Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

We were not on the scene in Chicago, Sunday, for Big Ten media day, but that doesn't mean we can't deliver the news streaming out of the Windy City.

"It seemed like a room full of strangers," our good friend and colleague Steve Tucker of the Chicago Sun noted to us.

And no wonder.

Over half the 12 teams are under coaches either making their debut or beginning their second season.

The rookies are Illinois' Jolette Law, the former longtime Rutgers associate head coach to C. Vivian Stringer who replaced the retired Theresa Grentz, Penn State's Coquese Washington, the former associate head coach to Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw who replaced the departed Rene Portland, Michigan State's Suzy Merchant, the former Eastern Michigan head coach who replaced Joanne P. McCallie, who took a similar job at Duke, and Michigan's Kevin Borseth, who had enjoyed success as head coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay and replaces the departed Cheryl Burnett.

Additionally, Indiana's Felisha Legett-Jack, formerly head coach at Hofstra, and Purdue's Sharon Versyp, formerly head coach at Indiana, begin their second seasons.

Some things are still the same at a conference that sank to a low of only three representatives at last season's NCAA tournament.

Jim Foster is still at Ohio State, where the Buckeyes are both the media and coaches favorite in separare preseason polls, to repeat as conference champions.

Law's recruiting reputation at Rutgers, a legacy which could see the Scarlet Knights landing the top class in the country this season, gained her the most pressure of the Big Ten coaching rookies from among her colleagues.

The Illini were picked third behind Wisconsin, although the media decided to be more conservative in tabbing Law's group sixth in the preseason vote.

The rest of the coaches' ranking after Illinois were Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa, Penn State, Indiana, Michigian and Northwestern.

Both groups agreed on the final three spots. The media list above that, after Ohio State, has Michigan State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Iowa, Illinois, Penn State, Minnesota, and the other three teams mentioned two paragraphs above.

Both groups named Wisconsin senior guard Jolene Anderson preseason conference player of the year. Joining her on the all-conference preseason squads, both groups placed Illinois junior guard Lori Bjork, Michigan State sophomore center Allyssa DeHaan, whom Tucker said drew the most attention among players at the interview tables, and Ohio State senior guard Marscilla Parker. The coaches rounded out their choices with Minnesota junior guard Emily Fox, while the media added Ohio State junior forward Star Allen.

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: Kathleen Radebaugh, a student at St. Joseph's who writes for the campus Hawk publication, will be flying with the regulars on our blogging team this season, focusing on the Women's Big Five and Drexel. Tyson McCloud, an intern in the Inquirer Sports Dept., who writes for the Temple news, will also add to our immediate local report. Both will also provide Atlantic Ten features as well as the news warrants.

Here are her early thoughts on the Big Five schools. We'll be doing a WB5/Drexel print preview in early November.)

By Kathleen Radebaugh

It’s as almost one can hear the echo of basketballs bouncing on the glistened court.

The new season is on the brink.

The Philadelphia Big Five is returning just as we are getting a short extended wait for an extra hour of sleep.

For many teams in the Big 5, leading scorers and First Team players are missing from the rosters of a year ago. Some teams will have more experience with eight letterwinners, including most-improved-players honorees entering their senior year.

Let the Big 5 games begin and just follow the jump link in the next sentence to continue our look.

(Guru's Note: Jumping rope was never our forte earlier in life, but there's no one less thing to do to keep Jonathan happy in the technological operation of this blog. We figured out how to jump pages on our own when the blog edition is somewhat lengthy, which this is about to be.

So after the first topic, simply click the link below that will appear to get to the end of the column.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ It's quickly getting to the point that the end of the regular-season rivalry between Tennessee and Connecticut is becoming better for women's basketball than the actual competition, itself.

Think about it.

If the two were still scheduled to play each other, the anticipation and hype would not accelerate until the actual date of the game was near.

One reason is the world now consists of a few more threats to the national championship than just those two teams.

But since Tennessee coach Pat Summitt determined for reasons yet to be definitely clarified to cancel the series, the media, as well as message boards, has continued to debate the significance as well as the cause.

In early September, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said he would not have anything further to say until after the season and has told questioners to go chase Summitt.

Yet, last week at Big East Media Day in New York City, Auriemma was surrounded by reporters, of which some, not having access over the summer, quickly addressed the Tennessee-Connecticut breakup.

If anything new in his response, Auriemma noted the series was always good as a measuring stick of letting the coaches know where their teams stood in terms of the ultimate title chase.

He mentioned the attention, the increased media interviews, all of which occurs at the Women's Final Four.

Thus, if either or both teams held their poise in the lead-up and execution of the game, it bode well for March.

However, with a bunch of teams in the hunt this season, there are a number of games that could cause the same effect, depending on the records and rankings at the time of the matchup.

It seems that several years ago, the 1-2 Duke-Connecticut game had quite a bit of buildup as did the intra-Atlantic Coast Conference 1-2 showdown between Duke and North Carolina, when both were unbeaten.

Certainly, the Rutgers-Connecticut rivalry in the Big East, considering potential, and market location, could be just as big, especially with at least three potential matchups, besides one that could occur in the NCAA tournament.

Speaking of Rutgers, the other crowded interview table involved Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer and her players.

Stringer quickly tried to put a stop to further questions about last April's controversy that arose a day after the Scarlet Knights lost to Tennessee in the NCAA championship.

That's when national radio talk show host Don Imus made racial and sexual remarks about the Rutgers players that ultimately resulted in his firing and also enhanced the reputation of Stringer's team over the way they handled themselves in a nationally-televised press conference reacting to the Imus remarks.

Now, Stringer says, it's time to just talk about basketball.

Unfortunately, off the court at times the Rutgers program seems to appear like one of those whack-a-mole games at carnivals in which whenever the participant nails a mole back into their habitat, another pops up elsewhere.

