If not for the kindness, the generosity, the gallantry and strength of two women, one black, one white, brought together by their children, there's no telling what might have happened to UConn's Alfred Fincher.

What did happen was something so special, it helped ease something so sad.

Fincher, a rugged linebacker who is expected to be a second- or third-round pick in the NFL draft today, surprised everyone when he changed his number and wore No. 4 in the Motor City Bowl in December.

He did so to honor his friend Dan Reen, who had been killed in 2003 in an automobile accident only 50 feet from home.

"That was an awful thing," said Dana Bain, Fincher's mother. "He loved Dan. The Reens are such good people and to lose their child ..."

It was Dan Reen who hatched the plan that would change Fincher's life, which was coming apart in the middle of his four years at Norwood (Mass.) High.

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