By Chuck Schoffner
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Everyone, it seems, has a spin on this latest national championship game between Connecticut and Tennessee. Jessica Moore's is unique.

When Connecticut goes for its third straight NCAA title in women's basketball tonight, the last obstacle for the Huskies is the only school that has won three in a row.

"I was comparing it to Miss America," said Moore, UConn's 6-foot-3 center. "After she is done reigning, she passes the crown down to someone else. It's like if we win it (tonight), then they will be passing the crown down to us."

Actually, that crown or torch or whatever you want to call it already has been passed. With its two straight championships and three in the past four years, Connecticut clearly has supplanted Tennessee as the nation's pre-eminent program in the women's game.

Tennessee has won six titles, but none since 1998. Even Tennessee's Shanna Zolman said this is "Geno's era," a reference to UConn's brash, successful coach, Geno Auriemma.

That's what gives this rivalry a buzz, no matter how many times they meet in the finals. This will be the second straight year the schools have played in the women's championship game and the fourth such meeting since 1995. Connecticut won the three previous games and beat the Lady Vols in the semifinals en route to the 2002 championship.

Yes, there's a pattern here. And after all the talk this season about parity and balance in women's basketball, the two giants again are the last ones standing.

"That's just the way it seems to work out, doesn't it?" Auriemma said. "I feel real good that three out of the four (championship games), we have beat the team that everybody associates with the best team, the best program over the last 20-some years.

"So it's only fitting that if you want to win, that's who you've got to beat. And if they want to win, they've got to beat us."

The Lady Vols are looking to do just that. They've got some turf to protect, after all. They like being the only program with three straight titles, which Tennessee accomplished from 1996 to 1998.

"We don't want UConn at all up there in the ranks with us," Zolman said. "We would love nothing more than to be able to not only get a ring ourselves, but also not allow them to get three in a row. We're going to be working hard for that, I guarantee it."

Connecticut (30-4) kept its title hopes alive with a 67-58 victory over Minnesota on Sunday night, giving the school two teams in championship games. The UConn men played Georgia Tech in San Antonio on Monday night.

Tennessee (31-3) beat LSU 52-50, its third straight two-point victory decided in the final two seconds.

But whatever the circumstances when these two teams get together, the subject of Auriemma's relationship with Tennessee coach Pat Summitt is bound to surface. That's about all that was discussed before last year's game, played after Auriemma's crack that Tennessee was the "Evil Empire."

"We really don't have a relationship," Summitt said. "I don't have his cell number. We don't talk. We speak before and after the games. That's it.

"But that's the relationship that Geno worked very hard to create. At one time, I thought we had a pretty good relationship. So I don't know why it went south, but that's the way it is."

Summitt finds it all the more puzzling because Connecticut has dominated her team recently. The Huskies have won five straight against the Lady Vols and seven of the last eight, including an 81-67 victory in Knoxville this season.

"You would think as many times as he has beaten us, he would feel sorry for me and talk to me," Summitt said.

Auriemma seemed tired of the whole thing.

"That's irrelevant," he snapped. "Only thing that exists is UConn plays Tennessee, five on five in basketball."

As for those who were looking for something a little different on this final night, well, they'll have to wait a year.

"Everybody wants to see two different teams, but there's that saying the cream always rises to the top. And these two programs are that," Connecticut's Maria Conlon said. "That's the way it's been and that's the way it's going to remain until someone else comes in says they're it."

Matchup is nothing new

Tennessee and Connecticut will meet in the championship game for the second straight year, third time in the last five years and fourth time overall. Connecticut owns a 4-1 mark against Tennessee in the Final Four:

• 1995 - Final: Connecticut, 70-64

• 1996 - Semifinal: Tennessee, 88-83 OT

• 2000 - Final: Connecticut, 71-52

• 2002 - Semifinal: Connecticut, 79-56

• 2003 - Final: Connecticut, 73-68

Connecticut vs. Tennessee

Tipoff: 8:30 p.m. today, New Orleans Arena, New Orleans

Records: Connecticut 30-4, Tennessee 31-3

TV: ESPN

CONNECTICUT

Player	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Diana Taurasi	Sr.	6-0	16.2
Barbara Turner	So.	6-0	13.9
Ann Strother	So.	6-2	10.9
Jessica Moore	Jr.	6-3	9.5
Maria Conlon	Sr.	5-9	5.8

Coach: Geno Auriemma (531-103, 19th season)

TENNESSEE

Player	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
LaToya Davis	Sr.	6-0	5.0
Shyra Ely	Jr.	6-2	15.0
Ashley Robinson	Sr.	6-5	8.1
Tasha Butts	Sr.	5-11	10.4
Shanna Zolman	So.	5-10	12.1

Coach: Pat Summitt (852-156, 30th season)