How They Won The Title

The Lady Vols won their 7th national championship in classic Pat Summitt fashion-- with defense and rebounding.

It sounds easy, but it's not. And we've heard it so many times, we might be tempted to roll our eyes. No, please, not the defense and rebounding soundbite again!

Give Summitt credit, she continues to recruit the top high school players in the nation-- players that earned attention by being the big scoring threats for their prep teams.

But when they arrive at Tennessee, sometimes with plenty of prodding, Summitt gets them to buy into her system-- that defense and rebounding thing.

On Tuesday night in Cleveland, when they shot just 34% against Rutgers, the Lady Vols prevailed doing the gritty stuff. Most impressive was center Nicky Anosike. Her sixteen rebounds, ten coming off missed Lady Vol shots, were all crucial.

Bobbitt was disruptive-- forcing at least one turnover when she wasn't even on the ball; Hornbuckle had two steals; Auguste was tough on the boards in the first-half; and for all the attention Parker gets on offense, she's always rebounding too.

Defense and rebounding aren't glamorous topics. But doing both well helped make the Lady Vols the glamour team of 2007.

One final thought. For all the bashing it gets-- Cleveland's a nice town. Old, yes. A bit rusty, true. Cold, often. But it's still one of America's biggest cities and best sports towns. All that said, I'm glad we're on our way back to Knoxville. I haven't seen a dogwood in bloom in a week.