Less than 24 hours after Stringer's remarks in New York, a new flap arose, although this one appeared to be nipped quickly in the bud.

ESPN had been preparing a piece on the recent sexual harrassment case involving New York Knicks' coach Isiah Thomas and former team employee Anucha Brown (Sanders), of which a jury in Manhattan ruled in her favor.

Stringer had been shown an edited acount of Thomas' deposition on tape in which he had said that there was a difference to a black man calling a black woman "bitch" than a white man making the same characterization.

The Hall of Fame coach took exception to his distinction and, to save space, you can read further details in their entirety at ESPN.com.

Then on Friday night, Thomas after an NBA game was asked about her reaction and Thomas claimed Stringer did not have the total context of his statement.

"It's easy to get what I said," ESPN.com quoted Thomas. "So don't speak out of ignorance, get the facts about what I said and not the portion that was taken out of context."

On Saturday, ESPN and Newsday reported Stringer and Thomas had spoken to each other and that Stringer apologized. "I responded to a question of which I had partial information and was not aware of the full text of Mr. Thomas' statement.

On a more positive note, last week Stringer was among a group of prominent women's basketball coaches named to a larger 100 most influential educators named by the Institute for International Sport.

The other women's basketball coaches are former Texas coach Jody Conradt, North Carolina State's Kay Yow, Tennessee's Pat Summitt, and Temple's Dawn Staley.

Now click the next line to "jump" to the rest of the blog.

(Guru's Note: This is the companion/additional coverage to our Inquirer print version in Friday's Inquirer sports section.

By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK - There's nothing new about the 1-2 picks in the annual Big East coaches' predictions of the race for the regular season championship.

Connecticut was again an overwhelming choice to land on top with Rutgers the seemingly unanimous choice to finish second, based on the points. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams, which means that the Huskies' Geno Auriemma tossed his No. 1 vote to Rutgers and the Scarlet Knights' C. Vivian Stringer did likewise for UConn.

Both teams have been consensus national top five picks in the various preseason publications and are likely to also be among the starting quintet when the Associated Press preseason women's poll is released on Saturday, Nov. 3.

But some change has occurred in both the rest of the pecking order and the scene at the annual confab, which was moved several years ago from hotels near the Newark Airport across the Hudson River in New Jersey to the Big Apple.

West Virginia received its highest ranking, ever, since joining the conference with a No. 3 nod, followed by Pittsburgh at No. 4. Villanova, on the other hand, which used to be among the top six, landed a No. 12 pick after finishing dead last in March.

One thing that occurs at all this media days, especially at previews among the major conferences, is that everyone gets up and tells you that they have the top competition in the land.

It was non-stop among the opening remarks by the Big East coaches Thursday, although curiously earlier in the week down at the Atlantic Coast get-together in Greensboro, N.C., a similar theme did not occur unless coaxed about through the question-and-answer session with the media.

No question, the Big East is perhaps the deepest, replacing a boast that the Southeastern Conference was able to maintain in the previous century. Eight teams went to the NCAA tournament from the Big East last season.

On the other hand, the Atlantic Coast has had three teams -- Maryland, North Carolina, and Duke, among the weekly top five the last several seasons.

"Bigger is better," Pittsburgh coach Agnus Berenato proclaimed in leading the parade of her colleagues in an altered format this season in which the coaches were called in random order as opposed to an alphabetical arrangement in the past.

The discountinued rivalry between Tennessee and Connecticut were quickly alluded to by Auriemma at the start of his presentation.

"Vivian, I have to tell you, as hard as you find this hard to believe, I was rooting as hard as I could for you to win that championship. I wanted you to beat them so bad, I could taste it."

Rutgers lost to Tennessee in the national championship.

Speaking of the Big East wars, Auriemma noted, "The competition is only going to get better. With eight teams in the NCAA, which is half the conference, it means almost every night you're playing an NCAA tournament game.

"I don't know as a coach how you prepare for that unless you have really good players. And fortunately, for us, we have really good players. We have everybody back from a really good team. But despite what the polls say, you still have to play."

In the old days, incidentally, when it was time to go to the various team tables to conduct interviews, a mob would dash over to Auriemma and his players and the rest of the league would sit around with their hands folded.

On Thursday, the UConn table still had a large gathering, but Rutgers appeared to draw the initial crush.

In fact, the scene caused Villanova's Laura Kurz, a transfer from Duke, to have one of the funnier comments.

We went to the Wildcats' table, first, considering in terms of our print story, they were our immediate local representative in the Big East.

Apparently, coach Harry Perretta's duo -- Kurz and Stacie Witman -- were still waiting for other media members to stop by after we moved on.

Some 20 minutes later, when we passed the Villanova contingent, Kurz called out, "Hey, do you want to interview us again?"

Stringer, in her presentation, praised ESPN's involvement with the league -- a partnership that fuels the Big East boasts in terms of TV coverage _ and lauded commissioner Mike Tranghese for the teams attracted several years ago when the conference expanded.

"I'm excited about this season, I must say, it seems like last year ran into this year," Stringer said.

"But I must say as I start this season, I'm a little sad, because every day as I start practice, I lose another day, another opportunity to be in the outstanding presence of the outstanding young women that are sitting in this audience. I don't even want to start the first game. I just want to put it on freeze."

She was speaking particularly of seniors Essence Carson and Matee Ajavon, both Big East preseason picks along with junior Kia Vaughn.

"I've never been part of a team that had so much improvement in one year in my entire life."

Of the strength of the league, DePaul's Doug Bruno observered, "We're better. But so is everybody else in the conference."

Villanova coach Harry Perretta, the dean of the league, claimed to be excited about the months ahead, which he said was a first at this event.

Sorry, Harry.

