The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn, Tennessee will renew rivalry
Traditional powerhouses will meet again in ’19-20
The rivalry that defined women’s college basketball is being revived.
UConn and Tennessee, the programs that battled in national title games and served as foils for each other, will renew acquaintances in the 2019-20 season. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced the teams will meet in a home-and-home series over consecutive seasons.
The teams last played in 2007. There were 22 meetings, starting in 1995, and the programs faced off in four NCAA title games.
UConn was 4-0 in the championship games and 13-9 overall against the Vols. But Tennessee ended the series amid allegations of recruiting improprieties and Notre Dame emerged as UConn’s No. 1 rival.
ESPN spent years attempting to broker a reunion. As it turned out, the Hall of Fame was reportedly instrumental in bringing the teams together.
UConn will host Tennessee in 2019-20, as a portion of proceeds will go the Pat Summitt Foundation and the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. The game will be played in Knoxville in 2020-21.
Dates were not officially announced, although ESPN reported the game in Connecticut will be played Jan. 23, 2020, and will be held in conjunction with the “We Back Pat” week. ESPN’s networks will televise both games.
“I am happy to have the Lady Vols back on our schedule and am thrilled that proceeds to our games will benefit such an important endeavor like the Pat Summitt Foundation,” UConn coach Geno Au-
riemma said in a statement. “I know our fans will be excited to renew the rivalry with Tennessee and expect them to fill the building for some good basketball and a great cause.”
Four years ago, Auriemma said he had no interest in playing Tennessee. Vols coach Holly Warlick told the Knoxville News Sentinel that she approached Auriemma about a game, but the UConn coach asked for an apology. Tennessee had leveled accusations about recruiting, including charges surrounding the recruitment of Maya Moore. It’s not known whether Warlick or Tennessee officials offered an apology.
The negotiations to resume the basketball series, brokered by the Hall of Fame, had nothing to do with ongoing discussions between the schools over UConn’s attempt to get Tennessee to honor a contract for a two-game football series, according to a UConn spokesman.
Auriemma and Summitt were the faces of the duel, trading barbs at the height of the rivalry. But the relationship softened over the years, and Summitt announced in 2011 that she was diagnosed with earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease. Summitt, who last coached in 2012, died in June 2016.
“Our sport is synonymous with Pat Summitt, and Pat Summitt is synonymous with women’s basketball,” Auriemma said after Summitt’s death. “We don’t have a long history, women’s basketball. … During our short history, there was one person for a long time. Nobody else was even in that category. There was Pat Summitt. Nobody else. Other people took their turn at getting their 15 minutes of fame, but when people talked about women’s basketball in America, it was Pat Summitt and Tennessee. When was the last time a women’s team coach got on the cover of Time magazine? It just doesn’t happen.”
UConn and Tennessee have dominated their sport — the Huskies have 11 national titles, the Vols eight. Combined, the programs have produced 43 All-Americans, 28 Olympians and 17 Women’s Basketball Hall of Famers.
“The Basketball Hall of Fame is proud to celebrate all levels of the game for both men and women,” said Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame President and CEO John L. Doleva in a statement. “When it comes to women’s college hoops, there’s no match-up more highly anticipated than that of UConn versus Tennessee. We’re so proud to unite these teams in a contest benefiting great causes and honoring the late Hall of Famer Pat Summitt.”