Saturday at the Women's Final Four, in all the pre-championship game press conferences, everybody was talking about "Hoosiers." Reporters had their leads handed to them. And I felt like I had the deepest and darkest of secrets.

	Ruth Riley's net result: an NCAA title.

I've never seen the movie.

Sure, I know what it's about, everybody does, but I've never actually watched it. That may seem weird for someone who falls back on the movie crutch so often in writing, but I really don't care for sports movies.

I don't even know why. It's not because so many of them are awful, because that's never been a deterrent to watching anything else. It's not because the action sequences are so often laughable, because that's a staple of my favorite kind of movie: cheap and cheesy horror.

Maybe it's because sports itself isn't scripted, and movies seldom seem to capture that what's-going-to-happen-next adrenaline rush that sports junkies live for.

Whatever, the facts remain. Love basketball, haven't seen "Hoosiers." Love baseball, haven't seen "Field of Dreams." Love figure skating, haven't seen "Ice Castles." (But that's the only one of the three that I really do want to see.)

Anyway, Notre Dame's Ruth Riley has seen "Hoosiers," as has Purdue's Katie Douglas. Many, many times. They and other Indiana-born players from Notre Dame and Purdue talked about the fact that if you are from the state, you "felt" that movie so much more than anybody else would.

One wonders what kind of movie Notre Dame's 68-66 victory Sunday would make. You have the Oscar-caliber role of Douglas, the reluctant tragic heroine. Anyone who has lost one parent, even when you're a grown adult, knows how deep that wound is. How you dream about them, how you regret the stuff that you didn't ask, how it hits you even when you think you're past it ... until you realize you don't get past it. You just live with it.

	Douglas

Losing both parents before you're out of college? That happened to former Stephen F. Austin star Katrina Price. She took her own life less than a year after she graduated. Before then, people were so impressed with how "KP" handled everything. No one fully realized she was eaten alive by pain.

Douglas appears to have dealt remarkably well with the grief she's been dealt.

Admittedly, it's difficult to write about it without it seeming exploitive in some way and invasive of her privacy. Yet it's impossible to look at her and not think about it. Parents are the key to everything in life. How a person is raised makes all the difference. Covering college sports, you really notice that every day.

So it's the legacy of Douglas' parents that they brought up this smart, brave, funny, tough, strong child and did it so well that she perseveres without them.

Would a movie script call for Douglas to miss the shot that could have tied the game and sent it to overtime? Of course not. It would call for her to make it, or even more likely, to make a three-pointer to win it.

But that would take the happy ending away from Notre Dame's Ruth Riley and Niele Ivey. And who's to say they didn't deserve it as much?

Riley was 3 years old when her father left her mother. Her mom remarried after seven years, but when Riley was in high school, her mom and stepdad divorced.

Someone asked Riley if things were sometimes tough for her growing up, especially in the years when it was just her mom supporting the family. And Riley smiled and shook her head, saying her mom was so loving and supportive that she and her sister and brother never felt as if they lacked anything. They were never too worried about material things. Riley didn't care that she didn't have $100 Air Jordan shoes.

"I don't know what kind I had," she said. "It didn't matter."

	Ivey

Ivey went through two ACL tears at Notre Dame, both knees. Coach Muffet McGraw said the second one -- at the 1999 Big East tournament -- was particularly difficult for her to handle because she was so fond of Ivey, so angry that the kid had to go through it again.

"It was heartwrenching to see it," McGraw said. "I said to myself, 'This is so unfair. How much does she have to prove?'

"That was very difficult for me, because she's such a special person."

Now, there are so many other stories, too. There's Purdue's Camille Cooper, an incredibly bright and good-humored young woman who someday will be practicing law. You better hope she's on your side.

There's Notre Dame's Kelley Siemon, daughter of former Minnesota Viking Jeff Siemon. Kelley played with a broken hand against Connecticut back on Jan. 15. She's been a solid complement to Riley inside all season. But she had a few problems with the ball Sunday. She was able to joke after the game of her lob pass that Riley had to fight to catch at the end, "I was looking for my double-double with turnovers."

There's Purdue's Shereka Wright, who was called for the foul on Riley with 5.8 seconds left that resulted in the winning free throws. It did appear, on replays, to be a legit call ... but you could understand how Purdue fans may feel otherwise.

Wright's comment afterward: "Just can't talk about it. They made the call. You've got to accept it and move on."

We probably haven't seen the last of Wright and fellow freshman Shalicia Hurns at the Final Four. Maybe Purdue's other outstanding rookie, Erika Valek, will get her opportunity to play in one, too. She certainly was a key for Purdue this season before the freakin' ACL took her out in the regional semifinals.

Think about it: Purdue got this close to a national championship after losing its starting point guard a week earlier. That tells you a ton about this team, coach Kristy Curry and especially Douglas. Versatility is a quality becoming more common in the women's game, but name another college player who could perform at this high a level at any spot on the floor, especially point guard. Purdue didn't need Douglas at center, but you know she could have done that, too.

Oh, and what about Ericka Haney? Who? The "forgotten" Irish starter, she had 13 points and five rebounds in 35 minutes. You never heard about Haney all year, but Notre Dame couldn't have won the national championship without her.

But ultimately, it came down to three central characters: Riley and Douglas, the first-team All-Americans, and Ivey, the hometown St. Louis girl.

Riley would be the toughest to cast for a movie, of course, because of the height thing. She might have to play herself. And she'd probably do that just fine.

Everything she did Sunday was right: 28 points, 13 rebounds, seven blocks. She missed four shots from the field -- but none at crunch time. If you're a women's hoops fan, don't you feel as if you've watched Riley get better every game these last four years? Wasn't it incredible to see her play her very best in her most important game?

So now the season is over, and it's soon to be withdrawal time ("a kind of depression" is how Southwest Missouri State senior Carly Deer put it after her team's loss in the semifinals) and I'll be looking for something to do ...

OK, maybe I finally will watch "Hoosiers." Can't be as good as what we saw Sunday, though.

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached via e-mail at mvoepel@kcstar.com.