On Thursday night, the Lady Vols handled visiting UConn 80-76 in Knoxville to mark Tennessee's first win in the rivalry since 2007.

The win over the fifth-ranked Huskies marked the first over a top-10 opponent for Kim Caldwell after four narrow margins of defeat leading up to it.

Along with Tennessee fans across the country, Vols basketball coach Rick Barnes had an eye on the game. While he was preparing at home for his team's bout with Oklahoma this weekend, he was keeping up with the Lady Vols score.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Keeping him up to date was his wife, Candy Barnes. She was watching in the other room and was calling him to ask questions about what was happening.

"I'll tell you what, my wife was so excited," Rick Barnes said. "She was in another room from me because I was watching that and, obviously, watching what I need to do for this weekend. She kept calling me and said, 'What's going on here?' I was like, 'You can come in here and we can talk about it.'"

With the Lady Vols so close in their other four games against top-10 opponents, Rick Barnes could sense the excitement of the program finally getting over the hump.

He also noted the history of the matchup and the importance for Tennessee to get back to its winning ways against its arch-rival.

"It was so exciting because they've been so close in some of those games," Rick Barnes said. "Just a great win over, obviously, a great program. The rivalry over there with UConn and Tennessee has been special but to keep it going you need to win. I think they had beaten us four times in a row. Great win for the Lady Vols and for us. Really happy for her and I loved her comment at the end of the game that she just wanted to get home and see her baby boy. So, I'm sure that was a special way to cap off a great win for her."

Rick Barnes was also asked who his favorite player on the Lady Vols is. He went the all-time route and shared a memory he had with Candace Parker at a banquet when he was coaching Texas.

"All-time was Candace Parker," Barnes said. "She and I were at the John Wooden Award back when she won it. We were at the head table and it was a four hour banquet. She was sitting beside me and we hadn't known each other and just out of the blue, I started playing hangman with her. We started doing the box game. We literally did that for four hours and I think I won most of them."

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.

– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.