Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies will face a familiar foe in Notre Dame on the game’s grandest stage. The two teams, who have one of women’s basketball’s fiercest rivlaries over the past decade, will square off on Friday night in the Final Four. It’s the second consecutive year that they will play in the national semi-finals. The Irish won a thriller last year, topping UConn in overtime on a last-second shot by Arike Ogunbowale. She hit a similar shot two nights later at the buzzer to help Notre Dame win their first national championship since 2001, capping off one of the greatest Final Fours in NCAA history.

“Well, last year’s game was a great finish, so I wouldn’t mind seeing that again. But they’re a great team,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “They played really well against Louisville in the final yesterday. They’re a team that has so many weapons. And similar to us, they don’t have a very deep bench, so I think there’s a lot of similarities between the teams. Going back to the first game, we really lost our composure in that game, so hopefully we’ve learned a lot of lessons since then.”

UConn and Notre Dame have played six times in the Final Four or national championship game since 2011. They have split the six meetings with the Irish going 3-1 in the semi-finals. Baylor will play Oregon in the first game of the Final Four.

The Huskies continued their remarkable record run, making the Final Four for the 12th consecutive year. Auriemma was at a loss for how his team has been able to reach the national semifinals every year.

“I don’t think it’s supposed to happen,” Auriemma said of the run. “Not in today’s world the way things change and teams keep getting better and better. It’s not normal. It’s something that’s hard to describe because even if you’re writing a book and making it up, people would say it doesn’t happen in real life. It has happened in real life, I’m still boggled, my mind doesn’t get how it can happen this many years in a row with a different cast of characters that change so often. No it’s not normal, it’s not normal.”

While UConn and Notre Dame have been Final Four mainstays the past decade, Baylor are making their first appearance since 2012 when the Lady Bears finished off a 40-0 season with the national championship. The overall No1 seeds have run through the NCAA Tournament so far, winning by an average of 36 points. After falling short in the NCAAs the past few years, coach Kim Mulkey was thrilled for her seniors such as Kalani Brown.

“Certainly, you start with seniors. I am so happy for those seniors,” the coach said. “I am so happy for those players, and I’m happy for Baylor University. I’m happy for Baylor University. Plaster that on the front page of every national newspaper. It doesn’t get any more positive than this.”

They’ll face a Final Four newcomer in Oregon. The Ducks had made the Elite Eight the previous two years falling in the regional final each time. Sabrina Ionescu wouldn’t let it happen a third straight season. The Ducks junior All-American guard had 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. “All I gotta say is we’re not done yet,” she said after the 88-84 victory on Sunday over top-seeded Mississippi State.

It’s been a meteoric rise under coach Kelly Graves since he took over five years ago. The Ducks went from 10th place in the Pac-12 the year before Graves took over to winning the conference regular-season title this year and now reaching the Final Four for the first time.

