ESPN Women's Basketball

It seemed as fanciful as the notion of Peter Pan losing his shadow. How could Kristi Toliver's mojo have gone missing?

Self-assurance and a cool swagger appeared to be intractable qualities for the Maryland guard, almost like birthrights. The daughter of an NBA referee, Toliver had a certainty from toddler age that she would be a big-time competitor -- long before her legendary 3-pointer against Duke, which forced overtime in the Terps' 78-75 victory in the 2006 NCAA title game.

"I'm one of the most confident people I know," Toliver said. "And I play that way."

Can't you picture it, even from the beginning? Little Toliver running around a hoops court in Harrisonburg, Va., where her dad, George, had played for James Madison? In fact, let's go back in time briefly … say, to 1991.

Toliver is 4. And one of the nation's best women's college basketball programs is located not far away, in Charlottesville. Dena Evans is a sophomore guard for the Virginia Cavaliers, playing in an absurdly talented backcourt along with Dawn Staley and Tammi Reiss.

The Cavs would painfully lose the 1991 NCAA title game in overtime to Tennessee. But even before that disappointment, Evans had been out of sorts. The sport didn't seem to be as enjoyable, and she was experiencing internal turmoil and doubt out of proportion to how she should have felt about herself as a player.

Which is why when Evans worked with Toliver this past summer -- at the Point Guard College, a camp that Evans ran in Harrisonburg -- it was like peering into a misty mirror and viewing her own past.

"I saw her as a player who was kind of beat down," Evans said. "She reminded me of myself my sophomore year.

"Sometimes it's hard for people to know that about a player, especially one as good as she is. She was still a good player her sophomore year, but when I watched her, I could just tell. She wasn't having fun; she didn't have as much confidence. Even though she hit 'the shot' her freshman year and they won the national championship, she was struggling."

Toliver was taken out of the starting lineup for the Terps in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Their stay was just two games. And after an upset loss to Mississippi, Toliver and her returning teammates all had to regroup the way even very successful people have to do sometimes.

Toliver went into sponge mode around Evans, who called her "the perfect student."

And this is how cycles of life work, although they don't always have this kind of sweet symmetry. Sometimes the twists and turns of people's paths can be connected like a series of dots -- and the picture formed is one hand outstretched to another: "Hey, I've been there. Let me help."

Toliver didn't know it when she was diligently taking notes about every single thing Evans said this summer. And Evans, who now is a grown-up running a business to aid players and no longer a kid in orange and blue, wouldn't have thought of it this way, either.

But it really was like a karmic quid pro quo. The signature game of Evans' career came at the expense of … Maryland. Fourteen years later, she was helping a Maryland star get her groove back.

In March 1993, Evans played all 55 minutes in the most hard-fought ACC women's tournament final in history. Her Cavaliers won 106-103 in triple overtime over the Terps, and it's known as the "Dena Evans game" to anyone who saw it.

The story has been recounted many times, but it's worth repeating. All-tournament ballots had to be turned in with a few minutes left in regulation. The senior Evans had had a solid tournament running the point for top-seeded Virginia, and was voted to the second team. But then the overtimes started, and her game became transcendent.

The 5-foot-5 guard was the biggest player on the court, willing the Cavs to their victory. She finished with 19 points, and in the scramble that followed, media members and ACC officials agreed that Evans had to be tournament MVP. In the overtimes, she'd made that unquestionable. Except … the all-tournament teams weren't changed.

Giving Evans the humorous distinction of being second-team all-tournament and simultaneously tournament MVP.

Here's the lesson that Evans would teach from that: You do not run out of chances to make an impact until the final buzzer sounds. Even if a game lasts 55 minutes and you've done nothing for 54 of them, there's still one minute left to make something happen.

"As much as I learned X's- and O's-wise, what I got out of it the most is the lectures on leadership and confidence," Toliver said of her experience with Evans. "It opened my eyes, and I got that love back that I was kind of missing last year. I still stay in touch with Dena.

"I have a national championship under my belt, but I knew there were still a million things I had to learn. There is so much more in me as a basketball player. That's what we talked about."

Toliver's 3-pointer against Duke will always be one of the top highlights in women's Final Four history. But Toliver's most recent postseason memory is not pleasant.

She won't give you some phony mumbo-jumbo about how not starting in the NCAA Tournament last season was OK and for her own good. She hated it.

"But I knew then I could either be 'Debbie Downer' or be optimistic and supportive of my teammates," Toliver said. "I decided to go the latter route, no matter how it was bothering me inside."

She also realized that there was one way to keep it from happening again: play so well as a junior that it would never even be an option.

It's safe to say Toliver has done that. Her summertime schooling and refreshed attitude propelled her into a season in which the Terps have needed a steady point guard leader more than ever. With coach Brenda Frese having to miss games because of her pregnancy and assistant Daron Park in his first season at Maryland, the staff has been able to rely on all its veterans to roll with the changes.

The No. 3 Terps are 22-1 going into their Saturday afternoon showdown at No. 4 North Carolina. Toliver leads Maryland in scoring -- which is really impressive on a team with Marissa Coleman, Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper -- with 16.9 points per game. And Toliver also tops the Terps in assists with 7.7 per game.

"The core group of us has been together three years now," Toliver said. "And our chemistry is phenomenal.

"I want to do whatever I can to help make this team successful. I have some of the best scorers in the country on my team -- and I know I'm one of them, too."

Evans is based now in her native Texas. The Terps and Tar Heels used to be her mortal enemies in basketball terms, but when those teams meet Saturday, she'll be proud of players on both sides. Evans also has worked with North Carolina's Rashanda McCants, Heather Claytor, Italee Lucas and Trinity Bursey.

"It's almost like being a big sister watching my little sisters play," Evans said. "It's such a short window that you get to be in college, to compete at that level and be on that stage. I want these women to have a great experience and make the most of it."

And Toliver certainly is.

"As a point guard, you have to have the mentality that it's your job to serve, to put your teammates in position to succeed," Evans said. "And Kristi really has taken that on. You have to get excited about making other people look good. In the process, you look good."

Mechelle Voepel of The Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com.