UCONN-SOUTH CAROLINA Next Chapter title game in one of the best rivalries in women’s basketball-Andscape

Tampa, Florida – “I think we have built our program according to the standard. Uconn is and was the standard of our sport. If you can beat Uconn, you can beat anyone. ” – Dawn Staley

We often talk about the need for individual stars in female university basketball, but the cornerstone of sustainability is a programmatic rivalry.

The next chapter of an intense rivalry will be played on Sunday when Uconn and the South Carolina meet here for the national championship. There is no better way to finish a sensational season than with a super bowl of a match between the preeminent programs of women’s university basketball.

And this game has everything. Student against teacher. Old Blood against New Sood. And perhaps the most complicated factor: an emblematic head coach who took the throne in women’s basketball and a female coach who wants to take it back.

“I certainly think of what happened in Southern Carolina in the last seven, eight, nine years old, they played basketball at an exceptionally high level, when you think of the final ovens they were regularly in their program,” said UCONN head coach Geno Auriemma. “The ability to win the national championships several times, and to be able to win consecutive championships, these are all things that are incredibly difficult to maintain today.

“We have already played once in a national championship match, so it seems that the two most important programs at the moment in women’s university basketball are playing for the right to be national champions, and we both deserve it.”

With three national titles, including one last year, Staley made success in South Carolina in a formidable program that succeeded – no, defined – at a time of name, image and resemblance, and the transfer portal.

Auriemma and Staley have known each other for decades. Staley was senior at the University of Virginia in 1991 when his riders beat Uconn in the Final Four. Since then, their paths have crossed several times. They worked together at USA Basketball and met as competitors.

Their personal history has fueled the rivalry, but did not dull the bright edges.

“What happened last year, will not be a factor in what is happening on Sunday,” said Auriemma after Uconn has sent UCLA 85-51 to the national semi-finals. “Our 11 national championships will not help us to win on Sunday. So, the fact that we have Philadelphia connections, connections from the University of Virginia and all these American basketball things that we have made together, yes, it’s a great story, but I don’t think Dawn does not give me congratulations or rupture for, you know, that I am.

Staley was never defeated in a national championship match. Asked about the meaning of this distinction, Staley said it was not relevant.

“I don’t even raise it,” she said. “I mean it is just me who focuses on me on victory.

Auriemma has an 8-4 file against Staley. Their post-season record is equal to a victory each. The first after-season meeting in Auriemma and Staley intervened in 2018 during the regional final of Albany. Uconn won 94-65. Gamecocks of Staley finally beat Auriemma in 2020.

As if the Sunday’s match was not important enough, there is also a recent story and a factor of revenge on several levels at stake. Uconn beat the South Carolina in February in Columbia, South Carolina, 87-58. The defeat broke the sequence of 71 victories at home victories in South Carolina.

For Uconn, the Sunday championship match offers an opportunity to avenge a defeat against South Carolina during the 2022 national championship match. The South Carolina won 64-49. The victory succeeded in an undefeated 11-0 sequence of Uconn in the national championship matches.

Perhaps the only relevant question at this stage is that most needed a national title: Auriemma, the star of Uconn Paige Bueckers or Staley?

Auriemma’s heritage is defined. He has already won 11 national titles. As he said to journalists after Friday’s victory over the UCLA: “I am satisfied as is. If we win a 12th national championship, I do not know that it has an impact on my life other than it makes me feel that I am always able to have an impact at my age, so that has no impact on my life. “

Looking in the direction of Bueckers, he added: “But you know that it certainly has an impact on her life and what she wants and what she has been dreaming of since she picked up a basketball ball.

“Whenever you may have helped help someone who talked to them when he was 17 years old on what could happen if you come to Uconn, and you are able to do it, I think that is the most rewarding thing for me at this age of my life.”

A championship ring is clearly motivating for Bueckers, who played in three FOURS. His only trip to the national championship match was the defeat of 2022 against South Carolina.

On Saturday, when they were asked how an impact would have an impact on the legacy of Bueckers, Staley said that the story surrounding the Uconn star had decreased what her South Carolina team had accomplished.

“Sometimes we create these stories about great players – Caitlin (Clark) was one of them; Paige is one of them right now – and we tend to forget the story about what our children have been able to do, going for their third in four years,” said Staley. “There is a sentimental story about Paige. A great player.

“She is a great player, but it is not because you are a great player that you have to win the national championship to legitimize it. Paige is legitimate. Her career is legendary. She will leave an inheritance in Uconn, whether she wins one or not.”

In terms of inheritance, however, a fourth national championship can be the most important for Staley. At 54, she continues to pilot the flag for women, women of color and African-American coaches in particular.

After winning her second championship in 2022, Staley spoke of the pressure she felt to succeed. “I felt a lot of pressure to win because I am a black coach,” she said. “Because if we do not win, then you bring so many others … Just an exam. Like:” You cannot train, you had enough to do it but yet you failed. “You feel it all, and you probably feel it 10 times more than anyone because we are on this platform.”

For Staley to be equal to 11 Auriemma championships, she must win seven other titles and perhaps coach for 10 to 16 years.

While Staley is already the most richly compensated for women’s basketball coach, winning a fourth ring-and winning a second consecutive championship, this time against a star-Staley team as the face of female basketball.

When Uconn faces the South Carolina on Sunday, the stands will be filled with old stars of each team. But the stars come and go. The importance of the Sunday championship match is a triumph of two exceptional programs which have become rival.

Rivalry echoes generations.