Ah, rivalries. They are when sports are at their best. Nothing beats a great game between two teams that REALLY want to beat the other one. Here are basketball’s ten best:

10. Tennessee (women)- UConn (women): One of the fiercest rivalries in any sport. This has all the elements of a great rivalry. It has parity. UConn leads the series 13-9. It has two teams at the top of the game. In every meeting, both teams have been in the top 15. The games have been big. Seven times the have met in the NCAA Tournament, four times in the championship game. UConn has won all four championship games and is 5-2 in the tournament. There have been plenty of star players for these two schools that have played in the rivalry. Holdsclaw,Catchings, Randall. Marciniak, Parker, Lobo, Wolters , Asja Jones. Taurasi, Williams, Cash, and Bird are just some of the names of the greats that have played in this rivalry. And of course the two biggest names, Summitt and Auriema. Did I mention the two don’t like each other much. They haven’t played each other since 2007. Now that Pat Summitt’s days appear to be numbered let’s hope these two can work something out and play some more games soon.

9. Pistons- Celtics: This rivalry was rather short lived, but oh what a rivalry it was. Some of the greatest games in NBA history were played between these two teams. They met in the playoffs five times between 1985 and 1991. One of these two teams won the Eastern Conference every year from 1984 to 1991. They have met in the NBA Playoffs seven times overall with the Celtics winning four times and the Pistons three. In the five meetings in seven years, the Pistons won three of the five. The most memorable of these games was Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. That is the famous “Bird Stole the Ball” game. With the Pistons up by one and time running out Isaiah Thomas was in-bounding the ball. His pass was deflected by Bird who chased the ball down on the baseline, then it seemed without even looking, fired the ball towards the lane and hit Dennis Johnson in stride for a game winning layup at the buzzer. From there the Celtics won the series 4-3.

8. Indiana- Purdue: If I asked you who was leading in this series, what would you guess? What if I told you it was Purdue? What if I told you it’s by a pretty good margin of 112-84? Shocking isn’t it? That’s probably because IU is college basketball royalty. With five NCAA Tournament Championships, they are among the giants of the game. But in this basketball crazy state, they often times have trouble ruling it when it comes to the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue dominated early in the series, winning 51 of the first 62. So the Hoosiers are cutting into a once large lead. The two schools met in the Sweet Sixteen in 1980, with Purdue winning 76-69. They went on to the Final Four. The previous year, they met in the Championship Game of the NIT, won by Indiana, 53-52. Oh, and Bob Knight’s famous chair throw? Yeah, that was against Purdue.