John Adams: Shared history connects Pat Summitt, Andy Landers

Andy Landers was only 26 years old when he became the women's basketball coach at the University of Georgia. He wasn't too young to know what he was up against.

"When I went to Georgia, we had a problem," he said at SEC basketball Media Day in October. "We had no players. We had no reputation. No budget. We didn't have a dressing room."

He did have uniforms. Really bad ones.

"I went to the administration and told them there weren't any (uniforms) in hopes that they would buy new ones," he said.

"Yeah, it worked."

No one could appreciate that story more than Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, whose team will play the Lady Bulldogs at Thompson-Boling Arena this evening.

She and Landers have never been chummy. Their rivalry has run too deep for that. It has been played out on a Final Four stage as well as in the regional recruiting of the same high school All-Americans.

He's a man in a women's game. She's the female face of her sport.

But despite the obvious differences, they're bound by a common history, which, in a way, draws them closer as the years add up.

She's in her 38th year with the Lady Vols. He's in his 33rd season at Georgia. Together, they have combined to win almost 2,000 college basketball games. They were on the ground floor of their sport when coaches drove team vans and lobbied for uniforms that wouldn't embarrass their teams.

Their connection extends beyond the years. It's also about how they have embraced those years.

Summitt announced last summer that she would continue coaching despite being diagnosed with early onset dementia. The decision reflected her love for the game.

Landers understands. His passion for his work has kept him so immersed in the present that he often has measured time in days, rather than years.

"I wake up and it's like 33 years later," he said. "You're still doing it and you're still having fun. Honestly, sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and (realize) I haven't even noticed me.

" 'Damn, you got fat. When did that happen?' "

You sense that Summitt looks at her job the same way. While others might define her by eight national championships and more than 1,000 victories, she treasures the daily process of practice and preparation that prolong her career in daily increments.

That's not to diminish the value of games like this one. Like all but a couple of UT's rivalries, this one has been one sided (42-15). But only Louisiana Tech has won more games against the Lady Vols than Georgia.

"I've always embraced coaching against them," Landers said. "But I've never viewed it as me against her.

"As good of a coach as she is, there are years when she has had better players than she was a coach. She'll tell you that. I've had them, too.

"(Teresa) Edwards was a better player than I was a coach. (Chamique) Holdsclaw was a better player than anybody was a coach."

The players that have fueled the rivalry might stand out, but Landers hasn't been oblivious to the coach on the other bench. He has noticed changes, some less subtle than others.

"Twenty years ago, (Summitt) would have defended the Lakers man-to-man for 40 minutes," he said. "The last 10 or 15 years, they've tried to use defenses based on their personnel.

"They'll still manage to throw a wrinkle in on you once a game. That really bothers me if I've seen it somewhere before and dismissed it as something they wouldn't do against us.

"And hell, she opened the game in it."

But a rivalry 30-plus years in the making has been based more on consistency than the unexpected. When it resumes this evening, two hall-of-fame coaches will be at court-side and the uniforms will look just fine.

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.