Connecticut–Tennessee rivalry

Connecticut–Tennessee women's basketball rivalry

Connecticut Huskies Tennessee Lady Volunteers
Sport	Women's basketball
First meeting	January 16, 1995 Connecticut 77, Tennessee 66
Latest meeting	January 6, 2007 Tennessee 70, Connecticut 64
Next meeting	TBD
Statistics
Meetings total	22
All-time series	Connecticut leads 13–9
Largest victory	Connecticut, 79–56 (2002)
Longest win streak	Connecticut, 6 (2002–2004)
Current win streak	Tennessee, 3 (2005–present)

The women's basketball rivalry between the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers and the University of Connecticut Huskies was one of the fiercest rivalries in college basketball, and perhaps the only one to reach national consciousness out of the women's game. The matchup featured two long-tenured and media savvy coaches generally acknowledged among the top five ever in their sport, over two dozen players who went on to play in the WNBA, and two programs that have combined for 18 national championships. Their head-to-head matchups were consistently the top-rated games in the college women's field.

Until the 2006-07 season, the two programs met annually in winter at one or both of the schools, but the rivalry is unique for having a third of its games occurring in the women's NCAA tournament. Four times, the national championship has been on the line.

The schools started playing each other in 1995. As of early 2016, UConn led the series 13-9, including 5-2 in the tournament and 4-0 for the title. However, the Lady Vols have won the last three against UConn. On the day of every meeting, both schools have been ranked in the top 15 in the Associated Press rankings.

In AP Poll history, Tennessee and UConn have the two longest appearance streaks in women's college basketball. Tennessee had a 565-week run spanning 31 years and UConn currently has a 428-week run covering 23 years.^[1] In addition, UConn has the most No. 1 appearances with 200 with Tennessee in second at 112.

On June 8, 2007, it was announced the schools would discontinue the regular-season series.^[2]

The coaches

The rivalry is notable among team sports in that it almost unerringly focuses on the sidelines rather than the floor. The two coaches were far and away the best known and best paid in their sport,^[3] with both being in the Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Between them, they account for over 2,000 wins.

On the Tennessee side was Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest NCAA Division I college basketball coach, male or female. Summitt has won eight NCAA women's tournaments. She is the acknowledged dean of women's college basketball in the modern era. She has been the Naismith College Coach of the Year six times.

On the UConn side is Geno Auriemma, who has won ten of the last twenty-one NCAA women's tournaments, four at the expense of Summitt in the finals. A media firebrand in the heart of ESPN country, Auriemma has become the most accomplished coach in the last decade, at one point posting a 90-game winning streak. He has seven Naismith awards to Summitt's six.

The two have poured gasoline on the fire in press conferences, with Auriemma at one point calling Tennessee the "Evil Empire". The two have apparently mended fences after some sparring, Auriemma noted in his autobiography, Geno.

The games

The two schools first met on January 16, 1995, when televised women's basketball was a rarity. At this high point, with dominant players such as Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters and Jennifer Rizzotti, UConn's program was on the rise, beating Tennessee during the regular season and again for the title and an undefeated regular season. They would win another rivalry game in 1996.

The next three years belonged to Summitt, as the Lady Vols won four of the next five meetings with the Huskies en route to three straight national championships. The "Meeks"—Chamique Holdsclaw, Semeka Randall, and Tamika Catchings—and point guard Michelle Marciniak powered Tennessee past all rivals, including UConn.

On the horizon, though, were Auriemma's most dominant classes yet, and possibly the strongest lineup ever in the women's game. The starting five of Sue Bird, Asjha Jones, Swin Cash, Tamika Williams, and (for the latter part of the run) Diana Taurasi gave UConn four of the next five national championships. In that run of 2000 to 2004, UConn crushed Tennessee in the rivalry, winning nine of the next eleven meetings, including the 2000, 2003, and 2004 championship games.

In the five seasons after Taurasi went to the WNBA, Summitt rebounded with strong new players like Candace Parker, and won each meeting. UConn's program lacked a dominant scorer like Taurasi, and Tennessee made the most of this vulnerability.

With these results, the rivalry continues to be top-of-mind in the women's game, even years after its discontinuation. A matchup in the 2002 Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio was in front of the largest crowd in women's history (29,619). The 2006 regular-season game at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville drew the largest crowd ever for a regular-season women's game (24,653).

After the 2007 game, Auriemma noted that the rivalry, while still intense, lost some of its edge because of increasing parity in the women's game. As an illustration, 2006 was the first time since 1999 that neither UConn nor Tennessee had made the Final Four. He remarked,^[4] "In some sense, a small sense, it's still the Red Sox and the Yankees. It still is. But there's still a lot more good things going on in college basketball now. That's just the reality of it."

