Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – On the first of three nights that No. 3 Maryland has promotional ties to coach Brenda Frese’s pregnancy with twins, the Terrapins had answers to everything against No. 19 Ohio State except the names of her future babies.

Maryland jumped to an 18-4 lead in what is also part of the ACC/ Big Ten Challenge and cruised to a 77-53 victory. The evening was billed the world’s largest baby shower with the annual holiday ``Toys for Tots’’ donations involved.

The Terrapins (10-0) now move into another national showdown Monday night with a visit to No. 5 Rutgers (4-1) in the women’s segment of the Jimmy V Classic.

It will be the first meeting in nine seasons of the two former Eastern rivals with Maryland having won its first NCAA title in 2006 and the Scarlet Knights advancing to the national championship game last season.

While the game-time situation involving Rutgers senior Essence Carson (hip flexor) is still to be determined, the Terrapins are totally healthy with the return of senior center Crystal Langhorne from an ankle injury.

In her third game and second start Friday night since her return, the ACC preseason player of the year had a game-high 17 points.

``I’m almost there,’’ the Willingboro High graduate smiled afterwards about her condition.

Marissa Coleman scored 14 points and Cheltenham High’s Laura Harper added 13 points and eight rebounds.

On Tuesday, Harper crossed the 1,000-point milestone in her collegiate career.
Kristi Toliver had nine points and dealt 11 assists, while having to cope being the focal point of the Buckeyes’ defense.

On the other hand, the Terrapins locked into Ohio State guard Marscilla Packer, holding her to six points.

``We’re not going to win a lot of game with Marscilla shooting like that,’’ Buckeyes coach Jim Foster said of her 2-for-11 from the field. Overall, Ohio State shot 21-for-71.

``And she’s got to realize she’s been out there a couple of years when the best defender was on Brandy Hoskins and now the best defender on the other team is on her, and she’s a target.’’

Freshman 6-4 center Jantel Lavender had 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Buckeyes (5-2), but Maryland’s post play was overwhelming.

The Terrapins outscored the Buckeyes, 46-16, inside the paint.

``Their post players did a great job with their physicality,” Foster said. ``And they gave our young post players a good lesson for this time of year.’’

He praised Maryland’s overall performance, noting ``They’re good enough to win the last game of the season. Their challenge is `How do you get better. It is Nov. 30, and they’re playing at a very high level. Obviously, they have to avoid injuries. Toliver is playing at a level right now that’s as good as any I’ve seen in a long time at that position.’’

Maryland coach Brenda Frese was pleased with her team’s focus, especially defensively.

``Going in with a game plan, we just did a phenomenal job executing it to perfection,’’ Frese said. ``Just to be able to see us both halves together back to back.’’

Asked to compare this start with a year ago when Maryland was carrying the burden of being the defending champion, Ferese beamed, ``Our swager, our confidence. We’re playing for each other, looking for each other on the floor.

``Obviously our junior and senior class are really taking ownership of this team. They’re really putting us in the direction of the season they want to have.’’

And now they head North to another team that is has the same ambition.

 More to come, Mel

(Guru's Note: This is also the print version of coverage of Rutgers' visit to St. Joseph's. Enhancements to come later Thursday.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - A dream-almost-come-true and a nightmare intersected Wednesday night at St. Joseph's Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

The St. Joseph's women nearly upset No. 5 Rutgers after most observers had given them as much of a shot against the Scarlet Knights as the Eagles had before facing the New England Patriots on Sunday night.

But Rutgers escaped, 56-50.

Brittany Ray hit a pair of foul shots with 12 seconds left to give the Scarlet Knights a 54-50 lead. On the ensuing possession, the Hawks' Jenna Loschiavo missed a three-point shot. Rutgers' Heather Zurich then scored the game's final points on another pair of free throws.

"This is a great confidence-booster for our kids, knowing they can compete with a top-10 team, a national runner-up from last year's championship," Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said. "The thing that's been haunting us, haunted us tonight, being able to score down the stretch."

St. Joseph's (3-2) came back after Rutgers started the game on a 10-0 run. The Hawks settled down and took several leads in the second half, including a 49-46 edge with 3 minutes, 55 seconds left.

"After we made that one basket [to stop the run], you saw it: We just got more and more confident," Griffin said.

However, Rutgers surged down the stretch. Ray hit a layup before Scarlet Knights center Kia Vaughn scored inside to regain the lead at 50-49, with 1:52 left.

Epiphanny Prince padded the lead with a layup with 1:20 left. The Hawks stayed close on Amy Gillespie's foul shots with 1:06 left.

But St. Joe's would not score again. Vaughn went to the line but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Ray grabbed the rebound and went back to the line to decide the issue.

Senior Timisha Gomez scored 14 points for St. Joe's. Freshman center Sarah Acker had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Vaughn and Prince each scored 12 points for the Scarlet Knights. Matee Ajavon added 11. She also grabbed a key steal that led to Vaughn's go-ahead score.

