pat summit to break dean smith's win record.

[D-nice]

pat summit will pass dean smith during this tourney run. does that make her the greatest b-ball coach of all time?

[ham55]

No, she coaches women....

and she is a woman...

[fleaflicker]

Well, her record is 879-177 right now, which is about 70 fewer losses than Smith has recorded. And when she started coaching, women's basketball wasn't a recruiting sport, and it still isn't on the same scale as men's basketball is. She has coached the same team the past 31 years, which is pretty incredible considering the job security of most coaches depends upon a winning season, and she has kept them competitive at a nationally ranked level. She has 6 national titles under her belt, and a good shot at a seventh this year. She's a consistent winner, and she does it out of the national spotlight, year in, and year out. Keeping her girls competitive with all the other women's teams would, I think, be at least as tough as a male coach trying to keep his team competitive with everybody else. Has any other coach dominated their competition to the extent that she has? This would be quite an accomplishment, male or female.

[bison1]

[quote="fleaflicker";p="85156"]when she started coaching, women's basketball wasn't a recruiting sport[/quote]


College basketball has always involved recruiting. It hasn't always been in the form it is today with formal letters, formal visits, scholarships etc. but there has always been recruiting.

Pat must be a great coach or she wouldn't have the record she does but at the same time I don't feel she's had the impact on the game of basketball that Dean Smith had. I also don't feel that the same level of competetion exists in women's college basketball. I'd like to phrase that in a way that sounds un-sexist but i'm not sure it's possible. I'm really not intending it to be either, but my observation from watching college sports and attending a very large college is women's basketball isn't nearly as competitive.


Congrats Pat nonetheless...but she's not the greatest coach in college basketball history...and I'm sorry to say she's not making my top 5 either.

[AUSTIN_22:22]

even though i couldnt care less about women's college basketball, Geno Auriemma owns Pat Summit.

[neut78]

I'm not taking anything away from Pat Summit but you can't compare her to dean smith. Mens college basketball is on a higher scale then womens college basketball. More competiton on the mens side. She's a great coach, the best in the womens side and that's about it.

[voncap]

She has as accomplished some great things as a women's college basketball and deserves the recognition for those feats, but comparing Summit to Smith is like trying to compare athletes from different time periods. It's the proverbial "apples to oranges" comparison.

[neut78]

She's good and deserves to be recognized as the greatiest coach in Womens basketball history.