CLEVELAND (AP) - Pat Summitt considers C. Vivian Stringer a "great friend first, a colleague next."

For a few hours tonight, she’ll be something else.

The enemy.

Summitt, who is within one victory of a seventh NCAA title, will match wits and lineups against Stringer when Tennessee meets Rutgers in the national championship.

While Summitt tried to downplay her matchup with Stringer, her close friend and fellow Hall of Famer, the Rutgers coach didn’t shy away from calling it as significant as any that will take place on the floor.

"It’s a chess match," Stringer said yesterday. "She has her pieces, and I have my pieces. There will be moves and countermoves. Sometimes you get the matchups right, and sometimes you don’t."

This season, and especially in this tournament, Stringer has made all the right moves. She has the young Scarlet Knights (27-8), who began the season 2-4, deeper than they’ve ever gone before.

With a victory over the Lady Vols (33-3), Rutgers will have the school’s first national team championship since sharing a fencing title with Army in 1949. A win would also give Stringer the only thing missing from her résumé.

"It’s been the talk since the beginning of the season," junior guard Matee Ajavon said. "Coach Stringer is a very special person to us, and I think it would be one of the best things I can do in my life."

Summitt and Stringer have been dear friends - extended basketball family - for nearly as long as they’ve been college coaches.

For three decades, they’ve consoled each other through family tragedies and shared their lives. When her phone rings and Summitt sees it’s Stringer on the other end, Tennessee’s coach knows it’s time to settle in.

"Vivian can talk," Summitt said. "And I don’t mean for a few minutes."

Soon, they’ll have something new to discuss.

For Summitt, this will be title game No. 12. She’s hoping to end a nine-year championship drought in Knoxville, where cutting down nets and hoisting banners inside Thompson-Boling Arena are seen as birthrights.

For Stringer, this could be the final chapter in an improbable season in which she didn’t expect a happy ending. But after a horrid start, Rutgers, without a senior on its roster, has scrapped its way to the top with a defense every bit as tenacious as its fiery coach.

"Her kids, they just bring it," Summitt said. "They love their coach."

The two have met six times in the NCAA Tournament, with Summitt winning five. Since Stringer took over at Rutgers 12 years ago, her teams have had their seasons ended by the Lady Vols on four occasions, including each of the past two seasons.

To win a title, she’ll have to go through Summitt to get it.

"I just want to experience it," Stringer said. "It would be nice. I think it’s appropriate that it’s Tennessee. That’s the team."

Rutgers earned a spot in the final by dominating LSU and its star Sylvia Fowles, the Lady Tigers’ 6-foot-6 center, in a semifinal. The Scarlet Knights made eight 3-pointers in the first half, built an 18-point lead by halftime and rolled over their more heralded Southeastern Conference opponent.

Fowles was swallowed whole by Rutgers’ defense, which double-, triple- and quadruple-teamed her in the post. She finished with five points on 2-of-10 shooting, not the kind of night LSU needed from "Big Syl."

Tennessee’s Candace Parker will be Rutgers’ next challenge. The 6-4 sophomore’s versatility presents a whole new dilemma for Stringer, who is concerned about being able to slow the leading Lady Vol.

"I don’t know what we’re going to do," Stringer said. "I’ve been up all night thinking about it."

That’s Stringer in a nutshell: She can be both a worry wart and supremely confident. It’s how she’s always been during a coaching career that began at tiny Cheyney State in 1971, moved to Iowa in 1983 and to Rutgers in 1995.

In 1982, Stringer led Cheyney to the first women’s Final Four, which also included Louisiana Tech, Maryland and Tennessee. It took her 25 years to get back to the title game.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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