If there is one central figure associated with women’s college basketball, it is the University of Tennessee’s Pat Summitt.
Summitt’s 35 seasons at the helm of the Lady Volunteers, her record eight national championships and her 1,000 wins make it easy to see why she is considered largely responsible for putting women’s basketball on the map.
UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell was recruited by Summitt and played under her from 1991-1994. In 1998, Caldwell returned to Tennessee as a graduate assistant.
Later, after a stint as an assistant at the University of Virginia, she returned to her alma mater to be Summitt’s assistant coach for five years until UCLA hired her.
Summitt has clearly had the opportunity to know Caldwell as well as anyone. Fresh off winning her 1,000th game, Summitt spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Matt Stevens about the UCLA first-year coach.
Daily Bruin: I wanted to talk to you today about coach Nikki Caldwell.
Pat Summitt: I would be happy to talk about Nikki Caldwell because I recruited her out of high school. I saw something special in her then. She obviously loves the game. When she came to Tennessee, she stepped right in and helped us be successful during her tenure here. She is a young coach that has an incredible wealth of knowledge in the game.
I think Jill Prudden, her high school coach, is one of the best high school coaches I’ve ever been around. So Nikki, early on, had a good fundamental understanding of how to play the game and also how to teach the game. Certainly, here at Tennessee she was a great competitor.
She was someone I thought everyone respected. She practiced hard, and she was just someone who was just invested in helping the team in any way she could. Her communication skills were and still are very strong, which I think will help her be successful as she continues to coach the UCLA Bruins.
DB: How long was she with you, and in what capacities?
PS: She was a graduate assistant, and she went to Virginia, and then she came back to Tennessee when I had an opening.
There was no doubt in my mind I wanted to hire her. I remember telling Debbie Ryan, the coach at Virginia, “You’re getting a great one, and if and when I have an opening, I will tell you I’ll be coming back after her.”
Just her presence ““ she obviously is a very good recruiter, and she understands how to hold the bar at a level that will inspire the student-athletes that she’s coaching and working with to be the best they can be.
She understands discipline. And I’m sure she’s had to impress her will on her student-athletes making sure they are doing the right things. She will hold people accountable.
I’m just so happy for Nikki and the success she is having with the program.
DB: She has been preaching defense and rebounding as the way in which they will win games. Where did that come from?
PS: I’m sure it came from her high school experiences and also here at Tennessee. Our little motto here is “Offense sells tickets, but defense wins games and rebounds win championships.”
That’s the way we have really taught our philosophy to our young student-athletes. I know that Nikki knows that if you are going to go on the road and be successful, you better play great defense and you better rebound, because shooting is out of a coach’s control sometimes. Sometimes you’re on and sometimes you are struggling to make shots and the only way you can win in those circumstances is your defense and your board play, so you dictate with those two.
DB: I’m also told that she was known at Tennessee for being a great recruiter.
PS: She is a beautiful person inside and out. When she goes out to recruit, you’re talking about a great role model.
I think there is an appeal because of Nikki’s presence. I know the parents a lot of times would talk about “She is going to be a great role model for our daughter. We want our daughter to be like a Nikki Caldwell.”
The way she carries herself, she has such class and poise, she is a great-looking person, and she is just as good on the inside as she is on the outside.
DB: How have things been without her on the sidelines this year?
PS: I’ve missed her. And when we talk, I leave her messages and tell her, “I really, really miss you, but I’m so proud for you.”
I call because we were so close. We spent so much time together. I want to be staying in touch with her. And I am very happy for her.
I brought in Daedra Charles-Furlow, who is another great player, and she and Nikki are great friends. So we are all happy that Nikki has what she has at UCLA, and we could hire Daedra here at Tennessee.
DB: Did you always believe Nikki was going to be a head coach?
PS: Oh, definitely. There was no doubt in my mind that she was head-coaching material, and if that was what she wanted to do, that’s what she would do.
Certainly, when the UCLA folks approached Nikki to come in for an interview, I told them myself about her.
You can’t go wrong with Nikki Caldwell. She’s going to get the job done. As young as she is, she understands how far you have to set the bar to get the best results. I’ve always told her, you don’t get what you expect from student-athletes, you get what you demand, and I know you will demand excellence from them. That’s who she is.
DB: It is certainly an adjustment. Nikki is always talking about setting up 40 minutes of consistent intensity.
PS: Well, guess what? So am I, and I’ve been doing this for 35 years.
Kids are different today, I’m telling you. They don’t grow up with the same work ethic. They are just soft at times. They don’t understand the hard work and the intensity. A lot of these young people are not as competitive as a Nikki Caldwell was. … Sometimes we just have to break old habits and try and instill new habits. And that takes time. It’s a process.
DB: What is your favorite Nikki Caldwell memory?
PS: Well, I tease her because she came out in her first game as a freshman, and that was her all-time best performance (20 points against Stanford).
And I tease her and I say it went down after that. But Nikki was the type of person who was here every day and just a great teammate. When I think about what she brought to our program ““ just her passion, her drive and her leadership ““ that’s why where she is right now is where she needs to be. She understands how to lead people.
DB: So how long until we have a UCLA-Tennessee matchup on the schedule?
PS: Oh, we’re talking about it. We’re going to make it happen.