Geno, Lobo and the team that changed women’s basketball: An oral history of 1995 UConn

THE GAME WAS over, but the noise wouldn’t stop. Rebecca Lobo and her UConn teammates were ready to head out after a historic victory. But as they walked out of the locker room toward the Gampel Pavilion court, Huskies fans were trying to make time stand still, lingering in the arena long after the final buzzer had sounded.

“The people were still there. Like, singing ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T.’ It was like a party no one wanted to leave,” Lobo told ESPN. “A euphoric sort of feeling. Almost like they were afraid that if they left, the feeling would go away.”

It was Jan. 16, 1995, and No. 2 UConn had defeated top-ranked Tennessee 77-66. It was billed as the first meeting between a traditional powerhouse and an up-and-coming program — it ended up being one of the most important games in women’s basketball history.

On Martin Luther King Day, the game was televised on ESPN at a time when the sport still had limited broadcast exposure. The Associated Press postponed Top 25 poll voting for a day to account for the outcome, an unprecedented delay.

“The energy in the building — everything about it made it feel like the magnitude that it ended up being,” Lobo said. “We had never experienced anything like that.”

But the victory was a pivotal step in a season that changed the Huskies’ lives, their program and the sport. Over the next 2½ months, UConn put the finishing touches on a 35-0 season and won its first NCAA title, including another victory over Tennessee in the national championship game in Minneapolis on April 2, 1995.

The Huskies’ 1994-95 journey, culminating in the second perfect season in Division I women’s basketball history, included a preseason trip to coach Geno Auriemma’s homeland of Italy, a new offense popularized by Phil Jackson’s Chicago Bulls, the launch of the game’s biggest rivalry and the birth of several legends.

In the years that followed, Auriemma’s Huskies have gone on to win 10 more national titles — and goes for their 12th this weekend in Tampa, Florida. With all that winning, it’s easy for some championship details to blend together or be lost to time. But not when it comes to the first one.

“That one’s still as if it was last week,” Auriemma told ESPN.

THE SEEDS OF UConn’s championship run were sowed in 1994. That March, the Huskies lost in the Elite Eight to eventual champion North Carolina, a disappointing end to the program’s first 30-win season. But the Huskies were optimistic for the following year, when they would return all their major players and add freshman sensation, and Connecticut native, Nykesha Sales.

That summer, the team went on a European trip to Belgium and Italy (Auriemma’s home country), an opportunity to gauge the Huskies’ process on the basketball court and to bond off it.

One night, Auriemma went from ordering his players around on the court to ordering them to wash dishes. He took the team to a restaurant where there was no English menu, so he made the choices. And a lot of players didn’t finish their food.

Lobo, UConn center, 1991 to 1995: “Coach made us all bring our plates back into the kitchen and wash them. He thought we were being ungrateful. Like, ‘Don’t act like spoiled young kids [because] the food isn’t something you’re used to eating.’ It was a lesson about accountability.

“Really, that’s a big part of the culture at UConn — then and still now.”

When Auriemma wasn’t instilling life lessons, the team experienced the typical thrills (and occasional mishaps) of traveling and playing abroad.

Chris Dailey, UConn associate head coach, 1985 to present: “Jamelle [Elliott] and Kara [Wolters] got stuck in a small elevator when we were coming home from Milan. Jamelle was so mad. She said it was because Kara’s bag was too heavy and because they have the smaller elevators [in Europe]. To this day, we talk about that, and I think Jamelle’s a little more cautious going into elevators. But if you saw Kara’s bag, you wouldn’t have gotten in the elevator, either. It was humongous. She’s the worst packer ever.”

From a basketball standpoint, the trip couldn’t have gone much better. Auriemma and Dailey used the trip to install a triangle offense. They were also preparing to incorporate Sales, who as a freshman wasn’t on the trip, into the mix. After seeing how well the Huskies fared against professional European squads, the team felt confident going into the season.

Dailey: “We played five games, and it was our last game. We were in an arena that had the plastic over it because fans throw stuff at teams when they play professionally. Kara Wolters got hurt in warmups, something with her back, so we literally only had five players. And at one point, I think Pam Webber ended up with a triple-double, and one of those was with fouls. They just let her keep playing because we didn’t have anyone to sub.” But the groundwork was laid.

Auriemma: “Once we got over there and I saw us play, I was convinced when we got back and put Nykesha in the mix, ‘Man, it’s going to be hard to beat this. We just have a lot.'”

The lineup included point guard Jennifer Rizzotti and an inside combo of 6-foot-4 Lobo, 6-7 Wolters and 6-foot Elliott. Rizzotti and Elliott were so competitive, they couldn’t be put on opposing teams during practices or pick-up games.

