The toughest test likely comes tonight at No. 17 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish (8-1) have won six straight capped by their first victory in 10 trips to Purdue's Mackey Arena, 61-48, Saturday.

Sophomore guard Ashley Barlow got 19 of her career-high 22 points in the second half as the Irish rallied. Charel Allen added 10 points and Lindsay Schrader eight points and 10 rebounds. Purdue fell to 3-5.

The Crusaders lost a heart-breaker 65-62 at Purdue Nov. 12 as the Boilers shot 39 free throws to VU's 3, outscoring Valparaiso by 24 at the line.

Sparked by point guard Agnieszka Kulaga, averaging 21.7 ppg the last three games, Valparaiso brings a modest, three-game win streak to South Bend, home of Crusaders Aimee Litka and Ashley Varner.

"It will be a nice homecoming with lots of friends and family. It's a good challenge," Litka said. The 5-9 forward averages 11.8 points, second to Kulaga's 13.8; both are juniors. At Purdue, Litka had 13 points, six boards and a block before fouling out.

Her pass list includes 11 family members; "they're really looking forward to seeing me play," said Litka, sporting a shiner after getting hit in the nose at practice before Saturday's 73-61 win over North Texas in which she had 15 points and six boards.

She can't forget last year's gut-wrenching 60-59 loss to the visiting Irish. "I remember the whole game." She had five points and four rebounds but shot 1-of-5 on 3's.

"It was such a great experience playing ND, a well-known, highly-ranked team. We were with them til the final seconds. I hope we can do it again and pull out a W.

"We need to get back on transition defense, play as a team and be consistent," Litka said.

Kulaga had 10 points and five boards in that loss to back senior Betsy Rietema's 22 points. Valparaiso was outshot 45.3 to 36.8 percent but stayed close by hitting 7-of-18 from the arc to ND's 1-of-5. Allen had 18 points and eight boards and Barlow 12 and six for the Irish.

Kulaga's points, and confidence, are soaring of late. She uses quickness and desire to offset her 5-6 stature and leads VU in rebounding at 4.8 a game. Career highs of 26 points, eight boards and five assists vs. North Texas made her Valpo's first Horizon League Player of the Week.

"Aggie's emerging as our go-to person," Freeman said. "We're a more perimeter-oriented team this year (having lost its top 3 scorers and lots of height). Aggie's moving better than last year. The best thing she did (Saturday) was give up the ball, making her harder to guard."

Her points and leadership will be key as will sinking 3's since the Irish rank fourth nationally at 81.6 ppg. Valpo has made 19 more treys than foes, outshooting them .393 to .321 led by twins Leah (50 percent) and Launa Hochstetler (48) and Kulaga (47.4).

The Irish prefer to run and pound it inside, hitting just .293 from the arc but grabbing 41 rebounds a game. Becca Bruszewski, a 6-1 freshman from Wheeler, shoots .563 overall, second on the Irish. She averages 4.3 ppg and 2.7 rpg in 11.3 minutes, subbing in all nine games.

Notre Dame uses quickness and pressure, with double-digit steals in seven games totaling 115 to foes' 51.

Freeman is concerned. "This is probably the best Notre Dame team I've seen since I've been here (13-plus years). Typically they play a slow tempo; now they speed it up which could be very lethal for us.

"There's a big difference between mid-majors and Division I teams. With nine McDonald's (prep) all-Americans they are very, very good, usually winning by 30-plus. Our goal is to be competitive."

"I don't usually tailgate. But as you know, tailgating is a big thing here," he told the mass of media on press conference day yesterday prior to the Stanley Cup final.

"On the way out of the game my wife and I stopped with my assistant Kelly and I sat in a chair there and I looked around and remembered when I came here.

"It was just a big pile of dirt there.

"There wasn't any arena. There wasn't anything."

There certainly wasn't any hockey history.

"It was a pretty good moment to reflect a little on what really had happened," he said.

"Now there's a great buzz. I would say it's about four times bigger than it was in 2002," he said of the Carolina Hurricanes' much more shocking trip to the Cup final.

There's a lot of focus on these two small market franchises and how the lockout and resulting salary cap has helped get them here. You know the Oilers' story. The Hurricanes' tale is totally different. And it's nowhere near the same as 2002.

CAN'T REALLY COMPARE THE TWO YEARS

"It's a totally different situation," said the Canes GM who came with the franchise from Hartford and played games in Greensboro, North Carolina, an hour and a half away, while the arena was being constructed here.

"In 2002 we were a team that wasn't sure whether we were going to make the playoffs. Then the team came together at the right time and we got into the playoffs.

"This team we have now has a lot more depth and is a lot more balanced. It's more skilled and a lot more people contribute toward winning."

Captain Rod Brind 'Amour says it's a lot different going into this final than in 2002.

