UT wasn't the right fit for Azzi

No matter the circumstances, there's no way Jennifer Azzi would've ever ended up playing for Tennessee.

The 2009 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee reflected on her recruitment as a star player at Oak Ridge High and said that even if UT had pursued her more vigorously she would've gone elsewhere.

"I never saw myself here,'' said Azzi, who had an All-American career at Stanford and led the Cardinal to the 1990 national championship. "I have the most respect for (Tennessee coach) Pat Summitt. I mean over the years she's treated me like one of her own players.

"I don't know if I was the right fit for the program at that time. There was something about being different. I could go to Tennessee, which is maybe what people would expect or I could go somewhere off the basketball map."

Good Day 4Kay: The 4Kay run/walk Saturday morning drew more than 300 participants including several of the inductees.

Azzi ran in the event while Jill Hutchison and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke walked the course. Cooper-Dyke's son, Brian Dyke Jr., won the 10-under division.

Brenda Hogue, the grand niece of inductee Ora Washington, also walked the course.

The event was staged in honor of Hall of Famer Kay Yow to raise money and awareness for women's cancer research through the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

Yow died in January after a long battle with cancer.

Thankful Group: Gratitude was the prevailing theme of Saturday night's induction ceremony. Hogue, who spoke on Washington's behalf, was especially touching.

"Thank you for accepting me because I didn't play basketball,'' Hogue said. "As you can see I'm short. The ball just doesn't go in."

Washington died in 1971.

Azzi thanked her father, Jim, for putting up a basketball goal and repaving the driveway when she was young.

"This is so special to me,'' Cooper-Dyke said. "I spent 10 years in Italy. Nobody knew where I was or what I was doing."

"I never thought God would have such a big plan for such a little ... big girl from Mississippi,'' inductee Jennifer Gillom said.

Giving Her Credit: Sonja Hogg's talents for program building and marketing were instrumental in her induction. Leon Barmore, a co-head coach for two of his eight seasons on Hogg's staff at Louisiana Tech, spoke highly of her coaching credentials, too.

"It wasn't like she sat in her office, she did her fair share and more,'' Barmore said. "She was the coach of record and that's the way it should've been."

Coming Home: East Tennessee isn't much like home anymore for Azzi. Her family has moved away and she lives in Mill Valley, Calif. Still this area feels like home.

"I think I will always feel connected here,'' she said. "For anybody, where you were born there's kind of a soul connection almost. There's something really special."

Man On A Mission: Bill Wall, a member of the Hall of Fame's board of directors, entered Saturday's induction meeting for the 2010 class armed with information on more candidates like 2009 inductee Washington. The former executive director of USA Basketball is the unofficial lobbyist for players from by-gone eras.

"That's one of the things we've prided ourselves on, not missing these kinds of people,'' he said. "There are other people like that."