I remember watching the UConn v Tenn game that January, and didn't realize what it meant. We were still new fans to WCBB, and had started watching UConn a few years prior, as my hub and I worked with Laura Lishness' dad (pretty cool, btw).
Fast forward, I was sitting and kneeling on the floor in front of the tv during the national championship, and then realized that this was a really big thing. They kept flashing the teams that had won multiples - TN with 3, Stanford, LA Tech, and USC with 2, and thought, wow, the little school in the middle of nowhere just won.