If it seems like High Point women's basketball coach Chelsea Banbury has been there before, she has, in a manner of speaking.

Banbury, in just her second season at High Point, located in North Carolina, has the Panthers in their first NCAA tournament, but prior to that she was an assistant coach at Florida Gulf Coast, including the last five years as associate head coach under head coach Karl Smesko.

In her time at Florida Gulf Coast, the Eagles were 306-72 and played in the NCAA tournament or Women's NIT all 11 seasons she was there.

"Coach Smesko, he taught me a ton while I was down there," Banbury said in a video conference this week. "I can't thank him enough for how much basketball knowledge he shared with me over the years that I was there. I took a lot of what I learned from him when I transitioned into head coach."

One of Smesko's trademarks was that he prepared for every game the same, no matter who the opponent is. Banbury, who also played at Florida Gulf Coast, plans to use that tactic as her team, 16th-seeded High Point, prepares to face No. 1 UConn in the first round of the River Walk Region on Sunday in San Antonio.

"You're going to watch film and you've got to get as prepared as you can," Banbury said. "We're taking that approach here. I know that UConn is a great team but as far as what we're going to do, we're going to watch film, we're going to prepare for them and we're going to hopefully execute that game plan on Sunday."

Banbury was on the Florida Gulf Coast coaching staff at the same time as former UConn player Mel Thomas for four years beginning in 2010. The two shared an office.

The strange thing? Florida Gulf Coast is also in this season's NCAA tournament, the 11th seed in the River Walk Region and set to take on No. 6 Michigan at 3 p.m. Sunday.

"FGCU is staying the same hotel as us and we have yet to see them and don't get to see them (because of COVID protocols)," Banbury said. "It's so crazy being so close to everybody but at the same time not being able to have any connection with them at all."

Bracket breakdown

The winner of the UConn-High Point matchup takes on either No. 8 Syracuse or No. 9 South Dakota State in the second round on Tuesday. Syracuse (14-8) and South Dakota State (21-3) meet at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, approximately 80 miles from San Antonio.

"I wouldn't want to play Syracuse or South Dakota State if we were undefeated, No. 1 in the country and we were playing at our place in front of 20,000 people and they only got to bring in five players," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "So that's going to be an incredible matchup. The only thing that makes me happy is if we win the first game, we don't have to play both of them, we've only got to play the winner."

Auriemma reacted to the supposition that UConn, the top seed in the River Walk Region, has the toughest regional of the four with No. 2 Baylor (25-2) potentially looming in the Elite Eight.

UConn had its regular-season matchup with Baylor, scheduled for Jan. 7, canceled due to COVID.

"Having Baylor in there, I'm not surprised at all," Auriemma said. "You can say, 'Wow, they're a really great No. 2.' So is Maryland. So is Texas A&M. There's a lot of really, really good teams in the tournament this year. All the brackets are hard and they're supposed to be hard."

Quarantined

UConn, in a quarantine situation in San Antonio, played the Big East tournament in a bubble, as well, at Mohegan Sun Arena and did just fine, winning the tournament March 8 over Marquette.

Huskies junior Christyn Williams said "it actually wasn't that bad."

"It's a great group of girls," Williams said of her team. "We have so much fun together literally doing nothing. We could just be standing there and make up a game or something. We play Uno, we brought board games, we just find a way to make it fun. I think we'll be fine in Texas. We'll probably make some more Tik-Toks."

Williams said she doesn't know who the best Uno player on the team is, but it's not her.

"We played with the security guard that was on our floor (at the hotel)," she said. "I know he was bored. We made a new friend."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Follow Vickie Fulkerson on Twitter during the NCAA tournament at @Vickieattheday.