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Hard Knox Lady Vol fans find little to cheer about vs. Huskies
Posted: Monday April 03, 2000 12:58 AM
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- As the minutes ticked down Sunday night, a sports bar crowd of University of Tennessee students chanted one last time: "It's great ... to be ... a Tennessee Vol." But the fading spirit couldn't carry to Philadelphia, where Tennessee's Lady Vols failed to win a seventh NCAA championship by falling 71-52 to rival Connecticut. "It was extremely ugly," Brooke Huffman, 19, said of the game UConn led from the start. "It was hard to see the team play like this when you know they could play so much better." As the rain came down on a dark and quiet UT campus outside Mike & Willy's Sports Cafe, Dwayne Hall and a table of friends gave an explanation. "The officiating was terrible. It was eight against five, is the way I see it," Hall said, counting the three officials and the Huskies on the floor. "We ain't playing Tennessee basketball," he conceded. "But we ain't getting the calls, either." One fan who didn't want to give his name because he works for the UT men's sports program looked at the loss more analytically. "We were not playing like we can, we were not moving over on defense and we were not communicating," he said. "But UConn came up with a better game plan, I guess." "I think it is sad," said Laura Lauter, a UT soccer player. "These girls played with their hearts every game. They train hard. And then to come out and have a game like this, I think it is very tough for them." There wasn't much for Tennessee fans to cheer about through much of the game. Above a low din in the sports bar the ESPN announcers called the rout from more than 50 television sets. "I don't think we are going to be able to pull this one out," Cara Biehn said with 10 minutes to play. "I am just real disappointed," she said. "They have always been such good throwers and such good players. It is hard for me to believe they are going down by 20 points. This is ridiculous." The loss was especially hard because of Tennessee's rivalry with UConn. "I hate the whole (UConn) team because they are our nemesis," Huffman said. "They are the team that we have to beat to prove we are No. 1." But in some fans' hearts, coach Pat Summitt's players still are No. 1. "We love our Lady Vols," read a sign scribbled on a napkin. "I still think they had a great year," Biehn said. And there's always next year. "All the starters are coming back," Huffman said. "So it should be good."
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