GREENSBORO, N.C. - Gail Goestenkors has fond memories of Greensboro - even if her current Duke players don't.

Returning to the site of their only loss this season, the top-seeded Blue Devils (32-1) hope to repeat what they accomplished in 1999. That year, they won the Greensboro-based regional, reached their first Final Four and created what Goestenkors on Friday called "my greatest memories of coaching women's basketball."

They've got the chance to make some more, starting with today's regional semifinal against fourth-seeded Rutgers (24-8).

But what the Blue Devils players remember most about this central North Carolina city is their last game here - a surprising 70-65 loss to surging North Carolina State three weeks ago in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, a defeat that snapped their school-record 30-game winning streak.

"It's kind of ignited a little bit more of a sense of urgency in that it can happen, and we only have a couple more games - you lose, you're done," ThunderRidge High School graduate Abby Waner said. "The last game, we still had the NCAA tournament to look forward to. More than anything it kind of got us a little more re-energized and a little more focused."

YOW INSPIRES PACK: Geno Auriemma isn't expecting much support for his Connecticut Huskies when they take on coach Kay Yow and North Carolina State.

Yow's courageous fight against cancer and the way the Wolfpack have rallied around her cause is the most compelling story in the entire NCAA Tournament.

Yow's plight has turned nearly every neutral observer into an N.C. State fan and might have even won over a few partisans heading into Saturday's game.

"There's a pretty good chance that if the game goes down to the wire, there will be some people in my family who might not be rooting for me," Auriemma said Friday.

The top-seeded Huskies (31-3) will face the fourth-seeded Wolfpack (25-9) in the opener of the Fresno Regional semifinal doubleheader.

Auriemma and Yow have known each other since his time as an assistant coach in the early 1980s at Virginia. She remembers him as a "good-looking" charismatic assistant who was bringing in top recruits to one of her Atlantic Coast Conference rivals.

Auriemma recalls Yow as a pioneer in the industry, one of the first coaches to truly build a program at a school.

FOWLES' SHADOW: Sylvia Fowles is such an intimidating presence on the court that even her LSU teammates are afraid at times to approach her.

With Fowles struggling at halftime of a second-round game against West Virginia, point guard Erica White didn't want to be the one to tell her star center to pick up her game.

"Sometimes we need to get on her and it's hard because she's 6-6 . . . ," White said Friday. "When she's upset she has this look in her eyes. I'm 5-3. I'm not going to put my frame up against her."

Fowles did pick up her game in the second half, scoring 14 of her 21 points after halftime to rally the third-seeded Lady Tigers (29-7) to a spot in today's Fresno Regional semifinal against 10th-seeded Florida State (24-9).

"She came out in the second half smoking," White said. "I looked up at the end of the game and she didn't miss many shots and grabbed a lot of rebounds. Sylvia can be as dominating as Sylvia wants to be."

EAGLES AIM FOR TITLE: The Florida Gulf Coast women's basketball team is aiming for perfection.

The top-ranked Eagles (34-0), who play No. 7 Southern Connecticut State (33-2) for the NCAA Division II title today in Kearney, Neb., will try to become the first unbeaten champion since North Dakota State in 1995.

Florida Gulf Coast has won 63 of its past 65 games and 132 of 152 in the program's five-year history. The Fort Myers, Fla.-based Eagles move up next season to Division I, where they'll be members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.