It's the second. Back in the fall of 2002, we noted that Perretta's enthusiasm at the time seemed to be a first. He was later proved right when his Wildcats beat Connecticut in the title game, ending the Huskies' NCAA-record 70-game win streak.

Villlanova went on to advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament, losing to Tennessee in Knoxville.

Witman would like pull surprises the way that squad did.

"Last season, we all had to do one more thing (to be better), whether it was get a rebound, make a layup, or make a few foul shots," Witman said.

"We definitely knew we competed in all those games. We know we can compete this year if we just play well," she added. "We like being underdogs. We like teams playing us and before the game, they don't know whether they're going to lose to us or not. We kind of like other teams questioning whether they're going to win or not."

Atlantic Ten Picks

At the same time in Atlantic City, the Atlantic Ten forecast was being revealed and the most surprising aspect was Temple being tabbed fourth behind Xavier and Charlotte, who tied for second.

It's the lowest forecast for the Owls since Dawn Staley became coach in 2000.

Although A-10 player of the year Kamesha Hairston graduated, the truth is once league play began last season, different persons took turns contributing to a run that was unbeaten in the A-10 until Temple met George Washington, also unbeaten, in the final game of the regular season.

The same Colonials were predicted to win it all, gaining all 17 first-place votes from the league's 14 coaches and selected media. No suprise. George Washington has four starters and 11 players returning from one of the best seasons in the program's history.

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Hi folks...

The Guru is in New York today for the Big East's women's basketball media day. I am at the Atlantic 10's coed (as such) media day at Boardwalk Hall here in Atlantic City, which will host the men's conference tournament for the second consecutive year this coming March.

I can report that the Guru took some razzing from the folks here for not showing up, but the time conflict is what it is. So to pass the time before Mel files from the Big Apple, I give you an edited version of a post I just put on my blog, Soft Pretzel Logic.

(That page includes multimedia highlights from here on the men's side as well as yesterday's Big East men's basketball media day, for those of you who are so inclined.)

Given how successful the Temple women's team has been in recent years, it surprised me to see that the Owls were picked to finish fourth in the A-10 this season.

George Washington was picked first, with Xavier and UNC-Charlotte tied in second.

But Staley has a way of dealing with that scenario that the three schools above Temple definitely do not: senior center Lady Comfort, who was selected to the preseason all-conference first team.

Listen to Staley discuss the preseason poll, Comfort, and Temple's rough non-conference schedule by clicking here.

You can also listen to Colonials coach Joe McKeown's assessment of the Atlantic 10 this season by clicking here.

By Mel Greenberg

GREENSBORO, N.C. _ The Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball media day had already had a full share of notes and quotes on Tuesday here following the morning session with six of the conference's coaches speaking at the lavish Grandover Resort and the other six wrapping up interview activity in the late afternoon.

It was then North Carolina State coach Kay Yow's turn to give her assessment of the Wolfpack fortunes or lack thereof for the season.

The Hall of Famer lamented her youthful roster needing more of learning curve with only two starters returning, although she joked that at least having experience with a guard and a post player "gives us something to build around."

Then Charlene Curtis, the former Temple and Wake Forest coach who now does media and TV work, asked Yow to reflect on last season's magical run to the Sweet 16 that occurred after Yow returned from taking two months off as she continued to battle breast cancer.

"I don't think I'll experience another year as gratifying," Yow said acknowledging her teary-eyed emotions during her response. "No matter what, I don't think a national championship would beat that year."

The Wolfpack (25-10) upset then-unbeaten Duke in the conference tournament and then finished off a 12-3 run losing to Connecticut in the regional semifinals.

Yow, a veteran of 33 seasons, revealed at Tuesday's session that she had returned to taking chemotherapy after taking five months off.

"My body just couldn't take it," Yow said. She added that on Wednesday a week ago she began taking a new drug, Doxil that might limit the side effects.

"That is hopefully going to work as well and get the (cancer cell) count down where it needs to be," Yow said. "It hasn't at this time zapped my energy, so that's the really good part of it. I don't know if my body is getting used to it and handling it better -- I'm not sure."

North Carolina State, incidentally, will visit Temple on Dec. 1 at the Liacouras Center.

In other comments, Virginia's Debbie Ryan talked about the need of her Cavaliers to return to the NCAA tournament after being absent for several years and she's hopeful of shoring up her team's defense that caused a bunch of closely-fought contests to land on the losing side of the ledger.

Georgia Tech's MaChelle Joseph, a former Purdue star, noted her team's goal of landing in the top four of the conference standings that have been dominated in recent seasons by Maryland, Duke and North Carolina.

Willingboro High's Crystal Langhorne, a senior at Maryland, was the Terrapins' player representative, although coach Brenda Frese appeared via speaker phone while remaining in College Park, Md., because of back problems not related to her pregnancy.

Frese is expecting twins a month before the postseason begins.

Langhorne arrived at about the time our blackberry was chiming with email news of the Los Angeles Sparks winning the WNBA's No.1 pick in the draft lottery. The rest of the top of the pecking order was also established.

Langhorne is considered a top draft prospect and when it was mentioned that she could land on one of those teams, she smiled and responded, "I'm already getting nervous. But I have enough to keep me busy at Maryland until then."

Incidentally, Maryland's first promotional trinket on behalf of Langhorne's all-American candidacy is a simulated piece of crystal. If Maryland says it's the real deal, we'll have it assessed here.

Drawing much attention was Duke, where Joanne P. McCallie has moved from Michigan State to take over the Blue Devils following Gail Goestenkors' departure for Texas to replace the retired Jody Conradt.

"What I'm most pleased about was it didn't take much to change how we're going to approach practice," McCallie said. "Mostly because we don't know each other that well. We've had some incredible long practices where we've stayed focused and that's a very, very good sign."

