About Pat

I don't personally know Pat Summitt and wouldn't pretend to, but her coaching career seems to have been linked to my life in many ways. So it certainly seemed fitting that, when she coached her last official game for the Tennessee Lady Vols last month, I was there.

Growing up with a die-hard Iowa State fan and hoops-playing father, I knew college basketball from a young age. But I mostly knew Iowa State men's basketball. Two-hour drives to Hilton Coliseum to watch Johnny Orr coach such players as Jeff Grayer and Fred Hoiberg were a fun treat and fond memory from my childhood.

Iowa State had a women's basketball team in the 1980s -- I now know this -- but it wasn't something I was really aware of at the time. When ISU hired Pam Wettig as its coach in 1985, the story was mostly of interest because her sister was an actress on the TV show Thirtysomething. The Iowa State team wasn't very good and the sport didn't have the national respect or parity it enjoys today, so I didn't know much about the team from my favorite school.

I just knew the Lady Vols.

Well, that's not entirely true. I also remember watching Dawn Staley at Virginia, Charlotte Smith at North Carolina, and of course the Lady Techsters with those short-sleeved uniforms. When I was a kid, the ONLY women's basketball you would ever see was the Final Four...so the only teams I knew were the ones that achieved at that level. But boy, did I love watching it and loved cheering for Tennessee. Realizing girls and women could play basketball beyond the driveway (the only place I had ever played at that point) was an awesome revelation to me. It inspired me. Then, when I realized that women could coach women's basketball, I just simply fell in love with Coach Summitt.

When HBO came out with its documentary "The Cinderella Season" when I was a freshman in college, I think I watched it about 10 times. There was something inspirational to me about seeing a woman be so successful and powerful in a stereotypically male role. I guess you could say that Pat Summitt was a natural role model for me.

As a regular media volunteer for these sorts of things, I was fortunate that the Lady Vols came to Iowa for the NCAA tournament twice in my lifetime. Of course, last month I never saw Pat Summitt any time but during the games. Frankly, I think it was a sad weekend for a lot of us: how shockingly sad it was for those of us who aren't close to the program but have long admired Summitt to see how quickly her health really was deteriorating. And how sad it is to think about anyone having to go through what she's going through.

But Holly Warlick was awesome, and I know she'll do a tremendous job taking over the program and building on Pat's enormous legacy.

And perhaps it was she who said it best when a reporter asked about Summitt’s fiery demeanor on the sideline against Baylor in that last game: “That’s Pat. Her love of the game, she’s not lost that. She may forget where her phone is, but she’s not gonna forget to yell at the officials. She’s still competitive. I don’t care what disease she has; she’s gonna go down swinging."

Although I was supposed to remain neutral, I was rooting for Pat not to go down but to keep swinging. But I know, in her way, that she will.

Thank you, Pat!