Summitt doesn't reject future for Lady Vols vs. UConn

Although Tennessee and Connecticut were in the same arena Tuesday night, don't hold your breath waiting for the women's basketball teams to be on the same court again during the regular season.

But don't abandon hope either.

After playing in an ESPNU Classic doubleheader with the Huskies at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt didn't reject the possibility of having future interest in renewing the series.

"I'm not saying never, but not in the near future,'' Summitt said Wednesday.

A persuasive third party or a worthy cause might be necessary, though, to bring together Summitt and UConn coach Geno Auriemma. Summitt and Tennessee pulled the plug on the rivalry two years ago after submitting more than 30 pages of documents to the SEC office in 2006, alleging a pattern of recruiting violations at UConn.

UConn reported a secondary violation involving an ESPN studio tour in 2005 for then-top recruit Maya Moore, who's now a UConn All-American and reigning national player of the year.

Furthermore, Auriemma's comments in San Antonio indicated that he's moved on. In an ESPN interview during halftime of Tennessee's 91-53 victory over Texas Tech, he indicated that he didn't miss the game.

When asked about the rivalry after the Huskies' 83-58 victory over Texas, he said: "I don't know that it's that important any more.''

Auriemma said that the subject doesn't come up in his conversations with Carol Stiff, ESPN's senior director of programming and acquisitions.

"Carol knows better than to ask me about that,'' Auriemma said. "I've already answered that question. We've already talked about future matchups and they don't come up.

"The only people who really wanted the whole Connecticut-Tennessee thing were people outside of women's basketball ... Everybody in America that's associated with women's basketball at Division I, they were sick and tired of Connecticut-Tennessee. It's like: Come on. How about we see some other people."

Both coaches said their contact over two days in San Antonio was cordial. Summitt said that she hugged Auriemma at a banquet for the teams Monday night.

One of Auriemma's strongest comments referred to what he perceived to be a tepid response at the banquet to the master of ceremonies talking about a women's hoops first: ESPN College Game Day staging its show in conjunction with the Notre Dame-Connecticut game Jan. 16.

"I was so embarrassed for Carol (Stiff) after all that hard work and to get it on,'' Auriemma said. "And you know what, the other three programs in the room did who gives a (bleep). If it's not about us we don't care. It's just embarrassing. So you know what, the biggest game of the year is going to be Notre Dame at UConn. The biggest game next year will be UConn at Notre Dame. After that it's UConn and whoever ESPN decides it's gonna be."

Summitt didn't think that the setting or the presentation lent itself to anything demonstrative.

"It wasn't a situation where you had anything to react to,'' she said. "It was more taking in info."

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!