There are very few similarities between the 1995 NCAA Division I Women's Final Four and the 2022 version for UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, but when he thinks back to that time, he does so with almost photographic memory.
"Every memory that I have about that game is burned into my mind. I can probably remember every single possession. I can remember every time-out, halftime what we did, where we stayed, everything, because everything was just so big," Auriemma said on Tuesday. "We were riding that undefeated season. We were getting unprecedented attention that had never been bestowed on a women's basketball program. So we were dealing with a lot, and the excitement was unbelievable."
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Auriemma won his first NCAA title with UConn in 1995 by defeating Pat Summitt's Tennessee Volunteers inside Target Center, which had opened just five years prior in October 1990.
"All the elements were right there. You remember that. You remember how crazy it is that you played Saturday and Sunday. If you asked people to do that today they would have a mutiny. But we played Saturday and then we played Sunday at noon. And what's even funnier, we played Stanford in that semifinal game, and that's who we play this year."
UConn and Hopkins native Paige Bueckers will have to get through No. 1 seeded Stanford to land in Sunday's championship game. UConn defeated NC State in double-overtime Monday night to earn their 14th straight trip to the national semifinals.
"But the Target Center will always have a special place in our hearts here at Connecticut. I go to Minneapolis a lot. I haven't been to the Target Center except maybe once to see the Lynx play. I'm excited to be going back," added Auriemma.
Bueckers, who scored 27 in Monday night's win, remains the topic of conversation for Auriemma who faced criticism after the 2021 National Player of the Year suffered a tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear on Dec. 13 while playing late in a blowout win over Notre Dame.
Auriemma was questioned about whether or not he though Bueckers was "100 percent" headed into the Final Four.
"Well, I mean, some people at 90 percent look better than some people at 100 percent, so it's all relative, right? How can you expect someone to be at the top of their game when they haven't practiced and haven't played in two months and now have just been back a couple weeks?," he said. "To the outside viewer, it may look like, well, that's the same Paige that I remember. Well, to us who's here every single day, maybe she is some days, maybe she's not. But last night when she had to be, she was. That doesn't mean if we had a game tomorrow that she'd be able to go the way she used to be able to go. That doesn't mean that for one night she can't be Paige. And she was last night."
Auriemma added that they will approach the Final Four and potential championship game the way they have in the weeks leading up to the season's end.
"If you'd have asked me two weeks ago can Paige play 40-some minutes in a double overtime game, this past Monday night against as good a team as we've ever played in this tournament, I would say, no, she can't. But she got better and better as the game went on, and I'm glad that we have three or four days to get ready for the next one," he said. "But she just happens to do things that are difficult to explain. Now I go by what she tells me and how she feels and what I see. So if I see that it looks good, I go with it. If I see that she's struggling, I take her out. That's the way we're going to operate this weekend."