A few summers ago when Villanova women’s basketball coach Harry Perretta was going through his voicemails, he heard one from a woman claiming to be Pat Summitt wanting to come up to Philadelphia to talk about his unique motion offense.

Having first met college basketball’s winningest coach only weeks earlier at a summer youth league tournament, Perretta doubted the authenticity of the call, so much that he brought in three or four staff members to listen. "I think that’s really her," one of them said.

Still suspicious, the 27-year coach of the Wildcats called the 32-year coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols and, indeed, it was she, and the veteran duo agreed to meet two weeks later in the City of Brotherly Love.

"So she flies up in September and I go through all the plays in our motion offense," Perretta said, still astonished that this is happening, "and I can tell that she’s interested. But as I’m talking to her I never look her in the eye — only at the floor.

"We go to lunch and afterward she pulls me aside and asks, ‘Harry, do you not like me?’ I said, ‘Well, no, I don’t not like you — I don’t even know you very well. What makes you think I don’t like you?’

"And she says, ‘Why don’t you look at me when you talk to me?’ And I said, ‘Well, listen, I’m a history major, and one thing I learned is that you never look the queen in the eye — you look at the floor like a peasant.’"

Thus began a long-lasting friendship — only now Perretta makes eye contact.

Forgive the Philadelphian for temerity in the presence of college basketball’s First Lady. Nine hundred and thirteen opponents also have bowed before her since Summitt first began roaming the Tennessee sidelines in 1975. So remarkable has her tenure been in fact that the NCAA selected her 2005 tournament victory over Purdue that moved Summitt into first place on the all-time wins list as one the Top 25 Defining Moments in NCAA history.

It wasn’t so much that single game that the NCAA was labeling as a defining moment, but Summitt’s canon of work. On the court alone, the woman with a variety of orange suits has led her Lady Vols to an unprecedented six national championships, five runner-up finishes, 16 Final Four appearances, 21 regional finals and trips to the Sweet Sixteen in each of the tournament’s 25 years. Thirteen of her teams won regular-season Southeastern Conference championships and 12 won the league’s postseason tournament.

Summitt has coached 12 Olympians, 18 Kodak All-Americans and 62 all-conference selections. She’s been named national coach of the year seven times. Of the 138 players she has coached, 72 percent have earned some type of conference or national athletics or academic accolade, and every one who has completed her eligibility has received her college degree or is in the process of doing so.

But while those totals are daunting, it’s what she’s done for college basketball outside of Knoxville that earns praise from her peers.

Jody Conradt, head women’s coach at Texas — and just 31 wins behind Summitt in the all-time standings — said, to be sure, Summitt is focused on being a winner at Tennessee. "But also there have been many times in which Pat took a bigger view and looked at promoting and protecting the sport in general," Conradt said.

The Tennessee-Texas series is a good example. The two orange powerhouses have played annually since 1982, and Conradt said there have been times when either could have walked away.

"But the consistency in our thinking has been to do what’s good for women’s basketball — because it’s a rivalry and it’s an opportunity to shine a light on the game," Conradt said. "It’s never about just what you can do for your institution, but it is about what you can do to grow the sport. The Tennessee-Texas series is one of the many rivalries that are good for the game."

Summitt has helped institute several of those. The Lady Vols have long-standing rivalries against established heavyweights Connecticut, Stanford, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion and Notre Dame in addition to Texas. Now the Duke series is gaining national momentum, and this year, Summitt’s squad will visit North Carolina, too. And that doesn’t even include the fierce Southeastern Conference rivalries.

Why take so many chances?

"Because it’s important that we all find ways to make sure we’re committed to promoting not just our respective programs but also the game — for the good of the game and the future of the game," Summitt said. "And I’m not the only one doing it — there are a lot of other schools that have decided to expand their schedules on a national scale. When you have a national stage and two teams that have enjoyed a lot of success, that helps us in terms of gaining more TV exposure, which to me helps promote the game."

