Before he began his Hall of Fame career at UConn Geno Auriemma crossed paths with Philadelphia University women's basketball coach Tom Shirley somewhere on the Philadelphia basketball circuit.

They would invariably meet up at the Final Four and tonight they will lead their teams against each other.

"I knew he has been there a long time, he has lived in the area his whole life and he is a lifelong basketball guy like a lot of those guys are in Philly," Auriemma said. "At the end of every year I would always get a nice note from him about our success and I will always try to see him a little bit at the Final Four. When he found out some of the teams we played in the last couple of years he kind of got pissed and wanted to know why we called all these other teams and not him. Whether he is doing it because he likes me or because of the money he is getting I don't know?

"That school has had a lot of success in basketball for a long, long, longtime and I am not surprised they are good, they are always good. I like when the kids on the other teams come up and play, that is the best part watching the reactions of the Division II players. I am sure they had aspirations when they were high school players to be Division I players and for whatever reason they ended up at a Division II school. The kid from Mansfield (Gannon senior guard Kelley Sundberg) came over and I never shake hands with the other team, I don't know why I did that time but she came running over and 'hey Geno, thanks for the game. good luck.' So there is something refreshing about Division II team because they don't take themselves too seriously."