For a classic rivalry said to have lost its juice, Thursday night’s UConn-Tennessee game sure felt plenty juiceful. In front of a season-record crowd at home, the No. 19 Lady Vols took down the No. 5 Huskies, 80-76, to end an 18-year rivalry drought.
To be fair, that timespan does include a 13-year gap in the series, which the late Pat Summitt called off in 2007 at the height of her feud with UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. He looks back on that heyday with little fondness. “It just became stupid and became something I didn't want to be a part of anymore,” Auriemma told reporters before Thursday’s game. “I think our fans are stupid. I think their fans are stupid, and how they reacted to the whole thing, it just became something other than a basketball game, and after a while that just got old.” (If he’s referring to the rivalry’s hostility, it should be noted that he had some hand in it, too.)
The series resumed in 2020, and the more recent games have had their moments. Last night, when a trailing Paige Bueckers pulled up for a three to tie the game with two minutes to play, she brought back memories of her debut in this rivalry, when she hobbled onto the court with a bum ankle and iced the game for UConn with a three in the last 30 seconds of the game. (As I observed wistfully to an editor this morning, it was the first college basketball post I ever wrote here!)
Bueckers might still be the same do-it-all prospect she was then, but these Lady Vols are different. When Kim Caldwell was hired as Tennessee’s head coach last spring, she represented a change in direction. To that point, the school had turned to Summitt acolytes and players to fill the late coach’s shoes. Caldwell, meanwhile, played at Glenville State, a D-II school in West Virginia, and hadn’t ever coached at a Power Five program. But Tennessee athletic director Danny White saw her as an “innovative” head coach who could deliver the Lady Vols from the dull Kellie Harper years, which were probably one banked-in Kamilla Cardoso three from dragging on.
“We weren’t looking for a possible solution that got us back to being maybe more relevant. We wanted someone with an enormous upside and trajectory,” White said at the introductory press conference last April. The risk was the point. If nothing else, Caldwell would shake things up.
Watching this Tennessee team play, I tend to think they’re effective for the same reason: their capacity to surprise. This season, the Lady Vols have won with a full-court press that forces almost 24 turnovers per game and generates extra offensive possessions. Caldwell uses hockey-style substitutions to make this work. If you tilt your head and squint a bit, you can see a little South Carolina in the way they stay fresh as their opponent wears down.
“It’s unusual for somebody to sub five players, four players at a time. And I think it takes some getting used to,” Auriemma said after the game. “You have to keep your composure against them. And I think [Caldwell] does a great job of forcing you to adapt to them.”
More impressive: The Lady Vols didn’t even have their usual matchup advantage on Thursday. UConn moves the ball without making mistakes. Thanks to Bueckers, the Huskies’ turnover rate is sixth-lowest in the country, and their assist-to-turnover ratio is the very best. Things can go sideways when a great point guard leaves a press-heavy team with no other buttons to ... press. (See: Caitlin Clark’s monster Big Ten championship game against Ohio State her junior year.) But the Lady Vols' defense held up well in the halfcourt, and punished UConn for its lack of size—an ominous sign for the Huskies’ championship hopes. Transfers Talaysia Cooper and Zee Spearman had a night on the boards that would make Summitt proud. And in a must-stop situation for UConn, with the Huskies trailing 78-76 with 30 seconds left and 20 on the shot clock, the two of them iced the game with a little extra muscle. Cooper drove past UConn freshman forward Sarah Strong to get to the rim and found Spearman ready for a layup to reach the final score.
For the Lady Vols and their coach, it’s been a difficult few weeks. Caldwell gave birth to her first child in late January and returned to the sideline a week later. Tennessee recently lost close games to top-10 conference opponents Texas and South Carolina, the familiar sort of “almost but not quite” games that have frustrated fans of the program for a while now. But a win over UConn was a sign that this team's not content with “maybe more relevant.” The new Tennessee has their sights set higher.
