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UConn, Tennessee women to renew long-lost rivalry

2004 NCAA Women's National Championship: Tennessee v UCONN

NEW ORLEANS - APRIL 6: Head coach Pat Summitt of the Tennessee Lady Vols (L) and head coach Geno Auriemma of the University of Connecticut Huskies meet before the National Championship game of the NCAA Women’s Final Four Tournament at the New Orleans Arena on April 6, 2004 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

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The best rivalry in women’s basketball will be back after a 13-year hiatus.

UConn and Tennessee announced on Tuesday that, in 2020 and 2021, they will be renewing a rivalry that has laid dormant for far too long. The last time the two programs played was back in 2007. both the Huskies and the Lady Vols were at the peak of their powers, and the antimosity between Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt was too much to overcome.

The first game will be played on Jan. 23rd, 2020, in Connecticut. The return game will be played the following season. The programs will both donate proceeds to Summitt’s Alzheimer’s Foundation, which has turned into a unifying force for the two rivals.

Much has changed since Summitt lost her battle with early onset dementia in 2016. The Tennessee program shifted leadership in 2012, with Holly Warlick taking over. Tennessee is no longer the team that they were back then, as South Carolina and Mississippi State have retained the title of the best in the SEC while Notre Dame has replaced the Lady Vols as UConn’s most hated opponent; the two programs have locked horns in the Final Four six times since the last time UConn scheduled Tennessee.

The last time the two programs played came on Jan. 6, 2007. Summitt ended the series because she did not like Auriemma, and Tennessee did not believe they were beaten in the recruitment of Maya Moore legally. (UConn was handed a secondary violation for bringing Moore to ESPN studios.) Tennessee and UConn looked like they were heading for a showdown in the national title game in 2008 -- Moore’s freshman season -- with the Lady Vols defending their title, but UConn lost in the Final Four.

Tennessee would win their second straight title that season, but UConn has gone on to become the most powerful dynasty in American sports since then. They have now reached 11 consecutive Final Fours. They won the title in six of those seasons, going undefeated in four of the six years they won the title. They have twice set an NCAA record for winning streaks (111 games and 90 games, respectively) and have amassed a 406-16 record in those 11 years.

Perhaps even more impressive is that each of their three tournament losses in the last seven years came in overtime in the Final Four, and two of them came on buzzer-beaters, including this shot from last season:

Tennessee hasn’t exactly fallen off the map -- they’ve made five of the last eight Elite Eights -- but they haven’t reached a Final Four since that 2008 title and they’ve been knocked out the first weekend in each of the last two years.

Regardless of where the two programs are, however, the return of this rivalry is a good thing, not just for the sport or women’s college basketball, but for the simple fact that the two fan bases still despise each other and the game will be played to generate money for a good cause.

This will be fun.