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TAMPA, Fla. - Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt's relationship with LSU coach Van Chancellor didn't inspire any Final Four controversy. These two are too close for that. LSU plays the Lady Vols tonight in the semifinals at 9:30.

Summitt not only has known Chancellor for decades, she also is well acquainted with Chancellor's wife, Betty. Chancellor asked Summitt to be his escort when he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.

Summitt said that she is "excited" that Chancellor, who led the Houston Comets to four WNBA championships, was able reach his first Women's Final Four.

As the former coach at Ole Miss, Chancellor guided 14 teams to the NCAA women's tournament.

"I'm proud of what he's accomplished and it hasn't changed him,'' Summitt said. "He's the same down-to-earth, just a great guy. And I know he's thrilled because he said he just didn't want to be the first one not to get a team, not to get his team there."

Chancellor, in his first season at LSU, helped lead the Lady Tigers to a Division I record-tying five consecutive Final Four appearances.

Dishing It Up: Before the tournament started, Summitt reheated one of her favorite postseason analogies, urging the players to play it potluck style and bring their best dish to pass.

Freshman forward Angie Bjorklund reminds herself of this directive in the form of the acronym "Peas", written on her basketball shoe.

It translates to "positive, energy, attitude and shooting."

The Lady Vols could use a little more of the "S" factor from Bjorklund, who has scored just nine baskets in four tournament games.

Local Ties: Bev Roberts, who was one of the game officials for Tennessee's Midwest Regional final against Texas A&M and will officiate one of the Final Four games, is a 1990 graduate of Tusculum College and a native of Kingsport.

Bev's father, Garry, is a basketball official in the South Atlantic Conference.

Strong Presence: The SEC was generally considered to be down this season. Putting five teams in the NCAA field paled in comparison to the Big East and Big 12, which qualified eight teams apiece.

Yet the SEC has both LSU and Tennessee together in the Final Four for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

"Everybody has been talking about some other conferences,'' Summitt said. "But there's two SEC teams in the Final Four. So I think that speaks for itself."

Complimenting Candice: Lady Vols All-American Candace Parker was gracious about Stanford's Candice Wiggins winning the State Farm Wade Trophy, the national player of the year award Parker won last season.

"It couldn't have gone to a better person and a better player," Parker said.

Before Wiggins, the other Stanford player to win the Wade was Oak Ridge native Jennifer Azzi in 1990.

Notebook: Along with Memphis, Lady Vols assistant coach Nikki Caldwell said she expects to hear from UCLA about its head coaching vacancy after UT's season concludes. . . . Summitt retold the story of knocking the raccoon off the back deck of her house during Saturday's press conference and added, "Fortunately I've never done this with a player; I wouldn't be here." . . . Danielle Donehew, the Lady Vols director of basketball operations, will be leaving after the season to become the executive vice-president of the new WNBA franchise in Atlanta.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.