Spring Break
TAKE THREE
Women's Basketball: Huskies Face Rutgers, Final Four At Stake
Tim Ehrens
Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: Sports
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Destiny. Fate. Blind luck.
Whatever you want to call it, the Greensboro Regional Final will take on a distinctly Big East flavor Tuesday when No. 1 seed UConn takes on No. 2 seed Rutgers (9 p.m., ESPN) for the right to go to the Final Four.
"It would be fitting to go through anybody," said UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. "At this time of year, you're not really worried about who the opponent is. It's just another team [in your way]."
These two conference foes share a long, storied history as conference rivals and this season was no different, as they split both regular season games, resulting in UConn's only loss of the season.
The second game was played for the Big East regular season championship, which resulted in a decisive 66-46 win for UConn. The win gave the Huskies the confidence they needed heading into the Big East tournament, which they would eventually win.
"They attacked us so hard. I've never coached against a team that moved the ball as quickly as they did down the floor and that was as hungry and aggressive as they were," said Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer. "We've really got to go to the boards and limit their opportunities to rebound."
The two teams have never faced each other in the NCAA Tournament and are coming into this game on slightly different wavelengths.
UConn has won decisively against its last three opponents - Cornell, Texas and Old Dominion - by an average margin of 30 points and posting a rebounding differential of plus-24.
After losing in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament to Louisville, Rutgers won convincingly over their first two opponents - Robert Morris and Iowa State - but struggled in the Sweet Sixteen against George Washington, going 4-for-15 from beyond the arc and only out-rebounding the Colonials by two.
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