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Message: [QUOTE="bballnut90, post: 2812131, member: 2117"] The history of Tennessee/UCONN trumps ND/UCONN in my book because those games were almost always two goliaths going at it and regularly swapping spots as the best team. ND/UCONN has been the prime rivalry this decade, but more often than not ND has been a huge underdog to UCONN rather than it being two equal heavyweights going head to head. Notre Dame has been the pre-eminent number two program the last decade until they unexpectedly broke through this year. Tennessee won 5 titles from 1996-2008 and was predicted by many to win it all in other years including 1999, 2003 and 2005. What Notre Dame has accomplished this decade is fantastic, but they were not the heavyweight that Tennessee was during that time period. During the rivalry (1995-2007), Tennessee and Connecticut absolutely dominated the sport. Combined they won 9 of 13 titles (which would continue to be 12 titles in 16 years extending to 2010), played head to head in the NCAA tournament in 7/13 years with 6 of those meetings coming in the Final Four or Championship. More often than not, the team that had the “it” player at the time won games—UCONN won games with Lobo, DT and the TASSK force, Tennessee usually won during the Holdsclaw and Parker era. More than that, the rivalry really took the sport to a new level. No one questioned that Pat and Geno were the two top programs in basketball. Both programs were the gold standard. Attendance and fan support at both schools was at an all time high during this era, and I’m guessing attendance with many others programs was higher back then than it is today. At least one regular season game between the two was broadcast on CBS, and it was always THE game to watch that year. Geno and Pat never got along all that well and had very different demeanors and personalities. You had so many notable moments/personalities, Semeka “Boo” Randall getting into it with Abrosimova, Parker dunking in 2007, the coast to coast Rizzoti layup in 95, Sales drilling the 3pt shot in OT in 96, UCONN’s backdoor clinic in 2000, etc. I love the ND/UCONN rivalry and think the games this decade have been incredible, but it’s not at the magnitude of Tennessee/UCONN. At least not yet anyway. [/QUOTE]

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