Spring Break
A new face for the old Rutgers-UConn rivalry
Kevin Meacham
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: Sports
HARTFORD - The most damning thing you could say about the Rutgers women's basketball team is that Tuesday's Big East matchup at the XL Center felt ordinary.
If we've learned anything over the past five years, it's that UConn-Rutgers games are not ordinary. Yet Tuesday's game felt like another stop on what seems like a perpetual blue-and-white victory tour destined for St. Louis in April. The buzz, the hype that normally surrounds these two teams just wasn't in Hartford. Maybe the snow took it; I don't know.
It was quite possibly the first time you could believe the players when they said that it was "just another game" against any old Big East team.
But the opposition on Tuesday wasn't just any old Big East team. This was Rutgers, for God's sake. Remember them? The tormentor of UConn teams past? The thorn in Geno Auriemma's side? The team that crashed UConn's exclusive Big East championship party as recently as 2007? Remember Epiphanny Prince, who earned more than her share of boos when she fouled Maya Moore hard in last year's regular-season finale?
"The game's going to be played like it's a Big East final, no matter what their record is or what our record is," said UConn coach Geno Auriemma.
Fair enough, but it sure didn't have the electricity of a Big East final. Obviously, a look at the conference standings will tell you why Tuesday's game wasn't accompanied by its normal hoopla. The Scarlet Knights came into the XL Center at 12-7, barely hanging on to a .500 conference record.
And since Rutgers could not call on anybody to stop Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery, Tuesday turned into a straightforward 75-56 UConn victory. It's win No. 22 for UConn, and will be little remembered when the story of this rivalry is written.
Because after five years of tremendous success, it's been a down year for Rutgers.
This was not the same team that had the audacity to win at Gampel Pavilion in January 2006 (giving UConn just its fifth loss in Storrs since 1993). It was not the same team that stormed into the XL Center in March 2007, finally nabbing a long-sought conference tournament title at Auriemma's expense.
If we've learned anything over the past five years, it's that UConn-Rutgers games are not ordinary. Yet Tuesday's game felt like another stop on what seems like a perpetual blue-and-white victory tour destined for St. Louis in April. The buzz, the hype that normally surrounds these two teams just wasn't in Hartford. Maybe the snow took it; I don't know.
It was quite possibly the first time you could believe the players when they said that it was "just another game" against any old Big East team.
But the opposition on Tuesday wasn't just any old Big East team. This was Rutgers, for God's sake. Remember them? The tormentor of UConn teams past? The thorn in Geno Auriemma's side? The team that crashed UConn's exclusive Big East championship party as recently as 2007? Remember Epiphanny Prince, who earned more than her share of boos when she fouled Maya Moore hard in last year's regular-season finale?
"The game's going to be played like it's a Big East final, no matter what their record is or what our record is," said UConn coach Geno Auriemma.
Fair enough, but it sure didn't have the electricity of a Big East final. Obviously, a look at the conference standings will tell you why Tuesday's game wasn't accompanied by its normal hoopla. The Scarlet Knights came into the XL Center at 12-7, barely hanging on to a .500 conference record.
And since Rutgers could not call on anybody to stop Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery, Tuesday turned into a straightforward 75-56 UConn victory. It's win No. 22 for UConn, and will be little remembered when the story of this rivalry is written.
Because after five years of tremendous success, it's been a down year for Rutgers.
This was not the same team that had the audacity to win at Gampel Pavilion in January 2006 (giving UConn just its fifth loss in Storrs since 1993). It was not the same team that stormed into the XL Center in March 2007, finally nabbing a long-sought conference tournament title at Auriemma's expense.
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Dave
posted 2/04/09 @ 11:04 PM EST
Rilvery?
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