Immaculata won titles from 1972 to '74 in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The AIAW predated the arrival of the NCAA women's tournament in 1981-82.

Our Lady of Victory, a movie about the first title under Mighty Macs coach Cathy Rush, is in postproduction. A release date has not been set.

Theresa Grentz, the star center of the Mighty Macs, will speak tonight on behalf of her former teammates, many of whom will be in attendance.

Grentz and Rush are members of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., as is former Mighty Macs point guard Marianne Stanley, who is now an assistant coach at fifth-ranked Rutgers.

Among the Mighty Macs in attendance will be Mary Scharf, who later coached at Immaculata, and Judy Martelli, the wife of St. Joseph's men's coach Phil Martelli.

Rush, who had personal commitments, will not attend.

Grentz returned to Immaculata last summer as an assistant to the president after a prominent head coaching career that included stints at St. Joseph's, Rutgers and Illinois.

"I absolutely, positively love basketball again," Grentz said, adding that she watches games involving both genders at all levels. "I thoroughly enjoy the sport that had been so dear to me through the years."

The school, which went coed three years ago, is now called Immaculata University.

"It's a new time," Grentz said "But the same core values remain. The same foundation that made it great through the years will continue to make it great. The addition of the men, I thoroughly enjoy. It was a strong move and a direction we needed to go."

Grentz coached the United States team to an Olympic bronze medal in the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Two other former Mighty Macs also became prominent coaches. Stanley led Old Dominion to two AIAW national titles and later added an NCAA title in 1985. She also coached at Penn and Southern Cal, and served as an interim co-head coach of Stanford's 1996 Final Four team. Stanley also coached the WNBA's Washington Mystics.

"The greatest gift we were given is we were formed by some of the greatest women I've ever been around - those dear sisters of Immaculata," Grentz said. "They formed us, they taught us, and they prepared us for the future."

The other Immaculata woman to achieve coaching success was Rene Portland, who built Penn State into national prominence in her 27 seasons there.

She resigned in March, a month after the settlement of a case in which a former player alleged that Portland had sexually discriminated against her.

Stanley will not be at the banquet tonight because Rutgers is on the road. She reflected on the era Saturday after the Scarlet Knights beat Villanova.

"The Immaculata experience for me was just tremendous," she said. "We carved out a place in basketball history - we didn't realize it at the time, but just to be a part of that was special.

"Playing for Cathy Rush was a great privilege and playing with the teammates I had, including Theresa, it was just a great team atmosphere, and we accomplished some incredible things despite all the odds. It's kind of a Cinderella story, if there ever was one."

Athletic scholarships were nonexistent during Immaculata's heyday.

"None of us were on scholarships," Stanley said. "We incurred all the expenses getting to and from games, as well as practices, ourselves.

"The rare occasion was when we stayed overnight, the school paid for that, but we paid for the rest. . . . I think that's what made our team special. We had great players and we loved the game. We did what we had to do to be successful.

"We were pioneers in the sense of making sure that there was a standard of excellence, and that's our legacy to all future generations of women's basketball players."