Duke Knocked off 3-Time Reigning Champion UT 21 Years Ago

DURHAM, N.C. -- The 1998-99 Duke women's basketball team never perceived itself as an underdog, even though the media and opponents might have seen it that way during their historic run to the Final Four and National Title game.

Krista Gingrich, a freshman that season, remembers the Elite Eight game versus three-time defending champion Tennessee very well.

"Tennessee had actually booked all of the rooms in the hotel in San Jose [Calif.], kind of overlooking us and expecting to walk right into the final four," Gingrich said.

The fact that people perceived the Duke team as underdogs may have had more to do with the perception of the team, having never made it to the Final Four before, than the…