Summitt Sticks to Business of Basketball as Other Celebrate Her Career Kim Mulkey took grim joy in this 77-58 victory. But she would not allow anyone to patronize her. The best way to honor her was to beat her for a berth in the Final Four, even if defeat ended Summitt's 38th season and perhaps her pioneering career. "It's not fun for me to coach against Pat," Mulkey, the Baylor coach, said of Summitt, the Tennessee legend, after Monday's Des Moines Region final. But I have a job to do. That became impossible once she announced last summer that she had early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. With her future undecided, the Lady Vols embarked on a kind of extended farewell tour, greeted with heartfelt affection for Summitt and appreciation for her role as a trailblazer and adviser. "None of us will ever have the impact Pat Summitt has" on women's basketball, Mulkey said. On Monday night, fans of both teams stood and applauded as Summitt walked to the Tennessee bench. Mulkey hugged her friend but seemed pained by her gloomy task. Summitt got to her feet early on, given the urgency of the moment, exhorting her players, barking at the referees. "She may forget where her phone is, but she's not going to forget to yell at the officials," said Holly Warlick, who played for Summitt in the 1970s and has been her assistant for 27 years. She's still competitive. I don't care what disease she has, she's going to go down swinging. Summitt and Mulkey embraced again with 46.8 seconds left after a tense moment on the court. Baylor's 6-foot-8 center Brittney Griner (23 points, 15 rebounds, 9 blocked shots) and two teammates were ejected for leaving the bench after a near scuffle between Baylor guard Odyssey Sims (27 points) and Tennessee's Shekinna Stricklen. But tensions quickly eased and players on both teams hugged. N.C.A.A. officials said no Baylor players would face suspensions at the Final Four. Summitt skipped her postgame radio show courtside as Baylor (38-0) celebrated. She has not spoken this season at news conferences. If Summitt's career has ended as a head coach, it is unsurpassed with 8 national titles and 1,098 victories. Significantly, these achievements bloomed from rural soil. Girls who lived and worked on farms, as Summitt did, baling hay, plowing tobacco fields, eating her sack lunch on a tractor, could hardly be told that they lacked the stamina to play basketball. She laundered the team uniforms, drove the team van and was so intent on winning that "we never even stopped at McDonald's," Warlick said. "Don't take donkeys to the Kentucky Derby," her father, Richard Head, told her. She demanded college administrators take her sport seriously when few did. "She is one of the few coaches who are coaching basketball players and not girls," he said.