Hartford — The diehards will find their own frames of reference for this UConn women's basketball season, anything from national rankings to individual player development to remaining awake during the American Athletic Conference portion of the schedule.

The rest of us have a simpler premise:

Can they beat Notre Dame or not?

Happily, we'll find out — at least in the appetizer portion of the season — Sunday. The Huskies, who threw DePaul down a flight of stairs Wednesday night at the XL Center, make their way to the shadows of Touchdown Jesus trying to unseat Muffet from her tuffet, otherwise known as the nation's No. 1 perch.

There have been many iterations of UConn vs. Notre Dame, just not many like this, when the Huskies have something other than the better team. It was eight months ago when Arike Ogunbowale beat the overtime buzzer at the Final Four, leaving Connecticut forlorn at the horn for the second straight national semifinal.

"Sometimes you have to be exposed to this and fail," a contemplative (and utterly dignified) Geno Auriemma said after that game. "It's a great learning tool. But I'm a pretty smart guy. I don't need to learn this (stuff) two years in a row."

Now some time has passed. It's a new year. But the scars linger.

"It took a while to recover," senior Napheesa Collier said. "Especially since it was the second year in a row and it was Notre Dame. Just a little tougher than the year before. I thought we did a really good job as a team learning from that. We have to get tougher and we have to be a team if we want to do anything."

All of which makes Sunday an opportunity for a group gargle. As in: swish it around and send the taste of last season down the drain. Won't be easy. The Irish come by their No. 1 ranking honestly.

'I think Notre Dame is a little more experienced," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said after Wednesday's game. Bruno and the Blue Demons have lost to the Irish and Huskies this season.

"Both these teams can with the national championship," Bruno said. "From a matchup point of view, Napheesa's a really tough matchup, Katie Lou's is a tough matchup, Arike's a better player this year off the confidence she gained from the Final Four. Really, the experience is the difference. Geno's got some young players who will have to step up and play."

Specifically: starters Megan Walker and Christyn Williams. This is the first time they'll get to experience one of those "this is why you come to UConn" kind of games. The kinds of games that cemented Diana, Maya and Stewie into UConn lore and legend.

"We're going out there to win the game," Auriemma said. "I want Christyn and Megan to do whatever they have to do to help us win. I want them to play great and feel what it feels like to be in that kind of a game. I want them to be in situations where they're guarding somebody they can't guard. That every possession means a lot.

"What comes out of it? We beat them last year at the XL (in December) and it didn't do us any good in March. More than anything, what comes out of this game is we have two young players I'm anxious to see."

This is UConn-Notre Dame, of course, a rivalry that has often given us days and days of entertainment. Like the time Auriemma likened Notre Dame to Robinhood:

"Notre Dame takes from the rich and gives to Notre Dame," he said once.

Ah, but it's too early in the season now for anybody to be huffy. At least Auriemma gets to see how somebody else deals with the burden of expectation.

"I always hear people say how lucky I am and wish they have what I have until they have it," Auriemma said. "Then they go, 'I don't know how you do this every year.' It's good for us every once in a while to just feel unencumbered by anything other than we need to play well. No winning streaks and rankings and any of that other stuff. If you play great and win, you're gonna feel great. Play lousy and win, you're gonna feel great. Play great and lose, you're going to feel (lousy)."

It's just that this is Notre Dame. Not exactly East Carolina on a Tuesday.

"There are a lot of emotions going into this game," Katie Lou Samuelson said, "that isn't there with every other team."

Can't wait.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro