Pre-Ordering Now Available

While the copy-editing process for Bird At The Buzzer continues in earnest, our publisher, University of Nebraska Press, has posted the link for the book on its website and is accepting pre-orders ($29.95 hardcover).

The book is tentatively scheduled for release on March 1, 2011, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the game. There is also a tab on the linked page which will allow you to track when the book becomes available.

And So It Begins

April 29 has always been a date of distinction in my life. In 1986, it was the night that Roger Clemens struck out 20 Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park. It was also the same night, regrettably, that Claude Lemieux beat Mike Luit in overtime to end the dream for the Hartford Whalers.

Almost 25 years later, April 29 has a new significance: Today was the day the manuscript for "Bird At The Buzzer" began the copy-editing process.

And I'm happy to report that barring any last-minute changes, we have an official title: "Bird At The Buzzer: UConn, Notre Dame and a Women's Basketball Classic"

At the moment, the release date is scheduled for sometime around January. Stay tuned for more details as we move into the summer months.

Remember The Alamo(Dome)

The championship secure, the streak intact and the nightmare of the first half an ever-fading memory, the enormity of Tuesday's accomplishment began to sink in for Geno Auriemma.

Another undefeated season, No. 4. Another national championship, No. 7. Another victory in the streak, No. 78.

For the coach who has seen them all, it was more than he could comprehend.

"It's almost like it never happened," Auriemma said after UConn's 53-47 victory over Stanford at the Alamodome. "You know, it's something that's there, and I know we did it. And I know it's in the record books. But I am so astounded that it's happened. When you make comments like that, you know, four undefeated teams, it's just too hard to comprehend. You know, it really is. It really, really is."

San Antonio has been good to the Huskies. It was there, in 2002, that Auriemma's second undefeated team -- and first to go 39-0 -- put away stubborn Oklahoma to send Sue, Swin, Asjha and Tamika out as national champions, while Diana stayed behind to help extend the streak to an unprecedented 70 in a row and win two more titles.

The parallels are there in 2010. Another 39-0. The farewell of Tina and Kalana. Maya back for a chance to push the streak to an unprecedented level and win another championship. Just like old times.

"That just comes with the territory, you know?" Auriemma said. "Maya is unbelievable in what she can do and how she can do it. I think Maya's greatest challenge next year is going to be that for the first time in her college career she will be the older leader and not have a lot of help, and that's going to really take its toll on Maya next year. I've told her that. We've talked about it. And that's my job to get her ready for it.

"But, you know, people are going to expect us to win a national championship because we've got Maya Moore. And I would say: Good. So do I."

The Sweet Life

Two down, four to go.

UConn made it look frighteningly easy this weekend in Norfolk, Va., laying waste to Southern U. and Temple in the first two rounds to extend the winning streak to 74 and advance to yet another Sweet 16 in Dayton, Ohio. The second-round victory over the Owls was nothing that coach Tonya Cardoza hasn't seen before, just not from the other side.

Out in South Bend, Notre Dame got a second-round scare from Vermont, falling behind by 10 in the first half. But led by dynamic freshman Skylar Diggins, the Irish went on a 32-10 run and never looked back.

UConn will face Iowa State, coached by Muffet McGraw's former assistant Bill Fennelly, in the Sweet 16, Sunday at noon. Notre Dame draws No. 3 seed Oklahoma Sunday night in Kansas City (7:30 p.m.).

UConn's twin mega-routs in Norfolk will only fuel those who claim the Huskies are hurting their own sport with their dominance, but Geno Auriemma puts the blame exactly where it belongs, with the school administrators who have long failed to take the sport seriously.

I can plainly recall Geno making this same argument to reporters in 2003 and 2004, so this is no knee-jerk reaction to the recent criticism. It is a sad commentary that seven years later, Auriemma does not see much change in the status quo.

Pluck Of The Irish

I figure it's a good sign that the same year my book about women's basketball is being published by the University of Nebraska Press, the Nebraska women's team has become the surprise story on the national scene.

But maybe the Huskers should contain that excitement just a tad entering Tournament play. If not the players, at least the media covering the team. Imagine how well this story on nebraskastatepaper.com went over in South Bend.

"The 30-1 Cornhuskers received as plum of a draw as they could have hoped for," opined staff writer Samuel McKewon. "On the opposite side of the bracket from defending champion Connecticut, with beatable Notre Dame as a No. 2 seed in the Midwest region. NU will open Sunday at 6:05 p.m. in Minneapolis vs. No. 16 seed Northern Iowa, which beat Creighton in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament."

