Reusse: Lynx’s Collier and Liberty’s Stewart are part of UConn’s WNBA fingerprints

The excellence of the Tennessee Lady Vols with coach Pat Summitt obliged this country’s male-dominated sports media to acknowledge women’s basketball. The excellence and ongoing legacy of the Connecticut Huskies with coach Geno Auriemma led the same media to an authentic appreciation for women’s basketball.

The twain between these two historic forces met at the start of April 1995 in Target Center. Tennessee had defeated Georgia, 73-51, and UConn demolished Stanford 87-60 in Saturday’s semifinals.

There was an immediate turnaround on Sunday and UConn finished 35-0 with a 70-64 victory. Summitt wasn’t exactly finished, with the Lady Vols winning three consecutive titles after that and eight total before she was forced to retire in 2012 because of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

That was the first of 11 titles for Auriemma and the Huskies. Three decades later, the sisterhood of hoops created in Storrs, Conn., will be on full display back in Target Center on Wednesday night.

The shocking, resilient, turnaround Lynx and the favored New York Liberty will be playing Game 3 in the WNBA Finals. They are tied 1-1, and which star outshines the other — Napheesa Collier (home) vs. Breanna Stewart (visitor) — will have much influence on the outcome.

“To see those two leading their teams to the Finals … that’s incredible,” Auriemma said Tuesday from his coach’s office in Storrs. “It goes back almost a decade, when Napheesa was a freshman and Breanna was getting her fourth championship as a senior for us.

“I was talking to Phee’s dad, and we were reminiscing about what’s happened for them since: Olympic teammates, two of the top five players in the WNBA, both leading their teams to the Finals … and also business partners.”

Auriemma laughed and said: “Stewie and Phee? Getting into it with one of your friends. What’s better than that?”

Stewart and Collier announced in late May the intention to form “Unrivaled,” a 3-on-3 league intended to debut in January with six teams and 30 players making hefty salaries.

This would be an alternative to going to Europe or Asia from fall to early spring to supplement what remain modest salaries by pro standards in the WNBA.

“I did the games on TV the first year of the WNBA, and it always has been rewarding to see the number of players we’ve had to do great things there,” Auriemma said. “It was years ago when I checked, but the number I recall is that 14 of 15 WNBA champions had at least one of our players.

“And we do know for sure we’re going to have one this time.”

When you talk to former UConn players, they often refer to their days with “Geno and Chris.”

“I was there at games at the beginning and, unfortunately, it didn’t get where the owners wanted it to go,’’ Auriemma said. “Ninety-nine percent of the owners quit on it. Now, it’s building back. And to be there Sunday night, with 18,000 people cheering wildly in the Barclays Center, that was tremendous.’’

Rebecca Lobo was the MVP of the Final Four and the Player of the Year when UConn won that first title in 1995. The UConn players were given a chair that was used as their bench at Target Center and it still resides in the basement of the family home.

Lobo arrived in the Twin Cities for her ongoing role as an analyst for ESPN on Tuesday.

“UConn’s and Geno’s fingerprints have been over the WNBA, there’s no question,” Lobo said. “This is his 40th season coming up and I don’t think he’s lost a step. I was at a practice and Sarah Strong, the freshman that has everyone excited, he was putting her through the same defensive drill that I went through 30 years ago.

Lobo’s pride in her UConn roots goes behind the talent she sees when walking into a WNBA arena.

“Sue Bird … you’re not going to find a better person,” she said. “Maya Moore, the best, and she gave up playing for social justice and Jonathan [Irons]. And, right now, Stewie and Phee, stars of their teams, and also incredible human beings.”

UConn last won a championship in 2016. The Huskies, with players such as Paige Bueckers, are still a contender, but now there’s South Carolina, Louisiana State ... a new level of tremendous teams.