Ask around. By far the best coach in SEC history comes from the basketball court, not the football field.

And it’s not Adolph Rupp, who led Kentucky to an 876-190 record — that’s a greatest-of-all-time winning percentage of .822 — and four national championships. Those numbers don’t hold a candle to Pat Summitt.

Summitt put together a 1,098-208 mark, an .841 winning percentage and eight national titles at Tennessee.

Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000, Summitt died Tuesday. Diagnosed in 2011 with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Summitt’s health had been in rapid decline recently. She was 64.

Summitt’s rivalry with Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma took women’s college basketball to another level.

“It’s sad to see her family go through this,” Auriemma told The Associated Press. “It’s really difficult.”

Summitt’s accomplishments on the hardwood are too numerous to mention. But how many other SEC coaches have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Just one: a guy by the name of Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama.

Millennials may not understand that UConn, the premier program in today’s game, is just the new Tennessee.

“She was the one that everyone tried to emulate,” Auriemma told the AP. “That was the program everyone tried to be.”

Lady Vol Tamika Catchings talks with coach Pat Summitt in August 1999 at Thompson-Boling Arena. The team was readying for an European tournament. (mandatory credit/Knoxville News Sentinel)

Credit: Amy Smotherman-Knoxville News Sentinel

Bryant, still on the Mount Rushmore of college football coaches, patrolled the sideline at ‘Bama for 25 seasons. He compiled an .824 winning percentage and was voted the national coach of the year three times.

NCAA Coach of the Year seven times in 38 seasons, Summitt was also the Naismith Coach of the 20th Century.

On three occasions, Summitt coached the Naismith College Player of the Year: Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker. Holdsclaw was named Player of the Century by the Naismith Foundation, too.

You expect ex-players to espouse nothing but superlatives about a former coach. What about ex-opponents?

“You can’t say enough about her,” Diana Taurasi told the Knoxville News Sentinel. Taurasi was a former player of the year (2003, 2004) at UConn during the height of the Volunteers-Huskies power struggle.

When Summitt came to Knoxville in 1974, the NCAA didn’t even have a tournament for the women’s game — it finally arrived in 1982. The Lady Vols have advanced to 18 Final Fours, one more than UConn’s 17.

The WNBA was founded in 1996, due in part to the increasing popularity of women’s basketball collegiately.

“If it wasn’t for her, we probably wouldn’t be playing in Madison Square Garden,” Taurasi, a five-time WNBA scoring champion, told the News Sentinel. “Connecticut never would have been Connecticut. She made people take notice of the sport at a time when it probably wasn’t easy. She forced the hand. She was the one.”

Despite all the legendary players Bryant brought to Tuscaloosa, he never coached a Heisman Trophy winner. Furthermore, the Crimson Tide had claimed five national championships prior to him taking the job in 1958.

Summitt built the winningest program that women’s college hoops had ever seen out of thin, Rocky Top air.

impossible to match in football

As far as football is concerned in the conference, it’s difficult to imagine a coach having a Summitt-like effect on any program. Ten years is considered an eternity these days. But she lasted almost four decades.

Summitt’s coaching never suffered. Only her health did. Otherwise, she could still be on the bench today.

While Nick Saban’s winning percentage at Alabama (.854) tops Summitt’s at Tennessee, he was 55 years old and had a ridiculous résumé — including a title at LSU in ’03 — when he first put on crimson and white.

First-rate facilities. Easy access to elite recruits. Pigskin-obsessed boosters handing him a blank check.

Not to take anything away from Saban, who is arguably the best coach in ‘Bama history now ahead of even the mythological Bryant, but a big-name guy with a big-time rep couldn’t have been dealt a more perfect hand.

No, it’s not apples to apples. But Summitt took the Tennessee job at 22 years old with zero expectations.

Tennessee had dropped women’s basketball in 1926 and didn’t compete in the sport again until 1960. Nobody was watching on television. The stands were virtually empty. The Lady Vols had hardly existed pre-Summitt.

Thanks to her, Thompson-Boling Arena once housed as many as 24,653 fans to take in Tennessee-Connecticut.

Holdsclaw was from New York. Catchings was from New Jersey. Parker was from Missouri. Summitt didn’t have nearly the recruiting advantages that Saban does, but she signed the best prospects in the country anyway.

Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt smiles at her bench as the Lady Vols secure a win over Florida 92-61 in the second round of the 2008 Women's SEC Tournament at Sommet Center in Nashville, TN Friday. The Lady Vols advance to the third round. (mandatory credit Saul Young, Knoxville News Sentinel staff)

Credit: Saul Young-Knoxville News Sentinel

She was so revered at UT that the school reportedly asked her to coach the men’s team … not once but twice.

In this day and age, for a football coach at any program in the SEC to do what Summitt did for Tennessee women’s basketball may be impossible. That level of success for that length of time is unique in sports.

Even if Mark Stoops turned Kentucky into a juggernaut, he’d soon go elsewhere for more money and prestige.

And he better not have a bad season or two. Seats in the SEC get exponentially hotter in a more condensed period of time. Look no further than Gene Chizik at Auburn. National champion in 2010. Unemployed by 2012.

Beyond Bryant, the closest we may have come to a Summitt-esque reign in the conference was Steve Spurrier.

In 12 seasons at Florida from 1990-2001, the Head Ball Coach took the division eight times, the league six times and a national championship in 1996. He won five SEC Coach of the Year awards while with the Gators.

However, Spurrier’s ego led him to the NFL and a horrible two-season failure with the Washington Redskins.

Had he not been tempted to see if his Fun-N-Gun could work in the pros, he may have stayed in Gainesville another 15 years. But instead, we got 11 mostly good — never great, though — seasons at South Carolina.

Football might be king in the SEC, but Summitt is the queen of coaching. Long may she posthumously reign.

John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South. You can send him an e-mail directly at jcrist@saturdaydownsouth.com or follow him on Twitter @SaturdayJC.