This Game Should Match the Hype

Kara Lawson, Tennessee’s freshman point guard, calls it “The Clash of Giants.”

Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt calls it “The Sugar Game.”

And a lot of people in women’s basketball are wondering if tonight’s matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the national championship game--it hasn’t happened since these two met in 1995--will do for the women’s game what the Michigan State (Magic Johnson) vs. Indiana State (Larry Bird) meeting did for the men’s game in 1979.

It’s almost perfect:

* Each won on the other’s home court this season.

* The series is even at 5-5.

* In eight of those meetings, one of the teams was ranked No. 1.

Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma sized up the meeting of his 35-1 team and Summitt’s 33-3 club in a historic perspective.

“For our sport, this is Ali-Frazier,” he said.

“It’s the Yankees and the Dodgers, or the Cowboys and the 49ers. It’s the dream game. It’s what everyone wanted. Every kid, every coach in the country dreams of playing in the last game of the year, not being home watching it on TV.

“This is the right event at the right time--a game that will hopefully move women’s basketball forward.”

Tonight’s game is the teams’ third meeting, and it’s a tie-breaker to decide the national championship at First Union Center.

The setup:

* On Jan. 8, before 23,385 at Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena, Sue Bird scored 25 points to propel Connecticut to a 74-67 victory.

* On Feb. 2, before a sellout crowd of 10,027 at Connecticut’s Gampel Pavilion, Tennessee’s Semeka Randall made a baseline jump shot with 4.4 seconds to play, giving the Lady Vols a 72-71 victory.

Why would the two best teams in the women’s game play each other twice when both harbored NCAA title expectations? “I had a lot of reservations about it when we signed [for the two games] two years ago,” Auriemma said.

“I kept asking: ‘Why do we need to do this?’ And the TV [ESPN] people kept saying it was because there weren’t enough major events in the women’s game.

“They kept hounding me. Pat [Summitt] and I talked a lot and we both had reservations. Hey, guess what happens if UConn goes 38-2 and loses twice to Tennessee? The coach gets fired, that’s what.

“But I’d say now the upside outweighs the negatives, and I’m glad we did it.”

Replied Summitt, when asked the same question: “It was a good decision, the way it turned out. But if I was sitting here 0-2 I’d be telling you it wasn’t a real intelligent move on my part.

“We’ll play twice again next year, then we’ll rethink it.”

Auriemma and Summitt are friendly rivals and enjoy needling each other. A Philadelphia TV station has made much of the fact that on one city intersection, there’s a Pat’s cheese-steak restaurant on one corner and a Geno’s on the other.

Cracked Auriemma on Saturday, with a straight face: “Did you notice, though, that Pat’s is an old, dilapidated place, that Geno’s was a bright, new place?”

And Auriemma, famous for his in-your-face coaching style, wasn’t sparing any of his stars Saturday. He’s particularly critical of 6-foot-2 Russian junior Svetlana Abrosimova, still an underachiever, he believes.

“Our relationship is at its best when she’s back in Russia and we’re talking on the telephone,” he said.

“Svet has made major strides since she’s been in our program, but she’s not close to what she can be and she knows that.”

So, does he like any of his players?

“I don’t like any of my players, because they’re never as good as I think they can be,” he said.

For Tennessee, the major challenge is stopping the three-point shooting of the Huskies’ Bird.

“UConn does a great job of passing the ball and finding her,” Summitt said. “She’s a very active player and we have to find someone who will guard her.”

The Volunteers’ Kristen Clement probably will draw the assignment.