We had dinner at our favorite Raleigh steakhouse later Tuesday night with Duke team spokesman Lindy Brown, who mentioned that McCallie has been running all over the place getting acquainted with the denizens of the triangle area since her hire last spring.

"It's difficult keeping up to meet with her to discuss the week's schedule," Brown smiled.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the ACC announced the preseason vote of the media -- no, we did not participate.

Maryland, with four starters returning, got 27 of 37 first-place votes to lock up the No. 1 spot ahead of North Carolina, which collected the other 10 first-place ballots. Duke, Florida State, and Georgia Tech rounded out the first five, followed by Virginia, North Carolina State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Miami, Boston College, and Wake Forest.

Langhorne was named the preseason player of the year and was joined on the all-conference team by Terrapin teammate Marissa Coleman, North Carolina's Erlana Larkins, Duke's Abby Waner, and North Carolina State's Khadijah Whittington.

-- Mel

Guru’s Note: Just as DVD’s offer extras such as scenes that never made it to the movie theater and interviews with the stars, so to, does the Guru offer you companion coverage to Monday’s print feature on Drexel junior Nicole Hester, who has rejoined the Dragons after spending the last 12 months in a courageous and winning battle over Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Depending whether you are reading this blog prior to sunrise Monday, clicking the link right here will lead you to the print version that hopefully Jonathan will have provided in the morning, but we’re posting in the late evening Sunday night.

Note that when Hester originally left school, respecting her privacy, Drexel never announced the cause of her departure until recently, though it was known internally in the athletic dept.

The disease was revealed with the announcement of the CAA inspiration award to be given Nov. 28.

What follows as extras here are the full phone interview with Nicole’s mother Kim and the full interview from last week with Drexel coach Denise Dillon.

The key comments from Nicole made it into print, but the Guru will provide the out-takes as well.

Attached to Dillon’s interview are a few comments from the senior twin-sister guard combo of Narissa and Anora Suber, who became best-friends with Hester when they arrived as freshmen several years ago at Drexel.

Nicole is the daughter of Kim and Mike Hester and has two younger brothers, Jay, age 18, and Martez, age 13.

She was born in Washington but lived most of her formative years in Waldorf, Md., in the southern section of the state.

Mrs. Hester’s interview will be organized into subtitles to make the narrative more organized since the Guru’s questions evoking the answers will be self-evident and not necessary. The same deletions will be true in the other interviews.
-- Mel

UPDATE: You can find the text of the interviews by clicking on the link below, which serves as the equivalent of the "jump" referral to the inside page of your newspaper. Such as the Monday edition Mel is working on at this hour at his desk. Also, you can find the photo Mel was referring to on the next post down. -- Jonathan Tannenwald

By Mel Greenberg

From left to right: Tom Lochner, La Salle; Pat Knapp, Penn; Cindy Griffin, Saint Joseph's; Mel; Harry Perretta, Villanova; Denise Dillon, Drexel; Dawn Staley, Temple.

PHILADELPHIA _ We stopped by Sunday morning for the annual clinic at St. Joseph's run by the Women's Big Five teams and Drexel women, which benefits the Coaches vs. Cancer Foundation.

At the end of the event, the women's coaches presented the foundation with a check for $3,700.

We also had a secondary reason for attending -- with all the local teams in the house, it gave the photo dept. at The Inquirer an opportunity to shoot a psuedo local all-star picture to augment our preview that has yet to be written, but will run in a few weeks.

If you want to guess who represented each team, either email the guru or comment in the space on this page.

(Oops. -- Jonathan Tannenwald, who uploaded the photo.)

Speaking of photos, there's a new action shot of the Guru at work or whatever following Jonathan's discovery of an appearance at CAA media day last week in Washington.

One minor problem is the Guru forgot how to upload the file, since he hasn't since the posting induction coverage last summer. We'll figure it out.

(Like he said... -- Jonathan)

Meanwhile, come back here late tonight for enhanced coverage supplementing a print feature in Monday's paper about Drexel's Nicole Hester, who has returned after a year's absence battling Hodgkin's Disease.

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

Hi folks,

I was perusing the Colonial Athletic Association's website a moment ago and stumbled upon multiple photos of the Guru in action.

The conference put together a photo gallery from its media day in Washington this past Wednesday, and you can see Mel there times -- here, here and here -- though you might note that Mel's name is misspelled.

Also, the famous "Guru spreadsheet local composite operational schedule" is now available to all for your perusal. Right-click this link and save the file, which is in Microsoft Excel format, to your computer.

By Mel Greenberg

On a night in which Rutgers' football took prominence in the news again with the Scarlet Knights' upset of No. 3 South Florida, that nasty Don Imus flap from last spring managed to return to the news wires like a boomerang that keeps coming back.

Actually, it was the second comeback this week in terms of reference to the national radio talk show hosts' disparaging comments about the women's basketball team the morning after they lost to Tennessee in the NCAA championship.

On Monday, the women's basketball team earned a special courage award at the annual Women's Sports Foundation awards dinner in New York City for the way it handled itself with grace and dignity in a nationally-televised press conference to react to the events that resulted in Imus' firing from WFAN in New York.

At the same time, the entertainment pages were reporting Imus' looming return to the airways at WABC in New York.

Then early Thursday night, a few hours before the football team took the field to produce a second-annual weeknight extravaganza, the Associated Press reported that Kia Vaughn's lawyer claimed the star junior had been pressured by Women's Basketball Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer into dropping a personal slander and defamation suit last month against Imus that Vaughn had filed over the summer.

Vaughn told the Associated Press that no such action by Stringer had occurred.

The AP story can be easily found on the internet.

We believe Stringer didn't have to say anything because most reaction at the time of the lawsuit was of disaproval. It was assumed that Stringer, and anyone else in the Rutgers family, would not be delighted because the odds did not indicate a successful outcome and most were ready to look ahead to a season of pursuing a championship.

