Lady Vols heading to 15th Final Four
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee coach Pat Summitt doesn’t know what’s in store when she arrives in New Orleans for her 15th Final Four. Already the path getting there has been unlike any other.
The top-seeded Lady Vols (30-3) cruised through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament before a disputed call by officials and clutch shooting helped them win the Midwest Regional.
“No question, it’s been the toughest. Look at the two games that we’ve had to play and the controversial end to the first one,” Summitt said after Tuesday’s 62-60 victory over Stanford.
“The last 48 hours, the kids, every time they turned on the TV, they had to listen to all this talk about it, almost like we didn’t deserve to win.”
Tennessee beat Baylor 71-69 in the regional semifinal after officials called a disputed foul as time expired, then put two-tenths of a second back on the clock and Lady Vol Tasha Butts at the foul line. She sank both free throws for the win.
The officials’ call was widely criticized and decried as “an embarrassment to women’s basketball” by ESPN analyst Stacey Dales-Schuman.
But the Lady Vols moved on to play Stanford, a team they beat in overtime in December, for a chance to reach the Final Four. Tennessee was in for another nail-biter.
With the score tied and 8.4 seconds remaining, Summitt drew up the final play during a timeout. She positioned two of Tennessee’s best 3-point shooters on the wings to draw out the defense and gave the ball to Butts to drive to the basket.
Butts dribbled toward Stanford All-American Nicole Powell, spun around her and shot the ball, which banked off the glass and into the basket with 1.7 seconds left.
Powell’s desperation 3-pointer at the other end bounced short off the rim. The Lady Vols screamed, hugged each other and donned regional championship T-shirts and hats before cutting down the nets.
Summitt was concerned her players might have been distracted after the Baylor game.
Clearly, the Lady Vols had made some enemies just by getting a controversial call go their way.
A sports columnist for the Norman Transcript in Norman, Okla., where the regional was held, called upon the readers to cheer for Stanford because “cheering for Tennessee is like rooting for the Yankees, IBM and Microsoft.”
“I really have to applaud their efforts with all the distractions that could have potentially been there,” Summitt said. “I asked them about it earlier (Tuesday) and they were completely numb to it. They said, ‘Coach, we’re ready to go play.'”
The Lady Vols advanced to the national semifinals on Sunday against LSU, whom Tennessee beat 85-62 in the regular season finale Feb. 29.
Connecticut and Minnesota will play in the other semifinal, setting up a possible national championship between Tennessee and the Huskies.
The Lady Vols didn’t practice Wednesday, and Summitt stayed at home to watch film. Tennessee planned to leave for New Orleans on Thursday.
Tennessee has not won a national title since 1998, and the current Lady Vols team is far from emulating that dominating, 39-0 championship team.
Instead, this season was full of nail-biting games and last-second victories despite playing poorly at times. The Lady Vols have rallied to win 10 games in which they trailed at halftime, and they have won three of four overtime games.
The Lady Vols have even managed not having a true point guard since Loree Moore tore a knee ligament Jan. 24 at Duke, going 14-2 since then with losses to Connecticut and Georgia in overtime of the SEC tournament.