Each team was missing a key player.

Hawks sophomore Brittany Ford has yet to play after undergoing minor knee surgery in the preseason. "We're hoping she'll be that consistent scorer for us," Griffin said.

Essence Carson, the glue in Rutgers' offense, who averages 12.3 points per game, was on the bench after suffering a hip flexor injury before Sunday's 45-43 win at home over Louisiana State.

Carson played in that game, but Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was not about to take any chances with No. 3 Maryland next up for the Knights on Monday.

Historically, St. Joseph's, with its emphasis on defense, has been a tough match for Rutgers, dating from the days when both schools competed in the Atlantic Ten. The Scarlet Knights are now in the Big East Conference.

Stringer and her players used the phrase "trap game" frequently to describe the St. Joe's contest at Tuesday's pregame news conference. The visit on Rutgers schedule was sandwiched between Sunday's LSU matchup and this Monday's visit from No. 3 Maryland.

Compounding things for Rutgers, Carson's absence caused Stringer to play several Scarlet Knights out of their normal positions.

"We just weren't in sync all night," Stringer said. "When Essence isn't in there, it's a mess."

Stringer also admitted to having headaches caused by the Hawks' scrappy play.

With Mel's report from Hawk Hill not yet in, I figured I'd write this post before he arrives so that the bigger story can sit atop the blog.

While the game I attended might not have been at the top of the local pecking order, Penn followed right along with Big 5 rivals Saint Joseph's and Villanova by winning a closely played non-conference game this evening.

Thanks to 19 points from junior forward Carrie Biemer and 15 more from senior guard Kimberly Franklin, Penn used all 40 minutes of the game to fend off Rider for a 66-58 win.

The game featured 15 lead changes and 10 ties, but really came down to two big plays in the final few minutes of the game. The first came with 2:15 on the clock and Penn guard Anca Popovici trying to find her way out of a jam in the right corner of the floor in front of Penn's bench.

As the Rider defense closed down on Popovici, sophomore Quakers guard Amy Donovan snuck behind the Broncs and made a cut into the lane towards the basket. Popovici hit Donovan in stride with a superb baseline bounce pass, and Donovan converted the layup to give the home team a 61-56 lead.

"That was one of the better plays I've seen in the Palestra in three and a half years," Penn coach Pat Knapp said.

Describing her perspective, Popovici said that "they were overplaying us."

But the native of Arad, Romania admitted to being "lucky" that Donovan made the move, "because that was a risky pass."

The second came with 19 seconds left in the game and Rider gaining momentum for one last charge. The Broncs had just cut Penn's lead to 61-58 after Tammy Meyers picked Sarah Bucar's pocket at midcourt and ran away for an uncontested layup.

But the Quakers ran their offense effectively on the ensuing possession. With 19 seconds to go, Biemer got open at the top of the arc and drained a three-pointer to seal the win.

"I was open and I felt confident in it -- that's my three-point spot up there," the Haddonfield, N.J., native said. "I think the fact that I was inside all night kind of made them sleep a little bit on the fact that I could score from outside."

For the game, Penn shot an even 50 percent from the field, while Rider shot 37.1 percent. That was due in no small part to a 7-for-24 performance from three-point range. Sophomore guard Amanda Sepulveda and senior guard Janele Henderson each attempted eight threes for the Broncs, with Sepuvelda making three and Henderson only one. Penn was 5-for-14 from beyond the arc.

The rebounds were close to even, with Penn pulling down 34 to Rider's 32. Both teams committed 15 turnovers, with Penn recording eight assists to Rider's 11.

As Mel noted in his previous post, the game was a homecoming of sorts for Broncs coach Lynn Milligan, a former assistant coach at St. Joseph's. Thus the headline of this post, as Penn did indeed make it two straight wins over former Hawks assistants.

Two of Milligan's assistants also have Philadelphia ties: Pam Durkin was an assistant at Drexel and Rashana Barnes played high school basketball at West Catholic, whose campus sits a mere 13 blocks from the Palestra. On top of that, six Rider players hail from the Philadelphia area.

So it came as no surprise to hear Milligan pay her respects to the 80-year-old Palestra after the game, much as a number of men's coaches from outside Philadelphia did this past weekend as their teams participated in the Philly Hoop Group Classic tournament.

"We talked about the opportunity to play here at the Palestra a lot this week," Milligan said. "Being at St. Joe's, I just took it for granted that you get to play here -- a lot of our kids have never played here before, and some of our kids that are from a little farther away didn't understand the significance of this building."

By Mel Greenberg

If we could run local women's basketball like the TV networks, ways might be found to avoid the multiple choices that exist Wednesday night when all Division I teams will be in the area at separate places with each contest having some interest.

