Columnist Ron Kantowski: Summit would boost men’s team

Tuesday, April 2, 2002 | 10:05 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Wake up Washington, West Virginia, Oregon State, and any other State, Tech, and/or A&M still looking for a basketball coach.

Hire Pat Summit. Or at least make her an offer that she would have trouble refusing.

The record of the Tennessee women's basketball coaching legend speaks for itself. But coaching at the Division I level is so much more than X's and O's. It's also about charisma and notoriety and the ability to create interest in one's program, all of which Summit brings to the table. Especially the creating interest part.

In a way, it blows me away that with the exception of Goldie Hawn in "Wildcats" a woman has never really been given an opportunity to coach a prominent men's team.

Currently, there is not a single woman coaching a men's Division I basketball team. Even more startling, according to a recent Brooklyn College study, is that only two percent of men's athletic programs across the board are coached by women.

This is 2002 for cryin' out loud. We've got two women serving on the Supreme Court but none on the basketball court. Go figure.

Granted, establishing precedent and ruling on laws that could shape a nation pales in comparison to say, staying on the good side of an obnoxious booster with deep pockets. And there's no doubt it's going to take a tough woman with a thick skin to deal with constant scrutiny and the kind of wiseacre columnists who collect dog-earned copies of "Argosy" magazine.

That's why Summit is the one. She is a bona fide battle-axe, and I say that out of respect.

After her pregame speech against Vanderbilt in the NCAA regional (she let the ESPN cameras and crew eavesdrop), Summit had me so intimidated that I offered to do the dishes and laundry. For an entire month.

Summit has stated in the past that she's not interested in coaching men. But like the Monkees said, that was then, this is now.

It's time that someone gives a woman a chance to coach men -- and I've got dishwater hands to prove it.