Is Pat Summitt a greater coach than Mike Krzyzewski of Duke or UCLA legend John Wooden?
There will be much debate now that Pat Summitt has stepped down as the iconic women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee.
There’s no question, Summitt, who is battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease, is the most influential coach in the history of her sport. She built a powerhouse at Tennessee that programs like UConn and others strived to emulate. She finishes her career with 1,098 career victories, 8 national titles and 18 Final Fours.
The question is this: Will she go down as the greatest college basketball coach — period — man or woman?
I’m going to say no. Even though she has more victories than any other Division 1-A college coach, there is not nearly the parity and competitiveness in women’s basketball that there is in the men’s game. By that, I mean, there aren’t nearly the number of women’s programs who have committed the resources and finances to compete for national titles like Summitt’s Tennessee program has and has for years.
It’s the same reason, I also don’t give UCLA legend John Wooden the nod as the greatest basketball coach of all-time even though he has more national titles (10) than any other coach in Division 1-A history In Wooden’s day, there were many schools (see entire SEC except for Kentucky) that didn’t even try to compete at the upper echelon of college basketball. At the University of Florida, for instance, there was a day when the head basketball coach also doubled as an assistant football coach.
That’s why I give Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski — the venerable Coach K — my vote as the best of all-time. Coach K has won more games than any Division 1-A men’s coach in history. He’s won four national titles and been to 11 Final Fours. He has been able to remain dominant in an era when the NCAA Tournament has been expanded and literally hundreds of schools are investing in big-time college basketball.
There are many more men’s programs capable of winning a national title now than there were 40 years ago.
Not only that, but there are also many more men’s programs capable of winning a national title than there are women’s programs.
That’s why I say Coach K should go down as the greatest college basketball coach who ever was.
What do you say?
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