Obviously, the big one, which will attract fans with no rooting intrerest elsewhere, is the lone visit this season by No. 5 Rutgers, which will visit St. Joseph's.

An advance of that game exists in the post just below this one, which may not be true if Jonathan, when he sees this (hint), might be able to flip the two posts so the link is to the headline on the advance and also most recent for those arriving at the site.

Meanwhile, two games will be occurring within a few blocks of each other in West Philadelphia.

Drexel is hosting Siena in a nonconference game and what's most noteworthy is this is the night that Colonial Athletic Association will present junior Nicole Hester with its inspiration award at halftime for returning to the Dragons after being sidelined all last season battling Hodgkins Lymphoma.

More details exist at Drexel's web site and we did a feature that can be found in the archives from back in early October.

Meanwhile, Penn, off ruining one of the homecoming returns of Loyola, Md., coach Joe Logan, a former assistant to St. Joseph's Cindy Griffin, will attempt life miserable again for another Hawks assistant at the Palestra when Rider makes a nonconference visit.

The Broncos, off the a 3-2 start, including wins over Hofstra and Central Florida, are coached by Rider alum Lynn Milligan. Her assistants are former Penn State star Rashana Barnes, who had been on St. Joe's staff, and Pam Durkin, another former Rider star who also had been a Drexel assistant.

The two losses were narrow defeats at Maryland-Balitmore County, and at Navy.

Jonathan will be on the scene for that game, we'll be doing Rutgers-St. Joe for print, with blog enhancements to be determined.

Ball State, one of the better teams in the Mid-American Conference will visit Temple, coming off a tough 1-2 performance against nationally-ranked teams in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands.

The Owls nearly beat Duke and Stanford, and did beat Purdue to help eject the Boilermakers out of this week's Associated Press poll.

Ashley Morris of Temple continues to be one of the local highlight stories of the early season.

Ball State is coached by Tracy Roller, who was involved in al local promotion last month in Muncie, Ind., where she was going to sit on a billboard until 1,000 season tickets had been sold for her program.

However, her athletic director ordered her removed several days later, citing health concerns and other reasons.

Roller was promoted from assistant coach after Brenda Frese left for Maryland in 2002.

La Salle is at Delaware in a game where both teams are struggling, particularly the Blue Hens, with the graduation of several all-time players. Thus, this might be the Explorers' best shot in several season to pick up a win against Delaware.

Finally, Villanova hosts Fairfield after winning the Odwalla Tournament in San Francisco by beating South Alabama in a game in which the Wildcats shot 18 threes and then the host Dons in overtime.

Junior transfer Laura Kurz from Duke is the Big East player of the week after scoring 25 in Saturday's game and 20 in Friday's game. Stacie Witman had 36 points in Friday's game and shot nine treys.

"She was on fire, I've never seen someone shoot so many threes," Kurz said of Witman.

Of course, Kurz had a reputation for shooting treys herself at Germantown Academy.

Meanwhile, Villanova coach Harry Perretta isn't ready to start popping sparking apple cider off the Wildcats' start recovering from the all-time 9-21 futility of last season.

"I'll know more in another four or five games, I hope," Perretta said. "Hey, I'm happier being 4-1 instead of 1-4, and it's nice to see us making shots.

"Fairfield is like we were last year. They're young. But they got some wins so they're coming here with confidence."

As for Kurz's performance, Perretta noted, "She had been struggling, in part, I think because of the way we were last year and everyone kept pointing to her eligibility. I think that made her think she had to get it done all by herself, so it's nice to see her break out."

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg and Stephen K. Lee

PHILADELPHIA _ What used to be a fun rivalry when both schools were in the Atlantic Ten gets renewed as a nonconference matchup Wednesday for the first time since Nov. 2001 when Big East and national power Rutgers travels to Hawk Hill to meet St.Joseph's at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

The visit by the No. 5 Scarlet Knights (3-1) offers the only area homecoming opportunities this season for 6-foot-4 sophomore center Rashidat Junaid, a graduate of nearby Camden Catholic, and freshman guard Khadijah Rushdan of Wilmington, Del., who holds the state all-time high school career scoring record at 2,414 points.

Temple, in another A-10/Big East matchup, will travel to Rutgers, Dec. 30, and Villanova plays the Scarlet Knights just once in the Big East, also in Piscataway, N.J.

It's also another return for Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, the Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, who established herself as one of the top mentors in the game in the late 1970s when she coached at Cheyney.

She later moved on to Iowa, establishing the Hawkeyes as a nationally-ranked program, before rebuilding Rutgers to prominence when she moved back East in the summer of 1995.

Stringer has taken all three programs to the Women's Final Four, most recently a return for the Scarlet Knights last April when they advanced to the national title game.

Wednesday's game would have Rutgers as a lopsided favorite. St. Joseph's is off to a 3-1 start, which is promising, but the Hawks are still trying to get more answers about themselves.

