Examining Pat Summitt's 35 Years of Basketball Excellence

Pat Summitt is in the middle of her 35th season as the head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols.

In those 35 years she has put up some unbelievable numbers: 995 wins, eight NCAA titles, 14 SEC Championships, 13 SEC tournament Championships, 27 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Sweet 16, 12 Olympians, 19 Kodak All-Americans, 71 All-SEC performers, seven-time SEC Coach of the Year, seven-time NCAA Coach of the Year, Naismith Coach of the Century—the list goes on and on.

Summitt’s next record will be 1,000 wins—a feat that only one other coach has accomplished. Gene Bess of Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, became the first college basketball coach to win 1,000 games on Feb. 22, 2006. At that time his record was 1,000-258.

Coach Summitt is five wins away from 1,000 and would have to lose the rest of Tennessee's games this year and for the next two years in order to have as many losses.

Pat Summitt knows basketball. She understands the game and how to motivate the young ladies who play for her. She gets the best out of each player, not only on the court but also in the classroom. Coach Summitt has a 100 percent graduation rate for all Lady Vols who have completed their eligibility at Tennessee.

Coach Summitt came to Tennessee at the age of 21. She wasn't much older than some of the girls she was there to coach. That first year the Lady Vols went 16-8. After spending the summer playing for the U.S. Women's World Championship team and the 1975 Pan American Games team, she was back to coaching in Tennessee. The second year she went 16-11.

These would be the only two years that Summitt's team didn't win at least 20 games.

Coach Summitt's teams have never missed a NCAA tournament. She has never lost in the first two rounds of the tournament. Almost 50 percent of her games have been played against ranked opponents.

She is truly a living legend in college basketball. She has been inducted into both the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

When Summitt wins her 1,000th game in the next few weeks, most people will not notice nor care. Of the people who do notice, a lot of them will say, "Well, she's a women's coach, so it's not that big of an accomplishment." These people would be wrong and terribly shortsighted.

When you look at what she has done in 35 years, it is mind-boggling. Summitt's achievements are unparalleled in the collegiate coaching ranks.