Connecticut's crystal ball is clearing once again for coach Geno Auriemma.
By game's end on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena, the wisps of clouds will evaporate and Auriemma will have an accurate vision of what the future holds for his Huskies.
There's nothing all that mystical about the process, however. Connecticut plays Tennessee every season and has done so for a decade, sometimes twice. And that's the measure Auriemma uses to gauge his team's chances to advance to the Final Four and perhaps win a national championship -- the Huskies have produced five of them.
``Playing them (the Lady Vols) gives me personally a feeling of what the future holds,'' Auriemma said in a teleconference on Thursday. ``I would say that for the last 10 years, whenever we've played Tennessee once or twice, I'd come out of that game feeling like I knew exactly what the possibilities were for the season. I'm not always right, but for the most part it has in the 10 years we've played them.''
Auriemma, who will autograph copies of his book ``Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection'' beginning at 7 p.m. at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame today, says the rivalry with Tennessee has been like splitting open a fortune cookie for his teams.
``There are times when we played at our place and played unbelievably well and I thought, you know what, I think this team can win the national championship,'' Auriemma said. ``There have been times when we've played at their place and got our heads handed to us, and I thought, you know what, I'm not sure we're a national championship team.''
Although the Tennessee-Connecticut contest is still a national attention-getter each season, Auriemma doesn't believe it has the epic proportions it had in the past.
``In the history of women's basketball there've always been rivalries. The unfortunate part is that for many years, a lot of those matchups went unnoticed,'' Auriemma said.
``What I think has happened in the 10 years we've played Tennessee is not only has it been a great matchup but it happened during a time when there was a lot of attention focused on women's basketball and it created an environment that goes on today.
``At one time, it was the one game everyone in the country wanted to see and the one game national television focused on. Now there are a lot of great matchups and it's just one of the premier games in the country.''
The majority of fans in what promises to be a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday afternoon, 2 p.m. tip, will likely be there to see if Tennessee can win the annual regular-season matchup two years running. The Lady Vols defeated UConn last year in Hartford by one point, 68-67, snapping a six-game winning streak over UT by the Huskies.
By the time the arena clears, Auriemma will have received another fortune telling at the hands of Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols. Good or bad, he likes the insight.
``I think, believe it or not, as much as I've tried to have fun with Pat and the people of Knoxville and all that other crap I've had fun with the last 10 years,'' Auriemma said, ``more than anything (this game is) a great barometer for not only what's happening with our team at that moment but what could happen, what might happen down the road.''
GIVE-AWAYS: Auriemma joked that he hopes at least a few people show up for his book signing at the Women's Hall of Fame, since Summitt had quite a large contingent in Connecticut for a similar event a couple years ago.
``Pat's a lot more popular in Connecticut than I am in Tennessee because she's nice and, you know, humble, and all those nice things, and I've irritated a lot of people in Knoxville,'' Auriemma said.
``It'll be interesting. Whoever comes will have a good time. I'm going to be giving away stuff. Autographed pictures of Diana (Taurasi). Tickets to the Super Bowl.''
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