However, external factors exist that cause somewhat of a concern, as they would any coach guiding Rutgers through its killer schedule because the visit here is sandwiched between Sunday's gritty 45-43 win over then-No. 6 LSU and next Monday night's matchup at home against No. 3 Maryland.

And so the phrase "trap game" was being used after Rutgers' practice Tuesday in anticipation of the meeting with the Hawks.

"You always have to worry about that," Stringer said. "Because they are unranked and they are good and we gotta come to play and not look past that, wishing that we didn't play this type of team.And to be honest with you, it probably takesme a lot more work to play and unranked, so to speak, team.

"They're very well-coached. They execute well and we've got to be on high alert."

Junior center Kia Vaughn, who has picked up added acclaim since her defensive work on LSU all-American Sylvia Fowles, Sunday, besides the same denial she tossed at Fowles in last season's national semifinals, spoke of the the mindset needed against the Hawks.

"These are, I think, mental games because we have to stay focused and we have to learn how to keep our energy level high rather than come down to the level of our opponents," Vaughn said.

"We just have to be ourselves and work on things within those things because those teams are not going to step off. They're going to come at us hard and we have to understand and play the game of basketball."

St. Joseph's, similarly to Rutgers style, is a team that lives off its defense. But offense has been more of a concern, especially when the Hawks, in their one loss, went cold in the final minutes against Virginia Commonwealth.

Freshman center Sarah Acker has lived up to her promise to date, but Rutgers and the inside strength of Vaughn and Junaid, who may see more action together Wednesday night, will be Acker's first major test.

Injuries of sorts exist on both teams. Essence Carson, still expected to start for Rutgers, might be limited due a left hip flexor injury suffered prior to Sunday's game.

Hawks sophomore Brittany Ford, the force in St. Joseph's upset of George Washington and run to the Atlantic 10 title game in March, continues to be sidelined after minor knee surgery.

Rushdan was also limited in the preseason with a minor injury but could see more time on Hawk Hill, as Stringer looks to find some additional firepower for the many wars ahead.

(Click the "jump page" button here to keep reading).

By Mel Greenberg

Three events tied with either a scheduled game involving a historical matchup or the release of the latest Associated Press women's basketball Monday had us scouring our historical database to entertain this Tuesday morning with some more trivia of the times.

Competition-wise down in Knoxville Monday night was the annual renewal of the Louisiana Tech-Tennessee nonconference rivalry that dates beyond the time that a young Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was still learning to accurately count the number of games he had scheduled for the season.

Tennessee won 81-60 Monday night to take a 23-17 lead in the all-time series including eight straight wins.

The Techsters were one of the original thorns in the side of the Lady Vols and the two met nuermous times in NCAA and AIAW Final Four competition.

Though Louisiana Tech is unranked and missed the NCAA last season for the first time in the tournament's 26-year history, the Techsters and the Lady Vols are atop most all-time categories in the Guru-AP database.

The second event was the arrival of Wyoming to make its first AP poll appearance and become the 142nd team in the 32-year history of the rankings. Incidentally, those 142 schools have now been ranked 12,482 times.

Because Cowgirls coach Joe Legerski is a male, there was no need to see if he had qualified as a coach who both played for and coached an AP-ranked women's team -- an achievement held by an elite number of women.

And the other event was the end of a sizeable run by Duke in the top 10 after the Blue Devils fell to No. 11 by a slim six points to Baylor in this week's voting.

With all that said, let's give the Wyoming fan base a little more knowledge.

The Cowgirls are the eighth member of the Mountain West Conference to have appeared in the rankings, but they are only the fifth school to earn their acclaim while holding current membership.

The other seven who have been ranked are BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Texas Christian, UNLV, and Utah.

However, TCU's rankings all actually occurred as a former member of Conference USA.

San Diego State gained rankings as member of the old AIAW Region 8, the Big West, Western Athletic, and West Coast Athletic Association.

UNLV's rankings came during membership in AIAW-Region 8 and the Big West.

Duke's Long Run Shortened

The drop of the Blue Devils occurred three weeks after former coach Gail Goestenkors ended hers at Texas with a non-top 10 ranking of the Longhorns in the preseason poll.

Duke had appeared 107 straight times, dating back to the first January poll of the 2001-02 season.

Tennessee is on a current run of 191 weeks beginning with the final poll of the 1996-97 season. The Lady Vols, currently ranked No. 1, should this season break the all-time streak held by Louisiana Tech, which is 202 from the Jan. 16, 1979 poll through the fifth poll of the 1990-91 season -- a span of 13 seasons.

The Techster upset UCLA, the defending AIAW champion, in 1979 in Pauley Pavilion, in a game we witnessed the previous week -- the AIAW convention we were covering was in Los Angeles the same week - and La Tech took off from there.

