New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Lobo back at the site of program’s first title in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — Twentyseven years later, Rebecca Lobo still has trouble finding just the right words to describe the emotions she felt winning UConn women’s basketball first national championship.
“It was like ecstasy,” she said Thursday morning. “It was an emotion, I’d never felt before, like it was four years in the making. It was all of us coming together to do this together. I hate when people say something is hard to describe, like when my kids say, ‘You can’t describe it.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, you can. Just find the words,’ but I’m having one of those moments now.
“Relief wasn’t a part of it at all. It was just like a pure joy of, ‘We did this. We did this together.’ And like, ‘There’s not a next thing, like this is it and we did it,’ and a finality of like, ‘Nobody can take this from us.’”
When she thinks about that game — the game that not only changed her life forever but sparked the Huskies’ dynasty — of course she remembers being annoyed she was on the bench at halftime with three fouls. But she also remembers the purest sensation of joy that rushed over her once she knew Tennessee had no chance at spoiling UConn’s win.
Before all the confetti and celebration, she remembers gazing up at the game clock inside the Target Center in Minneapolis and watching the final seconds tick off. The Huskies were up two with 9.9 seconds on the board and Carla Berube was at the freethrow line.
“I remember at halftime, Coach (Geno) Auriemma saying, ‘We didn’t play well. A bunch of our guys are on that bench and we’re only down six.’ I think he wrote the score like on the board and circled it,” Lobo said. “And then looking up and seeing the ticks go off the clock and knowing at this point, there’s no mathematical way that Tennessee can win
this game and then all the emotions that came after that.”
That was 1995. Lobo was 21 years old.
Fast-forward to 2022. Lobo remains one of the premier faces in women’s basketball, but this time as an ESPN analyst and broadcaster. She returns to the Target Center this weekend set to broadcast this year’s Final Four, featuring a UConn team now attempting to win its 12th national title. And just like they did in 1995, the Huskies will have to face Stanford in Friday’s semifinals (9:30 p.m.) for the chance to advance to Sunday’s championship. No. 1 South Carolina and No. 1 Louisville face off in the other semifinal.
“I have some incredible memories from here, starting with (1995),” Lobo said. “That was a life-changing weekend for me. It changed my life. If we don’t win that game, my life is completely different. Like, it’s just the reality of it. That changed my life in so many ways and now I have the family ties to Minnesota, so I love coming here.”
Lobo’s husband, journalist Steve Rushin, grew up in Bloomington, Minn., so the connection to the area has remained strong.
“It’s funny,” Lobo added minutes later looking at a picture of her 21-year-old self from the 1995 championship. “Like a lifetime ago, that kid in that picture, if she could look ahead to 27 years, I don’t know what she would have thought of how all this turned out.”
A lot has changed in women’s college basketball since Lobo wore the UConn uniform. The sport has reached new heights in viewership — about 2 million people watched UConn’s Elite Eight game against NC State on Monday — while the NCAA is addressing equity issues in the women’s and men’s game and player experience.
The 2022 Women’s
NCAA Tournament was the first to use “March Madness” branding and logos. Player swag bags and practice resources have equalized. Yet, there’s still inequity in what matters most in player preparation: scheduling.
UConn defeated NC State in double overtime Monday night. The Huskies didn’t get back to Storrs until the way-too-early hours of Tuesday morning. A little over 12 hours later the team was on a plane to Minneapolis. They have three days of practice before facing the Cardinal Friday night. The men’s teams concluded their regionals Sunday and don’t start Final Four games until Saturday night.
It’s an issue Geno Auriemma addressed.
But it used to be worse. “I remember we played back-to-back,” Lobo said. “We played Saturday and Sunday because the games were on CBS and they had to squeeze us in when their programming schedule would allow. That was very different to play and win a semifinal game and then play less than 24 hours later.”
Lobo was courtside Monday calling UConn’s battle against the Wolfpack. She watched as Dorka Juhász fell to the ground with a season-ending wrist injury and as Minnesota native Paige Bueckers willed the Huskies through 50 minutes to victory.
“Geno has said leading into this, ‘We’re going against the longest team in the country and we lose our longest player’ and she (Juhász) was playing so incredibly well in that game but I think this is the story of their season,” Lobo said. “People have gone down and others have stepped up.
“It is interesting in some ways though that early on it was all the guards who were hurt and they desperately needed guards and then this moment it’s one of their bigs and their long big who gets hurts when they need long bigs. But that’s been their narrative this year and they’ve figured out a way up to this point.”
While the women’s basketball world embraces the nostalgia of remembering Lobo’s historic senior season with UConn in 1995, her kids couldn’t care less that she’s returning to the place that started it all. To them, she says, they’re only impressed that she gets to watch Bueckers.
“My kids do not care,” she said. “The only thing they care about is ‘Which game are you doing?’ and I’ll tell them and then, ‘Oh, so will you get to see Paige Bueckers?’ and I’m like,
‘Yes, I get to see Paige Bueckers.’ Which is what they should care about, right? Yeah, no they don’t care about what I did at all.”
After Monday’s win, UConn senior Christyn Williams credited the team’s win by saying, “We have Paige Bueckers and they don’t.” It was a similar statement Auriemma once said about Diana Taurasi.
“There’s some cool synergy there,” Lobo said. “UConn wore the throwback uniforms this year a few times and that’s the Sue-Diana throwback uniforms and I certainly noticed when Christyn said that because that I’m sure was the feeling that a lot of the players had. … So far she’s (Bueckers) lived up to that comparison.”
Now without Juhász, Lobo says the Huskies will need to rely on its depth in the backcourt — highlighted by Bueckers and freshman Azzi Fudd — in order to slow down Stanford on Friday. For Bueckers, the trip to the Final Four is also momentous as it’s a return home to the place she grew up.
“What an incredible story for her,” Lobo said. “Just to be here with the season that they’ve had because you didn’t know if she’s gonna come back. You didn’t know if she was going to play at all. And then not only for her to play but to lead her them back to her hometown, it’s gotta be pretty incredible.”
The former Husky said she can’t make a prediction on Friday’s game, but she does see it being close. For her, though, what’s been most impressive is how UConn has found a path back to the Target Center despite all its adversity this season.
“It’s just a different path, right?” Lobo said. “It was a different path and maybe it was the path they needed it to be in this moment. Maybe if so many of the players had stayed healthy all year long, maybe Monday’s game goes a little differently. I don’t know. You don’t know what path every team is supposed to take but this path has definitely been different . ... These kids don’t know it because they’re young, but this weekend could change their lives.”