Since the cancellation of the annual game, Tennessee has won one championship and UConn has won five championships.

Results

Date	Winning team		Losing team		Site	Series	Notes
January 16, 1995	Connecticut	77	Tennessee	66	Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, CT	Connecticut 1-0
April 2, 1995	Connecticut	70	Tennessee	64	Target Center, Minneapolis, MN	Connecticut 2-0	NCAA National Championship
January 6, 1996	Connecticut	59	Tennessee	53	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 3-0
March 29, 1996	Tennessee	88	Connecticut	83*	Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC	Connecticut 3-1	NCAA Final Four
January 5, 1997	Connecticut	72	Tennessee	57	Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT	Connecticut 4-1
March 24, 1997	Tennessee	91	Connecticut	81	Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, IA	Connecticut 4-2	NCAA Elite Eight
January 3, 1998	Tennessee	84	Connecticut	69	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 4-3
January 10, 1999	Tennessee	92	Connecticut	81	Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, CT	tie 4-4
January 8, 2000	Connecticut	74	Tennessee	67	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 5-4
February 2, 2000	Tennessee	72	Connecticut	71	Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, CT	tie 5-5
April 2, 2000	Connecticut	71	Tennessee	52	Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA	Connecticut 6-5	NCAA National Championship
December 30, 2000	Connecticut	81	Tennessee	76	Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT	Connecticut 7-5
February 1, 2001	Tennessee	92	Connecticut	88	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 7-6
January 5, 2002	Connecticut	86	Tennessee	72	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 8-6
March 29, 2002	Connecticut	79	Tennessee	56	Alamodome, San Antonio, TX	Connecticut 9-6	NCAA Final Four
January 4, 2003	Connecticut	63	Tennessee	62*	Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT	Connecticut 10-6
April 8, 2003	Connecticut	73	Tennessee	68	Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA	Connecticut 11-6	NCAA National Championship
February 5, 2004	Connecticut	81	Tennessee	67	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 12-6
April 6, 2004	Connecticut	70	Tennessee	61	New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, LA	Connecticut 13-6	NCAA National Championship
January 8, 2005	Tennessee	68	Connecticut	67	Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT	Connecticut 13-7
January 7, 2006	Tennessee	89	Connecticut	80	Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN	Connecticut 13-8
January 6, 2007	Tennessee	70	Connecticut	64	Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT	Connecticut 13-9

Connecticut victories are shaded ██ blue. Tennessee victories shaded in ██ orange.
* indicates overtime game

Other sports

Though the Connecticut Huskies and the Tennessee Volunteers no longer play each other in the regular season for women's basketball matchups, the rivalry has now begun to spread into other sports as the two schools have agreed to play each other in other matchups in the future. On September 4, 2008, UConn and Tennessee agreed to a home and home series in football for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, but in order to play Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2016, the series has been postponed. Furthermore, because of UConn's "Gang of Five" status while Tennessee was in the "Power Five," the series may not be held.^[5][6] Nearly a year later on July 22, 2009, Huskies men's basketball head coach Jim Calhoun and Vols men's basketball head coach Bruce Pearl agreed to a home and home basketball series in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.^[7][8] Summitt's son Tyler was on the Volunteers' roster for both games.

During the 2012-13 season, Tyler Summitt joined Marquette's coaching staff for the women's team, the final year of the pre-split Big East. The Huskies won against the Golden Eagles in both games. The Summitt family's rivalry is now at Connecticut 16, Summitts 10 (13-9 during the rivalry, Tyler Summitt was 1-1 at Tennessee against Connecticut as men's basketball player, 0-2 as Marquette's assistant coach).

Notes and references

1. Feinberg, Doug (February 22, 2016). "UConn No. 1 in AP women's basketball poll, now have longest active streak". Norwich Bulletin. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
2. "UConn, Tennessee End Women's Basketball Rivalry". Retrieved 2007-06-10.
3. "Lady Vols' Summitt gets six year extension - Women's College Basketball - ESPN". Retrieved 2011-04-02.
4. "Parker, Tenn. snatch UConn off the list of undefeated". Associated Press via ESPN. January 6, 2007.
5. "UConn And Tennessee To Start Football Series; First Game At Rentschler Field In 2015". Retrieved 2009-11-23.
6. "Vols, Connecticut Announce Two-Game Football Series". Retrieved 2009-11-23.
7. "UConn and Tennessee Reach Agreement on Men's Basketball Series". Retrieved 2009-11-23.
8. "Tennessee Announces Two-Game Men's Basketball Series With UConn". Retrieved 2009-11-23.

External links

• Series history
• Auriemma book excerpt on the rivalry