NEWPORT, R.I. -- Even amid UConn coach Bob Diaco's indefatigable efforts to spawn a rivalry with UCF, Knights coach George O'Leary hasn't lost sight of the Knights' true rival.
It lurks 97 miles away, on East Fowler Avenue in Tampa.
"The rival game for us is obviously USF," O'Leary said Tuesday.
Yet that proclamation seems no deterrent to Diaco, who created a UConn-UCF trophy and even named the proposed rivalry ("The Civil Conflict") over the summer, much to the surprise of UCF officials.
Connecticut upset the Knights, 37-29, last November in Hartford for its only American Athletic Conference triumph.