Thursday night’s Connecticut at Tennessee game will differ significantly in two respects from recent games between the two women’s college basketball powers.
First, the No. 1 national ranking will not be at stake as it was the last four times the Huskies and Lady Vols competed, including the 2000 NCAA title game won by Connecticut 71-52 last April.
Unbeaten Notre Dame, and once-beaten Connecticut and Tennessee rank 1-2-3 respectively. The Irish became No. 1 when they beat Connecticut in January. The Huskies beat Tennessee 81-76 on Dec. 30.
Second, coach Pat Summitt’s Vols will have to play Thursday’s nationally televised game (ESPN, 6 p.m.) without Tamika Catchings, the 6-foot-1-inch All-American whose college career ended when she recently tore up her knee.
“In a way, it’s good No. 1 isn’t at stake in this one,” Huskies coach Gino Auriemma said. “It’s just a game. A fun game. I’m disappointed, though, that Tamika can’t play. Our kids are too. We all want to face the best.”
Auriemma believes, and Summitt concurs, that Catchings’ teammates have stepped up their games and helped make up for the loss of their star.
“In some ways Tennessee without Catchings is harder to prepare for,” Auriemma said. “You knew Tamika was going to take her 15 shots. Now a whole bunch of people share those 15 shots: Michelle Snow, Semeka Randall, Kara Lawson.”
Summitt said after Catchings was injured, the first player she consulted was Randall, a senior guard-forward.
“I put pressure on Randall to lead this team with Tamika gone, and she’s been terrific,” Summitt said. “I told her, `you have to step up and lead by doing whatever we need: make the rebound, take the ball to the hole, make the defensive stop.'”
Summitt also asked for more from Snow, the 6-5 center who has received national attention for two dunks.
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“Michelle has taken on more offensive responsibility,” Summitt said. “She’s making better decisions and has cut down her turnovers. Her rebounding has picked up. But she gets pushed around too much. She could be as imposing on defense as she is on offense.”
“This game is going to be decided in the lane,” Auriemma said.
Auriemma tabbed 6-2 All-American Svetlana Abrosimova and 6-5 center Kelly Schumacher as key players against the Vols. Abrosimova wasn’t heathy and scored only four points in 11 minutes when Connecticut beat Tennessee at Hartford. Schumacher, recovering from a leg injury, played only four minutes.
“We need Kelly to have a big night defensively if we’re to beat Tennessee,” Auriemma said, “and we need Svet [Abrosimova] to have a big night on offense.”
This is the second, and probably last, year the Huskies and Lady Vols will play twice in the regular season.
“It’s been clearly a great rivalry and good for women’s basketball, but what concerns me is preparing my team psychologically to face a team a third time a season, say in the Final Four,” Summit said.
“The series was television-driven,” Auriemma said. “Television wants teams it figures people know about. In men’s ball you see North Carolina vs. Duke. If North Carolina and Duke are not on TV, it’s probably because they’re not playing that night.”
Big Ten update: Purdue’s three-game lead with seven games to play makes the 9-0 Boilermakers almost a lock to win the regular-season Big Ten title. But Jane Albright, coach of second-place Wisconsin (6-3), said Sunday’s overtime loss at Purdue “gave our players a lot of confidence.” This could come into play if the Badgers and Boilermakers meet in the Big Ten postseason tournament March 1-4 at Grand Rapids, Mich.
An obvious strength of Wisconsin is its big front line of 6-2 LaTonya Sims and 6-3 Jessie Stomski, voted Big Ten freshmen of the year in 1998 and 1999, respectively, and 6-4 Nina Smith, who might have been named top rookie in 2000 if she had not missed much of the season with a broken foot.
Nevertheless, the Badgers struggled in the backcourt until Albright moved versatile 5-11 junior Tamara Moore to point guard. Moore, Minnesota’s high school player of the year in 1998, alternated between point, off guard and small forward during her first two years as a Badger. As a freshman she made the all-National Invitation Tournament team. Last year she returned to the NIT and was named MVP.
To date Moore ranks among the league’s top dozen scorers with a 13-point average. She’s fourth in the league in assists and leads the league in steals with four per game. Purdue’s Katie Douglas, likely Big Ten MVP, is second in steals.
“Tamara’s leadership has been big this year,” Albright said. “She’ll to anything to win. She had 13 assists at Illinois. Then she stepped up her scoring at Mackey Arena. Her defense changes what other teams like to do.”
Ex-Rambler: Former Loyola coach Marty Hawkins is still coaching winners. His John A. Logan College team in Carterville, Ill., ranks 15th among the nation’s junior colleges. Former Evanston star Danielle McKinley is averaging 24 points per game, eighth among junior college scorers.