Auriemma: “Jen and Jamelle are just sled drivers. Everything had to be according to their standards.”

Rizzotti, UConn guard 1992 to 1996: “Rebecca and [fellow senior] Pam [Webber] were much more of calming leaders for us, like the voices of reason in the locker room after games.”

Ranked No. 4 in the preseason poll, the Huskies immediately clicked. Their closest game in November-December was decided by 23 points. Still, Lobo said the Huskies didn’t really think about the pressure of trying to win a national championship.

Lobo: “We weren’t walking into Gampel looking at all the banners then, like players do now.”

Sales, UConn guard/forward 1994 to 1998: “We really had some good, tough, hard-nosed leaders that can get the best out of you on the court but also had great relationships with you off the court, which really matters. They did everything they preached. They came ready, they played hard, they were tough and gritty and knew the game.”

Dailey: “We were definitely not the most talented group, but we were the best team. It’s about chemistry, how to play and playing together. We were better at that than everybody we played that year.”

ONE DATE LOOMED large: Jan. 16. ESPN brokered a matchup between the Huskies and Tennessee, which at that point had won three NCAA titles. Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt agreed to come to Storrs, Connecticut, two days after playing at Auburn.

Holly Warlick, Tennessee assistant coach, 1985 to 2012: “Pat was always going to do whatever was best for women’s basketball to grow. UConn was up and coming, and she thought it was important for us to play them. Plus, Pat always wanted to get ready for the NCAA tournament. She just accepted the challenge.

“We as assistants weren’t always very happy. Like, ‘growing the game’ again? Can’t we just worry about trying to win?”

Dailey: “Tennessee’s thing back then, they would put two big guys on the block and throw it in and dare you to be able to guard them and stop ’em. And they would pressure you and press and press and press. So every day from the first day of practice, we had our practice players pressure our guards.”

Auriemma: “The practice the day before, I think it lasted like 45 minutes or something. I had to stop. It was just ruthless. Those guys were so ready to play. It was unbelievable.”

Dailey: “Then they didn’t even press us, but we were ready for it.”

Tennessee was 16-0, UConn 12-0. The Huskies had a 41-33 lead at halftime, and the Lady Vols never got closer than four points in the second half. Wolters had 18 points, Rizzotti 17. Lobo had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks.

Mimi Griffin, ESPN analyst, who called the game with Robin Roberts: “Women’s basketball had great rivalries before, but the masses did not know about them. This one particular game established a rivalry with sustainability at the highest level, and in the backyard of ESPN and New York-based media. All the stars aligned.”

Later that night, several players attended the UConn men’s game versus Georgetown in Hartford.

Dailey: “They were walking down [into the stands], they get a standing ovation. It was just this moment that will always stand out to me.”

The UConn-Tennessee rivalry ultimately consumed women’s basketball for the next decade-plus. But in the moment, it reaffirmed the Huskies’ confidence for the rest of their season.

Carla Berube, UConn forward, 1993 to 1997: “That game probably just put in our minds, ‘We can play with anybody. We can beat anyone in the country.'”

Auriemma: “Maybe because of what happened the year before, we were determined to not take our foot off the gas or go to practice and pretend like we’re way better than we are. I was able to coach them really hard, really demanding. The more I pushed them, the more they wanted to be pushed.

“I had never been through a season where the feeling was, ‘If we show up every day and play, I don’t think anybody can beat us.'”

Rizzotti: “That was the first year they were really starting to show women’s basketball highlights. As the season continued, and we stayed undefeated, ESPN kept putting us on “SportsCenter.” So it was a big ritual for us: Watch SportsCenter and see what Keith Olbermann would say about us.”

UCONN GOT ANOTHER confidence-building win in front of 17,000 fans in Kansas City, Missouri, against No. 17 Kansas on Jan. 28 in a nationally televised doubleheader with the Huskies men’s team, which was also unbeaten heading into its game.

Rizzotti: “It was the first time we ever chartered anywhere with the men’s team, which was probably the last, because they lost and we won. We’re on the charter [to go home] and CD’s like, ‘You’ve got to be quiet in the back.'”

Auriemma: “The ride out there was a trip, and the ride back was an LSD trip. I sat all the way in the back, like I charged a toll. You had to go by me to go use the restroom. I would not have wanted to be in [the UConn men’s team’s] shoes that ride home.”

The spotlight in Storrs intensified, especially on Lobo, the front-runner for national player of the year.

Auriemma: “Unfortunately for Rebecca, but fortunately for the rest of them, she took the brunt of it all. Eventually, the only way we could somewhat get a handle on it is we just stopped sending her to press conferences, just started sending other people. But even that didn’t necessarily calm anything down.”

