Rutgers, UConn prepared for latest showdown

Maya Moore scored 15 second-half points in the Huskies only loss in 36 games. AP

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GREENSBORO -- Get her now. That's the advice for Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer because Maya Moore will be a freshman only once. Everything in this tournament is new for Moore, though you would not know it based on her comportment (calm) and performance (otherworldly). Stringer's team kept Moore in check for most of its 72-69 win Feb. 5, the only loss UConn has suffered in 36 games. Moore, a 6-foot forward, had two fouls before she scored her first point and was on the bench for much of the first half. She finished with 15 second-half points, including consecutive three-pointers in the final minutes.

An hour after that game, as Stringer walked back onto Louis Brown Athletic Center floor to greet friends and family, she was asked by a reporter about Moore's future. "Best player in the next decade," she said. "Trust me when I tell you that. Strong, powerful, poised. Dribble, shoot, rebound. She can do it all, and she's only a freshman. A freshman! Three more years of that?"

Stringer shook her head.

This is why: Moore has averaged 22.0 points and 10.3 rebounds in the NCAA tournament. It is scary to think about her future. Her coach, Geno Auriemma, said he is looking forward to the day when Moore will control the game with the ball in her hand. For now, she scores mainly off passes from teammates. In the rematch between the teams on March 3 in Hartford, Moore had 19 points and 7 rebounds in a 66-46 win. The conference rivals will meet for a third time tonight (ESPN, 9:07 p.m. ET) at the Greensboro Coliseum, the first time since 2004 that two teams from the same conference are meeting in a regional final. The winning team will advance to the Final Four in Tampa, Fla.

"I don't think there are any more tricks that either one of us can pull out," said Rutgers center Kia Vaughn. "We have played each other so many times that it's like looking into a mirror."

Both Stringer and Auriemma have questioned how the NCAA selection committee could place the top two teams in the nation's best conference on such a collision course, especially given UConn's status as the tournament's top-overall seed. Alas, what's done is done, even though the committee jobbed both schools. With UConn and Tennessee no longer playing during the regular season, the game needs another rivalry to emerge as must-see television. This is the leading candidate. The teams have played 27 times (UConn leads 21-6) but the series has become fierce in the last three years. The Scarlet Knights have won four of the last seven games. "I know, for us, it is the best game in basketball right now," said Moore. "In our world, it is the biggest rivalry."

UConn last played in a Final Four in 2004, a painful drought in championship-happy Storrs. Auriemma has long described the regional final as the toughest game to win in the NCAA tournament. "That's the Hillary Step on Mount Everest," he said. "More people die at that spot than they do anywhere else." Stringer concurred. "This is the toughest game because once you get to the Final Four, it's anybody's game," she said. "Kids get loose and get happy."

The first meeting between the teams featured a career game for Rutgers sophomore guard Epiphanny Prince. She scored 33 points, including 27 in the second half. The come-from-behind win was keyed by Rutgers' "55" press defense, a swarming army of full-court pressure, that when played at a high level, produces a bushel of turnovers.

"We gave that first game away," said Auriemma. "I don't think they came out and kicked our butt. One kid went off on us and we didn't respond. But we held on to one thing in the days and weeks after that game -- it would have been worse if we played as well as we possibly could and then got beat. That's when you think 'We might not be good enough.'"

Women's basketball has a much smaller circle than the men's game, and many of the players on UConn and Rutgers are friends away from the court. Prince is particularly close with Husky centers Tina Charles and Kali McLaren. "Off the court I love them to death," Prince said, "but on the court if they don't have the same jersey on, they're not my friends."

Rutgers will need such intensity, especially on defense. The game's signature matchup features Moore, the Big East Player of the Year, against Rutgers senior forward Essence Carson, the three-time conference Defensive Player of the Year. "I don't think that's any secret," said Stringer. " She's probably the best one for that role."

Rebounding for Rutgers is key -- they've out-rebounded UConn in both games this year -- and Stringer stressed it repeatedly Monday when she addressed the media. It's imperative Rutgers gets boards from every position on the floor because Connecticut has a significant advantage in the post with a quartet of active bodies (Charles, McLaren, Brittany Hunter and Charde Houston). "UConn is so deep in the post that you eventually get worn down with their size and athleticism," said Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry. "Maya Moore is such a cushion for them. You have to pay so much attention to her that everyone else on the floor can go to work one-on-one."

Moore recalled on Monday that she went to an open practice at the 2003 Final Four in Atlanta as a 13-year-old. (She and her mother got shut out for tickets). Last year she attended the semifinals and national championship in Cleveland as a guest of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. "It's surreal for me being 40 minutes away from the Final Four," she said. "I feel like a little kid in a candy store. It's incredible to go from being there as a seventh-grader to having a chance to get there as a freshman."

Get her now, Vivian. Because you might never get her again.