Reaching for the Summitt

[daltontr]

The Tennessean

Reaching for the Summitt

Nashville, TN - Ross Tyler Summitt, not necessarily a household name, but if the last name sounds vaguely familiar, it is more than likely due to the familiarity of his family heritage. Ross, more commonly known as "Tyler", is the son of hall of fame coach Pat Summitt. Yes, the Pat Summitt, who led the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers to eight NCAA Championships, sixteen SEC regular season titles and sixteen SEC tournament titles. Tyler is the only son of the legendary coach and he spent the best part of his youth right by her side, learning from one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Born in 1990, Tyler grew up in the shadow of greatness and it was clear from the start, that much would be expected of him. Upon graduating from college in 2012, he was immediately hired on as an assistant to Terri Mitchell at Marquette University. Tyler was responsible for overseeing the Lady Golden Eagles offense during his tenure, but the team did not exactly live up to expectations. Consequently, it was rather surprising when the twenty-three-year-old Summitt was offered his first head coaching job after only two years as an assistant. What was even more surprising was that the offer was from the once formidable Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball program. Although the Lady Techsters went 30-31 during Summitt's brief tenure, many still believed that the team was on the verge of benefitting from his hall of fame pedigree.

Unfortunately, that all quickly began to unravel in the spring of 2016. In early April, news leaked that Summitt had an extramarital affair with one of his player's, Brooke Pomeroy. As more information began to come forward, pressure from the Athletic Department and the revelation that Pomeroy was pregnant, Summitt was forced to resign from the program in disgrace. Then in June of that same year, his mother passed away due to complications from early onset Alzheimer's disease.

After the scandalous affair and subsequent divorce, not to mention the passing of his mother, the twenty-five-year-old Tyler abruptly left public life, vowing never to return to the hardwood for fear of forever tarnishing his mother's legacy. However, the lure of the gym was apparently too strong and Summitt quietly returned to the sideline after a brief hiatus. Casey Alexander, who was in his fifth year as head coach at Lipscomb University in Nashville, offered Summitt the opportunity to return to the sideline as an assistant. Summitt took him up on his offer and discreetly returned to the bench as Alexander's #2 assistant.

After a very successful 25-7 campaign in 2018, Alexander left Lipscomb to take the head coaching vacancy at Belmont University, which is only three miles down the road from LU. Alexander was a standout player at Belmont and it was no surprise that he would jump at the chance to coach at his alma mater. Departing with Alexander was his #1 assistant Roger Idstrom, who would join Alexander in the Bruins locker room, leaving Lipscomb's Athletic Director, Philip Hutcheson, with the challenging task of either looking outside the program or offering the job to the inexperienced Summitt. Hutcheson chose the latter and Tyler Summitt officially stepped back into the coaching lime light as the new head coach of the Lipscomb Bison.

Not everyone at Lipscomb was happy about the new appointment and there were quite a few vocal opponents who decried the hiring, but as Hutcheson said, "Everyone deserves a second chance." Now the only question is whether this second chance will lead to a path of redemption or a road to ruin for the young prodigy. John Adams, a columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel quipped, "Summitt may be out of his element and not qualified for the job, but at least we won't have to worry about him dating one of his players...I hope."

Clearly, it is going to be an uphill battle for Summitt, as he has a lot to prove and more than his fair share of detractors. This was readily apparent in his very first press conference, as he was endlessly grilled by the press for nearly an hour. To his credit, Summitt handle it all with grace and he never dodged a question. However, despite his candor, many are still skeptical of the appointment and even fewer were convinced that he is ready to return to the spot light. Lest we forget that the legacy of his hall of fame mother casts a very large shadow in the state of Tennessee and expectations will be incredibly high. Maybe too high.

[Mikaelinho]

I'm excited! Go Team Summitt!

[daltontr]

Coaches Corner

EDIT
A catastrophic hard drive failure has forced me to completely restart my Ross Summitt career. It sucks that I'm starting from scratch, but thankfully I was only about halfway through the first season, so the damage wasn't too terrible. Team is pretty similar to the original, although I think the previous team was deeper. I will not sim games this time though. I found that I couldn't get a feel for the team just by looking at game results and I prefer to actually coach the games. Plus, I don't fully trust the CPU to properly manage the rotation. Easier to just do it myself.

Roster
The starting five will feature one Senior, three Juniors and a Sophomore shooting guard. We will have one scholarships to fill, as the only other Senior we have is a walk on.

Starting Five
PG - Steve Stewart JR/6'3" 211 lbs. 2.0/3.5
Good ball handler with quick hands. Good mid-range jumper, who does a good job of finding his teammates when pressured.

SG - Nate Wise SO/6'4" 195 lbs. 2.5/4.0
Aggressive player who gets to the line often. Excellent ball handler and outside shooter with good vision and creativity.

SF - Clint Riley SR/6'6" 201 lbs. 3.5/3.5
Good free throw shooter who fights hard for rebounds and loose balls.

PF - Jamie Spears JR/6'7" 216 lbs. 3.0/4.0
Good defender who gets his share of rebounds and has the ability to create shots off the dribble.

C - Marquis Martin JR/6'10" 266 lbs. 2.5/3.0
Good shot blocker and grabs many rebounds due to his huge wing-span.

