Few people in the Big East can appreciate how far UConn's Tiffany Hayes has come in recent years more than the Smith sisters at South Florida.

During their high school days, the Smith's Lake Gibson teams would square off against Hayes and Winter Haven High early and often.

So after South Florida's 63-60 loss to Pittsburgh in the first game of the Big East tournament, I asked Andrell Smith about Hayes.

"We played them about 12 times and we won one time. They killed us every time we played them, we started getting better losing by two, five. The second to last time we played them, we beat them."

Smith, her sister Andrea and Hayes played a teams together early on in their basketball careers.

"I think we have gotten a lot wiser to the game," Andrell Smith said. "We grew into the game. We started playing the game when we were real little playing with each other. She has grown, she is playing a lot better than she was in high school and so are we.

"Of course being on the same team, we probably talk a lot more than we do now. We got a huge crowd from Polk County. That means a lot because it shows that Lakeland has developed good players, skilled players."

It was a tough day for Andrell Smith and the Bulls as her twin sister Andrea, a second-team All-Big East selection, injured her left knee in the first minute and did not return. Tests later confirmed that Andrea suffered a torn ACL.

"A lot of our things go through her and we look to her when we need a basket," Andrell Smith said. "She is basically the bread and butter of our team, when she went down everybody looked at me and said 'Andrell, you have to play.' I can't do anything without her but I told her that I had to go out and play hard. Our team showed a lot of fight and a lot of passion, we didn't want to lose.

"It kind of got me nervous when she went down because I am not used to her going down. It hit us, it was a low blow but we tried."

Andrell said her sister was in good spirits after the game.

"She is going to be OK," Andrell Smith said. "They took her to the doctors. She said she is feeling good, she is in a lot of pain but she should be OK."