"We're just such a different team. We're a lot more confident going into this one than the last one. The last time we were in a final we were playing a Detroit Red Wings team that had eight million Hall of Fame players. They were all All-Stars. It just didn't match up. It didn't look like an evenly matched series whereas this one looks a lot more evenly matched.

"We're a much better team going into it now than we were then. It makes us feel a little better about it."

But this doesn't just go back four years.

It goes back to that pile of dirt.

"Hockey didn't exist as a sport, pretty much. It's come a long way. It's been exciting to see the growth. And I'm proud of it, actually, because I've been here since it started out," said Brind 'Amour.

SUBTLE BEGINNINGS

"I remember when we first came here. You go to different places and meet different people and we would actually have to explain to people why we were here," said Rutherford. "It was a long journey and a very difficult one. We moved the franchise in a matter of three months from Hartford. It should take 18 to 24 months to move a professional sports team. We went through those years in Greensboro.

"As we went along we could never get to a point where we could get that elite player to get us over the hump. We had competitive teams. We had good players like Ron Francis, Rod Brind 'Amour and Jeff O'Neill.

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"We made the playoffs a few years and had that good run in 2002," Rutherford said.

Then the wheels fell off. They went from the Stanley Cup final to finishing dead last.

"We had a bad year that turned into Eric Staal," is the way Rutherford describes the draft pick.

"You have to have that impact player."

The one thing both teams had in common coming out of the lockout is that they'd put together the nucleus of players, experience and young talents to surround with the appropriate free agents and deadline deals after the new CBA.

"It was pretty easy for us," said Rutherford. "We positioned ourselves to have flexibility coming out of the work stoppage.

"We knew there were going to be good players available because of the last couple of years we struggled when we were a non-playoff team. We were patient with our players that we wanted to keep.

"We felt we had a good structure there but that we had a few pieces to fit in.

"With the flexibility that we had and the fact we now have revenue sharing, it was really not that difficult.

"I know it's easy for me to sit here and say that now, but with the number of players that were out there, we needed to add some skill and we needed to add some mobile puck-moving defencemen. We knew there were going to be enough available (free agents) to do that."

That explains the Hurricanes. North Carolina itself is another animal. Being in the final four years ago had no effect on the seasons that followed.

But Rutherford said he was encouraged by the response of the core fans during the lockout.

"My confidence during the work stoppage was pretty good because we had a lot of loyal season ticket holders who kept their money with us. They didn't walk away and say 'We'll think about it after.'

"We still have a few hurdles here. We have partial season ticket holders and because of that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are nights when they aren't season ticket holders, for about a dozen games.

"We have those weeknights we have to work on.

"But the population is growing and the growth is coming from the north where there are hockey teams.

"There's a bright future here for hockey."

That talented mix of experience and youth has carried Duke to the top spot in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll. The Blue Devils (27-6 last season), returning All-Americans J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, received 28 of a possible 31 first-place votes and 767 points, easily pushing them past Connecticut, which landed at No. 2 despite not receiving a first-place vote and still dealing with the ongoing suspensions of point guards Marcus Williams and A.J. Price.

Big 12 co-favorite Texas (two first-place votes) is a close third, followed by Villanova (one first-place vote), which recently lost senior Curtis Sumpter to a knee injury, and Big Ten preseason pick Michigan State, fresh off last season's Final Four appearance.

Texas' Red River rival, Oklahoma, is sixth, with Gonzaga, Louisville, Arizona and Kentucky rounding out the top 10.

Behind Craig Smith and Jared Dudley, ACC newcomer Boston College is 11th, followed by Conference USA favorite Memphis, Stanford, Alabama and West Virginia, which fell just short of last season's Final Four and returns sharpshooting big man Kevin Pittsnogle.

Gerry McNamara and Syracuse are 16th, followed by last year's finalist, Illinois, then UCLA and Wake Forest (tied for 18th) and Iowa at No. 20.

The final five include Maryland, Indiana, Iowa State, George Washington and Nevada. Defending national champion North Carolina, having lost its top seven scorers from last season, received 16 points, placing them 36th.

"I was worried sick about it," Williams said. "I was on the phone in Athens at 4:30 a.m. with someone putting up the phone [to a TV] so I could hear Tyler Hansbrough's announcement that he was going to North Carolina. I already knew the answer, but I was still worried. I was trying to make two or three phone calls from over there and it wasn't easy."

"He has always allowed them to be seen, heard and do postgame radio shows and TV shows and those guys -- Chris Collins, Steve Wojciechowski and Johnny Dawkins -- make appearances on his behalf," Williams said. "It's not like he's sending three rookies out there recruiting for him."

"It won't have a big effect because when he's gone during the summer time, the assistant coaches instill what we need to do for the upcoming season," Duke senior All-American Shelden Williams said.

"In the offseason, we see coach, but he doesn't have a lot of basketball interaction with us, just like a lot of other head coaches around the country," fellow Blue Devils senior All-American J.J. Redick said. "In the spring [before the summer], our assistant coaches usually work with us as well as our strength and conditioning coaches."