Prior to Tennessee's last time out of the top 10, the Lady Vols had been in the category for a streak of 187 weeks from 1986-87.That means they have appeared in the top 10 in 378 of the past 379 weeks of the poll that the Lady Vols have been minimally in the high rent district.

Coach Pat Summitt's teams have missed only 14 appearances, including the first-ever preseason poll in 1976, in what is now 540 weeks of rankings.

Meanwhile worth noting of this new poll is Ohio State's ranking of No. 19, the lowest appearance since a ranking of No.21 in the final poll of 2003-04.

The Buckeyes will be at Maryland, Friday night, for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and the Terrapins' attempt to throw coach Brenda Frese the world's largest baby shower for her expected twins, who might arrive in tandem with March Madness.

Prior to this season, Ohio State had been in the Top10 for 55 weeks dating back to the 2004-05 preseason vote.

West Virginia, at No. 15, is two spots away from an all-time ranking of No. 13 in the end of the '92 season.

Rutgers, which will be at St. Joseph's Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in a meeting of former Atlantic Ten rivals, recently passed Purdue on the all-time ranking list with a combined 301 appearances in the combined Theresa Grentz-C. Vivian Stringer eras.

The Scarlet Knights are two appearances behind LSU, the team that Rutgers beat Sunday to drop the Tigers from sixth to eighth -- a bit low in our estimation.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, at 334, is three appearances away from passing former Penn State coach Rene Portlamd into fifth place on the all-time list. Her total also includes her previous stint at Ohio State.

Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw became 25th on the all-time list (actives and non-actives) this week, passing former Colorado coach Ceal Barry, who is retired.

Continue reading by clicking this link to the jump page

(Guru's Note: An enhanced alternative version of print coverage of Rutgers-LSU along with other roundup notes).

By Mel Greenberg

PISCATAWAY, N.J. _ Mention a score of 45-43 in women's basketball and in most cases that will be as far as the discussion goes.

And if that total is between two non-discript teams, with shooting percentages in the mid-30s, don't except to see instructional video among the collection shown at summer camps.

But when it comes to a matchup between No. 6 LSU and No. 7 Rutgers, whose ranking numbers were a bit higher two weeks ago, a certain appreciation level comes with the territory.

In the women's game, defense is a work of Viv as in Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, and a work of Van, as in LSU coach Van Chancellor.

So afterwards, both Hall of Famers had glowing things about the way their two teams clamped down on each other, particularly LSU all-America center Sylvia Fowles and her potential all-American counterpart Kia Vaughn on Rutgers in the closely-fought contest won by the Scarlet Knights (3-1).

The win, likely to send Rutgers back into the Top Five when Monday's Associated Press weekly rankings are released, came seven months after Rutgers had rolled over LSU, 59-35, in the NCAA Women's Final Four national semifinal in Cleveland. That was just before Chancellor took over the Tigers (4-2) after having coached the WNBA's Houston Comets for 10 years since the league's and team's outset in 1997.

``If you liked defensive basketball, you enjoyed this game," Chancellor said. "If you like a lot of offense, you should have been watching something else today. I thought both teams were outstanding, defensively.

"I thought (Rutgers) did what they had to do in the end to win. They made some great plays, great stops defensively," Chancellor continued. "We've just got to find some ways to score. But Rutgers had lots to do with that.

"Everybody that gets through and they play them and they say say, `Well, we could've done this or that.' The reason you can't do any of those things: they won't let you. And they do a great job defensively, here.

That was especially true of senior guard Matee Ajavon who late in the game with 30 seconds left doubling down defensively with Vaughn, stripped Fowles of the ball as Fowles put it on the floor, giving the Scarlet Knights an opportunity to wrap up the game.

That finally happened when Quianna Chaney, who had a game-high 16 points, missed a desperation three going for the win at the buzzer. Fowles finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Vaughn was the only Rutgers player scoring in double figures with 13 points.

``"That's a great play," Chancellor said of Ajavon's steal. "And great players make great plays. And that kid's a really good player. And that's a really good team."

Fowles said she did not see Ajavon coming towards here when she was going for a tie.

``I didn't see her coming down when I put the ball on the floor and that's something I need to pay attention to. I didn't see her at all and she got her hands on it."

Stringer said the game went as expected, for the most part, from her viewpoint.

"I think you probably got what you thought you were going to get. And that is two of the best defensive teams in the country," Stringer said. "When that happens, it's just every point is fought for."

Chancellor focused on the battle between Vaughn and Fowles, calling it, ".. the most physical matchup I've seen in my last 11 years of coaching.

Stringer smiled and disputed Chancellor's description about her friend for whom she served as an assistant at the 2004 Olymics won by the USA squad in Athens, Greece.

"I thought the Stanford game was more physical," Stringer referred to the season opener, won by the Cardinal, 60-58, on a late foul call with a tenth of a second left. "They (LSU) were more athletic, but I thought Stanford played much more physical."