Even the loyal denizens on the fabled Rutgers message board overwhelmingly questioned Vaughn's action at the time it became public.

So an inherent "pressure" already existed and perhaps once these comments became aware to Vaughn and her family, they decided that, upon further review, the move should be re-thought.

And upon further review, looking at stories from coverage of Rutgers' football win Thursday night, the bandwagon just got crowded again.

Feeling a Draft

On Tuesday, the WNBA will hold its annual draft lottery to determine the pecking order among the playoffs outcasts in the bid to get the No. 1 choice.

A new addition the the crowd is the recently announced Atlanta franchise, which has already been given the No. 4 pick.

At the moment, the best odds give the Los Angeles Sparks a very slight edge over the Minnesota Lynx, who already have two No. 1 picks from the past in the fold. They grabbed Seimone Augustus out of LSU in 2006 and then acquired Duke's Lindsey Harding in a trade with Phoenix that helped the Mercury go on to their first WNBA title.

The Mercury, incidentally, did not have the best odds going into the picks a year ago.

So following Minnesota, the other hopefuls are the Houston Comets at No. 3 in terms of success in the draw, the Chicago Sky, who are at No. 5 behind Atlanta after joining the league in 2006, and the Washington Mystics at No. 6.

Forget any Candace Parker deliberations for now in terms of wether the junior decides to leave Tennessee after this season. However, if Los Angeles wins the pick, the prospect of playing alongside Lisa Leslie could be enticing. That move could make the Sparks the next worst to first group after the Detroit Shock set the standard in 2003.

Planning Ahead

We're working on a special print story for Monday's editions, still contemplating visiting Atlantic Coast Conference media day in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday, and will be at the annual Big East confab on Thursday in New York.

The Big East, incidentally, conflicts with the Atlantic Ten event in Atlantic City in which George Washington's Joe McKeown, Temple's Dawn Staley, new Charlotte coach Karen Aston, and Xavier's Kevin McGuff will represent the women's teams in the conference.

Jonathan and a few others will represent us on the boardwalk by the sea.

On the Sunday, the Big Five and Drexel will host its annual Coaches vs. Cancer clinic at St. Joseph's from 9 p.m. to noon. Call St. Joe's for details.

-- Mel

(Preamble to the Guru's note: Click here for Mel's story from today's paper.)

(Guru's note: By the time many of you are reading this, you will see strange markings here. And that's because Jonathan will see that I have mentioned a print story from CAA media day, which is tilted toward our locals -- Drexel and Delaware -- appears in the print editions of Thursday's sports section and he will have inserted the appropriate link.

Also, he has a copy of the famous Guru spreadsheet local composite operational schedule, which is how the Guru plans and balances national and local coverage. If he can, he will post that info here off its first draft. The Drexel men are part of the mix so it can be determined when the Guru can be drafted unconflicted to continue the ongoing sensitivity training that has been alluded to in the past.)

(Postscript to Guru's note: It will appear in a separate post.)

By Mel Greenberg

So as we began updating our active list of total appearances by coaches with teams in the Associated Press rankings, which will begin their 32nd season on Nov. 3 with the preseason poll, we noticed various changes. We'll wait a few more days to provide the list as it stands prior to the first weekly vote.

But here's some of the things that will happen in the all-time, active and multi-appearance categories:

In the active category off the close of business in 2006-07, the departure of Jody Conradt (No.3, Texas), and Rene Portland (No. 5, Penn State) will make Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer the new No. 3 behind Tennessee's Pat Summitt, whose Vols have missed only 14 of the 536 polls, and Georgia's Andy Landers.

Stanford's Tara VanDerveer moves up to No.4, followed by North Carolina State's Kay Yow, Virginia's Debbie Ryan, Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, Ohio State's Jim Foster, Arizona's Joan Bonvicini, and North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell.

Additionally, Theresa Grentz left Illinois at No. 14, Mississippi's Carol Ross left at No. 20, and LSU's Pokey Chatman left at No. 34.

In the other direction, Van Chancellor had dropped to No. 20 on the All-time list with 221 appearances after leaving Mississippi and spending 10 years in the WNBA with the Houston Comets. But he will barge into the active list at No. 12 off his return to the collegiate crowd at LSU.

Chancellor has a chance to quickly move up on the all-time list two spots.

Eight departures, who were once active, enabling Chancellor's return at eight spots higher, are Conradt, Portland, Louisiana Tech's Leon Barmore, Auburn's Joe Ciampi, the late Sue Gunter at LSU, Texas Tech's Marsha Sharp, Maryland's Chris Weller, and Grentz.

With LSU's expected preseason appearance, Chancellor will also join the multiple-team appearance category, as will former Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie at Duke, and potentially former Duke coach Gail Goestenkors whenever Texas cracks the list.

Also on the active list, Connecticut's Geno Auriemma only needs three appearances to move from No. 7 to No. 6 if his former boss Debbie Ryan stays out of the poll at Virginia in the early part of the season.

On the all-time list, Connecticut's preseason appearance will enable Auriemma to snap a tie with Ciampi and take sole possession of 10th place. Of course, for the reasons mentioned in the preceding paragraph, he could quickly pass Virginia's Ryan into ninth.

Name That Team

So we saw Peach mentioned as a potentil nickname of the new WNBA team in Atlanta if it takes a regional name as in Georgia, instead of the local name.

Been There, Heard That

We didn't make Penn State's official media day on Wednesday because of the conflict with the CAA media day in Washington. But based on the quotes on the AP wire story, it appears we didn't miss a thing after being the lone media type Friday night at Penn State's first practice in the launch of the Coquese Washington era.

Incidentally, as an epilogue to the entire string of events prior to Portland's departure from Penn State, the unofficial word at CAA day was that Jen Harris, the former player who charged Portland with discrimination after transferring to James Madison, does not appear to have interest in finishing her collegiate eligibility.

