Sports: UConn women renew rivalry with Tennessee tonight
Renew storied rivalry after a 13-year absence
New York — For more than a decade, the rivalry in women's basketball was Tennessee and UConn.
After a 13-year absence, the teams will play again tonight, broadcast at 7 p.m. on ESPN from Hartford.
The powerhouse teams led by Hall of Fame coaches Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma put the sport on the national scene starting with their historic first matchup and No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in 1995. The Associated Press Top 25 poll usually would have come out that day before the game, but a decision was made to hold it off until afterward — the only time that's happened in the history of the rankings.
"It was the game. It was so intense," former Tennessee star Tamika Catchings said. "It was the game you got pumped up for. It was do or die in the basketball sense. It was the
game you knew was coming and you prepared for in the first half of the season."
The Huskies and Lady Vols played 22 times over a 12-year span, with each one being a circle the calendar type of game whether it was in Knoxville, Tennessee, Storrs, Connecticut or the NCAA tournament. UConn leads the alltime series 13-9, including 4-0 in the national championship game.
The series ended after the 2007 season when Summitt called it off. Auriemma said at the time that Summitt had accused the Huskies of a recruiting violation. Summitt never went public into specifics about why she ended the series. Summitt died in 2016 at age 64 of Alzheimer's disease.
"Pat was a woman of high principles. When she discontinued the series with Connecticut, I trusted it was for good reason," said former Lady Vols player Michelle Brooke-Marciniak. "Only Pat knows the real reasons she halted the series and Pat took those reasons to the grave with her."
When the teams played, it was must-see TV. Now that they are meeting again for a homeand-home set in the next two years, Auriemma knows that it will be different.
"We turned that spigot off, let's turn it back on. It won't be the same," he said. "The coaching is different, the players are different, the media cycles are different. I don't think it should be (the same). If we're back to that, then you know what, we haven't made the progress we think we've made . ... What's a bigger game this year, us and Oregon or us and Tennessee? Tennessee for the nostalgia stuff, Oregon for the real stuff."
ESPN commentator Rebecca Lobo, who played in that first game in 1995 won by UConn, is excited the series is back, but isn't sure what will happen.
"It's not what it used to be and I don't know what it is until we see it on Thursday," she said. "Will it be that Thursday will come and go? Or will it be something more? I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out."
Former Tennessee coach Holly Warlick, a longtime assistant of Summitt's who helped set up Thursday's game, told The AP that the reason she agreed to restart the series is because it will benefit the Pat Summitt Foundation. Proceeds from both games will go to it, along with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame also will receive proceeds from the 2020-21 meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee.