Twenty years ago, UConn and Tennessee were on a collision course to meet in the 2003 national championship game, yet another epic matchup between Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt that would go down in the books as the Huskies capped its nearly perfect season by winning their third national championship in four years. Diana Taurasi poured in 28 points in the final game of Kara Lawson’s career.
ESPN made a gamble that year, moving the game to a Sunday (from its previous Friday) to see if that might increase viewership. It did — a 26 percent increase in viewership.
In 2003, a young player-coach named Dawn Staley was in her third year at Temple, working her way through a losing season. Kim Mulkey was two seasons away from her first national championship, dancing in the WNIT with her Baylor team. Tara VanDerveer’s Stanford team had run its way through the Pac-10 but exited early from the NCAA Tournament.
Twenty years later, all those people are still relevant in women’s basketball, having already impacted the game in their own ways. For some, a lot has changed; for others, not as much. Taurasi is still dropping 28 points and leading her (WNBA) team, while Lawson is leading Duke as its head coach after a stint coaching in the NBA. Staley is in the hunt for her third national title,…
