NEW YORK — You don't have to venture beyond Thompson-Boling Arena in charting the rise to prominence of Tennessee women's basketball. Just check out the banners.
But you also can trace the program's success on a map.
Current stop: New York City — or more specifically, the New York Athletic Club, which doesn't open its doors to just anybody. The dress code gives you an idea of the Lady Vols' accommodations as they prepare for this afternoon's game against DePaul in Madison Square Garden.
Public areas (Monday through Friday): Business casual attire with jackets at all times. Comparable attire for ladies.
The club doesn't even make exceptions for sportswriters wandering through the lobby. I checked.
My guess is wherever the Lady Vols stayed in Cullowhee, N.C., had less discriminating tastes. On second thought, the Lady Vols probably didn't stay overnight when they made their first road trip under coach Pat Summitt in January of 1975. They just bused across the mountains and back, beating Western Carolina by three points in between.
Tennessee didn't travel beyond neighboring states North Carolina and Kentucky in Summitt's first two seasons. They went all the way to Oxford, Miss., in January of 1977.
But a couple of months later, you had your first hint this program was headed for more distant and prominent venues. The Lady Vols finished third in the AIAW championships in Minneapolis.
The current road trip would have been a big deal back then. Now, the Knoxville to New York round trip followed by games in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, Calif., is considered routine. Going coast to coast seems more like a commuter flight for a program that has traveled the world.
But the destination isn't always on the itinerary. Coach Pat Summitt has scheduled trips with championships in mind.
It can't hurt your recruiting when your schedule includes a 10-day summer tour of Europe or a preseason tournament in the Virgin Islands.
Yet the road schedule is more about developing players than getting them.
Summitt has shaped and hardened countless teams for March by how she has scheduled in November and December.
Her 2003-04 team played at Stanford, DePaul and Oklahoma in consecutive December games.
The 2005-06 team spent Thanksgiving in the Virgin Islands, returned home for a game with Texas, then took another West-to-East excursion — Stanford on the front end, George Washington on the back end.
This trip is even tougher.
In the next 10 days, UT will play No. 20 DePaul, No. 11 Rutgers, UCLA and No. 4 Stanford. The four teams are a combined 25-5.
It's reminiscent of another four-game December trip four years ago. The Lady Vols went from UCLA to Stanford to DePaul to Notre Dame,
They weren't good enough to win all four games. But they were good enough to win a national championship the following April.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/johnadamskns.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Softball: Tennessee 2, Georgia 1
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 3
pomp_and_circumstance writes:
John? Is that really you? Someone let you go to New York? You earned it with this report. And it doesn't matter that every voice of every LV telecast has said the same thing for ten years.
tnmantravel#531151 writes:
these lady vols will win 2 of the 4 ...still early and point guard that was just starting to "jell" not able to play...
richvol writes:
It's a mistake to not play Stricklen at point guard in lieu of Simmons...and Manning needs to play.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.