V.W.H. Campbell Jr./Post-Gazette Jess Strom, left, and Tanisha Wright listen to coach Rene Portland during practice. Click photo for larger image. NCAA Women: Search for next leading lady begins today Comprehensive Tournament Coverage Latest men's and women's brackets

Spend a week with them, Tanisha Wright and Jess Strom suggest, and maybe you'll understand. Maybe you'll understand the Pittsburgh-rooted backcourt duo -- perhaps the best in Penn State women's history. Maybe you'll understand everything that has kept them together, even when they haven't always wanted it that way. "Even our teammates now," Wright recently said, "I don't think they really understand our friendship."

They've known one another for eight years. They've played Lord knows how many games together, sharing car rides to and from practice and plane rides to and from AAU tournaments on the West Coast. They've fought for one another and learned from one another. As teenagers, they even lived together. They call themselves sisters, and like sisters, they sometimes want nothing to do with one another. But mostly, they do everything together.

It all began long before Wright and Strom became the two senior cogs of a Penn State women's basketball team playing tomorrow against Liberty in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They were teammates, first as 14-year-olds. Then they became friends. Then they became inseparable. "It was crazy," remembered Pat McGinnis, their AAU coach. "It was like they shared one brain."

When both entered high school, Strom attended Steel Valley. She lived with her parents. Wright attended West Mifflin. She lived with her grandmother, Thelma Berry. Wright's parents, Berry said, were "knuckleheads who wanted to do drugs and run the streets. Her father went to jail; her mother went crazy. It was a mess."

Wright and Strom, then, formed a friendship rooted by intricacies. They appreciated their differences, and when they needed common ground, they had basketball.

Strom was the steady point guard, shy, sleepy and subdued. "Lazy," Wright called her.

Wright was the driving scorer, animated and aggressive. "Moody," Strom pointed out.

The opposites, though, bound them together. AAU teammates grew into Penn State teammates, and Penn State teammates grew into Penn State stars. This year, the Lady Lions (19-10) lack their traditional depth. They rely almost entirely on Strom and Wright, who, in the 2004-05 regular season, scored 50 percent of Penn State's points. Lady Lions coach Rene Portland said Wright (19.6 ppg) is the best player she has ever coached. She said Strom (15.4 ppg) is the team's most indispensable player.

"They're it," Portland said of the duo. "They are our team."

Two weeks ago, the two players who call themselves sisters were named to the Big Ten's all-conference first-team, and nobody thought much of it, because Strom and Wright habitually pass of such accomplishments as just another ordinary something-or-other.

But who can blame them? They were, after all, back in the same place -- honored on the same list. That only seemed natural.

In the Strom family living room in Munhall, a wooden display case shelves basketballs and photographs and plaques. Half of it celebrates Strom. Half of it celebrates Wright.

As much as the memorabilia denotes the accomplishments of parallel basketball careers, it also denotes a friendship.

Wright's bedroom is messy and small, walls painted blue. Strom's childhood room is across the hallway. This is where two of the nation's best basketball players spent their teenage years -- living on the same floor of the same modest house, related in every way but by blood.

When Wright joined Strom's AAU basketball team, both were entering high school. At first, McGinnis, the team's coach, drove Wright to and from practice. But Wright's grandmother often worked late shifts. After a while, Wright spent more time with Strom and relied on Strom's parents for transportation.

Constantly together, Wright and Strom grew close like family. Wright moved into the Strom's house in 10th grade. It was never official -- Wright never moved all belongings from her grandmother's house. But soon, with a bundle of spare clothes packed under her arm, Wright was spending days and days living with her best friend.

Patti and John Strom bought shoes for Wright and gave her Christmas presents. They forced her to do chores and encouraged her like a daughter. Even now, on breaks from college, Wright spends some nights back in her room at the Strom house.

At the same time, Wright and Strom developed into two of the best basketball players in the region. A similar batch of schools recruited both players. First, they decided on North Carolina State. Wright called John Strom at work to tell him the news. Next day, though, the girls changed their mind: Penn State. They wanted four more years together, at a school where winning could become their next common bond.

Now, this is it. Wright and Strom will watch their college careers end in the next few days, or perhaps the next few weeks if things go well. Both players started for four years. Three times, the Big Ten named Wright its defensive player of the year. Strom was named a third-team conference player in 2002 and '03. This year, she was a first-teamer.

As Wright and Strom tell the story, the most notable aspect of their college careers is not what they have done together, but what they have done apart from one another. Both have developed strong friends aside from one another.

"Our relationship has totally changed," Wright said. "We're totally different people. In high school, we hung out a lot more, because that's when our friendship was first growing. Not to say we're not close friends now; we are. But our friendship now is more like we're sisters."

Strom, seated next to Wright, chimed in.

"It's like, I don't have to be around her every second, because I know she's always going to be there for me.

"I think you just learn about yourself through the whole experience. Tanisha and I learned you can be different people and still be great friends."