ChattyVolfan
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2013
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I was told by a fellow fan that this article was posted on the Boneyard and the comments they spewed about Pat were despicable! I'm sensing that there will forever be bad blood between UCONN and Tenn....one poster called Summit a b**ch! Smh
The game DOES miss Summitt--but it would have been better if somebody a little more objective than Cornelius had written this little piece. The timing of the piece--right after UConn wins yet another title--is suspect, and the content seems to take a thinly veiled shot at Geno with its "coaches who do things right" theme. Am I wrong? I don't think so.
It's not Maria's fault that Pat stepped down when she did. It was the third anniversary of that happening, and she wrote about it. Not her fault it was so close to the NC game.
One thing I will give Maria is that in my experiences with her, she is very objective. We had a conversation in November that this past team was not a Final Four caliber team. They could be, but from what she had seen, the Elite Eight would be a great season. She was right. Also, she is more of a UNC fan than Tennessee.
In terms of recruiting, many recruits that have come here, and some that haven't, have always given time to Maria for interviews, because she does it the right way. She never contacts a recruit directly, always through the parents to gain their trust, and following their directions when communicating with their daughters. That's important, and one of the reasons why when Maria discusses recruiting, 9 times out of 10, it's accurate due to her contacts in the profession.
The point of the piece seems to be that PS had more integrity that most other coaches in the game. That's simply not true. The vast majority of the coaches have integrity. Who might not have integrity, in Cornelius's view? Well, now we know one reason for this little piece. She is not objective when it comes to the Vols--she's works for the basketball program, effectively. She is not going to be critical of the coaching, for one thing. As for this past year's team, we certainly had final four potential--not championship potential, but certainly final four potential. We had three players drafted; how many Maryland players were drafted? We were PLENTY good enough to beat Maryland, had we played a halfway decent game. Sorry to be crass, but if you crap the bed in big situations, as Warlick's teams tend to do, it doesn't matter how much talent you have.
Most of their vitriol wasn't directed at Pat, but at Maria, who wrote the article. They have never been a fan of Maria, and have called her every name under the sun, including having no journalistic credibility. I laughed at that one, because she was interviewed by countless media outlets when Pat stepped down, and she has written articles for ESPN.