Lobo: “At St. John’s, I went to the scorer’s table to check into the game. A St John’s player was there at the same time, and the game wasn’t particularly close. She said to me, ‘After the game, can I get my picture with you?’ I was blown away, thinking, ‘What? We’re competing against each other!'”

Rizzotti: “She was the face of the program in a way that no one had ever had to deal with before. She was a rock.”

Even Auriemma, whose wisecracking personality was perfect for entertaining the media, at times got overwhelmed by all the attention.

Auriemma: “I was like, ‘I can’t handle all this.’ When we won the Big East championship that year, I said to [wife] Kathy, ‘We’ve got to get out of town.’ We went to Newport, Rhode Island, for two-three days, because we didn’t have practice.

“But you couldn’t get away from it. I never knew it would become like that on a regular basis.”

UCONN WON ITS first three NCAA tournament games — over Maine, Virginia Tech and Alabama (a Final Four team the year before) — by an average of 35.7 points. At the regional in Storrs, Virginia was the Huskies’ last hurdle to the Final Four. UConn jumped ahead, but the Cavaliers rallied and took a seven-point lead at the break. It was the only time all season the Huskies trailed at halftime.

Auriemma: “I was scared to death: ‘We’re not even going to get to the Final Four.’ This is ridiculous.”

Lobo: “Jen and Jamelle came in [to the locker room], and they were like, ‘Come on, let’s go! We’re going to kick their asses in the second half. We are not losing this game!’ As players, they were the two toughest SOBs on any team. So then I had a feeling like, ‘Yep, we got this.'”

Auriemma: “I went in at halftime. Apparently, Jen and Jamelle had already read the riot act in there, so I guess whatever I said didn’t matter anymore. But they came out and played great.”

Still, it was tense until the end. The Huskies, up by 3, forced a critical five-second violation by the Cavaliers with 19 seconds left.

Berube: “I do remember feeling a little stressed, like, ‘This can’t be the end. This is not how this was written.’ Our defense finally came through when it needed to.”

Stanford, which had defeated UConn in three previous meetings, awaited the Huskies in the national semifinals in Minneapolis. The programs had gone head-to-head for some recruits, including Lobo. At the time, the relationship between Auriemma and Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was frosty.

Lobo: “There was a lot going into that game — a feeling like we had been disrespected. We had played out there my junior year and lost. During our warmups then, we had been counting our made shots and clapping; it’s just something you do. Somebody heard one of their players say, ‘Oh, they can count!'”

The flexibility allowed by the triangle offense worked perfectly against the Cardinal. The Huskies won 87-60, led by Wolters’ 31 points and nine rebounds.

Lobo: “I had not expected it to be so easy.”

VanDerveer, Stanford coach, 1985 to 2024: “They were experienced. They played well together. They had a plan. By the Final Four, they were playing with a lot of confidence and just had a lot of weapons. Because they had never won, they were just very hungry. That was a really special team.”

Auriemma: “[Then VanDerveer’s] prediction was, ‘There’s no way they can beat Tennessee’ in the final. How’s that make any sense? We just beat you by 27. Pick us and make yourself look good.”

The Huskies and Lady Vols had less than 24 hours to prepare for the championship game; this was the last year that the women’s semifinals and final were on back-to-back days. With all the fan attention and frenzy surrounding the team, UConn stayed outside the city instead of at the NCAA-provided hotel in downtown Minneapolis.

Lobo: “That whole weekend was a whirlwind. It felt like if we weren’t on the basketball court, we were somewhere accepting an award for something. Sleep had never been an issue for me. Now here I was before the national championship game, having the hardest time getting any sleep. And it was this ridiculous turnaround. I probably got like four hours of sleep that night.”

UConn was still unbeaten, but Tennessee had won championships before. The Huskies didn’t like being considered the underdog, and then the Lady Vols irritated Rizzotti even before tipoff.

When the Huskies went to warm up, the Tennessee players were stretching in the center circle, including on UConn’s side of the court.

Rizzotti: “It was kind of an audacious statement to think that you could just sit on our half of the court because that’s what you did every other game of the year. I told them to get off. And they all looked at me. I walked over the scorer’s table, and I said, ‘Get them off our half of the court. We’re trying to warm up.’ They made the move.”

Lobo: “That just pissed her off, which was the wrong thing for them to do. Jen will look for anything to use as a sign of disrespect to get motivated; to this day, she’s like that in her personality.”

Then the game started, and whistles became the Huskies’ biggest concern. Lobo, Wolters and Rizzotti were in foul trouble in the first half.

Lobo: “I got my third foul on a screen-and-roll; Dee Kanter called it, and I still give her a hard time for it. I don’t think it was a foul, but it also probably was a stupid risk for me to take on the roll.”

