Seasoned UConn will end its Final Four "drought" and reign again in April

Top 10 1. Connecticut 6. LSU 2. Tennessee 7. Georgia 3. Rutgers 8. North Carolina 4. Maryland 9. Stanford 5. Oklahoma 10. Duke

The Huskies will follow their floor leader all the way to Tampa. Brad Mangin/SI

Geno Auriemma and Diana Taurasi reunited in Burlington, Vt., last month for the wedding of Ashley Valley, a teammate of Taurasi's when CONNECTICUT was winning national championships with drumbeat regularity. As part of their long-running comedy act, Auriemma reminded Taurasi how she owed her WNBA stardom solely to the lessons imparted by her college coach. Recalls Auriemma, "She put her arm around me in front of a handful of people and said, 'Coach, I really haven't been following the program lately. How many have you won since I left?' "

The answer is zero, which is something Auriemma and his players are reminded of on a daily basis. "We haven't been to the Final Four for three years," says Auriemma. "As hard as it was to get there, it's a lot [more frustrating] when you don't go." The drought should end this year. The Huskies bring their top 11 scorers back, including junior point guard Renee Montgomery (who averaged 13.3 points in 2006-07) and forward Tina Charles, last season's Big East freshman of the year. They also add 6-foot freshman forward Maya Moore, a two-time national high school player of the year, whom Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer says will "be one of the defining players of the decade." Every player Auriemma has recruited since 1988 has been to a Final Four except the members of this senior class, so forward Charde Houston (12.5 points per game) and guard Mel Thomas (87 three-pointers) have ample incentive. "If they play the way I think they can," says Auriemma, "it would not surprise me at all if we won a national championship."

To do that, UConn will likely have to go through defending champ TENNESSEE, though for the first time since 1994 the archrivals won't meet during the regular season. Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt chose to end the series in June but won't explain why. "I haven't talked about it with anyone other than Geno," she says. (Auriemma told The Hartford Courant that Summitt should "just come out and say she's not playing us because she hates my guts.") Tennessee has star power aplenty: rugged senior center Nicky Anosike, All-SEC senior guard Alexis Hornbuckle and one of those defining players of the decade, junior forward Candace Parker, who increased the range on her jumper while leading the U.S. senior team to an Olympic berth this summer. Don't expect a letdown. "The championship party is over," says Anosike. "Everyone here is still motivated."

Stringer met Bill Clinton last May at civil rights leader Andrew Young's 75th birthday party in Atlanta. Says Stringer, "[Clinton] put his arm on my shoulder and said, 'You made short order of LSU, and I was sure you were going to win the game against Tennessee.' I said, 'You watched the games?' He replied, 'Are you kidding me? I didn't know what you were going to do with Sylvia Fowles.' " The remarkable run for RUTGERS ended in the title game, but Stringer welcomes back all five starters and 98.7% of her team's scoring, including seniors Matee Ajavon (12.0 points per game) and Essence Carson (12.3 ppg), and junior center Kia Vaughn (9.3 rebounds).

March Madness will have a new meaning for MARYLAND coach Brenda Frese, who is due to give birth to fraternal twins on less than two weeks before the NCAA tournament begins. "There's not going to be any maternity leave as long as the kids are healthy," says Frese. Her roster is stacked with the same players who won a title in 2006, and the core -- senior forwards Crystal Langhorne (14.9 points per game) and Laura Harper (10.4) and junior guards Marissa Coleman (13.2) and Kristi Toliver (12.3) -- will be hungry to reach Tampa after getting bounced by No. 7 seed Ole Miss in the second round of '07.

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