More Notes and Quotes From Around the 2008 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament
March 15th 2008
by LeAnne Harrington, SECWB.com
Posted: March 11th, 2008 @ 11:51pm
Ole Miss’ self-described “old rookie” coach Renee Ladner was quite colorful in some of her post game comments, especially when it came to describing LSU, her team’s quarterfinal opponent. After their defeat of in-state rival Mississippi State in the first round, some intrepid reporter asked Ladner that if she planned on putting more than one player on LSU’s SEC Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles, then how would she stop Erica White? To which Ladner responded: “I don’t know if you can stop any of them. If I were to plan I’d put all five of them on Sylvia, but I don’t know if that will work either.”
After Ole Miss was knocked out of the tourney by LSU in the next round, Ladner had this to say about the play of Fowles: “If you get around the first line of defense, there’s a tree standing in the middle of the lane and the branches go from one side of the court to the other. You’re not looking at the rim, you’re looking at Sylvia, and she is the best defensive player, to me, in the country.” Guess there’s not much doubt as to who Ladner voted for as SEC Player of the Year…
After 19 years as coach at Ole Miss, 10 years and four WNBA championships with the Houston Comets, Chancellor had retired from active coaching and spent several years doing color commentary for Fox SportsNet. Which may be why he forgot where he was going before LSU’s first game on Friday. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here. First thing I did today was I went in the Fox TV room. I forgot where my dressing room was, ” Chancellor said.
With a large lead and about 7 minutes remaining in their game with Ole Miss, Chancellor walked down his bench, said something, and the whole team erupted in laughter. When asked about it post-game, Chancellor gave this explanation: “We were just laughing that (senior guard Marian) Whitfield actually passed the ball. She’s played (four years) at LSU, got three assists. Last time Whitfield passed the ball seems like … I don’t know, eight or nine years ago.”
UT coach Pat Head Summitt has been noted for some of her more colorful attire down through the years (can anyone say “orange suit”?), but this season LSU coach Van Chancellor decided to get in on the act. Chancellor said the only complaints he’s heard since arriving to coach the Bayou Bengals is that he doesn’t wear enough purple and gold, so he has set about trying to change that. For their quarterfinal game against Ole Miss, Chancellor was decked out in gold pants and a gold and purple tie, which prompted this humorous exchange in the post-game press conference:
Reporter to White and Fowles: “I’d like you both to comment on coach’s pants.”
White (laughter):”I thought my coach looked nice tonight. Don’t you talk about my coach.”
Chancellor: “That will get you big minutes tomorrow, Erica.”
Fowles (to more laughter): “I know he didn’t dress himself. His wife did.”
Chancellor: “I know I’m styling.”
White: “You are coach. Top-notch.”
It should be noted that Summitt wore black pants and a bright orange jacket for the championship game against LSU, while Chancellor wore a white shirt with a gold and purple tie, gold jacket and gorgeous lavender pants.
Not only are LSU’s Van Chancellor and Kentucky’s Matthew Mitchell from the same small town in Mississippi (Louisville), but 5 of the 12 SEC women’s basketball head coaches hail from the Magnolia State. The other three are Alabama’s Stephany Smith (Brookhaven), Auburn’s Nell Fortner (Jackson), and Ole Miss’ Renee Ladner (Gulfport).
The other state to produce the largest number of SEC head coaches is Tennessee. Four coaches hail from the Volunteer State: Florida’s Amanda Butler was born in Mt. Juliet, Georgia’s Andy Landers is from Maryville, Mississippi State’s Sharon Fanning’s hometown is Chattanooga, and UT’s Pat Head Summitt was raised in Henrietta.
There were more than a few notables in the crowd at the Sommet Center during the four days of the tourney, including: Nashville’s ABC affiliate WKRN news anchor Anne Holt (decked out in Lady Vol orange), former Lady Vol great and current Murray State head coach Jody Adams, former Kentucky head coach Bernadette Locke-Mattox, and Tennessee Titan’s quarterback Vince Young attended Sunday’s championship game.
There were the usual signs and posters seen during the tournament, including “Pat for President” and “Raccoons and Tigers Beware”, but two signs in particular elicited some of the more vocal responses in the Sommet Center when shown on the Jumbotron. The first was a Vanderbilt fan holding the typical UT sign “Go Lady Vols” which he had appropriated and altered to read: “Go HOME Lady Vols”. The other sign greeted with the most vociferous reaction was held by a purple-and-gold-clad LSU fan which read: “Orange is the official color of the Louisiana State prison system.”