Monday, March 24, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Once again, the NCAA women's basketball tournament is offering up Tennessee against Connecticut and Georgia against Stanford. The setting, however, has changed.
Last year, those matchups came at the Final Four to determine who would play in the national championship game. This year, they'll determine who from that quartet will get to the Final Four.
Tennessee (26-10), the defending national champion, plays 1995 champion Connecticut (33-0) in the Midwest Regional finals in Iowa City tonight. Georgia (25-5) meets Stanford (33-1) in the West Regional in Missoula, Mont.
At last year's Final Four, Tennessee beat Connecticut 88-83 in overtime, then won its fourth national title with an 83-65 victory over Georgia, which had defeated Stanford 86-76.
The sting from that loss still burns at Stanford.
"It's not revenge," coach Tara VanDerveer said. "It's the pain that was in that locker room after the game. In some ways, pain is a great motivator."
Three of the four No. 1 seeds made it to the regional finals -- Connecticut, Stanford and Old Dominion in the Mideast. Old Dominion (32-1), seeking its first Final Four trip since winning the 1985 NCAA title, plays third-seeded Florida (24-8) in West Lafayette, Ind. Florida has never been to the Final Four, which this year is in Cincinnati.
The East Regional in Columbia, S.C., will produce a first-time Final Four entry. Fifth-seeded George Washington (28-5), which eliminated No. 1 seed North Carolina on Saturday, meets sixth-seeded Notre Dame (30-6).
Stanford takes a 24-game winning streak and a supercharged offense against Georgia, which has won 13 of its last 14.
Led by All-American Kate Starbird, Stanford has won its NCAA games by margins of 52, 22 and 22 points. Georgia, meanwhile, has come back strong after a 28-point loss to Auburn in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
"It seems like everybody here is concerned with us stopping Stanford," Georgia coach Andy Landers said. "We've got a pretty good basketball team, too."
Top-ranked Connecticut and Tennessee will continue what has become one of the hottest rivalries in women's basketball. This will be their sixth meeting since January of 1995. Connecticut won all three regular-season games, including a 72-57 victory this year, and beat Tennessee 70-64 in the 1995 championship game.
"There was a time that Connecticut was not one of our big games, so to speak," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "Now, it's obviously a huge game."
Both teams have changed since their Jan. 5 meeting. Tennessee now has point guard Kellie Jolly, who missed the first 16 games because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. She'll be counted on to help the Lady Vols cut down on the 24 turnovers they had in the first game.
Connecticut has lost top reserve Shea Ralph to a torn ACL. Ralph was key in the first game, coming off the bench to score eight straights points to put the Huskies ahead to stay.
"Their team has changed, our team has changed a little bit," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. "We're both going to have to wing it a little bit and see what happens. Something crazy will happen that none of us has seen."
After cruising through the regular season with the nation's largest average victory margin, Old Dominion has been less than overpowering in NCAA play.
The Lady Monarchs had to overcome an eight-point deficit to beat Purdue 69-65 in overtime in the second round, and they struggled before ending the first half with a 14-4 run in a 62-49 victory over LSU on Saturday.
"We need to start coming out more relaxed. I think we've come out tight and haven't played our game," Old Dominion guard Stacy Himes said. "We haven't played our best game yet. We have to come out and play Old Dominion basketball, and I think we're ready to do that."
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