For the last nine years, the thought of Tennessee and Connecticut playing just another regular season game was unfathomable. It was always the game of the year between perennial top five teams.
But this year, Saturday’s meeting between No. 10 Tennessee and No. 14 Connecticut is just another game. In the big picture of rankings, national champion favorites and overall impact, the 20th meeting between the two teams is a dud.
But in some ways, it will be one of the most important games of the series between the two rivals since the series began in 1995.
That first meeting between No. 1 Tennessee and No. 2 Connecticut helped propel women’s basketball into the national media spotlight. UConn’s 77-66 win at home grabbed the attention of the big East Coast media markets. It’s harder for ESPN and the New York newspapers to ignore a big sporting event when it is directly in their backyard.
The next meeting will show that women’s basketball has truly established itself on the national stage. It’s not just a flash in the pan sport that only generates interest when the top teams meet. Even though neither team is ranked in the top five for the first time in series history, it will still receive national television coverage by CBS.
In some ways, Connecticut-Tennessee in women’s basketball has reached the same level as Duke-North Carolina or Kentucky-Louisville in men’s basketball. The rankings don’t really matter, it is always a big game.
"It is the one game during the regular season that people want to see," Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt said. "With two teams that have usually been in the top five and are now struggling, people still want to see if we can stop struggling."
Winning this game won’t even signal that either of these teams have recovered from early season struggles. Later games will determine that.
Tennessee’s Feb. 10 meeting with No. 1 LSU is much more important in terms of national rankings and beating a top team.
Connecticut already has its trip to No. 3 Notre Dame next Wednesday circled on its calender.
What this does show, however, is that women’s basketball can carry national attention on the strength of its tradition and big-name programs. As more people are drawn in by Tennessee and Connecticut, that attention will filter down the line to the big, nationally televised games against LSU and Notre Dame.
"The media will be there. The fans will be there. CBS will be there," Summitt said. "There is still plenty of interest."
The lower rankings for Tennessee and Connecticut this season doesn’t show that those two programs are slipping any more than occasional down years for men’s powerhouses like Duke, Kentucky or Indiana signal that those programs have fallen. Instead, other programs have risen to meet the challenge laid down by the Lady Vols and Huskies.
Those two schools each made strong financial commitments to women’s basketball and it paid off with national championships.
Other schools are finally following that lead and allotting larger budgets for the sport.
As much as Summitt hates to lose, she hates seeing women’s sports treated as second class even more. There is a slight tone of pride in her voice when she talks about other programs rising up and beating the standard bearers. She is also angry that it took so long for this to happen.
"It’s about time," Summitt said. "There have been too many people sitting on their hands and not making a commitment to women’s sports. Now they are finally realizing that this is a great game."
In the history of the series, this meeting between struggling teams will likely be forgotten. But in the history of women’s basketball, it might signal the turning point when the appeal of the sport broadens.
So maybe it still isn’t just another regular season game.
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