GREENSBORO, N.C. — Nothing comes between Tina, Kaili and Epiphanny. They are like the friends on “Sex and the City,” only they wear Nikes instead of Manolos, and meet for basketball, not brunch.
On Tuesday night at Greensboro Coliseum, Tina Charles, Kaili McLaren and Epiphanny Prince will share the spotlight under circumstances guaranteed to leave at least one despondent. Charles and McLaren play for top-seeded Connecticut, which will face Prince and second-seeded Rutgers in the regional final.
The meeting is the first for the Big East archrivals in the N.C.A.A. tournament. The winning team will advance to the Final Four in Tampa, Fla. The losing squad is done playing for seven months.
The cutthroat nature of competitive sports — the cold, hard truth that my gain is your loss — can turn friendships into feuds and games into grudge matches. It is a minefield that Charles, McLaren and Prince have managed to negotiate with the same grace they do traffic underneath the basket.
“Off the court I love them to death,” Prince said Monday. “But on the court, if they don’t have the same jersey on that I have on, then we are not friends.”
Prince and Charles, both sophomores, met during high school in New York City; Prince starred at Murry Bergtraum in Manhattan, and Charles at Christ the King in Queens. Lumped together in many a conversation because of their basketball abilities, they bonded in a way that transcended the game.
They text-message each other or talk almost every day, and when they do, “We don’t even talk about basketball,” Charles said Monday. Instead, they discuss schoolwork, men and the most recent episode of their favorite show, “Law and Order.”
On occasion, Prince said, Charles will playfully chide her for choosing Rutgers over Connecticut. “Sometimes,” Prince said, “she’ll bring it up like, ‘How come you didn’t come here?’ and I’m like ‘That’s over with,’ and I’ll try to change the subject real fast.”
They both tend to become emotional after losses. Last year, after Rutgers defeated Connecticut, 55-47, in the final of the Big East tournament, a disconsolate Charles said the Huskies played their worst game and the Scarlet Knights summoned their best effort.
Prince was not amused. Nor did she enjoy hearing from Charles how the Huskies would be alive in the tournament longer than the Scarlet Knights. After Connecticut lost in the regional final to Louisiana State and Rutgers advanced to the Final Four with a victory against Arizona State, she said she sent Charles a text that read: “Where r u? Because we’re still dancing.”
“We both can get like that when we lose,” Prince said. “Usually it’s me who says a lot when I don’t win. It’s not really her.”
Prince’s friendship with McLaren, also a sophomore, was strengthened during the year they spent playing on the same A.A.U. team and sealed with Jamaican jerk chicken from McLaren’s mother, Rosemarie.
While visiting McLaren last summer at her home in Washington, Prince tasted Rosemarie McLaren’s specialty dish for the first time. “I wanted seconds and thirds,” Prince said. “I liked it a lot.”
In January, the Scarlet Knights traveled to Washington to play Georgetown. Prince asked McLaren if her mother would please, please, please make her some jerk chicken. Rosemarie McLaren was happy to comply, but there was one condition. She took the dish to Prince after the game so she would not miss the telecast of the Huskies’ game at Syracuse.
“I ate it on the bus ride home,” Prince said with a smile. “It was delicious.”
Prince or McLaren — one or the other — is going to taste defeat Tuesday night, and for that player no amount of jerk chicken will make the loss go down easier. But come Wednesday, Prince will text McLaren and/or Charles as if Tuesday’s game never happened.
“I love Tina and I love Kaili and so I wouldn’t try to let anything come between us,” Prince said. “At the end of the day, you’ve still got to remember that it’s just a game, no matter how competitive we are. One day we’re not going to be able to play this game but hopefully down the line we’ll still be friends.”
Could that be food for thought for Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma? His enmity with Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt has hardened into a glacial chill, with no spring thaw in sight.
Auriemma was informed Monday that Summitt told the ESPN broadcasters Nancy Lieberman and Pam Ward that she voted for him as coach of the year. With his tongue firmly in cheek, he replied, “I respect Pat Summitt’s knowledge of the game and how perceptive and keen she is, and that’s just another example of that.”
Perhaps this is an example of where the players have something to teach the coach. “We want to keep this relationship going,” McLaren said, referring to her friendship with Prince. “We know when we’re on the court we’re going against each other. But as soon as that 40 minutes are up, we’re back to being good friends again.”