Around the Nation

Vols' Summit Reaches 1,000 Wins

While Pat Summit’s Tennessee Lady Vols were unable to beat No. 2 Oklahoma on Monday night to give their coach an unprecedented 1,000th win, given a second try — this time in front of a home crowd — on Friday night, the Tennessee women made the Georgia Lady Bulldogs the answer to a trivia question. The Lady Vols served up the milestone victory in convincing style, 73-43.

Tennessee’s coach since the 1974-1975 season, Summit has now won more games than any other NCAA coach of either gender. It took a dozen years for Summit to win a national championship in 1987, but her teams have tacked on another seven since then. The Lady Vols entered this season as two-time defending national champions, but have gone on to a relatively disappointing 17-5 this year.

Summit became the sixth basketball coach at any level to reach 1,000 victories on Friday, trailing five NBA coaches with 1,000 or more (with Lenny Wilkins’s 1,332 Ws leading the pack). Almost more remarkable, however, is Summit’s loss column, in which only 187 games have accrued in the last 35 years.

Mike McLaughlin Fastest to 400

Mike McLaughlin, one-time player and current women’s basketball head coach at Holy Family, has added another title to his illustrious career at the school. McLaughlin, who still holds the Holy Family record for three-point shooting at 57.7 percent, reached his 400th win faster than any NCAA coach in history on Tuesday night. Just three days before Pat Summit became the first college coach to notch 1,000 Ws, McLaughlin hit 400 in 51 fewer games than Summit did, advancing his record to 400-59 in 14 years on Division II sidelines. The former captain of the Washington Generals — perennial losers to the Harlem Globetrotters — told Sports Illustrated that he kept his current players focused on Tuesday’s game rather than their coach’s winning ways.

“I give our team a lot of credit,” he told the Associated Press. “Our players knew they could be part of history, but they stayed focused on what we wanted to do. We tried to avoid this pre-talk of what could occur. They were really focused to make this happen.”

The focus paid off, allowing Holy Family to defeat University of Sciences 64-47 in front of a home crowd that included McLaughlin’s parents and family.

NCAA Selection Committee Seminar

The NCAA basketball tournament is undoubtedly one of the most exciting times in sports as schools large and small across the country vie for the national title. The all-important seeding and bracket formation, however, has long been shrouded in mystery and confusion, even for the coaches.

Finally presented with the opportunity to attend a seminar on setting up the brackets for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, DePaul Head Coach Doug Bruno and Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw did not hesitate to skip two days of practice this week, even with a matchup looming this Sunday.

Joined by head coaches Gary Blair of Texas A&M and Sherri Coale of Oklahoma, both top-10 programs, Bruno and McGraw were eager to learn about the selection process.

“Any coach who wouldn’t want to take the time to come here isn’t seeing the big picture,” Bruno said. “It’s important for us coaches to know that it’s not easy for them to decide.”

“The committee has to be responsible for hundreds of teams,” he said. “To hear that they get daily updates and the vast amount of information they have is incredible.”

This marks the second year that the seminar has been open to media members, and the first year that coaches have been invited. The selection committee for men’s basketball will hold a similar seminar next week, but no active coaches are invited.

Knight Ponders Possible Return

It has barely been a year since the legendary Bob Knight resigned as head coach for Texas Tech, seemingly putting an end to a stellar career. Given the right opportunity, however, it appears that Knight would be willing to reclaim his spot along the sidelines.

“It has to be a situation that I think is right for me and one where I would be right for the university,'” Knight told ESPN Radio. “It has to be one, from my standpoint, where I think we would have the wherewithal to recruit and be able to compete with anybody.”

On Feb. 4, 2008, Knight officially turned the Texas Tech team over to his son, Pat, ending a career spanning 42 seasons at Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech that included a record 902 victories.

Knight has recently been linked to Georgia, although he claims to have had no contact with the school. The Bulldogs also have yet to officially say they have any interest in Knight.

After Georgia fired Head Coach Dennis Felton on Thursday and temporarily promoted Associate Head Coach Pete Herrman to interim head coach, it seems that the head coaching position will be open at season’s end.

“You know, never say never,” said Knight on Monday during a broadcast on ESPN2. “I’ve always said if I had a chance and it was a good one and I was good for the situation, I’d be interested.”

Paulus to Start Against North Carolina

In the buildup to the first of two meetings between arguably college basketball’s biggest rivals, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski has announced that senior point Greg Paulus will get the starting nod.

A starter during his first three seasons in Durham, Paulus had grown accustomed to coming off the bench this season. After a 74-47 loss at Clemson last week, Krzyzewski gave Paulus his second start of the year when Duke hosted Miami on Saturday. The Blue Devils won 78-75 in overtime and Paulus will remain in the starting five when the Tar Heels visit Wednesday. Krzyzewski told the Associated Press that he was pleased with Paulus’s play "with us, as a group, going through a very adverse time."