Washington's Alana Beard and Lindsey Harding were in practice the other day when they had one of those moments of what, in their case, might be called "déjà blue."
As in, "Weren't we once in this exact same situation as Blue Devils?"
On this particular occasion, it was hearing something that Mystics coach Julie Plank said, and then thinking they'd heard it before.
"We were saying how they are so much alike," Harding said of Plank and former Duke coach Gail Goestenkors. "How much they stress defense, and just their energy. How they teach the game and how they want it played -- it's what we're used to."
Interesting how this has worked out in D.C. The Mystics' coaching merry-go-round has stopped (at least for now) with Plank. And a big part of the team could fill a prominent table at a best-of-the-ACC reunion dinner.
Considering how much of what happened historically with the Mystics seemed haphazard, it's notable that new general manager Angela Taylor and Plank definitely had a plan when they came to Washington this season from Minnesota.
That plan includes three former Duke Blue Devils -- Beard, Harding and Monique Currie -- whose college careers overlapped.
It's not unusual to have two players from the same college on a WNBA team. In fact, this season, 10 of the 13 teams do. But to have three is less common. The Mystics are the only team this season to have that, and all three are starters.
"It's helped with the process of having a new coach," Beard said, "but also the team chemistry as a whole. It usually takes a little longer for teams to jell at the beginning of the season. But for us, we're familiar with each other, and that's made the process easier."
The Mystics are off to a 4-1 start, and Beard was recently named WNBA player of the week. Sure, professionals can get used to playing alongside anybody; they do it all the time. But the chance to recapture something special from the past and sort of relive it how many players get to do that?
Just to review how they got where they are:
Washington drafted Beard in 2004 with the second overall pick. Currie, drafted No. 3 in 2006 by Charlotte, went to Chicago the next year in the Sting's dispersal draft but was soon traded to Washington.
So Beard and Currie are in their third season of playing together in D.C. Before Harding joined them, she had a somewhat bumpy route.
She was the first pick of the 2007 WNBA draft, by Phoenix, but the Mercury traded her right away to Minnesota. She was off to a strong start as a professional until those three evil letters -- A-C-L -- ended her rookie season early, on July 10, 2007.
The following spring, having rehabbed and progressed well enough to play with the U.S. national team in China, Harding was sidelined again. This time it was a stress fracture in the same knee (left), which delayed the start of her 2008 season.
Harding still ended up playing 24 games for the Lynx, averaging 6.4 points and 3.2 assists. She had sensed before she returned to the court that a lot of folks thought she was no longer the same player. And it really bugged her.
"That's the hardest thing," she said. "You're trying to get that confidence back, but you have people saying, 'Oh, she may not be as fast,' or whatever. I used that as motivation.
"I was frustrated last year, having to miss the first month, but by July, I started feeling like everything was clicking again and I was starting to play my best basketball. And it carried over to overseas."
Harding went to Turkey, where she said she was treated well and enjoyed playing for a team that did better than expected. And in January, she got a call from Taylor.
"She asked how would I feel if I had opportunity to come [to D.C.]," Harding said. "I thought about it, and I was really excited and hoping that it would happen. The next day, she called me and said, 'Welcome to the Mystics.'
"My first two seasons [in the WNBA], I thought I played well when I was healthy. But here, it was like a fresh start, and I could just look forward."
Back when Harding came to Duke in the fall of 2002, one of the things Goestenkors was most happy about was her ability to match Beard's defensive fire. This was a really big deal. Beard was not just a very talented defender, but she gave so much effort that very few players could really muster the same intensity, let alone do it all the time they were on court. But Harding could.
Beard was a junior when Harding was a freshman. And Harding acknowledges that she, like most college rookies, was a little intimidated. It took time and experience for her to be fully comfortable in charge as a point guard.
It was similar for Harding when she came into the WNBA. Now, though, any trace of that nervous uncertainty is gone. Plank was an assistant coach for Harding last season in Minnesota, and her being in D.C. as head coach was another thing that made Harding's transition smoother.
"The moment I stepped on the floor here, the respect was automatically there," Harding said. "And I feel how much confidence coach Plank has in me. I know that even if I mess up something, she doesn't freak out. That's what it was like in college as I got older, where I felt my coach and my teammates were so confident in me."
Beard said having Harding as a teammate again "makes the game so much easier."
But since nothing about the full-throttle way Beard plays actually meshes with the concept of "easy," perhaps a better way to describe Harding's impact is she makes things more efficient.
"She's going to come in every night and be consistent with what she brings," Beard said of Harding. "And that's defense and running the team. It takes a weight off my shoulders, knowing she's going to set the same tone defensively that I am. It's a nice feeling."
And it's also nice on offense. Beard has been the leading scorer for the Mystics in four of her previous five seasons, save her rookie year, when she was second to Chamique Holdsclaw. Yet Harding said Beard isn't the type of scorer who wants just the ball and no other input.
"My first two seasons with her in college, I was young and kind of afraid to say things," Harding said. "But now, it's different. I'm not afraid. And while she's a great leader, she also listens very well. She'll say, 'What do you want me to do?'"
Harding laughed and added: "When she's really feeling it, I just give her the ball and get out of the way. And she's playing at such a high level now."
Another thing that Beard and Harding have in common is that they are both feeling good physically. Harding has had the knee injury to deal with. For Beard, the problem has been her left (shooting) shoulder.
Beard gutted it out during the 2007 season, then had surgery to repair a torn labrum and didn't play overseas in the fall or winter. She felt better last WNBA season, but still avoided most weight-lifting to reduce stress on her shoulder.
But in October when she went over to play in Poland, Beard was able to resume her usual weight training.
"That's when I started feeling like myself again," she said. "I had all my range of motion, and I wanted to hit the weights hard.
"And the other thing is, the player I want to model my game after is Dwyane Wade -- he's explosive, but still in control. I worked on my steps, driving to the lane, and staying low -- then exploding to the basket. So those things and weights were what I really focused on."
Beard is again the team's top scorer (20.0 ppg), and Harding leads in assists (5.8). Joining them and Currie in the starting lineup are veterans Chasity Melvin (another former ACC player, with NC State) and Nakia Sanford.
Marissa Coleman, the rookie out of Maryland, is sidelined now with an ankle sprain, but she has been a strong addition to the Mystics. And her former Terps teammate, Crystal Langhorne, is Washington's top rebounder (7.8). They round out the Mystics' ACC contingent.
"It is a different confidence level," Beard said. "I've never felt this prepared coming into the season since I've been in the WNBA. I think it is an organization-wide thing. We come in with this attitude every day that we want to perfect things."
Still, a season can go south suddenly in the WNBA. A key injury, a tough road trip, a brief lapse that allows a victory to slip away -- any one of those things, or a combination of them, can torpedo a team.
But a strong unit can withstand those misfortunes. And the Mystics have familiarity as a big factor that's helping make them strong.
"When I got traded, it was like, 'Wow, all three of us are going to be on the same team again,'" Harding said. "I thought about what we did at Duke while we were there. We're all hoping we can do the same things together in the WNBA."
Mechelle Voepel, a regular contributor to ESPN.com, can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com. Read her blog at http://voepel.wordpress.com.