Dayton, Ohio - Whenever Steven Fennelly is in his dad's office, the two of them joke about the photograph on Bill Fennelly's wall.

Steven was 10 years old in the picture, taken in 1999. Bill was the head coach of the up-and-coming Iowa State women's basketball team that had just upset top-seeded UConn in the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 in Cincinnati. The picture shows the two Fennellys walking off the court in celebration.

"I remember bits and pieces of it," said Steven Fennelly, now a junior manager for his dad's team. "When (this year's) bracket came out we saw there was a chance to play UConn again. In Ohio. It's on your mind."

UConn (35-0), the top-ranked team in the nation once again and the No. 1 seed in the Dayton Regional, will face No. 4 seed Iowa State (25-7) for the first time since 1999 in the Sweet 16 today at the University of Dayton Arena (noon, ESPN).

This time, UConn is in the midst of the longest winning streak in women's basketball history, 74 games, and bidding to become the first team to record two straight unbeaten seasons. The Huskies won the national championship last season in St. Louis to finish 39-0.

Also playing in the Dayton Regional today are No. 3 Florida State (28-5) and No. 7 Mississippi State (21-12). Those teams meet in the second game of the semifinal doubleheader with the winner to meet the UConn-Iowa State winner in Tuesday's Elite Eight game.

Bill Fennelly, in his 15th season at Iowa State, has now won 498 career games, 332 for the Cyclones. He calls playing this UConn team "the most unique challenge I've ever seen in my time of coaching."

"I've never seen anything like it," Fennelly said Saturday. "When you have a team that has arguably the best coach, the best players and the team, to their credit, that competes like no team I've ever seen. No matter what video we watched, the consistency of their effort at both ends of the floor is something all coaches strive for."

Last time UConn met Iowa State, the Cyclones won 64-58, one of the two times in history the Huskies lost in the round of 16. UConn All-Americans Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova were a combined 1-for-17 from 3-point range and Iowa State came from behind with a 3-point barrage in the final minutes.

"I remember we lost a game that I thought was very winnable for us," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "We were not ready to win that game.

"Whatever deficiencies your team has, this is the weekend they'll show up. Our team was not mature enough to win that game. They couldn't handle when they missed shots and we missed a lot of shots."

Auriemma said there's little in common between the Iowa State team in 1999 and the one now, nor in the UConn team from 1999 and the one now. But Auriemma has also said, as recently as the Big East tournament, that losses are something that stay with him and that he is prone to dissect them over and over.

Deadpanned Auriemma in Saturday's news conference: "Other than me telling (the team) I'm really, really (ticked) and I hate Iowa State and I hate Bill Fennelly … other than that there's no comparison."