AP Photo/Deborah Cannon
Riveting rivalries
UConn vs. Tennessee
How can two basketball powers from different conferences be the archest of rivals? Well, hoarding talent (such as former UConn great Sue Bird, at left in photo) and 15 of the past 25 national championships between them is a good start. Playing a third of their matchups in March doesn't hurt, either. Add the unpleasant reality -- in Knoxville, anyway -- that the Huskies have beaten the Lady Vols four times in the NCAA final (although Tennessee still leads the overall title count 8-7), and suddenly there's an inevitability to this blood feud, no matter how many miles separate the two programs. In fact, the relationship between coaches Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt eventually grew so frosty that they discontinued their regular-season series after the 2006-07 campaign. "In some sense, it's the Red Sox and Yankees," Auriemma likes to say. So now that Summitt has retired, will it be more like Mariners-A's? Yeah, right.
