Filip Bondy

There are no radical upheavals in women’s basketball. The same five or six schools stubbornly, selfishly cling to the top rungs, grabbing the very best recruits every season.

So don’t expect Tennessee to descend too far next season, even after the Lady Vols lose their resident superstar, Candace Parker, to the WNBA and to the U.S. Olympic team. But there are always nuanced shifts within these elite ranks, and Pat Summitt’s eighth NCAA title at the Forum in Tampa figures to be her last for at least a couple of seasons.

Opponents can breathe a bit easier today, tomorrow, and next November when it all starts again. The Lady Vols now lose their five top players, after their breezy 64-48 victory over Stanford in the final. You start with Parker, who was more than remarkable in this Final Four. She was positively courageous, sustaining the role of floor leader despite a dislocated left shoulder.

What Parker did in the course of just over a week should rank with anything we’ve seen before, from a male or female athlete. Somehow, between the electrical stimulation sessions, the massages and the icepacks on her shoulder, Parker managed to engineer the winning basket in a tight semifinal against LSU and then score 17 points and grab nine rebounds in the final against Stanford.

“It was all worth it,” Parker said, about the agony and the ecstasy. “Obviously my shoulder’s a little sour. But winning the national championship makes it feel better. We had a lot of critics all year and we just shut 'em up. We wanted to bring a lot of energy. A lot of people underestimate our defense.”

Parker called her stint in Knoxville, “the best four years of my life.” But now Parker moves on to different challenges while the power shifts back to the Big East, in a big way. If only by default, UConn and Rutgers figure to be the wave of the near future in women’s hoops, until the next cycle catches up with them.

Tennessee lose not only Parker, but also Nicky Anosike, Shannon Bobbitt and Alexis Hornbuckle.

The rest of the contenders all lose their best players, as well. North Carolina graduates forward Erlana Larkins and center LaToya Pringle. Maryland loses its deadly frontcourt pair of Laura Harper and Crystal Langhorne. After five straight Final Four appearances, LSU waves goodbye to any real title aspirations, losing superstar center Sylvia Fowles and four other starters.

Stanford brings back every key player except the most important one: Candice Wiggins, who was reduced to tears after the Cardinal’s 23-game winning streak was snapped in the final defeat. Considering how Wiggins’ teammates disappeared against Tennessee, how they were unable to penetrate or set up their triangle offense, that supporting cast won’t be enough.

This leaves the two best teams in the Big East, where UConn returns everybody except swing guard Katia Swanier. Geno Auriemma’s Huskies were ambushed by Stanford’s near-perfect game this time in a semifinal, but expect to return the fluid forward All-American, sophomore Maya Moore, plus playmaker Renee Montgomery, center Tina Charles and forward Charde Houston. That is a formidable group, and probably will be ranked No. 1 going into 2008-2009.

Rutgers will be without two team leaders, Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson. But the Knights return top scoring guard Epiphanny Prince, forward Heather Zurich and center Kia Vaughn. Vivian Stringer also will feature what is widely considered the top freshman recruiting class in the country.

What all this means is that next year’s Final Four figures to look very different from this one. Summitt knew it, too, even as Tennessee was out-pacing Stanford in the final, pressing and trapping them into a mountain of turnovers. She was coaching the incomparable Parker for one last time, the most bittersweet triumph imaginable.

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“I tried not to think about it,” Summitt said. “I wanted to live in the moment and let Candace live in the moment. This is a happy and sad time, with our seniors leaving.”

It was a strange three days in Tampa, with some unexpected results. Tennessee struggled badly against LSU, then transformed itself against Stanford. The Cardinal played brilliantly against UConn for 35 minutes, but its problems in the final minutes of the semifinal against the Huskies’ press gave Summitt the idea to embrace the same defensive strategy.

Summitt won two titles with Parker. She once captured three of them with Chamique Holdsclaw, but then that Tennessee team was upset in Holdsclaw’s senior season. After Holdsclaw fouled out in that unexpected defeat to Duke, she walked over and placed her head on Summitt's shoulder. Summitt instructed Holdsclaw to take a seat on the bench, so she could finish coaching the game. Summitt is no sentimentalist. Summitt hugged Parker, tight.

“A very special night for our program,” Summitt called it.

All special things must end. Now Summitt may find herself chasing an archenemy, Auriemma. Round and round it goes. Not everybody gets a turn, but even Tennessee can’t win ‘em all.

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