Connecticut-Tennessee Women's College Basketball Final Game

Connecticut-Tennessee Women's College Basketball Final Game

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I wish to respond to the majority leader's comments, if I may. I, as a great many Americans, am going to be watching the Connecticut-Tennessee basketball game tonight at 8:30 eastern time.

Connecticut has a wonderful tradition, a terrific coach, and great players. They have won the last couple of years. But the Naismith Coach of the Year this year is Pat Summitt. For those of us in Tennessee, she is the coach of the year every year.

Senator Frist has mentioned her achievements as a coach, which I think we must take for granted in Tennessee. We expect Pat Summitt to be in the Final Four. We expect her team to be in the finals. We expect her often to win, and we sometimes forget how hard that is.

Twenty-five years ago, it might have been easy when women's basketball was starting. Today, there is a lot of parity. There are a good many great coaches. There are many teams inspired by Pat Summitt. It is an enormous accomplishment for Coach Summitt to have this team in the finals once again. One day, when she is finished-and I hope that is no time soon-I will look back and say how could that have happened, and how much could one woman build this game and make such a difference?

She does one other thing that I think is important to hear. This is a time when we hear about athletes, which we wish we hadn't heard, young men and women suddenly exposed to fame, money, and television with bad results. You do not hear about many of Pat Summit's young women. It was true a few years ago when I was president of the University of Tennessee that every single young woman who completed her eligibility at Tennessee on a Pat Summitt team has received her degree or is in the process of completing her degree requirements-every single one. That was true 10 years ago. I suspect it is still true today.

If you watch those young women when they are interviewed, before, after the game, or any other time, they look like future coaches. They speak well. They conduct themselves well. They are graceful toward their opponents. They make us proud to be Tennesseans when we see them. So this team not only wins, its coach and players conduct themselves brilliantly as scholars and as competitors, and they bring out the best in our country.

Pat Summitt, I suppose, is not for every young woman who wants to play college basketball. She is a tough competitor. I think that is one reason why she is such a good coach and why she gets many of the greatest players. She and her staff bring out the best in players, and they want to play for Pat Summitt. There are little girls around this country who play basketball in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade who dream of growing up to play for Pat Summitt.

One other thing I would add. Pat Summitt has kept her coaching team together for a long time. Mickie DeMoss, her assistant, left for the University of Kentucky to take a well-deserved head coaching position there. Mickie DeMoss is a great recruiter and will be a great head coach, I believe. Many people thought when Mickey went to Kentucky, Pat would not be able to recruit as well. I am sure the competitive urge in Pat Summitt caused her to go out and recruit what is already being called the "Fabulous 6," the All America player of the year for the last 2 years and five other young women who are coming to the University of Tennessee next year on scholarships. Many basketball analysts say it is the best women's recruiting class ever.

Senator Frist and I salute Coach Pat Summitt, not just for being Coach of the Year this year, but, in our book, for being coach every year and for effort in the incredible graduation rate of the young women who have played for her and helping them grow into womanhood and to represent our State and our country in that sport very well.