Ladies hoops. Geno and Pat

This one's for you, Deb.

Interesting that both the Louisville men's and women's basketball teams made it to the NCAA finals. One will be a slight favorite, and the other likely a huge underdog. But you never know how things will play out.

Forget about the boys for now. They get enough publicity. Let's talk about the girls, a little history, and a couple of coaches.

If the UConn Lady Huskies defeat the Louisville Lady Cardinals in the final, which they will be favored to do, then UConn head coach Geno Auriemma will join former Tennessee Lady Vols' head coach Pat Summitt atop the summit indeed -- both having won 8 national titles.

With all due respect to coach Summitt, sometimes it seemed like she had been around forever, and might be old enough to be that sassy puppy dog Geno's mother. Actually, at 61, she's only two years older than Geno at 59.

Pat Summitt was indeed around for a long time, from 1974 to 2012, 39 years worth at Tennessee. Had she not taken ill, she might very well have coached for at least another decade. At that, Summitt can rightfully be credited with putting ladies' college hoops on the map. Back when she started (the age of Watergate, and how long ago does that seem?) girls college hoops was hardly even a blip on the sports radar screen. Many universities didn't even field a team. Schools like Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion ruled the roost of the few that even bothered to seriously compete. Nowadays, it's growing exponentially and everybody has jumped in, pumping time and resources into the programs, and scouring the country for blue chip high school prospects to try and be competitive. None of this would have happened without Pat Summitt. Sure, the girls haven't yet reached the same level as the boys regarding "parity", with different teams coming and going as powerhouses. In fact, it might fairly be said that in the recent past there's only been about 4-5 ladies' teams that can truly compete for a championship every year. But it's growing. Witness Texas A&M seemingly coming out of nowhere to recently win the title.

Pat and Geno have some other similarities. Though it doesn't seem like it, Luigi (Geno) has been at UConn since 1985, hardly a new kid on the block. Also, it might fairly be said that outside of their home stomping grounds of Storrs and Knoxville, both Summitt and Auriemma had more than their fair share of detractors and critics, likely due to jealousy. Success breeds more success, but it also breeds sour grapes amongst others. Both were known to be demanding of their players, played the press like a fiddle, and both could even occasionally be "catty". Plus they didn't seem to like each other much.

Career-wise, Duke men's head coach Mike Krzyzewski is generally credited as being the winningest college basketball coach of all time. He's at 957-297 and counting, a winning percentage of . 763. Pretty impressive. Yet Coach Emeritus Pat still trumps that at 1098-208, a winning % of .841. Coach K would have to put up some mighty impressive numbers in the next few years to even get close to Coach Pat territory.

But the thing is, sadly, Summitt has coached her last game. On the other hand, Auriemma, with a career mark of 833-133, a whopping .862 winning %, seems to be on a perpetual roll with his Huskies. Not only are they again in the championship game this year, with blue-chip prep recruits likely to keep heading to UConn in the foreseeable future, if Geno decides to hang around for another 10-15 years, and keeps putting up 30-some winning seasons -- and wins a few more national championships along the way -- all entirely possible -- he might well shatter all the record books.

For now, Pat Summitt remains the undisputed queen of college basketball. But like that pesky Tiger Woods chasing Jack Nicklaus' all-time records, Geno Auriemma keeps putting up better numbers and might have many more years to go before he starts slowing down.

Between Louisville and UConn, I suspect I know which team my friend Deb will be rooting for.

And hey, if you happen to see this, Deb, don't be such a stranger. It's been a while since somebody tore me up good and proper over the nonsense I write sometimes.

I kinda miss that. I think....