New Orleans ? Everyone, it seems, has a spin on this latest national championship game between Connecticut and Tennessee; Jessica Moore’s is unique.

When Connecticut goes for its third straight NCAA title in women’s basketball tonight, the last obstacle for the Huskies is the only school that has won three in a row.

“I was comparing it to Miss America,” said Moore, UConn’s 6-foot-3 center. “After she is done reigning, she passes the crown down to someone else. It’s like if we win it (Tuesday) night, then they will be passing the crown down to us.”

Actually, that crown or torch or whatever you want to call it already has been passed. With its two straight championships and three in the past four years, Connecticut clearly has supplanted Tennessee as the nation’s pre-eminent program in the women’s game.

And Connecticut has a chance to become the first school to win men’s and women’s titles in the same season. The men’s team won its second title Monday night, beating Georgia Tech, 82-73, in San Antonio.

Tennessee has won six titles, but none since 1998. Even Tennessee’s Shanna Zolman said this is “Geno’s era,” a reference to UConn’s brash, successful coach, Geno Auriemma.

That’s what gives this rivalry a buzz, no matter how many times they meet in the finals. This will be the second straight year the schools have played in the women’s championship game and the fourth such meeting since 1995. Connecticut won the three previous games and beat the Vols in the semifinals en route to the 2002 championship.

After all the talk this season about parity and balance in women’s basketball, the two giants again are the last ones standing.

“That’s just the way it seems to work out, doesn’t it?” Auriemma said. “I feel real good that three out of the four (championship games), we have beat the team that everybody associates with the best team, the best program over the last 20-some years.

Connecticut basketball fans show their support before the NCAA Final Four championship game against Georgia Tech. The Huskies won the men's title, 82-73, Monday night in San Antonio, and the UConn women can complete the sweep by winning their championship game tonight in New Orleans.

“So it’s only fitting that if you want to win, that’s who you’ve got to beat. And if they want to win, they’ve got to beat us.”

The Vols are looking to do just that. They’ve got some turf to protect, after all. They like being the only program with three straight titles, which Tennessee accomplished from 1996 to 1998.

“We don’t want UConn at all up there in the ranks with us,” Zolman said. “We would love nothing more than to be able to not only get a ring ourselves, but also not allow them to get three in a row. We’re going to be working hard for that, I guarantee it.”

Whatever the circumstances when these two teams get together, the subject of Auriemma’s relationship with Tennessee coach Pat Summitt is bound to surface. That’s about all that was discussed before last year’s game.

“We really don’t have a relationship,” Summitt said. “I don’t have his cell number. We don’t talk. We speak before and after the games. That’s it.”