Beatable Notre Dame? Are you sure you want to go there?

The Irish won't be beaten, if fifth-year senior Linsday Schrader has anything to say about it.

"From now on, it could be the last basketball game of my life," Schrader told the South Bend Tribine. "I'm playing for Sunday (against Cleveland State) right now. I don't care where we go. I don't care what bracket we're in."

Here's another reason Nebraska should take Notre Dame seriously, courtesy of Mechelle Voepel.

Newsflash: UConn Good For The Game

Taking a beating in the national media for breakng its own record is nothing new for UConn.

How could anyone forget the firestorm that Geno Auriemma created in 1998, when he arranged with good friend Harry Perretta of Villanova to get an injured Nykesha Sales the two points she needed to break Kerry Bascom's UConn record for career points scored?

As Auriemma anrgily pointed out to WFAN's Mike and the Mad Dog later that week, the gift basket was receiving more national attention than UConn's undefeated season of 1995.

Well, Sales' record has been broken in 2010, and the Huskies are on the verge of a second straight -- and unprecedented -- undefeated season in women's basketball. And that is drawing plenty of national attention. But, inexplicably, Auriemma and his program find themselves under siege again.

The drumbeat has been loud and steady since UConn began its assault on its own 2002-03 mark of 70 straight victories. All this winning -- all by double-digits -- is bad for the women's game. Phil Taylor of Sports Illustrated was the first with a Point After in early February. Christine Brennan, who should know better, and Dan Shaugnhessy, who doesn't, have weighed in since the Huskies reached 72 last week.

Shaughnessy's take is particularly galling. I know Dan and I like Dan. And I know his shtick is to find the darkest cloud in sports' silver linings. But his notion that he can't watch UConn because they're so good is comical.

Dan has never watched a UConn game. Ever.

I covered the team full-time for five years -- during the entire 70-game streak in 2002-03 -- and significant parts of the two seasons before that, and I never saw him at a single game. In fact, I'd put the over/under on the number of UConn women's games he's covered at 1, and I'll take the under.

Do a Boston Globe archive search for "Shaughnessy and Auriemma" and three articles come back. Two are about Holy Cross and one is about Brianne Stepherson. Nothing about UConn. Do a search for "Shaughnessy and Taurasi" and you get nothing.

(And, frankly, I'd put the O/U for Ms. Brennan at 3, and I'm being generous).

Jere Longman of the New York Times? He's been attending and writing about the UConn women for years. So his opinion on the topic is actually credible. And he says in today's Times that, guess what? UConn's streak is good for the game.

Well, how about that? A favorable take on the streak? That must be some kind of record.

UConn's Date In Dayton; ND to KC

The brackets have been released, and UConn's path to another national championship has a familiar ring, streak-wise.

The Huskies, as expected, are in the Dayton Region. Back in 2003, when the Huskies were trying to repeat as champions coming after a 39-0 season, it was Dayton again, where the Huskies knocked off Purdue to advance to the Final Four.

In 2010, it could well be another Big Ten team that stands in UConn's way. Ohio State is the No. 2 seed in Dayton, which means that Geno Auriemma might have to face his best friend and Philadelphia mentor, Jim Foster, for a ticket to the Final Four.

It promises to be an uncomfortable situation for both coaches, who have intentionally not scheduled regular season games against each other in deference to their 30-year friendship.

The same went for Muffet McGraw in 2001. Back then, Foster was the coach at Vanderbilt and McGraw beat him to advance to the Final Four in St. Louis. Before that game, McGraw admitted that beating the man who recommended her for the Notre Dame job in 1987 was a bittersweet prospect.

Foster isn't the only former coaching connection Auriemma might have to defeat en route to San Antionio. A matchup against No. 8 Temple, and former assistant coach Tonya Cardoza, looms in the second round in Norfolk, Va.

And if UConn gets past the Virginia player that knocked Auriemma and the Huskies out of the Final Four semifinals in 1991, there's No. 5 Virginia itself, still coached by Debbie Ryan, potentially waiting in the Sweet 16. Auriemma, of course, coached under Ryan at Virginia before taking the UConn job in 1985.

UConn opens Sunday against No. 16 seed Southern U. (12:16 p.m., ESPN2). Notre Dame, also as expected, drew the No. 2 seed in the Kansas City region and will open against No. 15 Cleveland State in South Bend. (Sunday, 2:30 p.m., ESPN).