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		<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com</link>
		<description>RUWT? News for Louisville vs. Connecticut 4/8/2009</description>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:19:48 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[UConn rolls to perfect season, sixth national title]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[ST. LOUIS (AP) -- With one final blowout, Connecticut grabbed 
the national title and a piece of basketball history.

Tina Charles had 25 points and grabbed 19 rebounds Tuesday night
as UConn routed Louisville, 76-54, and captured the Huskies' 
sixth national championship.

It wasn't just that Connecticut claimed another title. It was 
how they did it.

UConn won every one of its 39 games by double digits, an 
unprecedented run in college basketball.

Charles was the star of the last big win. She commanded both 
ends of the floor and Louisville, which lost to UConn for the 
third time this season, had no one who could stop her.

Coach Geno Auriemma had said before the tournament that his 
junior center would be the key to UConn winning the title. A 
year after he benched her in the NCAAs for inconsistent play, 
Charles delivered.

"I'm really happy for her," Auriemma said.

"I told Tina before the game, I said 'Sunday night you played 
against an All-American center and you played defense and you 
worked as hard as the best center in America and now you have to
prove it tonight' and she did."

Charles was 11-for-13 from the field, and fell just one rebound 
short of becoming only the second player ever in a championship 
game to have at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. She was named 
the outstanding player of the Final Four.

Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery each added 18 points for the 
Huskies.

"It was another challenge and I wanted to show my teammates they
could depend on me," Charles said. "I wanted to send off Renee 
being happy. I wanted her to have all smiles for the next step 
in her career."

Angel McCoughtry finished off her stellar career for Louisville 
with 23 points. Candyce Bingham was the only other Cardinal in 
double figures with 10 points as Louisville (34-5) shot a dismal
31 percent from the floor.

Unlike its previous two wins over Louisville, it took about 15 
minutes for UConn to begin pulling away from the Cardinals.

With the game tied at 17-17, Connecticut scored nine of the next
11 points, including seven by Charles, to take a 26-19 lead on 
her three-point play.

After Bingham scored to draw Louisville to 30-24, the Huskies 
turned up their defense. Louisville missed 18 straight shots 
spanning the half and Connecticut built a 19-point advantage.

"It's the big stage, our first time playing in a national 
championship game," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "The first 
five minutes was what I was most concerned about. We went back 
and forth and I felt really good about things. Then we started 
to rush some shots."

Louisville came into its first title game with little pressure. 
The Cardinals were big underdogs, bidding to knock off three No.
1 seeds on their way to a championship.

Busloads of Louisville fans made the 250-mile trip from Kentucky
to pull for the Cardinals, and even though the game wasn't sold 
out for the first time in 17 years, the matchup of Big East 
schools still had a raucous feel to it.

But it was the Connecticut players celebrating at the end as 
they carried Auriemma off the court.

The victory put the Huskies in the same class as UConn's other 
unbeaten teams, in 1995 and 2002. Besides Connecticut, only 
Tennessee and Texas have run through a season without a loss.

The title was Connecticut's first since 2004. UConn was 
suffering through its longest "drought" since first winning in 
1995.

Only the Lady Vols, with eight titles, have more than the 
Huskies.

With UConn's victory, the Big East also became the first 
conference ever to sweep the NCAA and WNIT championships in the 
same season. South Florida topped Kansas, 75-71, on Saturday to 
win the WNIT, which began in 1998.]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaabw]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaabw/news/93365-UConn-rolls-to-perfect-season-sixth-national-title</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaabw/news/93365-UConn-rolls-to-perfect-season-sixth-national-title</guid>
				<pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:19:35 GMT</pubDate>
			</item>
		
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				<title><![CDATA[UConn one game away from perfect season]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[By Doug Feinberg
AP Sports Writer

(3) Louisville (34-4) vs. (1) UConn (38-0), 8:30 p.m. EDT

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Even though his team has been mowing down 
every team in its way, Geno Auriemma wants you to believe UConn 
could lose the national championship.

To a team it's beaten twice - by 28 and 39 points.

"It's way too much familiarity for both teams," the Hall of Fame
coach said. "A lot more than you'd like to have this time of 
year."

Auriemma insists he has reason to worry about Tuesday's tile 
game against Louisville. He's seen a big difference in the 
Cardinals from the team UConn dismantled in the Big East 
championship a month ago.

"What we did in the second game, I don't think it has any effect
on today," he said. "Different environment. Different day. 
Different attitudes among the players."

UConn stands on the doorstep of the third undefeated season in 
school history and just the fifth ever in women's basketball.

Louisville, which is looking to become the fourth team to knock 
off three No. 1 seeds on its way to a title, will have to have a
new game plan against Connecticut. Second-year coach Jeff Walz 
was hard-pressed to find a weakness with the Huskies last time 
out.

"I think I saw their manager drop a bottle of water," he said 
laughing. "That's the scary thing about them. They've got three 
of the top 10 players in the country. Then you've got Tiffany 
Hayes who's shooting the ball extremely well. We're going to 
have to try and control the tempo of the game."

Walz knows that his team can ill-afford a similar start to the 
semifinal game when they missed their first 13 shots before 
rallying to beat Oklahoma.

"If we come out and play the first five minutes the same way 
tomorrow night, instead of losing 11-0, it's 25-0."

The Cardinals feel no pressure, though, and Walz likens his 
undersized, overachieving team to the lovable Bad News Bears.

"We might not have been the most talented team on the floor the 
last few games. We've been the tougher team and the team with 
more heart," he said. "We have a group of players here that are 
buying into a system and buying into a role."

Like the fictional Bears, the Cardinals relish the role of being
the underdog.

Louisville players want the media "to keep saying the other 
team's going to win," star Angel McCoughtry said. "I hope they 
wish Connecticut wins tomorrow. That's what we've been thriving 
off of, so we don't want that to change."

While it's the Cardinals first appearance in the title game, the
Huskies are vying for their sixth national championship and 
first since 2004. UConn was suffering through its longest 
"drought" since first winning in 1995. Expectations are so high 
back home, that it was like the Huskie program had fallen off a 
cliff, Auriemma said.

In some ways, the struggles only make this title game sweeter, 
he said.

"It's one of those validating things where no matter how many 
times you've been in you always wonder if there's a next time," 
Auriemma said. "Sometimes it takes those couple of years off 
where it makes you go 'Wow, this is a big deal.' When you start 
to think its not a big deal you need to get out of it."

Auriemma has never lost a championship game, but as Louisville 
guard Deseree Byrd was quick to point out neither has Walz, who 
was an assistant on Maryland's 2006 title team.

Connecticut has run through its opponents this season, winning 
by 31 points a game. No one has come within single digits and 
the Huskies are poised to become the first team ever -- men's or
women's to finish the season unbeaten with every win coming by 
double figures.

A victory would put this group in the same class as UConn's 
other unbeaten teams in 1995 and 2002. Besides Connecticut, only
Tennessee and Texas have run through a season undefeated.

No matter who wins the title game on Tuesday night, the Big East
is guaranteed to be the first conference ever to sweep the NCAA 
and WNIT championships in the same season.

South Florida topped Kansas 75-71 on Saturday to win the WNIT 
title, which began in 1998.]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaabw]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaabw/news/93282-UConn-one-game-away-from-perfect-season</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaabw/news/93282-UConn-one-game-away-from-perfect-season</guid>
				<pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:15:30 GMT</pubDate>
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