-- Mel

By Acacia O'Connor

(Editor's note: This was originally posted on the old blog, but we fixed Acacia's account so she could get it on here. -- Jonathan Tannenwald)

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - "Would you recognize your soul in the dark?" John Amaechi asked a full room of Vassar College students, coaches, faculty and other community members.

He repeated the question, which his mother once asked him when, at the age of 17, he informed her he wanted to play in the NBA. Looking at her bookish, not incredibly athletic son Amaechi's mother did not point out that he had no previous experience in the game of basketball; instead she told him it seemed as if it would be an incredible journey.

Just so. Amaechi's career in basketball is surprising and impressive enough to speak for itself. A two-time First team All-American at Penn State, Amaechi was signed undrafted by the Cleveland Caveliers in 1995. He was the first Brit to play in the NBA and the first undrafted free agent to win a starting position in the league. After playing in Europe in 1996, he returned to the NBA where he played for the Orlando Magic, the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.

Most of those present at the lecture on Oct. 8 knew Amaechi for one of two reasons: First, because of his basketball celebrity or secondly, because in February he became the first (former) NBA player to come out as being gay.

Despite this fact, Amaechi spoke relatively little about these two facts of his life, which he addresses in his new book Man in the Middle. Instead he engaged the students in audience in a conversation about tolerance, activism and the power of their generation.

"I'm here to recruit you... and not to 'the gay side'," he said to a chorus of laughter.

"I'm frustrated."

Amaechi went on to talk eloquently about oppression and diversity, in a way that was somehow both cynical and inspiring.

He said he was offended by the notion that he was someone who should be "tolerated."

"I have no time for that phrase," he said, adding that tolerance is something he has for American Caesar salads with anchovies, not an attitude toward people different from onesself. "How many times in history are we going to decide how many fifths human people are?" he asked.

Though he gets dozens of invitations to come and speak, he said he accepts few. Why visit already-liberal schools such as Vassar?

"You people are going to become disproportionately powerful very soon," Amaechi said. "You will be the policy makers, the teachers... the good news is that your generation is the most open of any to date."

Another of the central themes of the talk was Amaechi's concept of creating a future history. Martin Luther King Jr., when he gave his "I have a Dream" speech, had an idea of what the future history might look like: an image in his mind of what the world could be and a will to create it. Amaechi said he could only ask that those present to do some meta-thinking about their "future histories."

"[My future history] is about making a connection between me and other people," he said. "I do small things, with a view on the big picture."

Being a self-proclaimed cynic, is Amaechi skeptical about the possibility of changing things?

"I'm hopeful," he said. "I have hope. That's why I'm here."

"One thing I always ask now is 'Why speak if not to change the world?' "

(Guru's Note: Acacia has checked in at the original blog with a report on a recent speech given by John Amaechi, a former Penn State all-American men's basketball player who became the first former NBA player in February to come out as being gay. To those of you who stopped there first and then hit the link, welcome.)

By Mel Greenberg

Nearly a year after the the Charlotte Sting imploded from the WNBA lineup, the women's pro league is ready to attempt to rise again in the South.

A conference call has been announced for Wednesday afternoon, and while the topic has not been publicly announced, a league source familiar with the arrangements confirmed the discussion will be the entry of Atlanta into the mix for next summer.

One can envision a slick multi-media presentation with Bruce Springsteen belting his popular Glory Days number from the Born in the USA album.

However, that is not a way the WNBA would want to go, considering the painful reminders it could bring of the short-lived Atlanta Glory franchise a decade ago in the nearly as shortly-lived American Basketball Association.

But a deep-pocketed owner -- not the NBA's Atlanta Hawks -- is said to be ready to spend the money without regard to what could be a painful growth process in terms of attendance.

However, there has been an ongoing effort by a local group to land a team, and, well, with a CBA still to be negotiated prior to season 12, every dollar counts.

The owner has been described in the manner of Michael Alter, the real estate mogul in Chicago, who brought the Sky into existence two seasons ago.

In recent seasons, the asking price by the league has been $10 million for a franchise.

Curiously, while an operational group has yet to be fully identified, one can envision an attempt to snare local legend Teresa Edwards, the former Georgia star, as a potential head coach.

Edwards, who is the only American male or female basketball player to compete in five Olympics, got her feet wet in the profession last summer as an assistant with the Minnesota Lynx.

Not everyone around the league, however, is singing praises over the return to a 14-team operation -- two below the previous high of 16 that was reached after the ABL folded.

A team executive friend of ours recently questioned the wisdom of having a new team involved in a summer that will again be shared with Olympics participation as occurred in 2004.

The executive noted that the WNBA got more competitive last summer after the Charlotte demise dispersed talent to the remaining 13 teams.

"Now, you have players who were identified and embraced by the fan base who may be lost in the expansion draft for the new team," the executive said.

Travel will also be a challenge in that the Atlanta airport is not known to be on a popularity list around the country.

With 14 teams, however, the suggestion was made that travel costs could be lowered by taking the two-division, seven-team format and create four divisions in a four-four-three-three arrangement.

"That could go a long way toward building rivalries," the executive said. "And if it means that, say, several players on teams outside a division make only one visit during the regular season, well, hey, that game suddenly becomes a very hot ticket."

That is not likely to happen, soon.

And still to be learned is the date of the lottery for the lucrative talent coming out of the next collegiate senior class.

So for now, from the WNBA viewpoint, as they say in the casino parlors alongside the Mohegan Sun Arena where the Connecticut team thrives, all bets are one until otherwise proven.

AAU Tourney Heads to Philly in 2009

The Amateur Athl\etic Union at its annual covention in Chambourg, Illinois recently voted to award the 12-and-under girls basketball national championships to Philadelphia in 2009.

