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For Kellie Harper, they’re one of the same.

See, for Mizzou’s new women’s basketball coach to reach the summit, she’ll have to accomplish what her former coach and mentor did so often: win the national title.

Pat Summitt once graced the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline: “Is she the best college basketball coach since John Wooden?” That was in March of 1998. She went on to win the national championship that spring. And two more in years after that.

Eight total titles. Eighteen Final Fours. She coached Tennessee for 38 years and made 38 NCAA Tournaments.

“She was immortal, you know?” Harper said of the Hall of Fame coach who died in 2016. “Pat was an unbelievable motivator. She could motivate you without saying a word. You know, she was the person that you wanted to succeed for. And she was really tough — and had this really tough persona that she was fearless.”

So, as the story goes, Harper was Summitt’s point guard at Tennessee. Then known as Kellie Jolly, the Tennessee native won three national titles with Summitt from 1996-98. After college, Harper became a coach herself. She led Missouri State to the Sweet 16 in 2019. Sure enough, that offseason, she earned her dream job: head coach at Tennessee.

In Harper’s first year, the Lady Vols went 21-10 and finished third in the Southeastern Conference — but the postseason was canceled due to the 2020 pandemic. So we’ll never know what would’ve happened spring.

She made the tourney in each of the next four seasons — including two Sweet 16s. That resume gets you a contract extension at most other schools. At Tennessee, it got her fired.

Her mentor set the bar too high, it seemed.

“Yeah. She did, obviously,” Harper told me. “But when you take that job, you understand it; you get it, you know? And no one understood it better than I did, right? I was there, and I witnessed it firsthand (as a player). ...

“It’s funny, because for so many years, so many people would see resemblances. We’re both from Tennessee. We sounded alike at times. We have a similar facial shape — our eyes are similarly colored. Just the number of times (as Tennessee’s coach) that people have told me about the resemblances — and I think so much of that is because they miss her, they want her so bad, they’re grasping. They’re looking for any way they can have it back. But I do think we grew up the same. We grew up with a hardworking family, fathers that we really looked up to and respected, and mothers that worked their tail off. So I think we had a lot in common.

“And if you play for her, there are things that you just admire and you’re going to do if you’re a coach. For me, trying to take and be like her, without trying to be her, was always something that came very natural to me. And I’m a confident person. I’m probably more confident now than I’ve ever been in terms of who I am.”

Times marches on, March after March. And as the summit forever looms, so does Summitt.

But for Harper, it doesn’t seem like a burden. It just seems like motivation without saying a word.

“Now, look,” Harper said, “I was never trying to be her — I knew I’d probably fall quite a bit short if I was trying to be somebody else. But I definitely did learn a lot of things. Really just observing her, how she interacted with her assistants, how she interacted with the players. ... So you learn what works for you, and you see other people model it at the highest level — what a great mentor. ...

“And you know, the thing that I also learned about her after my playing days was: She was also a human being. And she was very fun-loving, very generous, very genuine. All those words were words that an outsider watching her coach wouldn’t know. She was an amazing human being, and I love to tell people that, because she was so much more than just this fierce basketball coach.”

I thoroughly enjoyed talking hoops with Harper, who turned 48 this weekend, when we met recently at a Mizzou event in St. Charles. A fun personality, a good disposition and a fire for winning. Also, she spoke in awe of Mizzou legend Sophie Cunningham (now Caitlin Clark’s teammate with the Indiana Fever) and how Cunningham competes with an uncompromising passion.

The 2025-26 Tigers are still being assembled. One key player is back, though. That’s Grace Slaughter, the pride of Grain Valley who averaged exactly 15 points per game last year as a sophomore. And she shot a splendid 45.9% from 3-point range (56 for 122). Harper said in a previous news conference that Slaughter has “pro habits. This kid is in the gym every day.”

I want to think that Tennessee’s loss is Mizzou’s gain — and heck, could lead to some Tennessee losses in SEC play. Harper will bring some Summitt to Columbia, but she won’t try to be the next Summitt. Instead, she’ll continue her journey of being the first Kellie Harper, a winning coach who yearns to win bigger.