Auriemma: “We were down six at halftime and I was very calm, actually. I said, ‘So we have three All-Americans sitting on the bench, and we’re down six. If we played against anybody and their three All-Americans are sitting on the bench, how much do you think would be up at halftime? And they’re like, ’20.’ I go, ‘Exactly. It’s not going to end like this.’

“And in the last 10-12 minutes of that game, Rebecca became Rebecca Lobo, national player of the year.”

Lobo: “I just ran the baseline, demanded the basketball, got it, turned and shot it. And the shots were going in. It was a different feeling than I had ever felt before — like I’m going to take a little bit more ownership of this.”

“Then I looked up at the clock, saw the time and the score, and it hit me that there was no mathematical way that we could lose the game.”

Auriemma: “The biggest shot of the game was, I think, Nykesha threw it to Jamelle and Jamelle scored to give us the lead late in the game against a kid like 6-foot-3. Jamelle was barely 5-10, 5-11. And I thought, ‘that’s the one right there.'”

UConn won the national championship 70-64 behind Lobo’s 17 points and 8 rebounds, with four other Huskies scoring in double figures. The image of Lobo running back toward the UConn bench with arms in the air defined the moment.

LATER, BACK AT the team’s hotel, the celebration was on for the team, their families and supporters. A “guardian angel,” as Lobo put it, had filled the tub in her and Rizzotti’s room with ice and alcohol.

Eventually, Auriemma and most of the players gathered in his suite with a VHS tape of the game to watch.

Auriemma: “They’re introducing the starting lineups, and they’re sitting there booing the introductions. I was sitting on the couch, trying to keep myself awake or something. The game’s going on. They’re yelling and screaming, throwing stuff, and I was running commentary and they’re like, ‘Shut up!”

Lobo: “At some point, because he can’t help himself, he starts rewinding and treating it as if it’s a film session. Missy Rose, who was a sophomore that year, just looks at him and flips him the double bird. It was just so perfect. It was something she would never do in a real world environment. But we had just won the national championship and we’re enjoying one of the greatest celebratory moments of our lives.”

Eventually the players dispersed, and with his family asleep, Auriemma took in the moment alone.

Auriemma: “That’s probably when it really hit me. And then I heard a thump and open the door. There’s the paper, back when they used to give the newspaper at a hotel. I am sitting there reading [about the victory] in USA Today. And I go, ‘Yeah, I was there.'”

But a bigger celebration — seemingly with everyone in the state of Connecticut — was still to come. Along with all the new expectations. UConn had crossed over into superpower territory.

Auriemma: “We were flying back from Minneapolis. I said to Jeff Hathaway, our assistant [athletic director] at the time, ‘Isn’t there a way that we can have what we have and do what we just did, but not have to deal with what’s coming next?’ He said, ‘No, unfortunately, those two things go together.'”

Lobo: “We land at Bradley Airport, and there’s thousands of people there on the other side of the chain-link fence. We go over to greet them, and we’re all massively hung over and exhausted. All we want to do is sleep.

“Then we get on these charter buses to get to campus … people lining the sides of the highway, on the overpasses. They had signs, like they had spray painted on a sheet, ‘Go UConn, national champs.’ We couldn’t help but joke it was reminiscent of the summer in 1994 and the O.J. Bronco chase.”

Auriemma: “It’s like man landing on the moon. [TV] helicopters flying above us … they interrupted the soap operas to show where our bus was.”

Dailey: “I think of Nykesha Sales’ mother. She was at the Bloomfield exit. Ever since, for every other championship, she’s been there.”

Lobo: “We get on campus and find out we’re still not able to go home, there is a reception at Gampel that afternoon. And it’s completely packed. We were super appreciative, of course. Then it was like, ‘Can we finally go to sleep?'”

For Lobo, the circus never slowed down. She went on talk shows like “Late Show with David Letterman,” missed her graduation because of U.S. national team commitments and became one of the first three players to sign with the WNBA. Now an ESPN analyst and mother of four, she thinks back on how magical UConn’s 1995 title run was.

Lobo: “I understand the perfect storm of all the factors that came into play: us being in the backyard of ESPN, the proximity to New York media, the NHL strike [during the 1994-95 season] that meant there were more minutes available on SportsCenter. That we were undefeated.

“But I do sort of believe in the fate part of it. I knew I wanted to play for Coach Auriemma and that I belonged there. I believed it so much; it drove me to be able to tell my parents for the first time in my life that I was doing something against their wishes. They didn’t want me to go there.

“It sounds obnoxious when teams say something like they were ‘destined to win.’ But it did feel like there was something set in motion that helped us play a role that we were meant to play.”

Dailey: “There will never be another feeling like the first time that we won a national championship. I don’t think it could ever be better.”

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