It will be the first AAU national girls basketball event held in a major city.

AAU groups from here who made the bid says an esitmated 125 teams are expected to come to the city for the event and they cited Larry Needle of the Philadelphia Sports Congress estimating that the city and suburbs can expect a minimum of $2.1 million in revenue from the tournament.

Nigeria Forever

That's the way former longtime Houston Comets assistant Kevin Cook feels about coaching the Nigerian national team.

Cook was also an assistant to Hall of Famer Marian Washington, when she was at Kansas, before joining up with Van Chancellor and the Comets in the WNBA's inaugural season.

We saw Cook last month when he attended the induction ceremonies in Springfield, Mass., that included Chancellor into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Chancellor, who left the Comets after last season, is getting ready to lead Louisiana State into another title quest as he returns to the collegiate ranks.

An interview with Cook is at the FIBA web site.

-- Mel

(Guru’s Note: As mentioned 24 hours ago, we drove up to Penn State Friday night for the moment the new women’s basketball era at Penn State began with the Nittany Lions taking the court under Coquese Washington.

The print story held for a day, however, which caused us to delay an enhanced version here, which will focus on more interview quotes. Jonathan will be along in the A.M. to post a link in Philly.com to that printed version in the Inquirer sports section. Read the print version by clicking here. And again welcome to those of you who made it over here from the original blog.

What do we mean by enhanced version?

We correctly noted in the print version that assistant coach Maren Walseth was the only representative of Penn State’s history in the gym, Friday. Officially, that’s correct. Unofficially, however, Amanda Brown, a Nittany Lion star who finished her eligibility last season, is completing course work and thus was helping with the practice squad.

Incidentally, on Wednesday we’ll be in the nation’s capital to chronicle the women’s side of media day in the Colonial Athletic Association. Another staffer is handling the men’s coverage, freeing us from any sensitivity training obligations that exist when we cover the Drexel men.)

By Mel Greenberg

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. _ Unlike last spring, the one place that was free of controversy Friday night here at Penn State was in a side gym inside the massive Bryce Jordan.

Elsewhere in town, the campus community’s attention was focused on rape allegations by a student that involved football running back Austin Scott.

A day earlier, Joe Paterno, the legendary coach of the Nittany Lions, was explaining accusations against him by another motorist involving a road rage incident.

Well, the annual homecoming parade went off without a hitch, even if it choked all the main travel arteries around University Park and in town, itself. Paterno's bunch provided much-needed joy the next day with an upset of No. 19 Wisconsin on Saturday.

But in the side gym, the clock struck 9 p.m. and it became time for General Washington to take full control of her troops and prepare them to return to the paths of prominence they once strode until two seasons ago.

(The main arena was unavailable to the men and women because of another scheduled event).

Since her hire in April, former Notre Dame associate coach Coquese Washington has been involved in a whirlwind of activity that included introductions to the fan base and all that support the women’s basketball program. At the same time, there was recruiting to be done to build for the future.

The transition period from hire to the preseason did cause a surprise or two to the former Irish star, who is the first female African-American head coach at Penn State.

“I didn’t realize how much of my own time I wouldn’t have after doing all the x, y, and z things you have to do,” Washington said. “That’s been the biggest thing.”

All this had come about in the wake of Rene Portland’s sudden resignation in March after two straight losing seasons – her first in the 27 years at a program that had been nationally prominent and an annual fixture in the weekly rankings.

The departure also followed allegations by a former player against Portland charging the prominent coach had discriminated against her because Portland had perceived she was a lesbian.

The case was settled out of court.

That settlement came a month before Portland’s surprising departure. Although that’s the way events began unfolding, there have been whispers that Portland's impending exit was news to her when she awoke to go for the office that day.

Portland was one of an unusually high number of high profile coaches involved in moves in March that led either to similar jobs elsewhere or out of the profession.

One, who chose to leave altogether a month after Portland’s move was Illinois’ Theresa Grentz, who was a teammate of Portland’s on Immaculata’s national champions in the early 1970s.

Grentz is now working at her alma mater back East in suburban Philadelphia as an assistant to the president. She is quite contented, by the way, in her new role.

With Portland gone, Penn State decided to dispense of most of whatever or whoever was associated with the 27-year era.

Annie Troyan, the longtime associate head coach who had been one of Portland’s storied point guards in the past, is working elsewhere on campus.

Susan Robinson, who had been considered a prime future successor, is at nearby St. Francis in Loretto, making her Division I head coaching debut.

Suzie McConnell-Serio, who became Penn State’s most decorated player, especially with an Olympic gold medal as well as a WNBA All-Star and later pro coach, is enjoying life in her hometown of Pittsburgh as the new coach of Duquesne.

But the element of the Portland era that cannot be erased is the 606 victories, the many Atlantic Ten and Big Ten titles, and a trip to the Women’s Final Four in Philadelphia in 2000.

It is that legacy that Washington has grabbed as a foundation to help provide her own imprint here.

“I didn‘t really follow the controversies, because at Notre Dame I was focused on winning basketball games — especially in the Big East,” Washington said Friday night minutes before she eagerly joined her new team on the court.

“For me, I’m just so appreciative and thrilled that Coach Portland set a standard here. I feel very fortunate to come into a situation where we’ve got a fan base, we’ve got support from the administration, and things are in place. We do have a history and tradition of success. For me, following in the steps of an icon, and she certainly is an icon and legend in women’s basketball history, it’s been a plus to allow me to jump in with my feet wet and have something to hold on as opposed to starting from scratch.”

Washington’s feet were not only wet, Friday night, they were busy splashing everyone and everything in the gym as she rushed around imparting tips and giving instructions to her players.

“It’s been good, I think we’ve kind of come together,” Washington said of the months leading to Friday night’s first court appearance. “The first part was easy. We go to know each other over the summer and lay the early ground work for the season. And now comes the tough part when you really start practice, you start games and you start traveling, so we’ll see how we handle the transition.

