Metro Pulse/Sports/Detestable Gamesmanship

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Spurrier, Auriemma set examples in their sports

by Tony Basilio

The Wheel of Karma is fully operational here at the University of Tennessee. For Coach Pat Summitt's Lady Vols basketball squad, last week's 81-67 trouncing at the hands of the Connecticut Huskies was yet another sign that it's come around again.

Less than a decade ago, many media types had to suppress chuckles when then-Florida football Coach Steve Spurrier struck up a fast friendship with Summitt. Spurrier used to tell anybody who would listen how much he identified with Summitt. She was all about championships, he harped; in the midst of a perhaps never-to-be-seen-again three-peat as the women's basketball national champions, Summitt's Ladies were everywhere. And Spurrier saw an opportunity, not only to get close to a legend, but to needle rival Tennessee football Coach Phillip Fulmer in the process.

Spurrier loved playing mental games, even out of season. He would show up at Summitt's house. Hang out. Play some golf. Talk some coaching, and talk to the media�mostly about hanging out and playing some golf with what he would call the �champion at UT.' It was too perfect. He was sticking Fulmer at every turn, and thereby laying the groundwork for his annual conquest of UT months before the season began. Spurrier held an awful sway over UT's proud football program, and his relationship with Summitt was yet another tool of empire.

But somewhere in the mid-90s, while Pat and Spurrier were reveling in their respective supremacies, there lurked an up-and-coming coach from a doormat women's program in the Big East. Who could guess that Geno Auriemma would become the Steve Spurrier of his sport, an offensive innovator who sought to dominate, not just succeed? And like Spurrier, he knew that if he were to achieve dominance, he would have to go through Knoxville to do so.

Remember the annual "Game of the Century" with Spurrier's Gators? Our hopes were always towering; the town would be at a fever pitch; we would all talk a big game, pay scalpers obscene prices for tickets, and then promptly lay an egg.

This is the reality for Lady Vol fans these days. Who would've thought that Pat Summitt would have a Steve Spurrier to contend with in her own sport? Who would've ever believed her teams could be beaten long before games begin?

The parallels between Geno and Steve-o are almost staggering. Both are brash; both are offensive innovators; both are masters at playing the media; and both have built empires at places that didn't matter before they came. These are men who measure success in championships. And, at their respective zeniths, they are easily the most reviled men in their particular sports.

So, with time winding down the other night in what will surely qualify as the biggest basketball game (men's or women's) in the Tommy Bowl this season, Geno turns around with arms extended and starts yelling at the top of his lungs to the shocked Tennessee faithful at courtside: "I love this place! I love this place!" Truly a move taken straight out of Steve Spurrier's Big Book of Gamesmanship.

But the biggest parallel between Spurrier and Auriemma is the fact that their opponents in Knoxville love to lay down for them. And the Tennessee/UConn series only gets more painful as time goes on. Some fans were calling last week's game the biggest in arena history, but Summitt's troops came out flat and never recovered. The 14-point margin of victory wasn't indicative of how one-sided the game truly was. Pat Summitt hasn't tasted victory over Auriemma in five tries now; fully one quarter of her total number of career losses in the Tommy Bowl (16) have come against UConn (four).

And Geno continues to win psychological battles as well. Summitt has said on many occasions that she would be open to a friendship, but that Geno doesn't want to be chummy. He doesn't even want to be civil; on more than one occasion, he's referred to the Lady Vols as his sport's �Evil Empire.' This guy is a piece of work; if he weren't such an asshole, it would be easy to appreciate what he has accomplished.

Maybe, like his predecessor Steve-o before him, Geno will get bored and try his luck in men's hoops, or the pros. We can only pray he does something different soon. Here's hoping that he at least stays away from Coach Fulmer's house in the off-season. That would be too much for even the Wheel of Karma to bear.

Tune in and talk sports with "The Tony Basilio Show" each weekday from 3-6 p.m. on the network (670 WMTY-AM, 850 WKVL-AM, 1140 WLOD-AM, 1290 WATO-AM, or 1400 WGAP-AM).