The Vols won. Coach Summitt got her 880th win and passed Dean Smith's total. It was a great moment for the women's basketball. UT celebrated the accomplishment with a great honor: it will name Thompson-Boling court "The Summitt."

The accolades rain down across the country.

Ailene Voison: "For the moment, Summitt, 52, is alone on the stage, if well within her comfort zone; she has been alone at the top most of her life."

Pokey Chatman: "I can't get enough of seeing what this lady has done."

Mechelle Voepel: "what I always think about with Summitt's unbelievable career is how many games her team has won where you thought, 'Nah, not this time, Tennessee. You're walking the plank. The guillotine's dropping. You're hitting the canvas. You're going to LOSE!'"

Nancy Lieberman: "one thing we know for sure is that no matter how long she stays on the sideline, Summitt will keep changing as the game continues to evolve."

Maria Cornelius: "Atop the summit. Sum it up. Pat at the pinnacle. However you want to say it, Pat Summitt is now the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history."

Amidst the praise, there has been some ESPN-manufactured debate -- at SportsNation, on PTI and SportsCenter -- about whether Coach Summitt's number really compares to Coach Smith's given the differences in the men's and women's game. (Some, like Chipper, make a good case that Pat's accomplishment is actually greater.)

That debate doesn't interest me very much. Maybe it's true that comparing Summitt to Smith is comparing apples to oranges, and therefore that 880 is no more significant than any other win.

So what? We aren't celebrating the completion of a mathematical proof that Pat's better than Dean. We are celebrating the career accomplishments of a pioneer -- we are celebrating the life of one of the most important figures in the history of women's sports. The celebration is deserved no matter when it happens. We should do it now at 880. We should do it again at 1000. And we should do it again when Pat finally walks off the court.

The number 880 isn't what matters. What matters is the effect that Pat Head Summitt has had on women's basketball and the world of sport.

Pat has received the recent attention with grace and class. She has used it as an opportunity to showcase her team, her school, and the game. And you can tell from her own words and her own reaction that her team, her school, and the game matter much more to her than the number 880.

ESPN cares about flashy stories. 880 and "Pat tops Dean" are nice hooks; they provide a good structure for short TV features, web polls, and arguments. 880 matters a great deal to ESPN.

Pat has a different sense of priority. She is committed to something larger (which is part of why she accommodates ESPN). You could see this commitment on her face last night as the last seconds ticked off and the buzzer sounded.

The Vols were way up as the game wound down. Before the game ended, a line of people began to make their way over to offer congratulatory hugs. Pat only half-embraced, because she was still focused on the game.

A few players made a few meaningless final plays in the final seconds. Gearlds stole the ball, shot and missed a three, Hornbuckle rebounded and ran back up court, launched a 50-footer, probably after the buzzer.

No one paid attention to the action on the court. No one but Pat.

As the throng surrounded her to begin the celebration, she wouldn't leave the game. On TV, as someone embraced her, you could see Pat's eyes following Hornbuckle's shot through the air, off the backboard, to the ground. To Pat at that moment, the after-the-buzzer no-chance shot in an already-decided game was more important than the commencement of the celebration in her honor.

That speaks volumes.