UConn HC Gets Candid on Evolving Tennessee Rivalry
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The UConn Huskies are undefeated this season and sit on a 22-0 record. Their last matchup was against Big East rival Xavier, and the Huskies won 97–39, extending their winning streak to 38. The win also pushed the Huskies to their 50th straight regular-season conference win, which now ranks among the longest in Division I.
While it was a momentous win, Geno Auriemma is not resting on his laurels. In fact, soon after the game, Auriemma spoke to the press about the team they face next. Next up, the Huskies go up against long-time rival Tennessee.
“Every great scenario in sports generally involves two teams that manage to create this these big moments or two fighters or two golfers, two swimmers. You know, somebody's got to have somebody that they respect a lot and that they’re fighting with all the time. And that's kind of how it was," he said.
"We knew playing them was going to be hard. They knew playing us was going to be hard. Um, it seemed like whoever won that game early in the season was going to be pretty, pretty good idea that whoever won that game was going to win a national championship. It's not that anymore. Things have changed.”
Auriemma is not wrong. Tennessee and UConn have combined for 20 national championships, including multiple NCAA titles, four of which were decided by this rivalry. Even now, with UConn sitting at No. 1 and Tennessee ranked 15th, that old competitive gravity is there.
“Lots, lots happened since then, but they're still a really good team. And they still beat us last year at third place. So, it may not carry the same weight now as, you know, Notre Dame, South Carolina, you know, those games, but it's still, like you said, it's a big still a big memory in people's minds of what it what it used to be like,” Auriemma added.
That memory isn’t distant either. Last season in Knoxville, Tennessee, took down UConn 80–76. The Huskies led at halftime, fell behind after three, then tied it at 74 with two minutes left before it slipped away. And that is another reason why this match carries weight.
Since their first meeting on January 16, 1995, UConn holds the series lead 17–10. Across the series, UConn is 6–4 at home and 7–4 away, with 2,004 total points scored and an average of 74 points per meeting.
UConn Enters Final Eight-Game Stretch After Tennessee
Right after Tennessee, the Huskies head to Chicago to face DePaul. UConn is 26-0 all-time against the Blue Demons, including a 102–35 win just two months ago in Storrs. They’ve averaged 88 points per game in the series and have never lost on DePaul’s floor, going 12-0 in Chicago.
From there, the schedule tightens. Butler comes to Hartford, followed by Creighton at Gampel Pavilion. Then UConn heads to Milwaukee to face Marquette, before back-to-back road trips to Villanova and Madison Square Garden to take on St. John’s, with a visit to Providence and a Georgetown visit.
-fd44250df32912986cc6690f0b8bfa32.png "Shivani Menon")
Shivani Menon is a sports journalist with a background in Mass Communication and a passion for storytelling. She has written for EssentiallySports, College Sports Network, and PFSN, covering Olympic sports like track and field, gymnastics, and alpine skiing, as well as college football, basketball, March Madness, and the NBL Draft. When she's not reporting, she's either on the road chasing sunsets or getting lost in the rhythms of electronic soundscapes.