Sport | Women's basketball |
---|---|
First meeting | January 24, 1996 Connecticut 96, Rutgers 68 |
Latest meeting | March 23, 2015 Connecticut 91, Rutgers 55 |
Next meeting | TBD |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 40 |
All-time series | Connecticut leads 34–6 |
Largest victory | Connecticut, 73–36 (2010) Connecticut, 72–35 (2014) |
Longest win streak | Connecticut, 14 (2008–present) |
Current win streak | Connecticut, 14 (2008–present) |
The Connecticut–Rutgers women's basketball rivalry is a rivalry between the Connecticut Huskies and Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball programs.
Pairs of schools, colleges and universities, especially when they are close to each other either geographically or in their areas of specialization, often establish a college rivalry with each other over the years. This rivalry can extend to both academics and athletics, the latter being typically better known to the general public. These schools place an added emphasis on emerging victorious in any event that includes their rival. This may include the creation of a special trophy or other commemoration of the event. While many of these rivalries have arisen spontaneously, some have been created by college officials in efforts to sell more tickets and support their programs.
The Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team is the college basketball program representing the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, in NCAA Division I women's basketball competition. They currently play in the American Athletic Conference, the successor of the Big East Conference, as the last remaining original member of the conference.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball team is the intercollegiate women's basketball program representing Rutgers University–New Brunswick. The school competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Scarlet Knights play home basketball games at the Louis Brown Athletic Center on the university campus in Piscataway, New Jersey.
As of March 2015, UConn leads the series 34–6, including 17 of the first 18 meetings between the two teams. When Rutgers joined the Big East Conference in 1995, the two teams met only once a year. The Connecticut Post describes Rutgers' first-ever win over UConn, a 74-70 win on February 10, 1998 at the Louis Brown Athletic Center, as the "catalyst in what has become a fierce rivalry." [1] After the unranked Scarlet Knights nearly upset the then-undefeated Huskies on January 8, 2003, the two teams were scheduled to play twice during the 2003–04 regular season, and have done so every season since. While the Huskies would handily win the next three meetings, Rutgers finally broke through on February 18, 2005, as they defeated the Huskies for the first time in seven years, 76–62.
The Big East Conference was a collegiate athletics conference that consisted of as many as 16 universities in the eastern half of the United States from 1979 to 2013. The conference's members participated in 24 NCAA sports. The conference had a history of success at the national level in basketball throughout its history, while its shorter football program, created by inviting one college and four other "associate members" into the conference, resulted in two national championships.
The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien, Derby, Easton, Fairfield, Milford, Monroe, New Canaan, Orange, Oxford, Redding, Ridgefield, Seymour, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport and Wilton. The newspaper is owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation, a multinational corporate media conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues. The Connecticut Post also gains revenue by offering classified advertising for job hunters with minimal regulations and separate listings for products and services.
The Louis Brown Athletic Center, more commonly known as the RAC, is an 8,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Piscataway, New Jersey on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus. The building is shaped like a truncated tent with trapezoidal sides on the north and south ends. It is home to the men's and women's Rutgers Scarlet Knights basketball teams as well as the wrestling team. Previously, the University used the 3,200-seat College Avenue Gym from 1931 to 1977.
The rivalry had been partially fueled by an altercation that occurred between UConn head coach Geno Auriemma and former Rutgers player Cappie Pondexter after the 2005 Big East Tournament championship game. Auriemma reportedly made inappropriate remarks towards Pondexter, who retaliated by pointing her finger towards Auriemma. [2] Big East Commissioner Michael Tranghese released a statement days later clearing Auriemma of any wrongdoing. [3]
Luigi "Geno" Auriemma is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. He has led UConn to eleven NCAA Division I national championships, the most in women's college basketball history, and has won eight national Naismith College Coach of the Year awards. Auriemma was the head coach of the United States women's national basketball team from 2009 through 2016, during which time his teams won the 2010 and 2014 World Championships, and gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, going undefeated in all four tournaments.
Cappie Marie Pondexter is an American professional basketball player who is currently a member of the Indiana Fever in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was born in Oceanside, California and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Pondexter is known for her scrappy play, quick crossovers and midrange jumpshot. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history.
In recent years, the teams have met for games that included championship implications. On March 7, 2007, the Scarlet Knights won their first-ever Big East Tournament championship by beating the Huskies 55–47. However, on March 3, 2008, UConn would defeat Rutgers for the regular-season championship 66–46 and the Knights haven't beaten the Huskies since.
