As the game wore on, though, it seemed like there was another relationship that might have been undergoing a lot more of a test, at least on this night: the relationship between Dan Hurley and Zack Rosen, Penn's rock star senior point guard. Hurley coached Rosen in high school, and by all accounts they continue to be close. I read that Hurley joked before the game that Wagner's defensive plan for stopping Rosen would be to drop back into a zone and just dare him to shoot for the whole game.

In fact, of course, the opposite was true: Wagner brought the double-teams early and often; not Patsos-on-Curry style, exactly, but the pressure was intense. More than once, I saw Hurley loudly praise the defensive intensity of a player who had just fouled Rosen. Former Quaker star Jack Eggleston, blogging for the student paper from his continuing basketball career overseas, suggested after the game that Penn needs an enforcer. Rosen still put up 23 points, including a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. But from where we sat, frustration crept onto the face of the yoga instructor's son more than once, and that kind of emotion isn't always easily directed.

Of course, it's just basketball, and I'm sure Rosen, Hurley, and anyone else would tell you both expected the other to compete, to do whatever it took to win. That they would've been disappointed in any other approach. But everything you go through with someone else impacts your relationship with them, one way or another, whether it's the daily grind of commuting or the intense emotion of a hotly-contested game.

When I tell people that my husband and I spent at least two hours a day in the car together, every day, for four years, many of them say (in jest?) that they don't think their relationship would've survived something like that. It was actually great for us, but I know what they mean - if my husband and I had to spend two hours a day every weekday for four years doing home improvement projects together, well....