Pat Summitt was a legend in the basketball world. Her presence was in itself an honor for many. She was dedicated, passionate, and with her intense style of coaching, she brought a different flair to women’s basketball. Her iconic battles with Geno Auriemma were always full of drama, action, and most of all, brilliant basketball. Everyone respects Pat, and Bruce Pearl is just another one of her admirers.
Pearl remembers coaching the men’s Tennessee team with great fondness. He has often talked about Summitt with great respect. Witnessing her success with the Tennessee women’s team, Pearl always wanted to replicate it in the men’s team. In 2021, Bruce Pearl talked about Summitt’s sense of humor, wittiness, and how smart she was.
He shared how during one practice session, his team was not serious. Pearl did not like that and wanted his team to give a 100% even during workouts. He also mentioned how such behaviour was a disgrace to Pat Summitt’s values at Tennessee. In another instance, when Summitt passed through one of the practice sessions, Bruce had to quickly cook up a lie. However, Summitt hilariously saw through him.
“I said, ‘I will not have you, see that name on that floor, see that name right there ‘Pat Summitt,’ we’re not going to disgrace this floor playing like that. Get your a*ses up in the practice gym,’ or something like that. That was one story,” Bruce shared (1:06).
“Then you know the other story. Pat used to come by and watch practice. I watched her practice and she’d walk out right in the middle of our practices and you know stand next to me and she walks out one time and we’re not having a great practice session and she knows the answers to the questions before she asks them,” he added.
“She says, ‘What’s that drill you’re working on right now?’ and I looked at her I said, ‘Well, that’s our fast break. That’s our 4-1 fast break drill.’ She said, ‘Well, let me tell you something about it, there ain’t nothing fast about that drill,’ and walks off. She knew it was a fast break drill and she saw my guys not running full speed. Well I brought our guys in and lit them up,’ Pearl concluded.
Bruce Pearl On Pat Summitt’s Deteriorating Health
due to the complications from an early onset Alzheimer’s-type dementia, Pat Summitt died at the age of 64. She was diagnosed with alzheimer’s in 2011. Being close Summitt during his time at Tennessee, Pearl was one of the people who supported Summitt at those difficult times. He also recalled talking about noticing little changes in Pat’s health.
“I did have a chance to see her at her best and i also saw her when she was declining. The one thing that I’ll always take away from that, even a year or two before it became noticeable and then maybe even three years before it became public, I saw it because she saw it.” Pearl said .
“Pat’s grandma died at 59 of dementia and had the same disease. And what scared Pat to death was, she knew it was coming. She saw it and she began to question her own abilities and she began to defer too much to her staff and before it was ever sort of diagnosed, something wasn’t quite right. And then of course, when she was diagnosed, I think it was her family history as much as anything. It was so so very sad. We lost an amazing person way, way, way too soon in life,” Bruce Pearl added.
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