UConn women's basketball

Pat Summitt dodged the biggest bullet of the season Sunday when Stanford defeated the Huskies in the first national semifinal at the St. Pete Times Forum. It was then that she knew that she would not be besieged with questions regarding why she cancelled the regular season series with UConn and her seemingly bitter feud with Geno.
Summitt did face a couple of questions during her press conference today. But they were tame in nature. She also said that Tennessee will not play UConn in the near future (Wow, that’s a shocker).

Here’s the Q & A:
Q – Is it just a little bit of you that’s happy that this whole press conference is not Pat and Geno and the whole feud?
A – “I would say I didn’t want any … I wouldn’t want any of that as far as being a distraction,’’ she said. “It’s not about the coaches. This is all about players. And unfortunately I think some of the media folks out there wanted to make it about Pat and Geno. And it’s all about the players.’’

Q – I’m not trying to be antagonistic and I hope you don’t take it this way, but is it fair to blame the media for the feud angle when you and Geno have been going tit-for-tat back at that end. When the series got cancelled, you’ve been around long enough to know that this was going to be a story, and when there’s been no definitive definition before, can you really say it’s unfair that this story is still around?
A – “No, I think it’s fair to say that because of all the unknown, that people are still digging and interested and writing about it. I can respect that from the media. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to reveal anything. But that’s just – when I make my mind up, I’m as stubborn as my father was.’’

Q – Did you anticipate if the game had come to play that you were going to have to answer the questions about the series, what was your tact going to be? And, secondly, can you give us an indication of what it’s going to take to mend the fences from your point of view, if in fact there’s a rift that needs to be mended?
A – I hadn’t really thought about the questions that I might get asked, because I wasn’t going to really talk about anything, other than players. I have tremendous respect for Geno’s coaching skills and abilities and
I think he made us better. They beat us enough that it made us better. And the fact that we’re not both here
today, it’s not going to change what I want to say or talk or what it takes to mend it. I haven’t even gone there. My mind right now is on trying to figure out how we can win one more game against a great basketball team. And that’s pretty much it.’’

Rich