How did Jennifer Azzi get away from Pat ?

[Darth_Vol]

In hindsight it was probably a win-win for both sides. Tennessee did fine without her. Obviously Azzi would have been a great player anywhere, including Tennessee, and it would have been awesome to see her in orange but she wouldn't have become here what she did at Stanford. Tara has always said Azzi was the player that put Stanford on the map, their Rebecca Lobo. There's something special in being the player that started it...

 

[Remy]

Who cares? She’s still making six figures, gets to stay involved in basketball on her terms, and doesn’t have to get trashed every year by keyboard coaches when she isn’t living up to their standard.

Jennifer Azzi is living her best life.

THIS! She's living in San Francisco. That's unattainable for a lot of people living In Malibu in SoCal.

 

[Majors]

In hindsight it was probably a win-win for both sides. Tennessee did fine without her. Obviously Azzi would have been a great player anywhere, including Tennessee, and it would have been awesome to see her in orange but she wouldn't have become here what she did at Stanford. Tara has always said Azzi was the player that put Stanford on the map, their Rebecca Lobo. There's something special in being the player that started it...

Monica Abbott supports this

 

[JohnWardForever]

The Ivy's and Stanford is more about branding, just like Tenn and the SEC branding in football. At those schools, the quality of students is on average higher, but there are still quality students at UT, just not as many. Professionally, a Stanford degree will get you in the door nationally, whereas a UT degree is more recognized locally in the South, all things equal.

I know all this. It really boils down to who you rub elbows with at Stanford.

 

[creekdipper]

The real question is how we misplaced a recruiting tape that Alana Beard sent to Tennessee so that she ended up a 3-time AA at Duke and national POY in 2004.

With Beard, almost certain that we would have 10 championships and Conn only 9. And Auriemma would still be chasing Pat in that regard.

And Beard wanted to come here.

 

[Voltopia]

The real question is how we misplaced a recruiting tape that Alana Beard sent to Tennessee so that she ended up a 3-time AA at Duke and national POY in 2004.

With Beard, almost certain that we would have 10 championships and Conn only 9. And Auriemma would still be chasing Pat in that regard.

And Beard wanted to come here.

To be fair, practically every player wanted to come here during that era -- easier to misplace a tape when you've got hundreds coming in. Probably also easy to flat out make a rushed evaluation in a sea of evaluations and miss on a prospect. I've always suspected it was the latter. After two decades in corporate environments, "misplaced the tape" sounds an awful lot like corporate code for "someone down the chain whiffed on the evaluation and didn't want to own it."

 

[creekdipper]

In fairness, Connecticut also whiffed. But Beard's Louisiana high school team won four straight state championships, so you'd have thought someone would have taken notice.

All water under the bridge. Our situation is now reversed...we're trying to get the attention of top recruits.

 

[Eric Viesturs]

So is the difference real or imagined? I mean if you ace every exam, and carry a perfect grade at UT, are Valedictorian; That isn't enough? Tiger Woods Graduated from Stanford, and doesn't even know how to eat a Banana.

I know I'm way off topic but in my experience most people don't know to eat a banana. I did a quick Google search for Tiger Woods and banana to see if the some back story and missing but did not find it. Is there one?

 

[Volinnooga]

Don't see how you can live in Oak Ridge & be an AA & not play for Pat Summit 25 miles away even for Stanford

Believe it or not, there’s way more to life than staying home as no playing basketball. I’d love to have had an opportunity to get a Stanford education. Even if you had the opportunity and had chosen to stay home snd play at Tennessee, I don’t see how you could criticize one who made the choice to venture west.

 

[Border Vol]

This is in my opinion why she went to UConn

 

[volnationnj]

This is in my opinion why she went to UConn

View attachment 355909

Who are you referring to ?

 

[BowlBrother85]

I recall an interview that Pat Summitt did with Mike Keith on his call-in show around 1997 where he asked her what her biggest regrets in recruiting were... and she mentioned Jennifer Azzi of Oak Ridge (Stanford) and Brittney Ezell (Alabama) from Franklin. She described their recruitments as though they had not been offered. Pat Summitt had her pick of the litter at the time... and both of them had good careers where they went. There is no reason to lament this.