Lady Vols repeat as champs

A tenacious defense and all-out team offensive effort catapulted "underdogs" Lady Vols over Stanford last night to repeat a win in the NCAA women's basketball tournament finals.

Tennessee as an "underdog" made me chuckle. Sure, Candace Parker was injured. But the team knew that and she was injured in games prior to last night's.

Maybe people thought the other players couldn't compensate for that. But here's the thing: Tennessee also has Coach Summitt, who has been with the program for 34 years. This is her eighth championship. She knows how to win.

And then there's Candace Parker, shown in a photo above hugging teammate Sharon Bobbit after the victory. Today is the WNBA draft and she is predicted to be the number one pick. Injured or not, whether she can shoot as many points or not , having her on the court to help out shouldn't be overlooked. She can play defense and she can motivate the team just by playing with an injury. It's true. The players are just as affected as the fans by watching an injured player grimace.

Some will say it could have gone the other way, that Stanford didn't play up to their potential. There's no doubt in my mind that they didn't. I think there was a mental toughness issue, to start with. They were also stopped by a defense that came onto the court like a freight train and the sight of five foot two Shannon Bobbit shooting three pointers and darting through lines of blue uniforms to score. They knocked her down. She got up with a smile on her face.

Somewhere out there on the court, the Stanford players stopped trying. The Lady Vols showed up and played every minute of the game.

Perhaps it was their present to Parker as a teammate who dreamed of one more championship before she left the team.