Tamika Catchings knows how legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt would have responded with the news on her election into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Catchings said Summitt would have smiled and shook her head. Her former coach would put an arm around her.

"Catch, I'm just so proud of you," Catchings said Summitt would have said in her recognizable Southern drawl.

Even though Summitt never did cry much, Catchings doesn't think there would be a dry eye in the room.

"I see her crying. I haven't seen Pat cry that often, but I could definitely see that being a tearful conversation," Catchings said. "Just really how proud she would be."

Catchings on Saturday joined Summitt as the only two inductees in the hall of fame associated with Lady Vols' program.

"I did not know that, I'm going to be honest," Catchings said a day after the announcement during a media availability. "When I heard them say that (Saturday), I looked at my husband and I was like, 'That can't be right.' I need to go back and look at that list.'

"It's an honor obviously. We all know what Pat means to us."

Summitt, who was inducted into the hall of fame in 2000, died in 2016 after a five-year battle with early onset dementia in the form of Alzheimer’s. She never had a losing record in 38 seasons as coach of the Lady Vols and finished with a 1,098-208 record.

Catchings recalled a time when Summitt was on a recruiting visit at her home in Duncanville, Texas, saying that out of all the recruits that Tennessee needed, she was the most important.

That turned out to be the case – Catchings earned All-American and All-SEC honors in each of her four years with the Lady Vols from 1997-2001.

Catchings won an NCAA championship in 1998, Summitt's sixth, capping off a perfect 39-0 season, and made the All-Final Four team twice.

"I've talked so many times about her impact on me or her impact on my life," Catchings said. "When I think of Pat ... I think of her character, her humbleness, the way that when she entered a room, people would just turn and the attention was on her. It was in a humble way.

"I'm just so thankful, even fast-forwarding to now. Just her impact in my life and the way that she'd always push me, even when I left Tennessee."

Catchings was selected by the Indiana Fever in the first round of the 2001 WNBA Draft, where she spent her entire 15-year professional career. She now serves as the general manager of the Fever.

She was named the WNBA's Most Valuable Player in 2011 and won the championship in 2012, when she was named finals MVP. Catchings is also a four-time Olympic gold medal winner (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016).