re: How is Pat Summitt doing these days?

So sad. Prayers for her and her family. GOAT

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UT fans should be so appreciative of her contributions to their school, and I know most are. I think TBA should be renamed the Pat Summit Arena.

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You'll think I'm nuts/exaggerating but Pat Summitt could've been elected Queen of Tennessee and granted the right to rule as an absolute monarch if she'd wanted it. We were and are bonkers about her, even those who never followed the LVs. And not simply because she's a great coach but because she commanded our absolute respect in a way that few ever achieve. We honestly believed she could do ANYTHING if she wanted to regardless of what it was or whether she had any experience at all. And many of us adored her - she was classy, smart, can-do, and tough and reminded many of us of the some of women in our lives, especially those moms and grandmas who grew up rural and/or on farms and commanded respect for the same reasons Pat did off the court.

(FWIW, because of our belief in her toughness, iron will, and smarts we went into a sort of collective denial I've never seen happen with Alzheimer's before - we said over and over "if anyone can beat it Pat can," and we meant it. It has been hard for us to accept.)

And really beyond basketball, she represented the best of us, had the same upbringing that so many Tennesseans shared, and was extremely proud to be a Tennessean.

Funny story about Pat (because this is how we should remember people stricken with this terrible disease): When she was pregnant on a recruiting trip and it became clear it was time (her water broke while she was recruiting in PA) so she rushed back to the plane and had them head towards home. When it became clear that the baby wasn't about to wait much longer everyone on the plane advised an emergency landing in VA - the pilots outright begged her to do so. Her response? I was born in Tennessee, I was raised in Tennessee and I work in Tennessee. "I am having my baby in TENNESSEE!"

She even told her assistant to inform the pilots that if they dared to land in Virginia that they would have a madwoman on their hands. The pilots wound up flying so fast they burnt through a record amount of fuel and a flight that should've taken them 2hrs only took an hour. There were even black streaks on the outside of the plane when they landed from speed/burning of all that fuel.

Ambulances greeted the plane in Knoxville where Tyler was born a few hours later.