Lady Vols and UConn: The Greatest Rivalry [Paperback]

Richard Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 2008

UConn was a fledging women's basketball program that had been to one Final Four as of 1995. Tennessee was the king of the hill having won 7 National Championships and having produced some of the greatest women's players of all time. Pat Summitt was and is the head coach and is widely considered to be one of the top coaches in women's or men's college basketball history. In fact, she turned down the Tennessee head men's coaching job. She agreed to play Geno Auriemma and UConn in 1995 in an epic battle in Storrs, CT. UConn won that game and won the National Championship that year and off and running was the series. It has produced as much if not more drama than Red Sox-Yankees, Cowboys-Giants and Knicks-Celtics. It has been compared to Carolina-Duke on the men's side. It is certainly produced more National Championships than both of those schools."What Duke and North Carolina represent in men's college basketball, UConn and Tennessee represent in women's college basketball, the greatest rivalry in the game. Two teams that when pinned against one another in 1995 for the National Championship changed the sport of women's college basketball forever. The cast of characters from the polarized Hall of Fame coaches to the all-American icons have raised the bar, the talent and the media awareness at the national level. Although the characters change from year to year, the national fever of this matchup continues to grow. It is an ongoing saga that defines women's basketball and encapsulates all that is good and possible about athletic competition. Any young player should read this book and understand that without these teams, these coaches, these players, we would be watching women's basketball exclusively in March at the Final Four." Colleen Healey, former UConn women's basketball player."Every sport needs its standard bearers and that is what Tennessee and UConn are in collegiate women's basketball." Chris Gobrecht, Head Women's Basketball Coach, Yale University

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

I have written 5 other books with publishers, including 2 on women?s college basketball. This book is about women?s college basketball and the greatest rivalry of all time UConn and Tennessee. It is topical because the series ended in a very controversial fashion this past April. I live in Westport, Connecticut, practice law by day and am an author by night and weekends. I write for SI.Com, Black Athlete.Com and have written for Athlon Magazine. I am passionate about women?s college basketball and know that there is a strong audience for this already completed book in New Jersey, Tennessee and Connecticut among other places.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (March 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595487378
• ISBN-13: 978-0595487370
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 28, 2008

By 

Lisa G. Kent (new york) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Vols and UConn: The Greatest Rivalry (Paperback)

I think the book is fascinating. The competition between U Conn and Tennessee is one of the greatest of any sport, considering that women's basketball was a fledgling sport just 15 years ago.The 2 coaches and programs were so different at one point and now go head to head for every great player.The book gives tremendous insight into women's baskteball and the actual recuiting process and is a must read if you love the sport. Hope the teams meet in teh final four this year!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Badly in need of an editor, March 15, 2009

By 

J. J. McCaffery "Pocojim" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Vols and UConn: The Greatest Rivalry (Paperback)

This is a difficult book to read. It feels more like a first draft than a published manuscript. In addition to the countless typos mentioned elsewhere, Kent repeats the same information over and over, sometimes in consecutive paragraphs, even in consecutive sentences. Check out this passage about Diana Taurasi from page 49: "She is currently the star for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA and just earned a WNBA Championship along side (sic) Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter. That journey may have been made easier recently when Phoenix acquired star Rutgers guard Cappie Pondexter". This type of confusing and repetitive writing distracts from the story Kent tries to tell. That story, by the way, is about UCONN, with significantly less room devoted to Tennessee. If you know anything about the history of these two teams you will not find a lot of new information here. If you are new to the topic you can learn a lot here, if you can tolerate the writing style.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One Bad Book, April 11, 2010

By 

UConn Fan (Gloversville, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lady Vols and UConn: The Greatest Rivalry (Paperback)

This is a bad book. In fact, it would be a bad term paper. This book is bad from beginning to end - from the Preface whose author is only obliquely identified as Mel Greenberg to the final appendix of photographs which is not listed in the Table of Contents. The photographs themselves appear without credits or captions. In between
there are numerous errors, repetitions and disconnections as noted in other reviews. For example, at different points in the book, the author claims or implies that Tennessee had won 3, 5 and 7 NCAA Championships before UConn one its first. (The correct answer is 3.)

Hopefully, someone else will attempt to write a better and more complete book on the Uconn vs. Tennessee rivalry. The two teams have played only 22 times. A comprehensive book on the rivalry could easily include a box score and synopsis of each game, along with a discussion of the game-turning plays. Also, there should be team rosters for each of the 13 years in which the two teams played so that the reader can follow the evolution of the rivalry.