Pat Summitt's Health Gives Tournament Different Feel for Lady Vols Mark Humphrey/Associated Press Coach Pat Summitt has relinquished most game-coaching responsibilities to her assistants and prefers to work with individual players. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Another women's N.C.A.A. basketball tournament approaches and Tennessee is seeking to hang a ninth championship banner in the rafters. But the usual postseason excitement is tinged with somber uncertainty, given that this year's tournament might be more about departure than arrival. The Lady Vols open play Saturday against Tennessee-Martin, the alma mater of their legendary coach, Pat Summitt. The unavoidable question is whether Summitt's next defeat will be her last, whether an unsurpassed career will end prematurely at age 59 against an inexorable opponent - early onset dementia? The answer is, no one yet knows. "It's heartbreaking," said Alberta Auguste, a guard on Tennessee's last championship team, in 2008, who has joined former and current players in making a memory book of letters and photographs for Summitt. Something like that happens to someone you love, it rips your heart out. You just try to be there for her. Since she announced her condition last summer, Summitt has sought to raise awareness about Alzheimer's disease and funds toward an eventual cure. She has put a recognizable face on an illness that affects 5.4 million Americans and has perhaps helped to remove some of its stigma. An outpouring of support has greeted her around the country. In December, when the Lady Vols played in New York, a woman approached Summitt in Macy's and said, "Can I give you a hug?" She plays games and puzzles on her iPad to help remain alert. But anyone who has been around Summitt for a length of time can sense inevitable changes. Once she was so fiery that she pounded her hands on the court and had to have her rings re-rounded. As was evident at practice Wednesday, she appears quieter, more subdued. Her coaching role has diminished. A basketball coach is not unlike an air-traffic controller who must follow the movements of 10 players on the court at once. Summitt can no longer do this, her assistants said. So she prefers to instruct one player at a time, while her longtime assistant Holly Warlick has in essence become head coach. Sometimes, Summitt does not enter the huddle during timeouts; when she does, she typically defers to Warlick. Summitt also engages referees less frequently, though her rare eruptions draw a loudly appreciative and nostalgic response from Tennessee fans. School officials have expressed some frustration with television coverage, saying that cameras seem to linger on moments of apparent detachment. While Summitt remains vital to her team, she has begun to withdraw as school officials attempt to insulate her. A great storyteller, open with the news media, Summitt routinely invited cameras into the locker room to record speeches that could be inspiring and blistering. Now, she speaks to reporters once a week, but declines one-on-one interviews and live on-air interviews, except for a post-game radio show. Warlick handles the post-game news conferences. Last month, a prized Tennessee recruit for 2013 announced that she was having second thoughts, citing uncertainty about Summitt's coaching future. The local newspaper has written about Summitt's possible successors, as if her departure were inevitable. Typically resolute, Summitt has said that she would not hold a pity party for herself. She wears a wristband that says "Fierce Courage" and still possesses an acute sense of humor. Sometimes at meals, one of her assistants will ask if she picked up the check and Summitt will reply, "Don't ask me, I've got memory problems." And even after eight national titles and 1,095 victories over 38 seasons - more wins than any male or female college basketball coach - defeat continues to sting. "Losing is worse than dementia," Maria Cornelius, a local sportswriter, said that Summitt told her in an aside this season. Debby Jennings, who has been a spokeswoman for Summitt for 35 years, said that Summitt has indicated a desire to coach next season. "Basketball has always been her true North," Jennings said. At practice Wednesday, Summitt was noncommittal. "I haven't even made any decision about that," she said. I'm just trying to win a championship. When pressed, she added, "I love the game. Whether I'm here at UT, I may or may not coach. I just want to get another championship for this group. Later, after a well-wisher expressed hope for Summitt's return, she laughed and said, "I hope they let me come back."