Rutgers next goes to Philadelphia against a rival from the days it was a member of the Atlantic Ten Conference.

The Scarlet Knights will visit St. Joseph's, whose coach Cindy Griffin watched Sunday's game on television.

"Yeah, we watched the game," Griffin said. "And tomorrow we'll watch it again on tape."

Fowles became the sixth player to dunk in a women's collegiate game last week against Louisiana-Lafayette, and made another attempt Sunday early in the second half, but the ball clanged off the back of the rim.

"I didn't see it, but I heard it," Stringer commented. "That's OK. They'd show it on (ESPN) Sports Center and then they'd say, `And Rutgers won the game.'"

As Jonathan likes to say, click here as you would turn the page of a newspaper to continue reading.

By Mel Greenberg

Temple gained a milestone win Saturday, while Villanova gave more proof that the Wildcats are moving on from last season's all-time 8-21 futilility.

In fact, Villanova (4-1) has already collected 50 percent of its entire victory of 2006-07 total after a gritty 73-70 overtime triumph late Saturday night against San Francisco in the Don's Odwalla tournament. The Wildcats had trailed 44-34 with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation.

First, we go to the Owls (2-3) in terms of significant achievement before addressing the Wildcats in terms of significant progress.

Temple beat No. 22 Purdue, 61-47, in the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands as Ashley Morris continued to enjoy the early part of her senior season by scoring 19 points.

By Temple's count, it was the 10th all-time victory against a ranked opponent, but by our records, the ninth against a team in the Associated Press poll.

In 2004-05, the Owls won at Richmond, then ranked No. 25 in the ESPN coaches' poll. The Spiders were in the "others receiving votes" category.

However, the win was Temple's first-ever road triumph against a nationally-ranked opponent that was not a local or regular rival.

Over the years, the Owls have triumphed over Cheyney, Penn State, Rutgers, and St. Joseph's when they were ranked, and even the Richmond win in the non-AP category was against a rival of the Atlantic Ten.

But the only other win over a nationally-ranked team outside the "local" category was at home against Georgia several years ago.

Meanwhile, if Temple returns to the NCAA tournament, the experience should be no big deal going in, considering the Final Four material the Owls have been meeting in the Caribbean.

Coach Dawn Staley's group lost a competitive game on Friday night against No. 8 Duke.

Saturday's win placed Temple into a Sunday night matchup (6 p.m.) and first-ever tilt against No. 4 Stanford, which earned its spot in the game by beating Old Dominion.

What a storyline, here, especially considering the Cardinal already owns a win against No. 7 Rutgers, whom Temple will visit Dec. 30.

Temple almost met Stanford in the front-part of the 2002-03 season when the Owls were in the Cardinals' tournament, but they lost narrowly to No. 2 Kansas State in the opening round.

The game reunites Staley with Stanford coach Tar VanDerveer and the two have a bittersweet history in terms of Staley's stellar career as a top collegiate and Olympic point guard.

In 1990 when Virginia made its first appearance to the Women's Final Four after a surprising upset of Tennessee in Staley's sophomore season, the Cavaliers fell to the Cardinal in the semifinal and Stanford went on to win its first NCAA title.

The two missed each other at the Final Four in 1991 when Tennessee beat Virginia in overtime in the championship game.

Then, in 1992, Stanford, on the way to a second title, rallied in the national semifinals in the closing minutes to deny Staley and Virginia after its third-straight attempt at all the collegiiate glory.

Four years later, however, it was all happiness and joy for Staley, who helped lead the United States squad coached by VanDerveer to an Olympic gold medal -- the first of three for Staley.

The triumph also set the stage of establishing the pro level in America when the short-lived American Basketball League and still-thriving WNBA were launched over the next 12 months.

More details of the Temple win over Purdue can be found in the Inquirer print area of Philly.com and at the Owls' web site.

Kurz Gains Kudos as Villanova Rallies

It hasn't taken long for former Germantown Academy star Laura Kurz to establish herself as one of the bright names for the Wildcats after sitting out last season because of NCAA eligibility requirements following her transfer from Duke.

Kurz won MVP honors in San Francisco against the host Dons (3-3) by scoring 25 points and leading a rally from a double-digit deficit in the second half when she went on to score 23 of her points after intermission. She also had nine rebounds.

Supporting star honors went to sophomore Maria Getty, who had four three-pointerrs, including a key trey that gave the Wildcats a 67-62 lead with 3:20 left to play in the second period.

Getty finished with a career-high 17 points. Lisa Karcic finished with 13 points and was named to the all-tournament team along with Kurz and Stacie Witman, whose 36 points in the opener against South Alabama, Friday, led a deadly sharpshooting attack by the trio who helped Villanova tie a school record with 18 three-pointers, nine of which was also a record-tying feat by Witman.

