COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Four years ago, UConn and Notre Dame arrived at the Women's Final Four with a lot of tension in the air. It was the first season after the Fighting Irish had departed for the ACC, and the Huskies had joined the new American Athletic Conference.
But there were a lot of lingering feelings for the former Big East rivals from when their rivalry hit its peak: The teams had played each other four times in each of the 2011, '12 and '13 seasons. In this case, familiarity bred more than a little contempt, and coaches Geno Auriemma of UConn and Muffet McGraw of Notre Dame could (and did) get on each other's nerves at times.
And while we won't suggest that has disappeared now that they are no longer in the same conference, the intensity has cooled a bit. When the programs play in the national semifinals Friday (ESPN2, 9 p.m. ET) at Nationwide Arena, it will mark the 48th meeting overall, the seventh in the Final Four, and second time this season.
These teams still know each other well, but it's not quite the way it once was.
"I kind of liked that they hated each other on the court; it made it fun to watch," said Notre Dame junior guard Marina Mabrey, whose older sister, Micheala, played for the Irish from 2012 to 2016. "I like being a part of it now, but I think there's very different personalities on the teams now."
Then she added with a grin, "But I think when we're on the court, the hate comes alive again."
Mabrey has that kind of old-school personality that she acknowledges would fit well with the likes of former players such as Skylar Diggins, Natalie Achonwa and Kayla McBride, all of whom were part of the Notre Dame squads that beat UConn seven of eight times during a stretch of the 2011-13 seasons.
But Mabrey hasn't defeated the Huskies, who have won seven in a row in the series. And while there's no downplaying the rivalry's great history, their matchup this past Dec. 3 in Hartford, Connecticut, is a solid indicator of how good a battle they'll have here at the Final Four.
Notre Dame led that game 43-36 at halftime and 62-54 after three quarters. But the Huskies came on strong in the final period, even with Katie Lou Samuelson hurt and Gabby Williams out because of a migraine, and outscored the Irish 26-9 to win 80-71. UConn got 17 points and eight rebounds off the bench from Azurá Stevens, and 12 points and five assists from Crystal Dangerfield.
Interestingly, both coaches said they thought their teams got confidence from that game because of how they played in stretches. It was a chance for the Irish to see how they matched up with the No. 1 team in the country, and for three quarters, that answer was, "Pretty well."
Mabrey had 21 points, and fellow junior guard Arike Ogunbowale had 19. Mabrey said what she takes from that game is that the Irish had the Huskies with their backs against the wall going into the final quarter, and most teams never put UConn in that position.
McGraw said she thinks the rest of the Irish have taken a pretty good look at the December game and gleaned things from it.
For that matter, so have the Huskies.
"I think it gives you that confidence that we've had a moment when things went wrong, and we fought our way back," said Samuelson, who had 18 points and five rebounds in that game before going to the bench in the fourth quarter with a foot injury. "So we go into this with an understanding we've been in that situation. And if we do go down again, we understand that we can still stay calm."
Last season, the Huskies trailed Mississippi State by double digits in the national semifinals, came back and took a lead, but then lost in overtime on Morgan William's buzzer-beater. One might think that epic game was a major part of the Huskies' motivation this season, but Auriemma doesn't think so.
He said that in 2001-02, the UConn team led by Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Tamika Williams and Diana Taurasi was fueled all season by having lost to Notre Dame in the 2001 national semifinals, the year the Irish went on to win their only NCAA title. The loss never left those Huskies' minds. But this year's team, Auriemma thinks, is not obsessed with last year's loss, even as dramatic as it was in ending UConn's NCAA-record 111-game winning streak.
"When they tell you, 'Yeah, we'll never forget how we felt' ... seriously, they couldn't remember what time we said practice was this afternoon," Auriemma said. "When we play the game [Friday], it will be something that they remember. But up until now, I haven't seen one shred of evidence that, wow, they're carrying this around."
"They're not going away; they've been around for a long time. We're not going away. ... The neat thing about it is after every game in December now, I just say to her all the time, 'I'll see you in March.'" Geno Auriemma on UConn's rivalry with Notre Dame and meeting Muffet McGraw again in the Final Four
The Huskies (36-0) are pursuing their seventh perfect season, and they've done that with a short bench, but the usual outstanding defense, exceptional ball movement and unselfish stars. They average 89.4 points per game, and allow just 52.3.
Notre Dame (33-3), as usual, has similarities to UConn. The Irish also have little depth, but they still have retained a lot of their offensive prowess, averaging 83.0 points per game.
Defense is one of the differences. The Irish allow 69.5 PPG, which bugs McGraw even though she knows there are good reasons for it -- such as not having post player Brianna Turner, who was injured in last year's NCAA tournament, losing point guard Lindsay Allen to graduation, and then losing her replacement, Lili Thompson, to a knee injury on Dec. 31. Those were major hits to the Irish's interior and perimeter defense.
It's fair to say that UConn fully expected to be in this semifinal game, and that everyone else expected it, too; it's the Huskies' 19th Final Four and 11th in a row. Notre Dame, as good as the program has been, had a tougher battle with all of its injuries. Yet it's also not a surprise to see the Irish at an eighth Final Four.
Going in, Friday's game might not have the white-hot feel that the Huskies-Irish matchups had a few years ago, as Mabrey said, but a lot of that will come back when they tip off.
"It does seem easier, I think, on the coaches to not have to constantly be confronted with, 'Notre Dame this, Notre Dame that; Connecticut this, Connecticut that,' " Auriemma said. "But they're not going away; they've been around for a long time. We're not going away.
"So in one sense, I'm thrilled that it's at a whole different level. But [McGraw] knows, and I know, that we're always there and they're always there. The neat thing about it is after every game in December now, I just say to her all the time, 'I'll see you in March.' "