srijeda, 04.04.2007.
CIBONA vs. SPLIT 100:96...MARKOTA vs. HORNETS: 5 minuta/5 poena/1 skok
SEVENT HEAVEN: SEDMA UZASTOPNA NCAA TITULA NCAA KOŠARKAŠICA TENNESSEEA, PREDVOĐENIH ANTHONYEVOM SESTRICOM CANDACE..
Lock-y top
CLEVELAND – In Pat Summitt's mind, the wait didn't make Tennessee's seventh title any more special than the others.
But from a women's basketball standpoint, the Lady Vols' 59-46 win over Rutgers on Tuesday meant plenty. It meant that after eight years of first-time champs (Purdue, Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland) and four-time champs (Connecticut in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004), that things were back to normal.
That Tennessee was queen again.
Next season will open with the Lady Vols almost certainly the No. 1 team in the land and favorite to win an eighth title. If nothing else, this year's title means UConn still can't catch Tennessee, even if the Huskies win their first championship in four years (and No. 6 overall).
Surely this one must be especially sweet for Summitt, right?
"Actually, no. And I'm just being honest with you," Summitt said. "This is not about winning No. 7. This is about this team winning their first."
Fair enough. But even though Final Four Most Outstanding Player Candace Parker was all of 11 months old when Summitt won her first, it's clear that Summitt has won so many titles that winning the elusive No. 7 came almost naturally, despite the time that had passed since No. 6.
"It's different for me now," Summitt said. "And all I can tell you [is] it was like another game. When I came here today it wasn't like we were playing for a national championship; we went through our same routine."
The scary thing for the rest of the women's basketball world is that the "same routine" is, again, a championship routine.
Parker is the reason why. She made just five of 15 shots Tuesday, contributing to the worst two-game shooting performance by a team in Final Four history (by a champion or a runner-up). But she can play whatever position is needed. She can elevate above everyone else on the floor. And she calmly drained six straight free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
NAJBOLJE NOĆAŠNJE AKCIJE (04/04/07)..
"She makes everyone else better," Summitt said. "You've got a Candace Parker, you've got a chance to win a national championship."
Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, foiled in a bid for her first national title in 36 years of coaching, offered even more praise.
"You are witnessing the best player in the world," Stringer said. "There's nobody that comes close to her."
That's a scary thought because Parker could have two more chances to win additional titles before she moves on to dominate the WNBA or an overseas league, two more chances to remind casual fans that she's much, much more than the girl who won the high school dunk contest.
If Parker can lead Tennessee to a championship by winning games in which the Lady Vols shot 27 and 34 percent, respectively, imagine what she can do with one or two more years under Summitt's tutelage. And what could happen if the Lady Vols actually played, well, up to their offensive potential.
And how Parker and her teammates could play with the monkey – eight years without a championship – off their collective backs.
"Candace will be better next year because Candace is very serious about her game," Summitt said. "And she's constantly working on it. And that's why this team sat here tonight and won the national championship, because of their dedication in the offseason."
That's Summitt. She never stops coaching. She knows that, at this time last year, most everyone was saying Maryland would be the team to beat in 2006-07, with all of its top players back from a championship team. But the Terps lost this year in the second round.
It's hard to imagine the same fate befalling Tennessee. Its three all-tournament team members – Parker, center Nicky Anosike and sharpshooter Shannon Bobbitt – all return next season.
While Summitt said she didn't know if any team would ever be able to win three straight titles again as Tennessee did from 1996 to 1998 (and Connecticut from 2002 to 2004), one can't help but do the math. Two more years of Candace Parker. Two more years until Summitt probably reaches 1,000 career wins (she needs 54).
10 NAJBOLJIH ALLEY-OOPOVA MJESECA OŽUJKA 2007.
Two more titles in a row isn't out of reach. Because just as it was from the late '80s and through the '90s, Tennessee is back at the summit again.
The Lady Vols are something special.
By Jeremy Stone
Yahoo! Sports