Kurz's total Saturday night is believed to be her collegiate high, which was previously matched with 20 points in Friday's win.

Maybe seeing the Pacific Ocean did something to her memory banks because the Duke archives lists her two-year high with the Blue Devils at 20 points as a freshman against Pacific -- the school -- in 2004-05.

This was definitely not a game Villanova would have won last season.

The Wildcats appeared to have it won Saturday against San Francisco in regulation off of Siobhan O'Connor's trey with 23 seconds remaining. Getty's front end of a one-and-one with 11 seconds seemed to sustain Villanova until San Francisco's scored a putback off an offensive rebound as time expired.

Villanova did not display much three-point prowess in the first 29 minutes, hitting 4-of-13 attempts. But then the Wildcats returned to their Friday form, draining 7-of-10 the rest of the way.

Sunday Showdown Time Again for Rutgers

Two weeks ago, the Scarlet Knights became their mission of returning to the national title game by opening against Stanford in a tough 60-58 setback at home.

A week ago it was a crushing victory at then-No. 14 George Washington.

Today (Nov. 25) it will be a visit from No. 6 LSU, which is looking for a signature win after losing to No. 3 Maryland in College Park last week in the title game of the WNIT.

The game rematches last season's national semifinal that was won in a 59-35 rout by Rutgers on the way to the Scarlet Knights' first-ever NCAA title game.

The Tigers feature Sylvia Fowles, a likely overall No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft, especially after joining an elite group of players to have dunked at the collegiate women's level, which occurred Wednesday night against Louisiania-Lafayette.

Elsewhere, locally, Drexel will visit Penn State after losing to the Lady Lions at home a year ago in the season opener. Central Florida will visit La Salle, and Loyola of Maryland coach Joe Logan, a former St. Joseph's assistant, makes his second return of the season when the Greyhounds visit Penn.

Loyola lost here recently at La Salle, but has beaten Villanova and Drexel.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Three was nice company, as in the three-point shot, for Villanova Friday night at the Odwalla Classic hosted by the University of San Francisco.

In the land of cable cars, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other tourist attractions, the Wildcats (3-1), who have now reached the 33 percent mark of last season's entire win total, put on a vintage air attack against South Alabama that might cause a quick re-assessment of Villanova's preseason Big East ranking of 12th by the conference coaches.

Coach Harry Perretta's group, led by senior Stacie Witman, tied a school record with 18 treys on the way to an 83-58 win over South Alabama (4-1) to move into Saturday night's title game against USF, a 78-66 winner over Missouri-Kansas City.

Witrman, who had reached a career-high with 32 points in the season-opening win at La Salle, topped that milestone with 36 against the Jaguars with a program-tying-record nine treys off some nifty 9-of-12 marksmanship from beyond the arc.

Former Wildcat Jenny Higgins had nine treys against Penn on Dec. 20, 1997.

'Nova twice in the past also hit 18 treys -- against West Virginia on Jan. 3, 2001 and against Penn in that same game.

Add junior transfer Laura Kurz and junior Lisa Karcic to the mix, and one might say that the overall story of the victory was three-for-threes.

Kurz, a former Gernantown Academy star, finally shook the rust off a year out of uniform after transferring from Duke. She hit, what may be a career high, scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Karcic also scored 20 points and the trio produced 17 of the 18 treys, as well as the trio scored the first 60 points of the game.

Although definitive records weren't immediately available, it is believed the last time Villanova had three players score 20 points in the same encounter, Perretta had a full head of hair.

Maybe the Wildcats were inspired by the name of the host Dons' venue -- the War Memorial Gym, which in the late 1990s served as a pre-draft tryout venue for the former and short-lived former American Basketball League.

Perretta, who spent last season attending to Nova's worst record in program history (8-21), would not say if he took his team for either samples or a pre-game meal at the Bay Area's Balco Labs, the center of the ongoing steriod scandal and in the news against last week with San Francisco home run slugger Barry Bonds charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.

Villanova has already hit 44 three-pointers on the season.

Temple's Shots Still Mising In Action

Speaking of Duke, it was another near-miss for coach Dawn Staley/'s Owls against the No. 8 Blue Devils (5-0).

After a narrow loss to Duke in March in the second-round of the NCAA tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Temple (1-3) fell 64-53 Friday night in its opener of the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

The Owls, who had suffered two straight narrow defeats at nationally-ranked Georgia and at George Teach last weekend, were in striking distance in this one, also, but once again could not hit the basket with consistency.

Temple trailed, 56-53, with 2:30 left in the game before Duke finished with an 8-0 run. The Owls shot a mediocre 32.7 percent from the field and just 56 percent at the foul line.

Senior Lady Comfort had 15 ponts and 10 rebounds for Staley's group, while Shenita Landry added 10 points, and LaKeisha Eaddy scored 11.

