Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma

Understandably, most of the sports buzz these days is about the NFL as the Super Bowl draws nearer. Few have really started to pay attention to the NBA and NHL, though they're already half way through their seasons. And certainly nobody's talking about MLB. They haven't even reported to spring training yet.

Much the same could be said for college hoops, both men's and women's. They're roughly halfway through their seasons as well but, fair or not, the sports public (and media) don't really zero in on them until tournament time in March. It's just the way it is.

But while looking up something else, yours truly stumbled across a legendary name in lady's college hoops, which of course led to another name. The first was Pat Summitt.

Summitt was only 22 years old when she first got the head coaching job of the Tennessee Lady Vols way back in 1974. Good grief, four of her players were only a year younger than she was. Things were a lot different then. President Nixon was on his way out in the wake of Watergate, and the Viet Nam war wasn't quite over yet. Seems like a long time ago.

Also, at that time, lady's college hoops wasn't even an official NCAA sanctioned sport. Of the universities that even fielded a lady's basketball team, few took it seriously. Summitt would be instrumental in changing that, though it would take a while.

Even into the 1980's, lady's hoops basically only had 3 good teams. Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, and Old Dominion. The slugged it out for supremacy while most of the rest were just patsies. Nowadays, every school not only has a women's basketball team, but many devote considerable resources to it as well. Between paying coaches big money and all the recruiting that goes on to field a winning team -- times have changed indeed. Certainly the competition has heated up. When's the last time you heard of Louisiana Tech or Old Dominion even mentioned as being serious contenders? It's been a while, and countless others have passed them by.

But through it all, Pat Summitt retained her standard of excellence. Her Lady Vols would go on to win 8 national championships. Sadly, at the relatively young age of 59, Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and had to step aside as head coach. During her long and illustrious career, she had accumulated 1098 victories, with an eye-popping winning percentage of 84.1. No other college hoops coach, men's or women's, has ever eclipsed the 1000 mark.

Had Summitt not been stricken, and continued to coach for maybe 10 more years, entirely possible, it's not much of a stretch to imagine her Lady Vols winning 30 games a year, and her win total might well have approached 1500 before she called it quits. But it was not to be. Though Tennessee conferred the honorary title of Coach Emeritus on Summitt, her win total will forever remain at 1098. Can that ever be overcome? Maybe -- which brings me to.....

Geno Auriemma, that pesky pisano of UConn. Geno's actually only a couple years younger than Pat, and didn't get his start as a head coach until he was 31. But oh my, what a program he has built with the Lady Huskies over the years. Auriemma has since won 8 national championships as well, and has had 4, count em, 4 undefeated seasons along the way. He also has college basketball's longest winning streak on his record. 90 games, which eclipsed that of John Wooden's UCLA Bruins of 88 games. That's very impressive stuff. Further, a couple years ago, Auriemma surpassed Summitt's winning percentage, is now around 86% himself, and climbing. Currently, Geno has 955 wins, still 143 short of Pat's record.

And don't look now, but the Lady Huskies are #1 in the country again. 16-0 at last count this season. While the Vols seem to have fallen back a tad in recent years, the Huskies just keep pouring it on. Sure, success breeds more success. Win a championship or 3, and a lot of blue chip prep players want to go to that school to get in on the action. Summitt certainly enjoyed that luxury in years past, and now perhaps it's Auriemma's turn.

Outside their own personal circles and fan bases, certainly Geno and Pat had their share of detractors. They were perceived in various negative ways, and perhaps they had that coming. They could/can be uppity and arrogant at times. In fact, they didn't even like each other. Or it could have just been the green-eyed jealously monster rearing its ugly head between the two of them, and all the others that couldn't compete with their programs. Food for thought.

Nevertheless, Auriemma and his Lady Huskies show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. He might win 3,4,5 more championships before he calls it quits. This year, they're clobbering everybody, including a 22 point beatdown of then #2 ranked Duke -- at Duke -- a month ago. That former 6' 8" freak Brittney Griner has gone on to the pros, so Baylor's not a problem anymore. Just a few days ago the Huskies went into Waco and beat them by 11.

Even if UConn doesn't win championships or go undefeated, and I wouldn't bet much against either right now, they'll certainly keep piling up 30+ win seasons in the near future under Auriemma.

So do the math. If nothing bad happens to Geno like it did to Pat, he only has to coach maybe another 5 years to easily pass her record of 1098 wins.

And like him or not -- opinions certainly vary -- you just know Geno would like nothing better than to make Pat #2.