A lot of the Lady Vols basketball players are too young to have seen the height of Tennessee’s dominance under legendary coach Pat Summitt.
Many of them weren’t alive for the majority of Summitt’s eight championships, six of which were won between 1987 and 1998. But the players got an opportunity to learn more about Summitt’s legacy at the live reunion show put on by Omaha Productions on Dec. 11.
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The team and coaching staff were at the Tennessee Theatre to watch a panel of three former players – Candace Parker, Nikki Fargas and Andraya Carter – along with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. ESPN’s Holly Rowe moderated the panel for the two-hour show.
“It’s just great just to know the history that we have here, what Pat Summitt did for this program but also women’s basketball,” Alyssa Latham said after Tennessee beat Winthrop 112-40 on Dec. 14. “It’s great to be a part of that history. It’s kind of like you go out there and you play for that, and that’s what we try to do every day. So, it’s just beautiful to see.”
Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell was in high school during the height of the Tennessee-UConn rivalry, and she said sometimes it gets lost on her what her players don’t know about Summitt.
The show was an important reminder of the history that lies in the halls they walk every day, Caldwell said, a reminder to appreciate those who came before them in the thick of the season.
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“I think it was really important for them to see – I don’t want to say the weight we carry, but to see what we represent, and to see that everything that we are doing is bigger than us,” Caldwell said. “Everything that we have, has come from players and coaches that were here before us.”
Caldwell said the entire team loved it, and no one complained about being asked to attend an event outside of their normal schedule. The players talked about the show the next day in practice, in particular the story told about the only two things players were allowed to say in practice to Summitt.
If a player made a good play, they said, “two points,” and if they made a bad play, they said, “rebound.”
“They were referencing they can only say ‘two points’ and ‘rebounds.’ And I said, ‘I wish that we could do that,’ ” Caldwell said. “They wouldn’t even give me 15 minutes of practice – I asked for the first three drills where they could only give me two responses. But for them to hear about Pat and hear about her from her players and people that lived through it, I think it was such a valuable lesson for them.”
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Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Kim Caldwell says Lady Vols seeing Pat Summitt show was crucial
