When Jeff Goldberg began the process of writing "Bird at the Buzzer" a book about the showdowns between UConn and Notre Dame a decade ago and the various subplots from both teams, probably the best he could have hoped for was a rematch in the Big East tournament to increase the interest in his recently-released work.

But the prospects of the Huskies and Fighting Irish meeting again in the national semifinals as they did back in the 2001 was simply too much to ask for - or was it?

Well, thanks to Notre Dame's win over Tennessee in the Dayton Regional final on Monday and UConn's demolition of Duke the following night, Notre Dame and UConn will meet for the fourth time this season in Sunday's semifinal.

Goldberg couldn't quantify how another matchup between the Big East rivals would impact book sales but there is no doubting that other than the players, coaches and inner circles of the Connecticut and Notre Dame programs, there probably wasn't a happier person on earth when Notre Dame and UConn advanced to the Final Four than Goldberg, a former UConn women's basketball beat writer for the Hartford Courant.

"I couldn't possibly have scripted it any better," Goldberg said. "As much as I am sure people wanted to see UConn/Tennessee, I amm more than happy with the way this has played out. History is repeating itself. It's been kind of a magic carpet ride. Maybe it's all destined to happen this way, I don't know. We'll have to see what kind of an outcome we get on Sunday night, if history will repeat itself again. If anybody's going to knock them off, I think it would be Notre Dame which is kind of the whole them of 2001. The similarities are pretty striking."

When Notre Dame beat Tennessee, Goldberg might have thought he was in the clear considering that UConn had beaten Duke by 36 points in the regular-season meeting between the teams. But when it was a 23-20 game late in the first half, Goldberg was understandably anxious.

"I had so much emotion invested in it and it is 23-20 with a couple of minutes to go in the half and I am thinking 'is this dream scenario not going to happen,'" Goldberg said. "I don't think I ever agonized over a UConn women's game quite the way I did (Tuesday). Now it is great. I am happy for the book but I just think it is good for the sport. I hope that's the one thing people got out of the book, it is an opportunity to open a new door for the sport. As much as the sport looks forward, it is a chance to look back on this great event 10 years ago. I am sure a lot of attention will be paid to it this weekend and that is good for the sport. I think it needs more moments like that. There has been a lot of great history built up, we have seen it. Everybody who has covered Connecticut since 1991 has seen this great history with all these great players and it would be a shame to see all that history go by the wayside because the sport is so focused on moving forward. Maybe we'll be writing about Maya Moore in 20 years, doing a book about the 90-game streak because it is a great story. (Those) 48 hours have been about as satisfying as you can get."