Lady Vols playing name game

When the Lady Vols assembled in the locker room Wednesday night to dress to play Louisville, coach Pat Summitt held up Glory Johnson's jersey.

Johnson gulped and thought: "Oh, man, what did I do?''

"Then she turned it around.''

The players' names are back on the Tennessee women's basketball jerseys after an absence of five seasons.

It's not a reward to the team, but rather Summitt's present to a loyal fan base.

"I can't tell you how much mail that we've opened that said please put the names on the jerseys,'' Summitt said after the No. 3 Lady Vols routed Louisville 86-56 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

"We've had text messages, all kind of e-mails: 'We're upstairs, we cant see.' . . . 'It's hard to distinguish the new players.' ''

Summitt made the decision during the plane ride to New York last Friday before the Rutgers game.

"I thought, one thing we can be proud of is we have the very best fans in the women's game,'' Summitt said.

"They come, they're loyal. They sit in the upper deck. They cheer. They give us an edge.

"And there are a lot of people that go on the road.

"So, for whatever reason I said I'm going to do it.''

Which meant breaking her vow to never put individual names back on the jerseys.

"I lied, sorry,'' she said. "I don't lie but I did lie this one time.''

Summitt took the names off the jerseys prior to the 2004-05 season. She had just signed the No. 1 recruiting class that included Candace Parker, Alexis Hornbuckle, Nicky Anosike, Alex Fuller and others - a class that would eventually win two national titles.

Such a star-studded class, Summitt figured, needed to focus on the team concept.

She was leaning toward reinstating the names the following year - until the 2004-05 season ended abruptly in an NCAA tournament loss to Michigan State.

"We gave that game away,'' she said. "It was probably the most disappointing loss in the postseason of my entire time here.''

So the names stayed off. Until now.

"This is all about our fans,'' Summitt said.

The players were pleased but knew better than to get too bubbly.

"Yeah, it's on there,'' said Shekinna Stricklen, "but it's all about what's on the front anyway.''

Impaired Vision: Johnson had an interesting night. She missed her first eight shots from the field before converting her ninth attempt with 18 minutes to play.

Coincidentally, Johnson lost a contact lens somewhere between her last miss and her first make.

"Last time I lost a contact in a game Pat got mad when I stopped so I played (this time) without it,'' Johnson said with a laugh. "I had to squint.''

After she made her first bucket, a short jumper, "I thought about not putting my contact back in,'' she said. "I really did.''

But Johnson didn't allow a frustrating night on one end to infect her play at the other end.

She had 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals.

"It's not the percentage any player wants to have,'' Johnson said of her cold start, "but I know there's things I can help myself.

"My defense. That's passion. That's effort. My rebounding. I can do that myself.

"If I'm not playing well offensively, I've got to play defense. Otherwise, I'm not helping my team at all.''

Which wouldn't have appealed to Summitt.

"One thing about Glory,'' she said, "it has more to do with her competitive attitude.

"She's going to keep playing regardless. Sometimes she's her own worst enemy because she plays too fast.''

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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