I wonder if she cares that it's also what makes her utterly insufferable. Some believed she was taking a dig at her Tennessee colleague. There's a reason we don't play them. But it reads as airy condescension, with no context or explanation given, and that's a good way to stir up an over-stirred debate. It's unclear, really, what Summitt believes Auriemma is guilty of.
How meta! It was deemed a secondary violation. Perhaps Summitt who lost out to Auriemma in the recruiting battle for two-time Player of the Year Moore just can't let that go. It was cheating. It was unfair. Where could she have brought Moore in Knoxville — the News Sentinel mailroom? In September , Auriemma sounded off , telling the Hartford Courant that Summitt should explain why she canceled the series: "I think she should just come out and say she's not playing us because she hates my guts She should just say that [Geno is] a dope, a smart-ass and then everyone could say that they agree with her.
But Summitt won't call Auriemma a smart-ass or a dope because that would be breaking the rules. Instead, when asked why she canceled the series, she'll tell reporters, "Ask Geno. This will remain a stalemate unless either Summitt goes on the record about what exactly Auriemma's done wrong writes the letter of innocence or lets it go and finally renews the contract pays the parking fine.
She's fiercely principled, and that's admirable to an extent, but in this instance it seems as if she's using those principles to give cover to a pretty unseemly tantrum.
That's bad enough, but it's especially damaging to a top-heavy sport like women's college basketball, which needs its very best teams playing each other as often as possible. Connecticut hasn't lost a game since Nov.
If they do, and they probably will, we'll only be able to speculate whether or not a Summitt squad could have stopped them. Could Summitt have found a way to contain Moore? We might never know. Some 15 years and 22 games after that first one in Storrs, the standard has shifted. The UConn Huskies hold the reins, and no matter what you think of him, Auriemma's teams are the new benchmark for other coaches. Pat was a country girl that did things a certain way and had certain values of how things were done.
Geno was completely different in how he was raised. Randall understands if some Lady Vols fans remain bitter toward Auriemma for his role in the rivalry over the years.
I definitely felt that way about Pat when I would go back and watch teams play. I thought she was easier on the players. Kellie Harper was a central figure in many of the Tennessee-UConn rivalry games as a player, and faced the Huskies in her debut season as the coach of the Lady Vols.
If not for several postponed and canceled games, Auriemma would have likely passed Summitt weeks ago. Elevated a lot of other programs in the county. It's also when things began to go badly between Auriemma and Summitt, although it had been building for a while.
With the Final Four in his hometown of Philadelphia, Auriemma held court. When asked about the fact that there were cheesesteak restaurants called "Geno's" and "Pat's" across the street from each other there, he joked, "Pat's is older and more dilapidated. Geno's is bigger and brand-new.
Auriemma enjoyed verbal jousts delivered via the media, while Summitt did not. The respective fan bases embraced their coaches' personalities. UConn fans found Auriemma's barbs hilarious and thought Summitt should just fire back.
Tennessee fans thought Auriemma was insulting and insufferable. UConn would lose two stars to injury -- Abrosimova in the regular season and Shea Ralph in the Big East tournament -- and then lose a point lead to eventual champion Notre Dame in the national semifinals. But the next season, the Huskies would be unstoppable.
The point margin is the largest in series history. After the game, Summitt asked Auriemma if she could speak to his team in the locker room. During the season, Auriemma had tossed plenty of barbs -- he said all in jest -- in Summitt's direction. She had reached out to Villanova coach Harry Perretta in an attempt to spruce up her offense.
Perretta was a longtime friend of Auriemma's but befriended Summitt as well. Auriemma needled Perretta about this, saying he had "dumped me for the Evil Empire.
Not everyone, including Summitt, got the joke. April 6, For the second year in a row, UConn beat Tennessee for the national championship, , capping three consecutive titles for the Huskies and for Taurasi, now a senior.
This remains the last time the teams have met in the NCAA tournament. The series' dominance would shift again, though, as Tennessee had recruited the next great player, Candace Parker. But another team that was an emerging power, Baylor, would win the national championship that season. Meanwhile, the recruiting battle for another prep superstar, then-sophomore Maya Moore, was ongoing and would create the biggest rift between UConn and Tennessee. This season would be the only one between and now that neither UConn nor Tennessee would make it to the Final Four.
The Huskies have been responsible for most of that streak, having appeared in the Final Four now for 12 consecutive years. April 10, Moore, who went to high school in Atlanta, committed to UConn. She would go on to be the school's all-time leading scorer 3, points and win two national championships with the Huskies. Before the game Auriemma said that despite the rancor between the programs, he felt that the rivalry was a great thing for both programs and for women's basketball, and that he fully expected the series to continue.
But that would be their last meeting for 13 years.
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