Rotation
PG - James Cape FR/6'3" 177 lbs. 2.0/4.0
SF - Eddie Durham SO/6'7" 236 lbs. 2.0/3.5
PF - Ivan Dennis SO/6'8" 232 lbs. 2.0/3.5

Red Shirts
PG - Curtis McCoy FR/6'2" 168 lbs. 2.0/3.5
PF - Quinn White FR/6'8" 198 lbs. 1.5/2.5

Bench
PG - Nick McMillan FR/6'2" 166 lbs. 1.0/2.0
SG - Jamar Hawkins SO/6'5" 200 lbs. 1.0/2.5
SF - Kareen Jensen SR/6'4" 189 lbs. 0.0/0.0 (Walk On)
C - Solomon Ellington FR/6'10" 231 lbs. 1.0/3.5
C - Jason Robertson SO/6'9" 234 lbs. 0.0/0.0 (Walk On)

Recruits
TBD

[daltontr]

Coaches Corner

Non-Conference Schedule
To be honest, on paper I thought our non-conference schedule was rather weak. My rational was to build confidence through wins and get some momentum as we headed into conference play. However, the schedule proved to be a little more difficult than I expected and although we came away with a respectable 7-4 record, I did think we could have been better.

Saint Peters W 90-87 - (1-0) This was a shootout from the tip and there were eleven lead changes and eight ties along the way. The game was tied 42 all at the half and it was anyone's game to win, but Harold Ragin hit a game winning three in the waning moments to secure the win. The team shot 59.6% from the field, 61.5% from three and 70% from the charity stripe. Not bad for the first game and I was pleased with the results.

@ Cornell W 87-82 - (2-0) Up nine at the break and never trailed, despite getting out scored 44-40 in the second half. The team shot 60% from the field and Nick Robinson scored 25 points to lead all scorers. It was a solid outing, but I would have preferred a larger margin of victory, considering Cornell only shot 47% from the field. Hats of to them though, as they were a much tougher opponent than I anticipated.

@ Cal Poly L 79-71 - (2-1) Got off to a bad start, but we were never down by more than fourteen. At the half we trailed 34-27, but just couldn't seem to get into a groove and shot poorly down the stretch. This was a game that I thought we should have won and I was a little disappointed with the result.

Sacramento State W 89-83 - (3-1) Once again we got off to a slow start and trailed 51-38 at the half. I wished I'd recorded my half-time speech, because the guys came out of the locker room fired up and out scored the Hornets 51-32 to secure the six point victory. We had six players in double figures and I was very pleased with the second half defensive performance.

@ Omaha L 73-69 - (3-2) Great start to the game and we led 41-31 at the half. Coming out of the locker room I fully expected to run away with the game, but Mike Watson got into foul trouble and we lost our shooting touch. Both teams shot less that 40% from the field, but it was defense that let us down and we were unable to hold onto the lead. This game should have been a victory and I let the team know it. Suffice to say, the bus trip to the airport was not a pleasant one.

@ South Alabama W 75-67 - (4-2) It was nip and tuck for most of the game, but the Jaguars went cold down the stretch we were able to pull away in final two minutes. Ragin and Glover combined for 26 points, but everyone played solid and the victory was well earned. This was a nice way to bounce back after the Omaha defeat and it was against a pretty good team.

Incarnate Word W 89-70 - (5-2) What can I say. When I saw this game on the schedule, I must admit I was a little embarrassed, but it was a good opportunity to experiment with a few wrinkles in our offense. Although the half time score was 45-43, we never trailed and easily pulled away in the second half. I'm not sure how much we learned from this game, but a win is a win.

@ Illinois-Chicago W 89-85 - (6-2) This was an odd, but exciting game. The game featured 17 lead changes and 10 ties and it came down to us making our free throws. However, I say it was an odd game, simply because Harold Ragin went 0-7 from the field and did not shoot a single free throw in 29 minutes of play. I'm not saying the officiating was lopsided, but...let's just say there was a noticeable amount of home cooking.

Belmont W 92-82 - (7-2) The Battle of the Boulevard. Belmont is located a mere three miles from the LU campus and this rivalry goes all the way back to 1953. Obviously, any win over your closest rival is special, but this was even more so due to the fact that we were facing Lipscomb's former head coach, Gary Alexander. We shot an outstanding 58.2% from the field, 40% from three and a whopping 92.9% from the free throw line. We never trailed, lead by as much as 28 points and despite getting outscored 49-38 in the second half, the game was never in question.

@ Utah Valley L 92-87 OT (7-3) Coming off the surprising upset over Belmont, I was not surprised that we had a bit of a let down. We were up 46-38 at the half, but a poor second half forced over time and the Wolverines carried that momentum into the extra frame. Ultimately, we didn't shoot well and managed to let this one slip away. Not a horrible loss though and I thought we learned a lot from this game.

@ Bryant L 76-60 (7-4) Worst shooting to date. 29.6% from the field, 26.3% from three and 61.9% from the free throw line. If I'm honest with myself, this loss is on me. I asked the team to concentrate more on their inside game and it simple didn't work. We are better suited to a more balanced attack and by the time I decided to shift our focus back to what we do best, it was already too late. This was really a terrible way to end our non-conference schedule, but we'll be looking to bounce back against NJIT, once conference play begins.

[PointGuard]

Nice start...will be interesting to see if he can take Lipscomb to the....summit!