The T's have it

Look for Texas and Tennessee to meet for women's title

By Kelli Anderson, SI.com

So much for this year being Cinderella's big break. The lineup of teams heading to the Women's Final Four in Atlanta is pure A-list: In three top seeds -- Tennessee, Duke, Connecticut -- and a 2 seed, Texas, that was really a 1 in disguise -- you have as glittering a group as you'll find in college basketball. Among them the four head coaches have to their credit 10 NCAA titles, four perfect seasons and more than 2,400 wins.

Texas won the championship in 1986 and hasn't been to the Final Four since 1987, but the other three teams were in San Antonio last year, warming up for this weekend. That includes Connecticut, the team that left the River Walk with its third title, its second undefeated season and a carload of graduating seniors, and was supposed to disappear into the Northeast winter for a little retooling this year. The Huskies' unlikely return to the trophy-presentation dais is but one of many possible storylines brewing in Atlanta.

And let's not forget the diverting subplots: Wouldn't the Longhorns, who avenged an 18-point loss to LSU in December by dismantling the top-seeded Tigers 78-60 in the West Regional final, love to settle another score by beating Duke, the team that knocked them out of the Sweet 16 last year? Don't you think the Blue Devils are itching to get back at Connecticut, which created the one smudge on the Dukies' otherwise perfect season? Tennessee has a bone to pick with every other semifinalist, having lost to each this season. But surely coach Pat Summitt, who hosted Villanova coach Harry Perretta and his team at a cookout at her home during the Mideast Regional, would take greatest pleasure in delivering a stinging defeat to Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, who made a crack about his pal Perretta deserting him "for the evil empire." As for Auriemma, he merely is looking for his 500th and 501st career wins.

But enough idle speculation. This is how things are really going to play out:

Texas vs. Connecticut

Now that coach Jody Conradt has won her 700th game at Texas by dispatching the team she had called "the best in the country," the Longhorns face perhaps an even bigger challenge in Connecticut. Expected to slog through a rebuilding year after losing four seniors among the first six picks of the WNBA draft, the Huskies instead have put together one of the most impressive seasons on record. The singular Diana Taurasi led a group of inexperienced underclassmen to a record-setting 70-game win streak in a particularly tough Big East Conference. Taurasi, who has shot 59.3 percent from the field, averaged 25.7 points and performed a zillion other undocumented little chores during the tournament, radiates confidence and calm despite nursing a sore back and ankle. Barbara Turner and Jessica Moore, both agile, quick and long, have created a formidable post presence. Connecticut loves to run, crash the boards and keep up the defensive pressure.

That will make for an interesting matchup with Texas, another team few people had penciled in for Atlanta five months ago. Even Conradt didn't have Georgia on her mind until very recently. "I've gone into many seasons thinking this team is talented enough, they can make it to the Final Four," she said. "This team, that wasn't in my mind. Sometimes the best things are the things that surprise you."

This is not Conradt's most talented team, but it may be her most cohesive and mentally tough. That is largely because of the addition of junior point guard Jamie Carey, the 2000 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and 2003 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. After suffering repeated concussions at Stanford, Carey was forced to retire. Feeling fine after sitting out two years, she petitioned Stanford doctors to clear her to play. They wouldn't, but after extensive testing doctors in Austin did, so she transferred to Texas and joined a team that, as it turned out, desperately needed her intensity, mature leadership and what Conradt calls her "demanding spirit" (her 41 percent 3-point shooting and 2.41 assist-to-turnover ratio don't hurt either). Carey leads a fundamentally sound team that can kill you from inside or out. Post players Heather Schreiber and Stacey Stephens, whose 8 1/4-inch hand can palm a six-pound medicine ball, total 18 rebounds and 29 points a game, and Schreiber leads the team in 3-point shooting at 43.3 percent.

The 'Horns didn't need to produce from the perimeter (2-for-13, 15.4 percent) to beat LSU, but they will to beat Connecticut. Following Carey's lead of not taking anything for granted, the Longhorns will make hay with this opportunity and narrowly beat the Huskies.

Tennessee vs. Duke

Duke has come this far in the tournament without ever really purring on offense, but it can't afford a lot of offensive miscues and bad shots now. The formula that got the Blue Devils past Texas Tech in the Midwest Regional final -- defense and Alana Beard -- won't be enough against a Tennessee team that is playing so well it resembles the dominating, Chamique Holdsclaw-led clubs of the late '90s.

Defensively, the two teams are probably a wash. On the boards, Tennessee outrebounded its last two opponents 96-41, while Duke was beaten on the boards 80-65. Offensively? Duke, a team that prides itself on its transition game, hasn't scored more than 66 points in this NCAA tournament, and Beard has produced 34 percent of the team's offense. She needs some help. Meanwhile, Tennessee is deep and versatile, able to pound it inside or hit the 3 better than any previous Summitt team. (To date the Lady Vols have made 224 3s, 39 more than the previous school record.) Gwen Jackson, the Mideast Regional Most Outstanding Player after scoring 44 points and grabbing 22 rebounds against Penn State and Villanova, can slash to the basket or spot up to shoot the 3, perfectly embodying the difficult challenge Tennessee presents.

Tennessee will win this rematch and then face another against the Longhorns on Tuesday, creating the best storyline of all: The only two women coaches to reach 800 wins will square off for the championship in the same year both reached the milestone. Who will win? Summitt, who beat Conradt to 800 by just a few weeks, will come out ahead once again, and Rocky Top -- the only thing truly evil about Summitt's empire -- will ring in our ears for weeks to come.

 

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Top-seeded Huskies reach fourth straight Final Four Texas tops LSU to become lone No. 2 in Final Four Tennessee downs Villanova, heads to 14th Final Four Beard powers top-seeded Duke into Final Four SI.com's 2003 women's NCAA tournament coverage

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