MARTIN, Tenn. – We've been to Madison Square Garden. We've played at Quicken Loans Arena. So, it is rightfully so that the 2016-17 non-conference journey out of the Sunshine State ends with Bethune-Cookman men's basketball to another hoops holy ground.
 
Martin,Tennessee.
 
Martin,Tennessee?
 
Yep. And put some respect on it.
 
The University of Tennessee at Martin primarily serves as the home for the majority of UT's agricultural education for a good reason. Walk out the doors of the Elam Center, and there is literally a cow field full of, well, literally…cows across the street. When the local television breaks into "prime time" for commercials, the ads include great deals on tractors and farm equipment.
 
Again, prime time.
 
But, you know, there was a Zaxby's a quarter mile from the hotel. The nice folks from the United Methodist Church stopped by and dropped off some goodies. And the local sandwich shop's signature dishes include the Elvis tribute featuring peanut butter, bacon, bananas and a couple other ingredients marginally attached to the food chain. (Uh, yummy? Thankyouverymuch?) In all, as far as overnight road trips, it's not much different than, say, Orangeburg, South Carolina and we have to go there all the time.
 
So, how could this place have even been considered in the same breath as the world's greatest sporting arena and the home court of the world's greatest player? Who or what could elevate this Hee-Haw Hamlet into a hoops holy of holies?
 
Pat Summitt played at UT-Martin.
 
That Pat Summitt.
 
GOAT Pat Summitt.
 
Now you're respecting.
 
Far greater tributes to Summitt have been penned and are worthy of both the googling and the reading time. But watching Candace Parker break down and cry "This is for Pat" after winning game five of the WNBA Finals and Peyton Manning's tribute in which he shared that Summitt, wrecked by dementia and Alzheimer's, would say "That's my friend" when one of his commercials came on the television, make one appreciate not only what she meant for the sport, but for that region as well.
 
"Legendary," said Bethune-Cookman Women's Head Basketball Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis.  "She's why we're here. A pioneer."
 
Adjacent to the Elam Center (and also near the cow field) is the fieldhouse where Summitt put the work in as a player. The court's not much bigger than the jumbotron at the Quicken Loans Arena. Outside, there's a statue of her and a couple of other coaches/student-athletes who shaped the future of the women's game – locally and globally, and a campus drive and the Elam Center court bear her name as well.
 
Three hundred and thirty-two miles away in the slightly more cosmopolitan Knoxville are much grander tributes to Summitt, but this works. Like Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach, this is where the journey actually began, and by hoops standards, the humblest of beginnings. You almost…almost…want to make comparisons to someone who started out with five little girls, $1.50 and faith in God.
 
"She's why women's basketball is what it is today," Blair-Lewis said. "She brought the game out of oblivion and put it on the main table. We went from an era where the women's game may have one game on television with fuzzy reception into the national spotlight. We owe her a great deal."
 
Moore Gymnasium comes to life once again after the break. Three or four generations have ran a weave offense in that place. Facebook threads over the weekend including a former player who is now is a successful coach of his own paying tribute to the coach that made him what he is today. Another has another player inviting us to his swearing in ceremony in his local community government. This younger generation of alum – notably Travis Roland getting the head football job at Flagler Palm Coast – is starting to establish itself.
 
Society and the system are both horrendously flawed and fixed. You can have 2.9 million more votes and still lose an election these days. Once in a while, someone breaks through and totally revises things like Summitt did on the global level and what many us can and should be during in locales. Fans of the game forget this a lot, but there just might be someone on a team that's ranked 327th on KenPom.com or a back-up point guard on a directional/hyphenated team that just might make a bigger difference down the road.
 
So, thank you Pat Summitt, not just for what you did for basketball, but for showing that through small and simple things and places, great things can come to pass. Nice little town you had there, and it was iconic.
 
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