It’s no secret that Muffet McGraw’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish struggled against the Tennessee Lady Vols—but then again, who didn’t? That’s what McGraw explained via phone this week after she agreed to look back on Summitt’s career as a coach.
Tennessee was completely dominant, McGraw explained, and that’s why it took 20 losses before Notre Dame pulled off a win at the 2011 Elite Eight. Summit, who had announced her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s that August, would retire the next year.
There’s a lot to look back on when thinking about Pat Summitt and the legacy she left behind at Tennessee, but something McGraw shared was that Summitt was always concerned about what would make every coach and every team in the collegiate system better, not just her own.
One day, McGraw took a chance and called Summitt after a particularly brutal loss. She asked if Summitt would share her scouting report; McGraw wanted to understand where she could be better as a coach, and how to help her team improve. The pair spoke for 45 minutes, something that didn’t surprise McGraw at all, who explained, “She was like a rising tide that lifts all boats. The better you are, the better we’re all going to be. I don’t know that a lot of people would… I think people are…
