Kevin Ollie and Geno Auriemma stood just a few inches apart inside an office inside the Oakdale Theater on a night when UConn's dual national championship were being celebrated in front of 450 donors and loyal fans. It will be a familiar site as the two will be on center stage when the new basketball practice facility to dedicated on Friday afternoon and then the national championship banners are unveiled during First Night festivities Friday night.

"The last couple of years I used to be able to walk out on the court either before our practice or after our practice, watch practice," Auriemma said. "Now when we go into this new (Champions Center) building we are all going to practice at the same time all the time so I will probably see less of them than I have the last two years so the fact that we are all in the same building and we are all trying to do the same thing, we are all taking advantage of all of that and what that building has to offer, when you have been there 30 years it is kind of surreal. You can't imagine something like this could happen certainly from when we started. (Friday) night when we raise those banners, we deserve it. No other program in the country has done what the two of us have done over the years and we deserve it. Everything that comes our way we deserve it because we have worked our (butt) off and we deserve it, nobody has given it to us.

"I hope the fans, last year was one of the best turnouts we have ever had and I think this one will be ever bigger. If you can't sell out the place now, it will never happen. To come on first night and take advantage of all the things that are going to happen, the fact that ESPN is doing the show from there and we have created something that is pretty unique, we have created something that is special that no one else has been able to do. Friday night we are going to celebrate that and we are going to celebrate that in front of the entire country."