seriously now than ever. Pat Summitt started out making $250/month, driving the team van, washing the team uniforms, and competing for space with general phys ed classes. She ended having a $1.5 million compensation package and the court named after her(in addition to her alma matter, UT-Martin).

I believe that Brenda Freese makes slightly under a $1 million, without the rise of women's basketball, largely due to Summitt, not sure how possible that would be.

[Oriole85]

Give Tennessee administration and athletic department a lot of credit for the way they handled this. They allowed her to have a "farewell tour" and made a smooth transition to Holly Warlick. Very classy move.

[Nuclear Dish]

Now that Summitt has stepped down, here are the active career wins leaders among women's basketball coaches:

1. C. Vivian Stringer, Rutgers 885
2. Sylvia Hatchell, UNC 879
3. Tara VanDerveer, Stanford 861
4. Barbara Stevens, Bentley 852
5. Geno Auriemma, UConn 804
6. Andy Landers, Georgia 795
7. Robin Selvig, Montana 774
8. Mike Strong, Scranton 770
9. Jim Foster, Ohio St. 765
10. Curt Fredrickson, Northern St. 707

For comparison's sake, Pat Summitt ends her career with 1098 wins. The closest to her to date was Jody Conradt (who retired in 2007) with 900 wins.

C. Vivian Stringer is 64, and Jim Foster is 63. Hatchell, VanDerveer, Auriemma, Landers, and Selvig are all between 58 and 60 years old (Auriemma is just slightly the youngest at 58).

Assuming they each coach until they are 68 and average 25 wins per year, no one should top Summitt. If we assume Auriemma will average 30 per year, he'd barely pass her. I assume, with his ego, that he won't stop until he's #1, so I'd give him a better than 50-50 chance to do it. But I don't think anyone else will pass her.