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Summitt has only praise for Chancellor
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Lady Vols Final Four practice, April 6, 2008
Lady Vols practice in preparation for their game Sunday in Tampa, Fla.
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TAMPA, Fla. - Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt's relationship with LSU coach Van Chancellor didn't inspire any Final Four controversy. These two are too close for that. LSU plays the Lady Vols tonight in the semifinals at 9:30.
Summitt not only has known Chancellor for decades, she also is well acquainted with Chancellor's wife, Betty. Chancellor asked Summitt to be his escort when he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Summitt said that she is "excited" that Chancellor, who led the Houston Comets to four WNBA championships, was able reach his first Women's Final Four.
As the former coach at Ole Miss, Chancellor guided 14 teams to the NCAA women's tournament.
"I'm proud of what he's accomplished and it hasn't changed him,'' Summitt said. "He's the same down-to-earth, just a great guy. And I know he's thrilled because he said he just didn't want to be the first one not to get a team, not to get his team there."
Chancellor, in his first season at LSU, helped lead the Lady Tigers to a Division I record-tying five consecutive Final Four appearances.
Dishing It Up: Before the tournament started, Summitt reheated one of her favorite postseason analogies, urging the players to play it potluck style and bring their best dish to pass.
Freshman forward Angie Bjorklund reminds herself of this directive in the form of the acronym "Peas", written on her basketball shoe.
It translates to "positive, energy, attitude and shooting."
The Lady Vols could use a little more of the "S" factor from Bjorklund, who has scored just nine baskets in four tournament games.
Local Ties: Bev Roberts, who was one of the game officials for Tennessee's Midwest Regional final against Texas A&M and will officiate one of the Final Four games, is a 1990 graduate of Tusculum College and a native of Kingsport.
Bev's father, Garry, is a basketball official in the South Atlantic Conference.
Strong Presence: The SEC was generally considered to be down this season. Putting five teams in the NCAA field paled in comparison to the Big East and Big 12, which qualified eight teams apiece.
Yet the SEC has both LSU and Tennessee together in the Final Four for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
"Everybody has been talking about some other conferences,'' Summitt said. "But there's two SEC teams in the Final Four. So I think that speaks for itself."
Complimenting Candice: Lady Vols All-American Candace Parker was gracious about Stanford's Candice Wiggins winning the State Farm Wade Trophy, the national player of the year award Parker won last season.
"It couldn't have gone to a better person and a better player," Parker said.
Before Wiggins, the other Stanford player to win the Wade was Oak Ridge native Jennifer Azzi in 1990.
Notebook: Along with Memphis, Lady Vols assistant coach Nikki Caldwell said she expects to hear from UCLA about its head coaching vacancy after UT's season concludes. . . . Summitt retold the story of knocking the raccoon off the back deck of her house during Saturday's press conference and added, "Fortunately I've never done this with a player; I wouldn't be here." . . . Danielle Donehew, the Lady Vols director of basketball operations, will be leaving after the season to become the executive vice-president of the new WNBA franchise in Atlanta.
© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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Posted by manateemo on April 5, 2008 at 7:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let's see Tenn was given the weakest #2 to compete against and LSU was a #2 seed playing virtually on its home court while Uconn was forced to elininate a team that had beaten it during the season and Rutgers the 5-6 team in tha nation had to go thru Uconn. The sec still controls the selection committee. If Tenn played either rutgers, lsu or Stanford they would have had to buy tickets to get to St. Pete
Posted by LdyVolFaninKS on April 5, 2008 at 8:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"The SEC still controls the selection committee"? Did you not see last years bracket? Also, if OU had not have choked early in the tournament, UT would have played them basically on their home court. I was in Oklahoma City...the crowd was all A&M and Sooner fans with a splash of orange here and there. It was not an easy road.
Posted by bmaples on April 5, 2008 at 9:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Glad to see Van C get his shot. His team got a kick out of his excitement -- said he was actually jumping up and down more than they were. After some of the stuff LSU has been through, I'm glad they get to just focus on playing ball and making the finals.
That said -- here's hoping all the Lady Vols show up strong, and make the only banner LSU hangs next year a Final Four. (Well -- in addition to their SEC Regular Season one. Bleah.)
Fowles may have been elected SEC Player of the Year -- but I'm pulling for Parker to be Final Four MVP, and Tennessee to be Team of the Year. Go Lady Vols!!
Posted by johnlg00 on April 6, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
manateemo, I agree that the committee screwed up putting UConn and Rutgers in the same region, but, as I said in a previous post, this was generally the most screwed-up selection process I have ever seen, though the competition for that honor was fierce. Are you saying that it was "SEC control" of the selection process that got ALL of FIVE SEC teams in the tourney while the Big-12 and the Big East got EIGHT each? Either the SEC was so poor this year--an allegation undermined by the fact that TWO teams from that conference are in the Final Four--that it was only by skullduggery that even five teams got in, or it was a very poor exercise of the "control" you allege. Which is it? My motto is, never ascribe to conspiracy that which can be accounted for by incompetence and coincidence.
Posted by manateemo on April 6, 2008 at 12:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
johnlg00
why settle for incompetence when a good conspiricy works just as well. BE did well the tournament and each fininshed near its ratings Just seems to coincidental that Tenn who lost to two of the #2 and thru the untimely clock operator a pos 3rd loss doesnt meet any of them till the final 4 while uconn has to face an arch rival in the region. just cause I'm paranoid doesnt mean no one is watching me.
Posted by camoman270 on April 6, 2008 at 4:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I felt it was/is fair. If uconn beats a great stanford team and then takes care of either tn or the tigs.....they deserve to be champions. With the regular season schedule the lady vols play who could fault what ever gets thrown at them in the big dance??? The final four is a great representation of the best teams in the nation this year not only in the womens but also in the mens.....duh it is a no brainer if you know anything about this years best teams at all!!!
Posted by generalneyland on April 7, 2008 at 12:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
manateemo, the sooner you Connecticut fans can come to grips with the fact that you ARE NOT, NEVER HAVE BEEN, and NEVER WILL BE the TN Lady Vols, the sooner you can learn to be comfortable in your own skin and get on with your lives.
Posted by generalneyland on April 7, 2008 at 12:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
P.S. We did our part to make sure we played this season......too bad you didn't.
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