Pat Summitt- Advice to Coach Allison

After President Obama came to Galesburg, I decided to work on a Q/A with people about their encounters with the "famous." I am still hoping to get a few more people to respond and then I will put it up on the blog. In the meantime, I thought it was timely to share what Coach Andie Allison returned to me.


Andie said the following:


I would have to say my example for the most famous person I have ever met is appropriate for current news in the sports world. Two summers ago, when heading to team camp in Tennessee, I was lucky enough to meet Pat Summit. 

National Record Banner

The Streaks have something new for the gym to recognize setting the national record for three pointers made in a season. The girls were excited to see the banner. And from a coach's standpoint it is exciting to see the energy level running "the system" has brought to our program. This past weekend I had 7 players text to get into the gym to shoot on the Gun. On Monday night we had 12 players lifting and shooting. So in the last 2 days we had over 1400 threes made. Who knows, maybe we can break our record this year.

Beau Spencer- Great Announcer & Super Tweeter

Beau Spencer did not work long at WAIK but he sure made a positive impression with his work in covering sports. He made all of the high school athletes feel important. Beau was able to cover the games without focusing on the refs or second guessing strategy.

Since I have gotten onto twitter, Beau is definitely one of the top to follow. I enjoy following his observations.

You went to Annawan High School. What sports did you play?

I played baseball all the way up to high school.  We didn't have a high school team, so I "retired" from the game after 8th grade.  Played football and basketball my freshman and sophomore years.

 Great basketball players coming out of Annawan- Tanner Carlson and Val Wancken. Where do you fit into the basketball tradition? 

Actually, Tanner grew up right behind me and he would mix it up with us neighborhood guys.  I can say that I beat him.  He was about 8-years old, and I was in high school, and then he ended up with the better stats, so on paper he may be better...but I proved it on the court, LOL.

(It should be noted that Tanner Carlson is student teaching with me this fall. I think probably it was actually Beau in college and Tanner as a 6 year old if Beau won!)

John Wooden

"Promise to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own."

 

- Coach Wooden

Pat Summitt- My Perspective

I recognized that Pat Summitt was an effective coach. But like many people, I had seen those angry faces that tv caught of her on the sideline. As a result I was never a big Pat Summitt fan. She just seemed too angry, too in your face.

No one is a bigger Tennessee fan or Pat Summitt fan than Brenna Saline. Brenna has more orange stuff than anyone should legally possess. Brenna was upset that we never went to Tennessee camp when she was in high school. I always gave her a hard time about the Lady Vols, and some of it was probably how I really felt.

Jason Shay got a job coaching men's basketball at Tennessee, and instead of going to a fall clinic, I decided I wanted to go down and watch them practice. Jeff Houston, Jaque Gohlinghorst, and I went down to Knoxville one fall to watch the Vols and Lady Vols practice. The first day our timing did not workout to watch the women, just the men. The next day there was a problem and some doubt if we would be able to watch the women practice. That evening, Jason made a couple calls to the women assistants and it didn't sound like it would work out.

Massey Vacation

Growing up, my family always took car vacations. So this summer we went west on a car vacation. Clark Griswald would be proud of us- we put in 3400 miles in 9 days.
- Galesburg
- Fort Collins and Colorado State University (my wife's is an alum)
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Grand Junction, Colorado
- Moab, Utah (Arches National Park and a raft ride down the Colorado)
- Grand Canyon
- Oklahoma City (the memorial is very powerful)
- Lawrence, Kansas (KU)
- Galesburg

With Cam the Ram at CSU. It has to be one of the prettiest campuses
and cities in America. I give it a big thumbs up.

Allen Fieldhouse- Vacation Visit

Our family took a trip west and on the way back stopped at the Kansas University. My last visit to KU was in 7th grade, a few years ago. My mother's college friend was married to a KU professor. They loved their Jayhawks and continued to attend games into their 80's. As a result of that visit, I have always had KU as one of my teams when the Badgers are not playing.

On our visit, we got to see much of Allen Fieldhouse. The one bad thing was that they were sanding the floor so we were not able to go out on the floor. It is an impressive, old building steeped with tradition. As you walk around the building it is like being in a basketball museum. You know you have history when your first coach was the man who invented the sport- James Naismith.

Entrance to Allen Fieldhouse, it certainly looks like it would
have a wild atmosphere. But UW record in Kohl Center might
dispute their clam.