The news keeps getting worse for one of the greatest coaches the game of basketball has ever seen. It was reported Wednesday that long-time head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, Pat Summitt, will step aside as head coach and now serve as an adviser for the team. Summitt was diagnosed with dementia in 2011 and split coaching duties Holly Warlick this past season.
Summit has won 1,098 games, eight National Championships, 16 SEC regular season titles and SEC tournament titles. She has been a 7-time NCAA Coach of the Year and 8-time SEC Coach of the Year. She has been to 18 Final Fours while coaching at Tennessee.
Arguably one of the greatest coaches of all-time, Summitt has graduated every single player she coached at Tennessee. Graduating kids from college nowadays seems like it’s impossible for coaches to do. But it wasn’t for her.
She has stood on the sidelines at Tennessee for 38 years. The floor is called “The Summitt” and rightfully so. She has reached an imperial top, with so many accomplishments, accolades, and achievements that 99.9% of coaches will never be able to surpass.
While she will still be part of the program and in most people’s eyes “the program”, her coaching days are behind her.
Even for the seemingly invincible people in this world that we idolize, life, still, must go on as we know it.
But it will never be the same.
Congratulations, Pat Summitt.