Pat Summitt would have loved this NCAA women's Final Four | Adams

Pat Summitt would have loved this NCAA women’s Final Four.

The legendary Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach always was intent on building the sport as well as her own program. And the Final Four semifinal game between South Carolina and Iowa reflected how far the sport has come. No one could have appreciated the progress more than Summitt.

She could have appreciated what it took for Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley to assemble a team talented and deep enough to win 42 consecutive games before losing a semifinal game to the 11-point underdog Hawkeyes. She also could have appreciated a player as skilled and clutch as Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who took a chunk out of South Carolina’s dynasty shot by shot.

Clark’s star power spiked the interest in a Final Four that drew a sellout crowd of 19,288 to American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

Summitt helped lay the groundwork for women's basketball by the way she coached, promoted, won, and persevered when the odds seemed stacked against her sport. She was still promoting the sport by her mere presence before she died from early-onset Alzheimer's in 2016.

Her Lady Vols won eight national championships. One of those championship teams significantly raised the bar for women’s basketball.

Tennessee’s 1997-98 team went 39-0 and won its two Final Four games by 28 and 18 points. It won more than a championship. It won over fans to the sports.

Male sports fans often told me they never had any interest in women’s basketball until they watched those Lady Vols, who featured the three “Meeks.” Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings are two of women’s basketball premier players. Semeka Randall, the third "Meek," also was extremely talented and athletic. Together, they put on a show that did more than entertain. It advanced the sport.

So did Summitt’s last national championship team in 2007-08. That team was built around Candace Parker, who now excels as a basketball television analyst.

Parker also has had a presence during ESPN’s coverage of the women’s tournament. The network repeatedly has replayed the video of her becoming the first women's player to dunk the ball in the NCAA Tournament.

That’s terribly misleading. A dunk that barely clears the rim is a novelty act. It’s not what distinguished Parker. She was a 6-foot-5 player who could block shots and handle the ball like a point guard.

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A handful of superstar players also have figured in Connecticut’s 11 national championships. None were better than Breanna Stewart, a four-time national champion. At 6-4, she had the Parker-like ability to impact a game from the perimeter or the post.

Clark, a 6-foot junior guard, could have fallen in line with all those UConn stars. But her achievements are magnified in that they have come in her native state of Iowa. No single player has done more to bring down a team as talented and deep as South Carolina’s in a Final Four.

She scored 41 and assisted on eight other baskets. She often made the Gamecocks’ heralded defense look silly with her deep 3s and drive-by baskets.

Clark had become a crowd draw before her historic performance against South Carolina. She had 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in an Elite Eight win over Louisville that attracted 2.5 million TV viewers. By comparison, no NBA game on ESPN this season has attracted as large of an audience. She also has helped give the women’s tournament the star power the men’s tournament has lacked.

College basketball analyst Kenny Smith was so impressed he called Clark the best player in the NCAA Tournament, “men or women.” Hyperbole? You bet.

But it’s easy to be wowed by Clark’s basketball skills and instincts. Not only is she a scoring threat from 30 feet in, have you ever seen a women's player pull the trigger on her jump shop faster than she did? And she passes as well as she shoots.

Clark has established herself as one of the game’s all-time greats. She had to be that good to overcome a program that has dominated the sport the way the Gamecocks have the past two seasons.

South Carolina couldn’t finish what it started this season. Neither could Iowa.

LSU made nine of its first 12 3-point tries and scored 59 first-half points on the way to a rousing 102-85 victory Sunday for its first national championship and coach Kim Mulkey's fourth.

LSU wasn’t the only winner, though. The sport won big, too.

No one could have appreciated that more than Summitt.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Pat Summitt would have loved Final Four of Kim Mulkey, Dawn Staley