Summitt, Conradt, Perretta and other longtime coaches such as Vivian Stringer at Rutgers, Leon Barmore at Louisiana Tech, Joe Ciampi at Auburn, Andy Landers at Georgia, Tara VanDerveer at Stanford and Billie Moore at UCLA didn’t start their careers consciously trying to take the game where it is today, but invariably that’s what they accomplished.

"There were and continue to be a group of people who had a wonderful opportunity and enjoyed participating in sports, and there was a desire to create that same opportunity for others," Conradt said of the game’s early days. "Going back over time, that wasn’t a given (especially before Title IX). Our growth has taken a relatively long time if you look at it from the perspective of those of us who were in the trenches — but from a general overview, people probably think women’s basketball sprung up overnight."

Perretta said few coaches in those days considered themselves pioneers. "We were just doing our jobs," he said. "I don’t think of us as having gone out to change the game; we were just coaches coaching the game."

But Perretta and the others knew women’s college basketball was in its infancy three decades ago, and they knew they’d have to work collectively to advance the game and build their own careers. Remarkably, that sense of camaraderie among that class of coaches has remained to this day, despite there being so much more at stake competitively.

According to most of them, Summitt has been instrumental in maintaining those bonds. Her peers credit her as a champion of the game, and they value her willingness to share information, ideas — and compassion.

Stringer, who built a program at Iowa before molding a national power at Rutgers, said people like Summitt and Conradt are the right front-runners.

"They are class acts, and good friends," she said. "Contrary to the competition that’s there, they never lose sight of how to be first class. People might look at Pat’s success in particular and assume that she’s unapproachable, but she’s as down to earth as anyone you’re going to find."

"We all had a passion for the game," said retired UCLA coach Billie Moore, who coached Summitt when she was a member of the 1976 Olympic team. "We gave a lot, we knew it was important — we gave a lot of time with very little attention or reward. All we wanted was a chance to grow the game and make it better."

For Conradt, it was more cause and effect.

"I did not envision that we would have that kind of credibility and visibility that we enjoy today," she said. "I do the same thing inside the lines on the court today that I did 30 years ago, but everything outside of those lines is totally different. There are people sitting around those lines now; there are people writing stories about what goes on inside the lines now.

"But the basketball goals inside the lines are the same height as they were 30 years ago, the court is the same size, and once the players step onto that court it’s about teaching and providing an opportunity for young people to pursue excellence. That hasn’t changed for any of us."

Villanova’s Perretta said Summitt’s work ethic and willingness to exchange ideas affected the way he coached. While he had been open in the past to sharing ideas if asked, he didn’t actively seek people out until Summitt sought him.

That characteristic in Summitt doesn’t surprise Moore.

"What’s missing from today’s coaches is that they don’t share enough," she said. "I’m not sure they’ll walk away from the profession having developed a great friendship with many peers. Those of us in the profession for a long time understand that relationships are a huge part of the game."

For Summitt, there are no secrets. "We just recycle a bunch of our old offenses or ideas," she said.

"I don’t think anyone out there has invented some play that only they know," Summitt said. "You constantly come up with new ideas or ways to do what you’ve done in the past maybe a little bit more creatively or efficiently, but the game of basketball has been around a long time. It’s a game of X’s and O’s that has to be played by the players. We’re teachers, and I certainly don’t mind sharing ideas — and I don’t mind listening and learning by any means."

What does the winningest coach in basketball have to learn? Perhaps not much, but there are plenty of people ready to pass her if her learning curve dips.

"Pat sets the competitive standard," Conradt said. "When someone sets a standard that you can’t measure up to, then if you’re competitive, you figure out how you can match the accomplishment. Nobody stays on top forever and competitive people don’t stay on the bottom forever, so it changes with time. But we’re all trying to pursue each other in various situations and we’re all trying to pursue excellence."

Which is a big reason why women’s college basketball is the great product it is today.