Lady Razorbacks next on Lady Vols' platter

ROB KEYS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Gary Blair got just what he didn't want Saturday afternoon, as top-ranked Connecticut did what only one other team has done in the previous 45 games at Thompson-Boling Arena -- beat Tennessee.
"One thing has to happen," Blair said Friday. "Tennessee has to beat Connecticut. I don't want them coming in hacked off at the whole world."
Unfortunately for Blair, the Lady Vols most likely will be "hacked off" when Arkansas (9-3) visits Tennessee at 6 p.m. Monday. Saturday's loss to Connecticut was just the second of the season for No. 2 Tennessee, which had reeled off 11 consecutive victories after losing its season-opener to Louisiana Tech.
Still, Blair will try to find any angle he can to get his Lady Razorbacks ready for what undoubtedly is their biggest challenge this season.
"We've got Tennessee right where we want them," Blair said with a laugh, noting that Monday's game will be the fifth in eight days for the Lady Vols.
But all kidding aside, Blair knows there really isn't a good time to play Tennessee.
"The rest of us coaches don't give up, but sometimes it gets frustrating," Blair said of competing against Tennessee.
The biggest frustration, Blair said, comes from the fact that many of the top-flight high school players keep choosing Connecticut and Tennessee over lesser programs year after year. The two schools practically stockpile Parade All-Americans.
"My X's and O's would work a whole lot better, also, if I had that type of talent," Blair said. "It's fun going out to practice when you know those X's and O's are going to work, and all you've got to do is motivate and make sure that the kids are executing."
That's exactly what Summitt has been doing for most of her 26 seasons at Tennessee. And despite Saturday's loss, Summitt has put the Lady Vols alone at the top of the women's college basketball world.
"I mean, she [Summitt] is just playing the game at a different level," Blair said.
Evidence of that is Tennessee's schedule, one that most teams wouldn't dare play. After losing to Louisiana Tech, Tennessee's victories included Stanford, UCLA, Purdue, Texas, Old Dominion and LSU. There also will be a rematch at Connecticut on Feb. 2
"They [Lady Vols] are almost like the USA [national] team playing all the different college teams," Blair said. "They're just playing whoever they can that will give them a good game. They don't care about the losses, they don't care about going undefeated. They care about winning the whole thing."
And while Summitt said some of Tennessee's non-conference scheduling is aimed at "trying to grow the [women's] game," she does prefer to test her teams against the best possible competition during the regular season.
"Sometimes you have to set aside wins and losses," Summitt said. "And a great deal of our success here at Tennessee has been a direct result of playing the best teams. Your weaknesses are immediately exposed."
After a recent film session with assistant coach Vic Schaefer, Blair said this season's weaknesses have yet to be exposed.
"About halfway through, I asked him [Schaefer] if this was the highlight film," Blair said. "And he said, 'No, this is the game tape.' "
But the winning never seems to get old for Summitt. Each season, she said, presents new challenges that get her just as excited as ever about coaching.
Blair believes there are other reasons for Summitt staying put at Tennessee, too, comparing her situation with that of Phil Jackson's a few years ago with the Chicago Bulls.
"When you have the ingredients of something that's very special, why break it up?" Blair said.
In addition to enjoying the college game, Blair said Summitt probably realizes that she has a chance to join some very rare company.
"Pat is driven by the chance that she has to go down as the greatest coach of the greatest program that's ever played the game, very similar to what [John] Wooden had at UCLA," Blair said.
Unfortunately for Blair and Arkansas, Summitt and Tennessee are looking to take the next step Monday night.

This article was published on Sunday, January 9, 2000

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