Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

LA Tech Athletics

LA Tech Athletics

Events

Women's Basketball

Summitt, @LATechWBB Profiled on 60 Minutes Sports Tuesday

Dec. 1, 2014

NEW YORK - Louisiana Tech Women's Head Basketball Coach Tyler Summitt is only 24, but can claim to have more college basketball experience than many other coaches much older. When you're born into college basketball, growing up courtside as the son of its winningest coach, Pat Summitt, you have coaching in your blood.

As he begins his first season as a head coach, Tyler is profiled by Lesley Stahl for the next edition of 60 MINUTES SPORTS premiering Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, on SHOWTIME. Watch video extra.

Tyler doesn't remember when he didn't want to coach college basketball. His first memories at age 5 were of his mother, the Hall of Fame University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach with the most all-time wins and eight national championships. "My bedtime story was her screaming at the TV...That's what I fell asleep to," he recalls of his mom reviewing videotape. "I began to watch and see what she was seeing and learn," he tells Stahl.

He spent a lot of time courtside with his mom, doing little things at first, says Pat Summitt's then assistant, Mickie DeMoss. "He got old enough to do the stool...he was really excited about...putting Pat's stool out." He became fully immersed in the environment says Demoss, now Tyler's associate head coach at Louisiana Tech. "I don't think he knew another way...that's your world."

He played basketball in high school and was a walk-on at Tennessee and worked for Pat Summitt during college. He inherited his mom's playbooks and began taking notes like she did when he was still a teen. "I try to write down every detail, because details win championships," says Tyler.

A national championship is what former perennial power Louisiana Tech has lacked since 1988 and they haven't reached the final round since 1999. That's why the school hired Tyler. As he points to several Final Four banners on the Louisiana Tech arena ceiling, he says to Stahl, "We got to work on getting them back."

Tyler was an associate coach for Marquette's women's basketball team before accepting the head coach job at Louisiana Tech. He may have an especially keen desire to beat his old team. As he walked the fairway in a golf game with his mom, who retired in 2012 because she was diagnosed with early Alzheimer's, Stahl asks which team he would rather beat between Marquette and his mom's former Tennessee Vols. "Oh, God," Tyler replies. Without missing a beat, Pat Summitt looks at her son and says, "Better be careful."

About Showtime Networks Inc.:

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNELTM and FLIX®, as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME 2TM, SHOWTIME® SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME®, SHOWTIME BEYOND®, SHOWTIME NEXT®, SHOWTIME WOMEN®, SHOWTIME FAMILY ZONE® and THE MOVIE CHANNELTM XTRA. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HDTM, THE MOVIE CHANNELTM HD, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND® and THE MOVIE CHANNELTM ON DEMAND, and the network's authentication service SHOWTIME ANYTIME®. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian ChannelTM. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME PPV®.

Print Friendly Version