We're less than four hours away from UConn's second major road test of the season. The first one brought mixed results as the Huskies seemed overwhelmed in the early stages of last month's game at Baylor only to rebound to go up by 11 points. However, the Huskies were unable to hold onto the lead as top-ranked Baylor rallied for a 66-61 win.

Other than getting used to jumping on a plane and playing in a jam-packed arena on the road, UConn coach Geno Auriemma isn't sure how much the experience of playing at Baylor is going to help prepare for today's game at Notre Dame simply because of the differing styles of play between the teams.

"Whatever happened as Baylor isn't going to have any impact on what happens at Notre Dame,"Auriemma said. "We could play the exact same game we played against Baylor and win by 15 or lose by 20. Comparing Notre Dame and Baylor is two completely different animals. The experience of playing on the road against a big crowd, yeah that might help but the crowd at Notre Dame might be even more animated than the one against Baylor. I won't get a standing ovation at Notre Dame? They are nice Catholic folks but no I won't get a standing ovation."

Auriema's coaching counterpart tried to downplay the importance of the game other than being a chance to further evaluate the Fighting Irish.

"The fact that we get to play them twice (in the regular season) puts a little less emphasis on this game," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "I think for us, this is a game we look at and say 'how far do we have to go to be ready for March? What do we need to improve on.' I don't think you learn as much about your team when you win by 30 or 40 points. You want to play a good team so you can see what your strengths and weaknesses really are. It is a measuring stick. It is still early in January, we have a long way to go and we want to keep on improving. This is really a game to say 'this is where we are right now.' It is not going to mean a lot in terms of where we are going to be."