Tennessee Lady Vols head basketball coach Pat Head Summitt has been diagnosed with early onset dementia according to Go Vols Xtra.

Early onset dementia is a type of Alzheimers.

Summitt had noticed symptoms for several months that something was amiss with her:

Months of erratic behavior had left Tennessee women’s basketball coach bewildered, scared and asking herself “What’s wrong with me?”

Summitt went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in May. She underwent a series of tests and received a stunning answer. The diagnosis was early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.

The hard-as-nails Summitt was angered at first but has decided to tackle the disease head on.  She said during her public announcement of the condition that she would make sure there was no pity party for her.

Watch Pat’s Video Discussing Her Condition:

Summitt is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history with 1,071 victories.  She has also led the Lady Vols to 8 National Championships.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Summitt and the doctors treating her condition.

It has been an extremely hectic couple of years not only for the University of Tennessee Vols men’s basketball program but for the UT Athletic Department as a whole since the Lane Kiffin hiring debacle.

Head basketball coach Bruce Pearl and the Vols have been in trouble since Pearl entertained high school juniors at his house two years ago and then lied to NCAA investigators about a photo taken at his house during the Bar-B-Que.  Pearl told the investigators he had no clue where the photo was taken.  The photo was taken in his house.

Pearl called the NCAA a few days later to let them know that he had lied and misled them.

Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton stood behind Pearl the entire time and all intentions throughout were that Pearl would be retained for the 2011-12 basketball season.

Pearl was suspended for 8 SEC games during the 2010/11 season. Many thought that would be the only punishment to come to Pearl and a sign that the University would keep him.

However, reports are clearly stating today that Pearl has been fired as the head basketball coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.

In his six seasons at UT, the Vols men’s program experienced success on a level it never had before.  Pearl led the Vols to a #1 ranking a couple of years ago and multiple NCAA appearances.

The Vols and Hamilton really muffed the handling of Pearl’s future from the start.  They should have either fired him back in September and started the process moving forward or decided to keep him come hell or high water.  Instead, Hamilton tried to straddle the fence and it will likely hurt the UT men’s basketball program for a long time to come.

However, Hamilton docked Pearl $1.5 million in salary over the course of his contract and banned him from off-campus recruiting visits for 1 year.

The toughest part is that Pearl has about a 90% approval rating among Vol fans.  His successor will struggle to leave up to Pearl’s personality or the level of success he had in Knoxville.

Pearl’s problems and the handling of them by Hamilton seemed to play a number on the team as the season progressed. The Vols started off 7-0 and were ranked #7 before the wheels fell off. The team still managed to make the NCAA tournament, but they were blown out by 30 points in the opening round by the Michigan Wolverines.

Let’s not forget that the NCAA has not decided how severely or in what ways they will punish the program.  That ruling will come in June.

RELATED: TWITTERVERSE RESPONDS TO BRUCE PEARL FIRING

NASCAR rookie Trevor Bayne turned 20-years old yesterday on February 19th.  Today he won the 2011 Daytona 500 in just his 2nd career Sprint Cup start and first ever at the Daytona 500.

Bayne came out with the lead after the last caution and went on to hold off veteran Carl Edwards for the remarkable win.

Bayne was so surprised he didn’t even know how to find Victory Lane after the race. He drove right past it before officials stopped him and pushed his car backwards towards the massive party.

Trevor is not even listed on the official NASCAR page that lists all of the Sprint Cup drivers. I am sure that will change immediately.

You can follow the Knoxville, Tennessee native on Twitter @tbayne21

View 2011 Daytona 500 Results Below

ESPN is reporting that former Tennessee Titans defensive line coach Jim Washburn has just been hired by the Philadelphia Eagles to coach the same position.  Either Washburn sees the Eagles as more of an ‘up-and-coming’ opportunity or he just can’t stand the losing that’s been going on with the Titans lately.

The hiring has been seen as a bit of a coup by sports writers and fans across the Twitter-verse.  It appears few, if any, Titans fans are happy about this.

