Shock at the Summit

For as long as I can remember, I have been a die hard basketball fan. I love the game, and can remember countless Saturday nights during the winters of my childhood trying to convince my Dad to let me stay awake so I can watch the late west coast college games on ESPN when I knew I should have been in bed so I wasn't a cranky little baby the next day. It did not matter who was playing or if the games were close or not I just loved watching the game to see if anything exciting would happen. Plus, if the teams that were playing had a good chance of getting in the NCAA tournament I would want to know what they brought to the table to see how many games-if any-they could win.

Now that I am a little older and I would hope to think more mature, if a game is on that gets out of hand or is between two teams that I do not really care about I either change the channel or turn it off to look for something more productive to do. I don't always do so, but sometimes I do-I guess it's just my inner child wanting to waste time.

You may be wondering where I'm going with all of this, and if you are a lady I warn you now that what I am about to talk about may make you upset. Consider that your disclaimer.

I enjoy watching pretty much any type of sport no matter what the time of day or what it is, unless it's a women's event. I'm sorry ladies, but you're just flat out not as exciting as the men's game. You're just not. I always try to give a lady college hoops game a chance throughout the year, but I can't bring myself to finish watching it. There are no dunks (unless Candace Parker or Lisa Leslie is playing) and everything moves slower than molasses in comparison to the men's game.

Now, don't get me wrong. I watched the USA women's run to the World Cup soccer Final this summer when I could for the simple fact that this was for our country and it was exciting that for a while we looked like the dominant team in that tournament. But that's about it. I mean come on. It is so difficult to sit down and actually enjoy a women's basketball game and if one is being broadcasted on ESPN or ABC or anything like that I can't help myself to automatically change it to something else. Why waste my time?

With all of that being said, what I'm going to talk about for the rest of this post many of you will probably say "Why did you hate on women's sports so much before?" or something of that nature. But I can assure you that what is about to be said on here is much more important than women's sports and relates to more basketball in general.

Over the past 36 hours or so, news has been released that the Tennessee Lady Volunteers head basketball coach, Pat Summit, is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and is suffering from early onset dementia. When I heard the story on this this morning I was personally shocked and could not believe it because of all what Coach Summit represents. While she is coaching she looks like one of the sternest human beings alive and I'm going to be honest with you about something. If I ever played for her and screwed up something on the court I would be scared that she would rip my balls off or something like that. Because that's just how it looks like she deals with things in the basketball world.

Coach Summit has won 8 national championships while being at Tennessee, has never had a losing season in her 36 years as a head coach, and has compiled an unbelievable 1,071 wins which ranks more than anyone else-ever. Men's or women's. That is an achievement that even for women's basketball haters like myself deserves from respect and recognition. After being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 Summit proved that she wasn't done leading the dominant program she has built, by winning back-to-back National Championships in 2007-2008. Every year you can count on her squad finishing in the top 5 and making a run in the NCAA tournament which is simply amazing.

Summit has already said that she is going to continue coaching despite her condition, citing that "There's not going to be a pity party and I'll make sure of that." That is a classic Pat Summit line, and until her condition worsens to a point where she can no longer be at the helm of the greatest program in women's basketball not in the state of Connecticut I would still never want to play them. No matter what her team's record is, they always seem to do big things come March.

I'm glad that she is going to continue coaching so I can see her get pissed at her players every once in a while and see if her players all come together for her this year. Needless to say, it will be an interesting storyline that we all know ESPN will drill into our heads and talk about non-stop until something else comes about.

In other news, the day off yesterday was capped by an awesome dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube with a friend where I polished off a modest 30 chicken wings with sauces ranging from Buckeye BBQ to Chipotle. We then watched the Reds first be dumps and blow a lead and then come back in the 9th inning to win a game against the Marlins 8-6. Yonder Alonso, the heir apparent to Mr. MVP Joey Votto got the start and came through in a big way with three hits and four RBI's. If the Reds ever to get rid of Votto (which should only happen if they simply can't pay the man enough of what he's worth) then they have a solid alternative with Alonso.

I work today and have another day off tomorrow, which is going to be glorious. I just hope there are less than five call offs today so I don't get home in the wee hours of the morning.

Proud Buckeye and Sports Enthusiast,

Eric Seger

Daily Segs