1995 Women's Final Four revisited: The trip to Target Center that started it all for UConn

Before UConn became the greatest dynasty in women's college basketball history …

Before Geno Auriemma became arguably the sport's greatest coach …

Before the Huskies ushered in a new era with 11 national titles …

The head coach walked off the Target Center floor at halftime of the 1995 NCAA title game, frustrated as can be. Auriemma stared down officials after three starters had three fouls each while the Huskies trailed by six points against Tennessee.

Top-seeded UConn had been fixated all year on a historic undefeated season. What happened next changed the course of the women's game forever.

"It's crazy how a moment can do that," Final Four MVP and current ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said. "I can remember sitting in our locker room at halftime and Coach Auriemma giving us a speech."

That motivational speech from the future Hall of Famer sparked the Huskies to outscore the Volunteers by 12 points in the second half. Auriemma won his first national championship the last time the Final Four was in Minneapolis. He returns Friday.

Lobo recently strolled through Target Center reliving the iconic scene captured in a Sports Illustrated cover photo. Her arms raised to the rafters. Her face lit up as the final buzzer sounded on UConn's memorable 35-0 season.

"I remember sprinting and running and just this feeling of kind of ecstasy," she said. "Like, 'This is it. We did it.'"

UConn wouldn't be crowned champion again until five years later. But Auriemma's program turned not just into a perennial national power but an unstoppable force in women's college sports. The Huskies would win 10 titles in the new millennium, including four consecutive from 2013-16.

All-time greats from Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi to Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart helped inspire the current generation of college stars, including Minnesota native and current UConn guard Paige Bueckers.

UConn has been knocked off the throne since its last title in 2016. With no overwhelming favorites, four different champions have won it all over the past four seasons, not including the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020.

Auriemma and his Huskies will try to climb back this year and return to where it all started for them in Minneapolis.

"At this time of the year, you're always hoping that your team has grown and your team has matured," Auriemma said to open the NCAA tournament. "You don't really know until you've been put through that test to see if you pass it or not."

UConn's road to the Final Four nearly 30 years ago started with little resistance. The Huskies' first three NCAA tournament games were won by an average margin of 32 points.

An Elite Eight matchup against Virginia and Auriemma's old boss Debbie Ryan couldn't have been more in favor of the Huskies, who drew a sellout home crowd of more than 8,200 fans at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn.

Huskies diehards lined up for hours before tipoff and walked around with signs about heading to Minneapolis. So imagine fan shock when Lobo and company trailed Virginia 44-37 at halftime. They had won 36 straight home games and hadn't faced a halftime deficit since the previous season.

"We found a big heart in each of us," Lobo said after being held to eight points that day.

The undefeated quest might have ended against Virginia in the Elite Eight if not for Lobo's clutch teammates, including Jennifer Rizzotti, who was named East Regional MVP as UConn rallied to win 67-63.

The Huskies, leaning heavily on others besides their national player of the year, set the stage for what was to come in Minneapolis. Starting center Kara Wolters scored 31 points in an 87-60 win against second-seeded Stanford in the national semifinals that drew 18,038, the largest crowd in women's Final Four history at the time.

Large contingents of fans decked in orange, red and blue had descended upon the Twin Cities just before April Fools' Day to support UConn, Tennessee, Stanford and Georgia at Target Center.

Tennessee won 73-51 against third-seeded Georgia in the other semifinal, which set up the colossal rematch of a mid-January game won by the No. 1 Huskies over the No. 2 Volunteers in Connecticut.

Interest in the women's Final Four was at an all-time high coming off NCAA title games won by Texas Tech and North Carolina the previous two years by a combined three points. A then-record 524 media credentials were issued in Minneapolis, as UConn was trying to become the first undefeated team since Texas in 1986.

"I don't think our players are thinking about going 35-0," Auriemma said then at the Final Four. "But I don't mind if they have a feeling that they can't lose."

The UConn women arrived in Minnesota amid so much hype that Lobo was glad the team stayed in a hotel outside of the city, in Bloomington. She and Auriemma received several honors that week, including multiple national player and coach of the year awards.

"It was a whirlwind," Lobo said. "Just because there was such a frenzy around our team at that time. … It was like one event to the next event to the next event to the next event. So we didn't really get to experience Minneapolis."

Five of the previous eight national titles entering the 1995 Final Four had been won by Stanford's Tara VanDerveer or Tennessee's Pat Summitt, who were arguably the top two college coaches during that period.

Summitt's Lady Vols would even put together a championship three-peat from 1996-98, but she realized the historic significance of what Auriemma was trying to accomplish with UConn in Minneapolis.

"To go undefeated for a season, with the parity we now have in women's basketball, would be a tremendous accomplishment," Summitt told reporters then. "They would certainly have to be considered one of the greatest teams."

In the previous meeting, the Huskies had a definitive home court advantage in Storrs. But hundreds of Rocky Top fans roared throughout the arena when Tennessee took a 38-32 halftime lead in the title game.

Rizzotti, Lobo and standout freshman Nykesha Sales all had three fouls in the first half, but the best player on the floor wouldn't be denied the chance at making history.

Lobo, who was named Final Four most outstanding player, only had one field goal in the first half while dealing with foul trouble. But she finished with 11 of her 17 points in the second half, spurring a comeback.

Lobo didn't feel comfortable, though, until guard Carla Berube, currently Princeton's coach, went to the foul line with 9.9 seconds to play. Berube's two free throws extended it to a 70-64 cushion with Huskies fans erupting.

As the UConn legend looked up at the score at the time, Lobo remembers thinking: "They can't win. We've got this." Once Tennessee's last shot clanked at the buzzer, the wild celebration ensued.

Lobo's emotions poured out as she streaked up the floor. She eventually joined her teammates bouncing around together in a huddle as undefeated champions. That moment changed everything.

"My life now would not be what it was, if it wasn't for us winning that national championship on that Sunday," Lobo said. "There are places in [Target Center] that I feel like anytime I walk in here brings you back to the feeling of that moment."