The UConn women’s basketball team has won 38 straight games since its stunning loss to Tennessee on Feb. 6, 2025, but Azzi Fudd is still feeling the sting almost a year later.
The Lady Vols delivered the Huskies one of just three losses en route to their 2025 NCAA Championship, pulling off an 80-76 victory in Knoxville as the No. 19 team in the country over then No. 5-ranked UConn.
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Fudd remembers the intense frustration and embarrassment the entire team experienced in the aftermath, and she hasn’t forgotten her disappointing individual performance. The star guard shot just 3-for-9 against Tennessee with a season-worst three turnovers and three fouls.
On Sunday, the Huskies finally have the opportunity to avenge that defeat in front of their own home crowd at PeoplesBank Arena.
“As individual and as a team, we all felt like no really did their part or pulled their weight,” Fudd said Satruday after practice in Hartford. “We were mad about our own performances and how didn’t show up for each other. … I can’t speak for other people, but it’s definitely still on my mind. I played like, really bad last year. But it’s a new group, a new team, so obviously it’s a big game and we’re all excited.”
In hindsight, the pain of losing at Tennessee is part of what fueled UConn to its long-awaited 12th national championship two months later. The Huskies frequently schedule non-conference matchups in the middle of Big East play to serve as a reality check before March Madness arrives, and coach Geno Auriemma said that’s exactly what Lady Vols provided last season.
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“Watching that game, there were just so many things that you wish you could take back — moments in the game, plays in the game that at the moment didn’t seem that big but ended up impacting the game pretty significantly,” Auriemma said Saturday. “So of course you’re going to take it and start to look in the mirror and start looking at the film … That’s why you play these games. Had we not played that game, we maybe wouldn’t have been in a position to address all those things, and that might be the case tomorrow.”
Tennessee’s win in Knoxville resurrected a rivalry that was beginning to feel like a relic of a bygone era in women’s basketball. The programs won a combined 12 NCAA Championships from 1995-2010, and the annual matchup was must-see television when the Lady Vols were led by legendary head coach Pat Summitt.
The rivalry eventually grew so intense that Summitt cancelled the series in 2008 after accusing UConn of recruiting violations, and the teams didn’t meet for more than a decade until former Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper renewed it in 2020.
Without Summit, who retired in 2012 and died in 2016, the historic game didn’t carry the same weight. The Huskies consistently dominated Harper’s Tennessee teams, winning four straight matchups by an average of 14.3 points.
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But after the Lady Vols got back in the win column under first-year coach Kim Caldwell last season, UConn finally has a reason to circle Tennessee on the schedule again.
“It was a game that we could have won and didn’t win, and I think that that probably is worse (than) if you go play and you never had a chance to win, you play lousy,” Auriemma said. “But we played well enough to win that game and didn’t. I think that was probably the most disappointing part that was hard for the players to get over.”
Auriemma is unsure how much longer the Huskies can continue the series against Tennessee with several marquee non-conference matchups already set for upcoming seasons. But the UConn coach said that the Lady Vols will come back to Connecticut for a non-conference game in 2026-27, and a team spokesperson confirmed that it will be part of a two-year extension to the current home-and-home contract that ends this season.
“It’s hard to keep every team in the rotation every year. You want to keep changing opponents … and when you get a chance to add teams, something has to give,” Auriemma said. “Next year our non-conference schedule is really, really hard. I think it may be the hardest we’ve had in quite some time … We have Tennessee again next year, (but) after next year I don’t know.”
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Tennessee’s 2025-26 season has been tumultuous, and the team comes to Hartford fresh off an ugly 77-62 loss to unranked Mississippi State on Thursday. But the Lady Vols also have signature top-25 wins over No. 18 Kentucky and No. 24 Alabama, and their high-pressure style is a strength-on-strength matchup with the Huskies. Tennessee forces 21.7 turnovers per game to UConn’s 25.4, and the Lady Vols are also an elite offensive rebounding team ranking seventh in the country. The Huskies are 216th on the offensive glass.
The biggest concern for UConn is the absence of freshman Blanca Quinonez, who will miss her second straight game with a shoulder injury. Quinonez is the Huskies’ third-leading scorer averaging 10.7 points plus 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.8 steals, and she is also third on the team in 3-point percentage hitting 40.4%. Senior center Serah Williams is expected to be fully available after sitting out the Xavier game Wednesday with an ankle injury, giving the Huskies some much-needed frontcourt depth, but Williams is less consistent offensively than Quinonez and doesn’t have the freshman’s defensive versatility.
“I was kind of surprised that it’s only been one year that (Caldwell) has been there,” Auriemma said. “I think she’s kind of put her stamp on that team. They lost a lot of guys this year … but they still have a similar approach to the game: Lots of full-court pressure, a lot of threes, a lot of offensive rebounding … So I can see why they give a lot of people problems.”
How to watch
Site: PeoplesBank Arena , Storrs
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Time/date: Noon, Sunday
Team records: UConn 22-0, Tennessee 14-4
Series record: UConn leads 17-10
Last meeting: 80-76 Tennessee, Feb. 6, 2025 in Knoxville, Tenn.
TV: FOX
Streaming: FOX Sports app
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports 97.9