“But I’ll tell you, I love the leadership on this team, from our captains and upper classmen and that’s going to be a factor for us that we really have strong leadership.”

One of the few onlookers in the gym was Washington’s husband Raynell Brown, who didn’t see anything from his wife as a court ringmaster that he already had seen in South Bend, Ind.

“This is nothing new,” Brown said as the 36-year-old Washington moved all over the place pointing her fingers here and there. “At Notre Dame, Muffet let her run a lot of the practices, so she’s comfortable already doing this.”

Meanwhile, their son, two-year-old Quenton, was busy scampering up and down the sidelines as his mother worked.

Washington has had plenty of experience running things from the court as a former 5-foot-6 star point guard for the Irish who twice won the Frances Pomeroy Award as the nation’s top player under 5-foot-8 before her graduation in 1993.

She also played in the WNBA for several teams and was a member of the 2000 league champs with the Houston Comets.

That drawback was a good aside to discuss Kelly Mazzante, Penn State’s all-time scorer who is a member of the Phoenix Mercury, the new WNBA champs. Washington certainly is poised to involve her in the recruiting process, where appropriate.

“I’m so excited and happy for her,”Washington said. “Having been there and experiencing that, myself, I know she’s going to be on a high for a whole year.

“It gives you so much confidence. And it’s going to carry over to next season for her. That will definitely help us on the recruiting front.”

Washington wants to change the court strategy somewhat but there are limitations of depth at the outset.

“Ideally, I’d like to get up and down the court more and be a little more aggressive on defense, but with our numbers, I don’t know how aggressive we can be,” she said of the 10-member roster.

“We lost Amanda (Brown) and Charity (Renfro) to graduation. And then Adrienne Squire just decided she didn’t want to play any more and (Courtney) Molinaro decided to transfer out to Lehigh.

“I don’t know how the style I want will translate this year. But as we get our numbers up, we’ll be ok in the future,” Washington said.

As for the conference wars, Washington is one of four new coaches in the Big Ten, which also had new coaches join Indiana and Purdue a year ago.

“Our conference is going to be one of the interesting stories this year in terms of conference play because you got six new coaches – four this year and two others who just came in a year ago.”

The non-conference competition begins with the WBCA/Basketball Travelers Classic featuring a three-day round-robin event in which the Nittany Lions will open with Arizona on Nov. 9 before meeting Charlotte and Pittsburgh the next two days

“The schedule is – man, it’s going to be competitive right from the get-go,” Washington said. “Three games in three nights from some very strong programs. We’re going to get tested early.”

She already knows she’ll have a challenge to deal with Pittsburgh, an in-state rival.

“Yeah, coach (Agnus) Berenato is a trip. I know she’d love to have bragging rights in the state for a year.”

(Guru aside: Yeah, I know we have a program or two in this corner of the state).

Washington’s youthful staff features assistants who can go against the team in scrimmages.

“Sometimes they can step in to play against us,” junior Brianne O’Rourke, a co-captain, from Pittsburgh said. “They’re young. We can have a guard coach or a post coach. They bring a lot of energy and positive reinforcement to us.”

Washington’s assistants are former Penn State star Maren Walseth and former Clemson star Itoro Coleman. Both played in the WNBA. Kia Damon, who had been recruiting coordinator at Massachusetts, is another assistant.

The change in coaches did not deter the three freshmen who had been recruited by Portland, but honored their previous commitment.

The trio are Evelyn Lewis, of Hampton, Va.; Janessa Wolf, of Park Rapids, Minn., and Julie Trogele of Devon, Pa.

“I still wanted to be part of the team because of the players who are here,” Trogele said. “I was looking forward to playing with great players. And I looked forward to (the school) bringing in the new coaches, because I knew Penn State would bring in someone great.”

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Continuing our rollout of the start of training for the collegiate season: Time out.

Yes, we made it up to State College Friday night for the debut of the Coquese Washington era at Penn State and hinted you'd see all this in the Sunday paper.

Except,.the story got held, as happens when space problems occurs, So that will run Monday and when we know that for absolutely for sure, we'll enhance that coverage here with all that we had restrained in anticipating space problems to begin with.

--Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ So how is the Guru launching the 2007-08 season (practice phase) in print?

(Answer: Right here. -- Jonathan Tannenwald)

All this will be is available in the print-to-web area of Philly.com, at the above link if you haven't already clicked it.

We begin in Friday morning's Inquirer with a little overview of Rutgers off our chat with Coach C. Vivian Stringer at the Jimmy V dinner the other night in New York. There's also a quick mention of the national scene.

The edition also has thumbnail sketches of our six locals -- the Big Five and Drexel.

Saturday morning's edition will carry a short feature on Temple.

Meanwhile, we're on our way somewhere in state ahead of somebody's media day for a special scene-setter off practice several hours before midnight madness, You can guess if you like,but you'll find out for sure in Sunday's editions, but not the early one, not enough time.

Also, in other news, the Associated Press women's poll will roll out with preseason rankings on Saturday, Nov. 3 for Sunday editions.

Incidentally, when we remembered to get to our database, we found that the revolving door of coaches affected our coach/poll appearance rankings, especially on the active list, which lost elite members Theresa Grentz, Rene Portland, and Jody Conradt. Rutgers' Stringer is now third on the active list in terms of total appearances of coached rank teams. There's also the movement of Gail Goestenkors from Duke to Texas and Joanne P. McCallie from Michigan State to Duke.

Also impacting the list is the return of Van Chancellor to the coaching ranks at LSU, as well as the departure of LSU's Pokey Chatman. But we'll fill you in later on the weekend.

Gotta run before daylight hits.

-- Mel

(Guru's quick note: Once again, class, those migrating from