KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It was once a rivalry — UConn vs. Tennessee — that defined women’s basketball, and on Thursday night, the No. 19 Lady Vols and Kim Caldwell rekindled some of that past magic with an 80-76 upset of the No. 5 Huskies with Food City Center quaking from the rafters.
Hanging from those same rafters were the eight national championship banners won by Tennessee under the late Pat Summitt, her name inscribed on the court below and reminders of her everywhere as players, coaches and fans celebrated the first win over UConn since 2007, marking Summitt’s next-to-last national title season.
“I think she would be thrilled with the effort and the rebounding, and I’m sure she’s up in heaven with my dad and they’re probably having a cold one and celebrating,” beamed Caldwell, asked what Summitt would have thought about what was easily the most biggest win of Caldwell’s debut season at Tennessee.
Tennessee (17-5) had been close a couple of times this season in pulling off wins over ranked teams but couldn’t finish. On Thursday, the Lady Vols raced ahead in the third quarter with their frenetic pace, substituting in four and five players at a time and pounding the Huskies on the boards. And this time, after building a nine-point lead in the third quarter, they finished the job.
They outrebounded UConn 46-34, shot 61.5% from the field in the fourth quarter and held UConn star guard Paige Bueckers to 5-of-16 shooting. The 80 points were the most the Huskies (21-3) have given up all season.
“We had poise down the stretch,” Caldwell said. “I think we played with confidence. We played to win as opposed to afraid to lose. And, again, I think the crowd (of 16,215) had a lot to do with it.”
As the final seconds ticked off and the celebration erupted, two of Tennessee’s veterans, Jewel Spear and Samara Spencer, sprinted to embrace Caldwell, who only 17 days ago was in the hospital delivering her baby boy, Conor. Caldwell was back at practice the following week.
“She told us when she got here that she wants this year to be the year that we do something special,” Spear said. “She didn’t want to wait, and that’s special being a senior, hearing that from a coach that believes in us, and we saw how quickly she returned after having her baby. It’s just the sacrifices that she continuously makes for us. It’s the little things that we do for her, which is just playing hard.
“That’s all she really asked for.”
After the game, former players from as far back as three decades, many of them part of national title teams under Summitt, piled into a jubilant Tennessee locker room. Michelle Marciniak was there. So was Alexis Hornbuckle, Glory Johnson, Lisa McGill, Meighan Simmons, Isabelle Harrison and Kelley Cain among many others.
Debbie Jennings, the Lady Vols’ longtime sports information director under Summitt, said it was the largest turnout of former players she has seen at a game (other than an alumni weekend) since Summitt’s last season as coach in 2012. Summitt died in 2016, two weeks after her 64th birthday. She was diagnosed with early onset dementia in the form of Alzheimer’s.
Former Tennessee women’s athletic director Joan Cronan, who was a major part of the growth of the program under Summitt, acknowledged she was misty eyed in the final seconds.
“You could not be in our arena tonight and not feel the electricity, and I bet you Pat is smiling,” Cronan said. “I’m not an emotional person, but I had some tears. This team had worked so hard and we’d come so close. It’s incredible what Kim has done with these girls.”
The Huskies entered on an 11-game winning streak, and during that span, didn’t have a single close game. They won nine of those 11 games by more than 20 points, and no opponent had scored more than 61 points against them dating to their last loss, a 72-70 setback to USC on Dec. 21.
But as Tennessee surged ahead in the third quarter, especially behind the energy of the crowd, UConn didn’t respond the way it historically has under coach Geno Auriemma, who has guided the Huskies to 11 national championships.
“They attacked us really well. They went at us one-on-one and challenged us defensively, and that’s what cost us the game,” Bueckers said.
No play was more indicative of that than Talaysia Cooper‘s strong drive to the right under pressure and assist to Zee Spearman for a layup, giving Tennessee a four-point lead with 12.2 seconds left.
“We really needed to beat a top-10 opponent,” Caldwell said. “We’d worked hard enough to do that.”
Caldwell was sporting a water-soaked hair bun courtesy of her players after the game. And, yes, it was only one game, but she said they deserved to celebrate and then some.
She was also quick to add that the players deserved the credit.
“I didn’t do it. They did it and they just made up their minds that they wanted to do it,” Caldwell said. “I didn’t score one point. I didn’t get one stop, and they locked in and they wanted it and they played incredibly hard. And that’s something we’ve talked about, is that you need to be tired, you need to be playing hard.
“They can be excited for me, but I’m more excited for them.”
Even in defeat, Auriemma was mindful of what this rivalry has meant to women’s college basketball and the importance of the game being nationally relevant again. The Huskies had won four straight in the series, which was canceled by Summitt after the 2006-07 season and then renewed in 2020.
“That’s why I don’t understand why people boo me when I walk in here,” Auriemma joked. “They should be thanking me for bringing my team back down here after it was missing for so long. God, that’s how you treat your friends?”
Turning more serious, Auriemma added, “I do think there was a time when this game meant a lot to a lot of people. The game of women’s basketball looked forward to this game. People who weren’t women’s basketball fans looked forward to this game. The players certainly looked forward to this game, and it took on a life of its own. Like anything else, other people have caught up. There are other big-name teams and other big-name rivalries, as it should be.
“But I think both UConn and Tennessee laid the groundwork for what’s happening today.”
And even before his Huskies lost Thursday night, Auriemma had taken note of what Caldwell was building at Tennessee in her first season. In fact, he told her so as they huddled briefly before the game.
“I just wanted to remind her that watching from afar that I can see the difference and I can see the impact she is having,” Auriemma said. “I just wanted to let her know that I noticed that.”
He then paused and quipped, “She should have stayed home and taken care of the baby.”
