Ralph at center of UConn-Tennessee

STORRS — Shea Ralph knew Pat Summitt since she was 10-years old. Her mom Marsha Mann, North Carolina’s first women’s basketball All-American, had been a teammate of Summitt at the World University Games.

The inquisitive kid who would go on to become both the 1996 USA Today High School Player of the Year and Dial National Scholar Athlete of the Year naturally had questions about the Tennessee legend.

“A ton of questions,” UConn’s assistant coach said Wednesday as the Huskies prepared to face the Lady Vols for the first time in 13 years. “My mom said she was the most competitive player she ever played against. Very fiery. Very demanding of herself and of others.

“I remember also asking her a lot about Pat coaching and she didn’t know that.”

Ralph would find that out on her own. She’d go every summer to play at Summitt’s camps and there was an education to be found in

Knoxville.

“They’d have us sit on the sidelines and they would put their players through drills,” Ralph said. “I had never seen anyone yell and scream at their players. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready for this.’ And then I played for him.”

Ralph motioned with her head toward Geno Auriemma, the co-author of the greatest rivalry in the history of women’s team athletics. That drew a laugh.

“I was like 12, really young, and I’d never seen anyone raise their voice before,” Ralph said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ It was eye-opening. I appreciated the fact she was hard on them. I liked that, but it was shocking and it reminded me of the stuff my mom told me what she was like as a player.”

Minutes later, Auriemma considered the two-year deal that has led to the resumption of the UConnTennessee series and said, “Everybody would love for it to be what it was, but it’s not. It’s nostalgia.”

And while that may be true, the rivalry that raged from Jan. 16, 1995 to Jan. 6, 2007 produced 22 unforgettable battles by some of the greatest players in the sport’s history that pushed the women’s game to levels it had never known. As part of its 50th anniversary, Sports Illustrated in 2004 took a Harris Interactive poll to find the Enemy of (Each) State. Among George Steinbrenner, Jerry Jones, Steve Spurrier, only one state voted for a woman. Connecticut.

One time Summitt said her daddy would still take her behind the barn and break out the tobacco stick if she said the stuff Geno says about her. It was all fun and games and good oldfashioned hatred until the recruiting of Maya Moore came along and Summitt called the whole thing off.

To this day, Ralph said she doesn’t wear orange. There are a million great stories in women’s college basketball. It seems like half of them involve UConnTennessee. Let’s pare Shea Ralph’s to three.

THE RECRUITMENT

Growing up in Fayetteville, N.C., Ralph said she’d go to Tennessee, North Carolina and North Carolina State camps every year. As she went on to score 3,002 points at Terry Sanford High, Ralph became more and more coveted.

Ralph’s mom once said to me she had told Summitt she was 95 percent sure Shea would go to Tennessee.

“It was pretty serious,” Ralph said. “Then Connecticut came in late. Tennessee was supposed to be my first visit, but after the first time I talked to Coach Auriemma — August before my senior year — I shifted everything around. He came to the house. The next weekend I went on a visit and I committed.”

What wowed you? “His honesty,” Ralph said. “Not that the other coaches weren’t honest or doing their best, but to me they all sounded the same. They were telling me how great I was.

“The first thing coach said was if I sucked I wasn’t going to play. At these great programs, I couldn’t imagine I’d just come in start, play all 40 minutes and be All-American, yet that was what I was being told. I appreciated his honesty. Also for me it was a challenge. I’m going to show him I can go there and do some good stuff.”

Shea said Summitt was great to her even after she committed to UConn. The schools actually didn’t have a ton of direct recruiting battles at that point. There were some. Semeka Randall went to Tennessee. Swin Cash went to UConn.

“I always loved Pat, Holly Warlick, Mickie DeMoss,” Ralph said. “I think they were really surprised. But they weren’t lacking for great players. They just went on to the next.”

MARCH 1997

Ralph had been Big East

Freshman of the Year. She was living up to all her expectations for the No. 1 Huskies. That’s when she drove the basket in the NCAA first-round rout of Lehigh. Ralph’s upper leg went one way. Her right knee went the other. Her scream cut through the heart of a silenced Gampel Pavilion crowd. It was a horrible thing to see. She had torn her ACL, would undergo surgery and did not return until the 1998-99 season.

UConn was unbeaten heading into the NCAA regional at Iowa City. Tennessee had lost 10 games. Final score in the Elight Eight: Lady Vols 91, Huskies 81.

“I didn’t know any better, I was freshman,” Ralph said. “I think the way I handled my injury, I don’t know that I was encouraging. I was feeling sorry for myself a little bit and I think it kind of impacted the team. I don’t know they had really experienced a player having an injury like that. Now, everyone knows about ACLs.

“It hit my team hard. It was traumatic. I don’t know I helped them recover quickly. There was kind of a hangover from that injury. We were on an incredible run, too. Tennessee outplayed us. It was a bad day.”

APRIL 2000

Pat and Geno. Coaches. Pat’s and Geno’s. Cheesesteaks. Everything about the 2000 national championship in Philadelphia was delicious. It would end with UConn’s second national championship.

First, however, was a little matter of Feb. 2. Semeka Randall earned her nickname “Boo” against UConn and it started with a tussle she had with Svetlana Abrosimova the year previous. Randall also was a fearless player who scored with four seconds left to beat UConn 72-71 at Gampel Pavilion.

“The reason we lost that game was we were supposed to trap Semeka,” Ralph said. “She had the ball. She split the trap, made the shot and it was my fault. I was pissed off for two weeks. We had the game won.

“So when we had the opportunity to play them again, I couldn’t wait to get to the game, not make the same mistakes. I knew we were the better team, but anything could happen in a national championship game.

“They always had players like Semeka who were confident, talked a lot, played really hard, borderline verge of dirty. But they probably said the same thing of me. I loved playing against her and Tamika Catchings.”

UConn back-doored Tennessee to death that night in Philly. Ralph led UConn with 15 points, seven assists and six steals in the 19-point rout. She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. She reached the mountaintop. As thrilled as she was, she had one regret. Tennessee guard Ace Clement didn’t play because of injury.

“I never wanted anyone to be like you guys won but they were shorthanded,” Ralph said. “I remember feeling disappointed.”

There was another emotion.

“I remember us feeling dominant,” Ralph said. “It felt like the tides were shifting.”

They were. UConn has won nine of its 11 national titles since that night in Philly. Tennessee was won only two of its eight and hasn’t been to a Final Four since 2008. Summitt died in 2016 of early onset dementia and these two games will benefit the Pat Summitt Foundation. Her former guard, Kellie Harper, is the coach now and Ralph praises her as a smart player and smart coach.

But the great UConnTennessee rivalry?

“I think it’s over,” Shea Ralph said. “That portion of women’s basketball history is history. It was amazing to be part of it.”