After Tennessee stopped scheduling Rutgers, the Connecticut Post said in 2008 that Connecticut had become Rutgers' biggest rival. [4] Auriemma said about Rutgers, ""A lot of times, they talked like they were better than they were and that kind of caused a lot more of an intensity level than maybe there would have been with anyone else." [5]
Connecticut victories | Rutgers victories |
No. | Date | Location | Winner | Score | Series | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UC | RU | ||||||
1 | January 24, 1996 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 96 | 68 | Connecticut 1–0 | |
2 | February 18, 1996 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 73 | 61 | Connecticut 2–0 | |
3 | March 3, 1996 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 93 | 64 | Connecticut 3–0 | Big East Tournament |
4 | January 15, 1997 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 78 | 45 | Connecticut 4–0 | |
5 | December 31, 1997 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 82 | 69 | Connecticut 5–0 | |
6 | February 10, 1998 | Piscataway, NJ | Rutgers | 70 | 74 | Connecticut 5–1 | |
7 | March 3, 1998 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 67 | 58 | Connecticut 6–1 | Big East Tournament |
8 | January 27, 1999 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 56 | 55 | Connecticut 7–1 | |
9 | January 17, 2000 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 65 | 50 | Connecticut 8–1 | |
10 | February 12, 2000 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 49 | 45 | Connecticut 9–1 | |
11 | March 7, 2000 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 79 | 59 | Connecticut 10–1 | Big East Tournament |
12 | February 14, 2001 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 70 | 45 | Connecticut 11–1 | |
13 | March 5, 2001 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 94 | 66 | Connecticut 12–1 | Big East Tournament |
14 | February 23, 2002 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 80 | 42 | Connecticut 13–1 | |
15 | January 8, 2003 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 67 | 62 | Connecticut 14–1 | |
16 | January 19, 2004 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 72 | 47 | Connecticut 15–1 | |
17 | February 14, 2004 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 66 | 43 | Connecticut 16–1 | |
18 | February 3, 2005 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 57 | 44 | Connecticut 17–1 | |
19 | February 13, 2005 | Piscataway, NJ | Rutgers | 62 | 76 | Connecticut 17–2 | |
20 | March 8, 2005 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 67 | 51 | Connecticut 18–2 | Big East Tournament |
21 | February 7, 2006 | Storrs, CT | Rutgers | 56 | 60 | Connecticut 18–3 | |
22 | February 27, 2006 | Piscataway, NJ | Rutgers | 42 | 48 | Connecticut 18–4 | |
23 | February 6, 2007 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 60 | 50 | Connecticut 19–4 | |
24 | February 26, 2007 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 70 | 44 | Connecticut 20–4 | |
25 | March 6, 2007 | Hartford, CT | Rutgers | 47 | 55 | Connecticut 20–5 | Big East Tournament |
26 | February 5, 2008 | Piscataway, NJ | Rutgers | 71 | 73 | Connecticut 20–6 | |
27 | March 3, 2008 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 66 | 46 | Connecticut 21–6 | |
28 | April 1, 2008 | Greensboro, NC | Connecticut | 66 | 56 | Connecticut 22–6 | NCAA Sweet Sixteen |
29 | February 3, 2009 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 75 | 56 | Connecticut 23–6 | |
30 | March 2, 2009 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 69 | 59 | Connecticut 24–6 | |
31 | January 26, 2010 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 73 | 36 | Connecticut 25–6 | |
32 | January 26, 2011 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 63 | 44 | Connecticut 26–6 | |
33 | March 7, 2011 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 75 | 51 | Connecticut 27–6 | Big East Tournament |
34 | February 4, 2012 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 66 | 34 | Connecticut 28–6 | |
35 | March 4, 2012 | Hartford, CT | Connecticut | 49 | 34 | Connecticut 29–6 | Big East Tournament |
36 | February 16, 2013 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 65 | 45 | Connecticut 30–6 | |
37 | January 19, 2014 | Piscataway, NJ | Connecticut | 94 | 64 | Connecticut 31–6 | |
38 | March 1, 2014 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 72 | 35 | Connecticut 32–6 | |
39 | March 9, 2014 | Uncasville, CT | Connecticut | 83 | 57 | Connecticut 33–6 | AAC Tournament |
40 | March 23, 2015 | Storrs, CT | Connecticut | 91 | 55 | Connecticut 34–6 | NCAA Second Round |
Svetlana Olegovna Abrosimova is a Russian basketball player who has played in college, the Olympics, and in professional leagues. She most recently played for the Seattle Storm in the WNBA. She is usually called by her nickname, "Svet" or "Sveta".
The women's basketball rivalry between the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers and the University of Connecticut Huskies is one of the fiercest rivalries in college basketball, and perhaps the only one to reach national consciousness out of the women's game. The matchup features two long-tenured and media savvy coaches generally acknowledged among the top five ever in their sport, over two dozen players who went on to play in the WNBA, and two programs that have combined for 19 national championships. Their head-to-head matchups were consistently the top-rated games in the college women's field.
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