[Source: Bleacher Report]

The University of Tennessee Vols football program received bad news early Thursday morning when it was discovered that star freshmen, Nu’Keese Richardson, Janzen Jackson, and Mike Edwards, along with a female accomplice attempted to rob three young men at gun point in their car, in a gas station parking lot.

The victims claimed that two men, in hoodies, came up to the car, opened the door and demanded, “Give me everything you have.”

Jackson has since been released from custody. Richardson and Edwards are allegedly the two who attempted the armed robbery. The female, Marie Montmarquet, was also charged with possession of marijuana.

Knoxville Police Department Mug Shots of Nu’Keese Richardson, Mike Edwards, Janzen Jackson, and Marie Montmarquet

Now we get to see what Vols head coach Lane Kiffin is really made of. He will likely have to see how the legal proceedings pan out before he can take much of any action though.  This is a big hit to the Vols football team on the field and to their image off the field. Something that Kiffin was trying to clean up and had boastfully talked about to the media on Wednesday.

[mug shots: Knoxville PD]

King’s Island Amusement Park in Ohio is in the center of a spooky and gruesome Halloween controversy after images leaked (see above) of a display at the park’s annual Halloween Haunt.

Tennessee Titans fans are particularly outraged over a display of two skeletons on a sofa. One of the skeletons wearing a Steve McNair jersey with his head blown off along with a dead woman in his lap which is suppose to be Sahel Kazemi.

Kazemi if you remember was McNair’s girlfriend who killed the all-pro quarterback before turning the gun on and killing herself.  McNair was found dead on Kazemi’s sofa with Kazemi extremely close in proximity.

The McNair/Kazemi display has been removed, but park director Don Helbig gave this warning to a local news station before the removal of it.

“(There’s) a lot of intense imagery, suggestive themes and things like that, so if you have young children, don’t bring them to Halloween Haunt,” recommended Helbig.

Other skeletal homages to recently passed away celebrities included Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon, Ted Kennedy and Farrah Fawcett.

Ledger’s skeleton was dressed as the Joker with pill bottles covering the ground below him.

Watch Video of Classless Halloween Displays at Kings Island

(above: Farrah Fawcett and Steve McNair/Sahel Kazemi Displays)

What do you think about the Halloween display? Not that big of a deal or cold and insensitive?

source: wlwt

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before….

Said (Colt) McCoy, who was battling the flu: “We just had to keep fighting as a team. Not everything is going to go our way every time we step on the field.” (Dallas Morning News)

The Heisman hopeful QB of the #2 Texas Longhorns looked downright average at times on Saturday night and it was apparently because he battled the flu all week. Of course, that was news to everyone once the game was over.

In fact, while the flu does impact college teams, it’s popping up quite frequently as a nice excuse, especially when teams don’t perform quite like they were expected.

The #1 Florida Gators, who struggled to put away an unranked Tennessee team many expected to get violated by the Gators, has been struggling with the flu, too, it seems.

The Vols coach, Lane Kiffin, had a different take on the outcome of the 23-13 loss.

I don’t know. I guess we’ll wait and after we’re not excited about a performance, we’ll tell you everybody was sick. (ESPN)

Leave it to Kiffin to not mince words. Players getting sick is not a new trend, but methinks Kiffin isn’t off the mark either.

Editor’s Note: This post would have been much better, but I think I’ve got the flu or something.

Two hours after the end of Saturday’s annual Tennessee-Florida game and the most searched term on Google remains Romans 8:28.  Some of you will ask what is the correlation and the rest of you will get it right away.  Romans 8:28 is the message Tim Tebow wore on his eye-black during the Gators modest victory against the Vols.

Romans 8:28 (NIV Version):

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Contrast Tebow’s eye-black message to that of Terrelle Pryor’s earlier this year. For the first game of the year Pryor wrote ‘Mika Vick’ on his eye-black as a tribute to his football hero Michael Vick.  Pryor dumbfounded everyone with his explanation for saluting the fallen Vick.

“Not everybody’s the perfect person in the world. I mean everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever. I think that people need a second chance, and I’ve always looked up to Mike Vick, and I always will.”

Two talented athletes with extremely varying role models guiding them both on and off the field.