NCAA WOMEN UConn looking to make history with 3rd straight championship

It could also become the first school to sweep the men's and women's titles.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Ashley Robinson and Diana Taurasi defy the commonly held notion about the basketball rivalry between Tennessee and Connecticut.
Two teams that can't stand each other, right? The traditional women's basketball power (Tennessee) and the usurper (Connecticut). Two coaches whose relationship is icy, at best.
So what happened the last time Robinson and Taurasi saw each other?
"I gave her a hug and talked to her a little bit," said Robinson, who starts at center for Tennessee and has known Taurasi since she was 13.
The next time they embrace, one of their teams will be the national champion. Connecticut and Tennessee will meet for the title tonight, the fourth time they've faced each other in the championship game, and what an interesting twist to this one.
Unprecedented double
Connecticut is trying to win its third straight title and fourth in five years. It will also try to make it an unprecedented double for the school. After the men's team beat Georgia Tech on Monday night, a win by the women would make Connecticut the first school to sweep both championships.
Standing in the Huskies' way is the only school that has won three in a row.
"It's kind of fitting, but I don't think it's something we're worried about," UConn's Barbara Turner said. "Not to avoid the question, but we're just worried about playing harder and smarter than them for 40 minutes."
Another title for UConn would make it even more clear that the Huskies have supplanted Tennessee as the pre-eminent program in the women's game.
Tennessee has won six titles, but none since 1998. Even Tennessee's Shanna Zolman said this is "Geno's era," a reference to UConn's Geno Auriemma.
Good rivalry
That's what gives this rivalry a buzz, no matter how many times they meet in the finals. Connecticut won the three previous title games against Tennessee and also beat the Vols in the semifinals en route to the 2002 championship.
Yes, there's a pattern here. And after all the talk this season about parity and balance in women's basketball, the two giants again are the last ones standing.
"That's just the way it seems to work out, doesn't it?" Auriemma said. "I feel real good that three out of the four [championship games], we have beat the team that everybody associates with the best team, the best program over the last 20-some years.
"So it's only fitting that if you want to win, that's who you've got to beat. And if they want to win, they've got to beat us."
The Vols are looking to do just that. They've got some turf to protect, after all. They like being the only program with three straight titles, which Tennessee accomplished from 1996-98.
"We don't want UConn at all up there in the ranks with us," Zolman said. "We would love nothing more than to be able to not only get a ring ourselves, but also not allow them to get three in a row. We're going to be working hard for that, I guarantee it."