It was more than eight months ago that Pat Summitt gave the sports world a “Where were you when?” moment.
Summitt, the University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach of nearly four decades, revealed her diagnosis of early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type ““ a crippling disease that she vowed to coach through.
Cori Close and Alyssia Brewer, thousands of miles apart, both had Summitt to thank for the places where they found themselves when the news dropped.
Close was on the banks of Lake Como in Italy, eating dinner with the UCLA team of which she was recently placed in charge. Brewer was entering her senior year of college in Knoxville, Tenn., the orange dot of a city Summitt put on the map with her Lady Volunteers’ perpetual dominance in women’s basketball.
When Summitt announced her retirement from coaching on April 18, it was a watershed moment for the sport. Debates about the all-time greatest women’s basketball coach start and end with Pat Summitt, with little room for actual debate. Summitt won at a rate comparable to John Wooden, did it with grace and left a legacy that will be hailed for much longer than the 38 years she served as Tennessee’s coach.
“Before Pat Summitt got here, no women’s team ever would be making a trip to Italy,” Close said. “No women’s program would be experiencing the things they’re experiencing without Pat Summitt.
“Bottom line, I wouldn’t have this job without Pat Summitt.”
A dormant UCLA women’s basketball program reaped Summitt’s ever-giving coaching tree, one that could take up this entire issue of the Daily Bruin if there were available resources to chart it out.
It’s much easier to trace the branch of the tree that relates to UCLA. Nikki Caldwell came to Westwood Village in 2008 with Summitt’s seal of approval. Caldwell had starred as a guard at Tennessee, then returned to serve as one of Summitt’s many assistant coaches. Summitt gave her pitch in a 2009 interview with The Bruin.
“You can’t go wrong with Nikki Caldwell,” Summitt said. “She’s going to get the job done. As young as she is, she understands how far you have to set the bar to get the best results.”
UCLA was fortunate to snag a coach of Caldwell’s pedigree. The Bruins improved in each of three seasons under Caldwell, reaching the NCAA Tournament twice before she left for Louisiana State.
Brewer has a unique perspective on the background behind UCLA’s revival in the college basketball world. She was recruited by Caldwell to Tennessee, coached by Summitt, then transferred to UCLA in the fall of 2011.
“I definitely saw a mini-Pat,” Brewer said of Caldwell.
Brewer, a 6-foot-3-inch redshirt senior forward about to play her one and only season at UCLA, played three seasons under Summitt at Tennessee’s powerhouse program. She got an inside look at the reasons behind Summitt’s success, finding out that pressure manifested itself in ways other than Summitt’s piercing glare.
“It was more intimidation by her harping on you, rather than thinking “˜I’m playing for the greatest women’s basketball coach ever,” she said.
Brewer was in the room with the rest of her teammates the day Summitt shared her diagnosis with the team.
It was hard to digest at first, but even after Brewer left Knoxville, she saw that little was different.
“Even when coach Summitt was in her prime, she’s always had her support staff helping her through everything,” Brewer said. “It wasn’t any different.”
Close saw a change in Summitt’s demeanor, especially after Tennessee paid a visit to the John Wooden Center on Dec. 17 for a nonconference matchup.
While Brewer was held out from going up against her former team during her required redshirt season, UCLA’s first-year coach stood across the sideline from Tennessee’s first-class coach. The Lady Volunteers beat the overmatched Bruins by 21.
The result was typical of the Tennessee program, but it came with a different feel, at least to Close.
“It was a little bit sad for me,” Close said. “Coach Summitt was not the same.”
Close is quick to shower gratitude on Summitt and shows immense admiration for her longevity. She has been handed the reins to a program that has Summitt to thank, however indirectly.
“All of our current players have been influenced by Pat Summitt because they were influenced by Nikki Caldwell,” Close said.
That sense of gratitude has reverberated throughout the country, and it only intensified when Summitt decided to step down.
“I don’t know how many schools you can go around the U.S. where some way, somehow, they have an affiliation with Tennessee and coach Summitt,” Brewer said.
Email Menezes at