Thursday night became a historic one with Tennessee women’s basketball’s 73-43 win over Georgia, as Pat Summitt became the first coach in NCAA history to win 1,000 games, male or female. Summitt’s career record now stands at 1,000-137, all as a Volunteer. “It’s a hard number to even comprehend,” she said.
Georgia head coach Andy Landers, who embraced Summitt after the game, is no stranger to winning either, picking up his 800th victory just two weeks ago. But he made it clear earlier this week that he did not want to be on the opposite side of Summitt’s milestone. Last Sunday before Tennessee faced No. 2 Oklahoma, Summitt received a text message from Landers joking, “If you don’t win tomorrow … I’m going to be [ticked off].” Summit told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I was sitting there having dinner and I looked down [at the text] and … just started dying laughing.” (The Lady Vols lost that one, 80-70, keeping Summitt at 999.) The two coaches faced off for the NCAA championship in 1996, as well as in the Final Four in 1995 and twice in the SEC Tournament championship game. In their 53 total games against one another, Tennessee leads 39-14 overall. No coach has beaten Summitt more than Landers, however.
ESPNU compiled some of Summitt’s biggest victories; click here for that list.
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Happy birthday, Hank! Legendary Braves outfielder Hank Aaron turned 75 years old today and celebrated in style, spending the evening with former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, along with former Atlanta mayor Andy Young, former Braves owner Ted Turner, former Major Leaguer Dave Winfield and a list of others. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was also in attendance and said of the (former) home run king, “If you were to pick the prototype person to break the most famous record in professional sports, you know who it would be? Henry Aaron. Why? Because of his class and his decency and his dignity. He has represented this sport so beautifully in every way.” Check out Carroll Rogers’s column and these AJC photo galleries of the birthday celebration and his career.
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National Signing Day has come and gone. Rivals.com released its list of overall rankings, pitting Georgia at No. 9 and Georgia Tech all the way at No. 49. More important is how the conferences look with their new additions, and here’s what Rivals had to say about each team in the SEC and ACC.
If you are unfamiliar with any of the recruits — though at this point, I’d find that hard to believe — here’s your chance to read breakdowns and watch highlight videos of all 18 Georgia signees and all 21 Tech signees.
But the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets weren’t the only ones making headlines. Bill Curry and Georgia State welcomed in their first-ever football recruiting class, nabbing 26 athletes (12 from out of state). The Panthers start their first season in 2010.
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Curious as to why former Falcons head coach Dan Reeves left his position with the Dallas Cowboys after just two days? The Rome, Ga., native spoke with David Smoak earlier today on Dallas’ KTBB, mentioning, “It hurts it didn’t happen, because I was really excited about it and it was something that I could really help the Cowboys with.” (For the full interview, click here.)
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Lastly, congratulations to Hawks guard Mike Bibby, who was invited to participate in the 3-Point Shootout as a part of All-Star Weekend on Feb. 14. Bibby will join Al Horford (Rookie-Sophomore Game, Feb. 13) and Joe Johnson (All-Star Game, Feb. 15) for the weekend in Phoenix, Ariz., marking the first time in history the Hawks will be represented at three different All-Star Weekend events.
Only one problem, though: no Hawk is in the Slam Dunk Contest! Can’t we see Josh Smith try for his second title? Oh well, at least we can still watch Atlanta native Dwight Howard try to repeat … but for you Hawks fans, feel free to take a trip down memory lane with this clip of Smith bringing down the house with his dunk over Kenyon Martin in 2005.
And you know what? Here are some clips of Spud Webb (1986) and Dominique Wilkins (1990) winning it while we’re at it. No one can say we can’t slam here in at Atlanta: the Hawks are the only team to have three Slam Dunk Contest champions (and four total wins, since ‘Nique also won it in 1985). No other franchise has won more than two.
Arapoglou can be reached at tarapoglou@scoreatl.com.
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