It could happen some day. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt will be on a multi-tasking whirlwind and then remember to mention to her staff that she just tweaked the schedule again. She'll be on her way out the door to deliver two different luncheon speeches, make four other appearances and dedicate a new hospital wing, and her assistants will say, "Uh, before you go ... when you say 'tweak,' uh, just what do you ...''

	Pat Summitt's nonconference schedule might seem ridiculous to outsiders, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

She'll say, "Look, it's no big deal. We're only going to need the snowmobiles for the last 15 miles or so to the gym ...''

"Oh my God, you signed us up to play in the inaugural South Pole Freezin' Rims Classic, didn't you?'' Mickie DeMoss will say, ashen-faced. "Right between the trips to Austin and Hartford. The holidays at 500 below zero.''

Summitt will respond, "Oh, give me a break. Everybody knows the coldest recorded temperature there was only minus-129 Fahrenheit in 1983. And that was in July. Relax. Don't you know December and January are the peak summer months at the South Pole? It probably won't even get below minus-30.''

Holly Warlick will say, slowly, as if in an incomprehensible nightmare, "This 'South Pole' ... you don't mean the real one, do you? Not the one in Antarctica?''

Summitt will smirk, "No, the one in Chattanooga. Come on! Of course the one in Antarctica! It'll be fine. Stop worrying. Wait until you see the penguins!''

Think this is just fantasy? Sure, for now. But if there ever is a South Pole Freezin' Rims Classic, you can be certain Tennessee will play in it.

Actually, the Orange Faithful might get to wondering if their beloved bunch is lost on a floating ice chunk as it is. Tennessee -- which plays Saturday at Southern Cal -- had its last home game Nov. 26. There will be action in Thompson-Boling Arena on Dec. 18, as Stanford visits for that annual always-anticipated matchup.

But then Tennessee has four straight on the road -- at Texas, vs. Notre Dame in Indianapolis, at Connecticut in Hartford, and at Old Dominion. Tennessee won't play at home again until Jan. 12. Then it has that little cakewalk of an SEC slate to deal with.

OK, we know Tennessee always has these crazy schedules. Still ... one home game in a span of 46 days? Did Summitt really want to toughen up her team on the road or something? Was this the schedule she really wanted?

"I thought so, until I looked at it on paper,'' Summitt said, chuckling. "It looks pretty tough, doesn't it?''

Well, to most teams, it looks ridiculous. Tennessee can do this, though, in part because the program is so used to it. It's maybe a little bit like this: You can ride a bike up a mountain the 10th time because you've already done it nine times. It's the first time that's really the killer.

	“	I've tried to maintain a philosophy: I want no surprises in March. We'll go coast to coast. ”
		— Tennessee coach Pat Summitt

Tennessee's program started riding up mountains a long time ago.

In the same vein, last season really wasn't much different -- Tennessee had a home game Nov. 23 and then didn't have another until Jan. 5. And the games in between weren't against Sewing Machine State, either.

Look, not everybody else can or should do it like this. You probably have to schedule pretty hard to win an NCAA title, yes, but not Tennessee-show-off hard.

However, while Summitt not only believes it's a big benefit to how her team performs in the NCAA Tournament, the truth is she also flat-out enjoys it. Well, certainly in retrospect.

"I've tried to maintain a philosophy: I want no surprises in March. We'll go coast to coast. I can't imagine not doing that,'' Summitt said. "Now, going through it every year, I say, 'What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?' But I repeat it. So there must be something appealing to me about it.''

Summitt's faith in tough-love scheduling was shaken, briefly, in 1997. That team lost 10 games and was fifth in the SEC ... and then won the national championship.

"In that season, I thought, 'Soften the nonconference schedule next year,' '' Summitt said. "Did I do it? No. So we're going to continue to do it that way as long as I'm here.''

The other element of this is Tennessee's commitment to keeping its traditional rivalries going, along with embracing its new ones. So Texas and ODU and Louisiana Tech -- all from way back -- stay. Connecticut's a given since 1995. Summitt added Duke and Oklahoma, too, this year.

Plus, like most coaches, she likes to make trips to players' home states/cities when possible. (Guard Loree Moore and Center Tye'sha Fluker are both Californians, incidentally.)

What it comes down to is that Tennessee has gone just about everywhere, and it has helped the sport a lot. But it has also helped Tennessee a lot. Exposure is so big in both the growth and maintenance of a program.

Tennessee will be playing at Southern Cal for the first time since 1989. The historical link between the programs is interesting, of course, as they met twice in the Final Four, including the 1984 NCAA title game, won by Southern Cal.

"I think a lot of teams, Southern Cal in particular, inspired us to get better,'' Summitt said.

But, for practical purposes, the history of this matchup has almost nothing to do with this game. The rivalry was dormant for too long; the teams didn't meet from December 1989 until last year. And Southern Cal did not stay in the same year-in/year-out upper echelon with Tennessee.

Still, history does play an important role on this trip for Tennessee's players, because they are scheduled to meet with UCLA legend John Wooden on Sunday.

"Kara Lawson's got her books all ready for him to sign,'' Summitt said. "He's always willing to share. I had the opportunity to go out there and visit with him a few summers ago. I wanted to listen to his philosophy on life, not just basketball.''

Summitt has continued to evolve even while at the top of her profession precisely because she continues to learn and listen.

But her ears will always stay plugged shut if the topic of "take it a little easier in the nonconference'' comes up.

"My assistants keep complaining,'' she said. "I say, 'Take over the schedule,' but no one wants to do it. So we're stuck.''

Mechelle Voepel is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's women's basketball coverage. She can be reached at mvoepel@kcstar.com.