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Who is Tyler Summitt?

Louisiana Tech head coach Tyler Summitt has stepped down amid a relationship scandal.

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Louisiana Tech head women’s basketball coach Tyler Summitt resigned Thursday after admitting to engaging in an undisclosed relationship “that has negatively affected” his loved ones, he wrote in a statement.

Summitt is the son of legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.

Just 25 years old, Summitt concluded his second season as head coach at Louisiana Tech with a sixth-place finish in Conference USA.

“It is with great regret that I resign from my position as head coach of the women's basketball program at Louisiana Tech University. I am profoundly disappointed in myself for engaging in a relationship that has negatively affected the people I love, respect and care about the most.

“My hope, plans and prayers are to repair those relationships. I am appreciative of the opportunity I was given to coach at Louisiana Tech. I am heartbroken that my time has ended in Ruston, but because of my respect for the institution, it is best that I resign. I am hopeful the media and the public will respect the privacy of my family and me as we deal with this difficult situation I have caused.”

Who is Tyler Summitt?

Summitt’s mother, Pat Summitt, won 1,098 games and eight national championships coaching the Lady Vols from 1974 to 2012 before stepping down following an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. Summitt played two seasons on the men’s team at Tennessee and also served as a student assistant for his mother’s team.

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He took his first professional coaching job at Marquette in 2012. There, he worked under Terri Mitchell, where the team went 16–16 in 2012–13 and 22–11 the following year.​

In 2013, Summitt married his high school girlfriend Anne Dennis (“Ande”) Ragsdale.

On April 1, 2014, Summitt became the head coach at Louisiana Tech, where he went 16–15 and 14–16 in his first two seasons.