Lady Vols

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-- So, what do they do for an encore?The Tennessee women's basketball team completed arguably the greatest season in the history of the sport with a convincing 93-75 win over Louisiana Tech last night that not only netted the Lady Vols an unprecedented third straight title, but capped an unbeaten season.Despite something of a second-half lull, in which the Lady Techsters pared a 23-point deficit down to 15, Tennessee (39-0) was never serious challenged in its quest for perfection.

PHILADELPHIA -- For four years now, Connecticut guard Shea Ralph seemed to be on the way to something very special, but something, usually a devastating injury, got in the way. However, Ralph wiped out all those years of pain and heartbreak, personally willing the top-ranked Huskies to a national championship in a stunning 71-52 blowout of No. 2 Tennessee before 20,060 at the First Union Center. The crowd and a national television audience saw Ralph, a 6-foot All-America perimeter player from Fayetteville, N.C., put on a bravura performance on both ends of the floor, with 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting, six steals and seven assists to go along with three rebounds, earning Most Outstanding Player honors for the Final Four.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The great philosopher Yogi Berra once noted that a New York restaurant had become so popular that "nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." Tennessee forward Chamique Holdsclaw might find herself wishing for that soon enough.Holdsclaw is making a name for herself even beyond the cozy confines of women's basketball. Her resplendent play in leading the two-time defending champion Lady Vols on an unbeaten course heading into this weekend's Final Four in Kansas City, Mo., is drawing comparisons to some of the greatest to play the women's game.

NEW ORLEANS - If it is true that Tennessee and Connecticut will always play each other in the NCAA women's basketball championship game, then it's becoming increasingly true that Connecticut will always beat Tennessee. For the sixth straight time and, more importantly, the fourth time in a final, the Huskies turned back the Lady Vols last night, 70-61, to win their fifth national title, their third consecutive championship and the fourth in the past five years. The win gave Connecticut an unprecedented Division I double - championships for both the men's and women's team.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Funny, how folks deal with losing around here.The football team went undefeated, and after winning the national championship Monday night, the players talked about how much last year's Orange Bowl defeat had motivated them.The women's basketball team -- the beloved Lady Vols to everyone in the so-called "Orange Nation" -- suffered their first loss in more than a year back in mid-November, and the players, not to mention coach Pat Summitt, talked in the same cliches.Can you imagine how motivated Tennessee would be if it loses again, say today on its trip to Storrs for a much-anticipated showdown with top-ranked Connecticut?

NEW ORLEANS - The Tennessee women's basketball team and its coach don't know how they are pulling off these remarkable finishes in the NCAA tournament, just that they are going to play for another national championship. For a third straight game, the Lady Vols pulled off a miracle in the closing seconds, this time nipping Louisiana State, 52-50, in the national semifinals last night to earn a berth in tomorrow night's title game against Connecticut. "I walked in [to the locker room] and told them I was really proud of them, but I don't know how much more of this I could take," said Tennessee coach Pat Summitt.

SAN ANTONIO - Early in the second half of last night's national semifinal, Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt issued a plaintive cry to the officials in a voice that could be heard through the din of the Alamodome. "They don't need any help," Summitt said, referring to the Lady Vols' opponent, top-ranked Connecticut. The Huskies didn't need any help in putting away Tennessee, 79-56, to advance to tomorrow night's NCAA national championship game against Oklahoma. A crowd of 29,619 - the second largest to see a women's basketball game in the United States - saw the Huskies (38-0)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Dana Johnson should be long past the point in her career where the unusual should fluster her, but the game of basketball is always full of surprises.Johnson, the 6-foot-2 senior low-post threat for the third-ranked Tennessee women's basketball team, came out for last night's Mideast Regional semifinal expecting to see her Western Kentucky counterpart, Ida Bowen, down in the blocks with her, but when Bowen opened the game playing point guard, Johnson gulped hard."I said, 'Let's play,' but I looked around and I didn't see any point guard, so I said, 'OK, you'd just better get down in a stance and play defense,' " said Johnson.

ATLANTA - Tennessee forward Gwen Jackson took a bit of an unplanned vacation in the middle of last night's women's Final Four semifinal game with Duke, going scoreless for 20 minutes. Fortunately for the Lady Vols, Jackson sent a late-game postcard to the Blue Devils, powering Tennessee into tomorrow's national championship game with a 66-56 win over Duke. The Lady Vols will meet Connecticut, which beat Texas, 71-69, for the NCAA title. Jackson, who finished with 25 points and 15 rebounds, made up for lost time, scoring nine straight points in the Lady Vols' decisive second-half kick.