Duke's Carrem Gay came off the bench to match starter Chante Black with 13 points, each. Gay also had 12 rebounds.

Temple, which outrebounded the Blue Devils, 42-41, committed 14 turnovers to Duke's 11.

The Owls' 53 points were the most allowed by the Blue Devils this season.

Temple will meet No. 20 Purdue Saturday night and then either No. 4 Stanford or Old Dominion on Sunday

Nationally Noteworthy

Maybe No. 3 Maryland spent too much time reading the Guru's blog (see previous post).

Less than 24 hours after a statement was made here that the Terrapins were one of three teams who could go unbeaten, Maryland struggled on the West Coast before repulsing Santa Barbara, 75-71,

A year ago, the Terrapins beat the Gauchos, 105-44.

Maryland's Crystal Langhorne continued to be sidelined with a sprained ankle and coach Brenda Frese, expecting twins in March, did not make the trip of the advice of her doctor.

Marissa Coleman had a career-high 30 points for Maryland, Kristi Toliver added 19 points and Laura Harper scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Santa Barbara's Chisa Ononiwu as the Gauchos shoot off a Maryland 16-3 start to make the game competitive.

Meanwhile further West in Hawaii, Virignia upset No. 21 Texas, 86-83, in the Wahine Classic, trhe Cavalier's first win against a nationally ranked team in two seasons. It was the first sideline matchup for Virginia coach Debbie Ryan, an inductee of next June's Women's Basketball Hall of Fame class, and Texas' Gail Goestenkors, since she left Duke in March for the Longhorns.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Not entirely half-baked thoughts following a fully-baked turkey dinner ...

After seeing, correction -- after reading, the way No. 2 Connecticut handled No. 4 Stanford, Thursday night at the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands, the improbable, but not entirely impossible, thought begins to enter the mind.

Will we see three unbeaten teams arrive in Tampa at this year at the Women's Final Four?

Think about it: The regular non-season meeting of Tennessee-Connecticut adds to the potential.

Furthermore, a glance at the schedules of Tennessee, Connecticut, and Maryland, from here until conference tournament time, shows all of them capable of piling up the wins off long streaks.

But each has one major -- some a few others - barrier to stop a perfect run to the March Madness borderline.

That would be Rutgers, which will be a formidable opponent much earlier than last season's charge to the NCAA title game.

Maryland, which has shown to cope quite well with Crystal Langhorne sidelined with a sprained ankle, visits the Scarlet Knights on Dec. 3 for the Jimmy V game.

Obviously, the Terrapins become an even more deadly threat in depth and numbers once she is back in play to bolster Maryland's inside attack.

But if Maryland were to survive the excursion to New Jersey, the Terrapins become the favorite in practically every remaining game, with the two Duke games and North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference wars somewhat questionable.

Incidentally, two years ago at a Maryland preseason game in the Comcast Center in College Park, a glance at a similar opponents slate offered a worst-case scenario of four losses, and, if they would be competitive, the Terrapins could be considered Final Four contenders because of the computer value they would compile in terms of getting seeded.

The title in Boston is now in the history books.

Tennessee is also likely to be on a roll before Rutgers visits on Feb. 11 to re-match their NCAA title game of last season won by the Lady Vols.

Unlike the Scarlet Knights, which we'll address in a bit, Tennessee will play three straight breathers of sorts going into Feb. 11 following a game against Duke, which could also be a one-sided expectation depending on the Blue Devils' development at that point in the season.

We'll have a bit more of a measuring stick on both sides of the ball Friday night when Temple meets Duke in the Paradise Jam. The Owls narrowly lost to the Blue Devils in last season's second round of the NCAA tournament and since then Duke has more pieces off the board then does coach Dawn Staley's group in terms of graduation.

But shooting and ball handling have been early season deficiencies for the Owls against Georgia and Georgia Tech in competitive losses.

Meanwhile, Tennessee's next major test is Dec. 2 when North Carolina plays. A trip to Stanford then causes a bit of a ripple between then and the Duke game.

But to use a phrase in which a well-known player of the past was praised up North by her coach that Tennessee's Pat Summitt loves to not love, the Lady Vols have Candace Parker and no one else does.

That brings us to Connecticut, and we begin with this thought: If the Huskies' recruiting of freshman Maya Moore is the reason the magnetic Tennessee-Connecticut series is no more, she may very be the reason to complete the UConn side of the two meeting in the NCAA championship in April.

Having passed its first major test of the season with the win over Stanford, and the Duke matchup in the Virgin Islands still a few games from becoming a reality, Connecticut's schedule has the Huskies favored in every game between now and the first of two Rutgers Big East matchups on Feb. 5, which will be in Piscataway, N.J.

If that fails for the Scarlet Knights, coach C.Vivian Stringers gets another shot in Connecticut just before the Big East tournament, and, once again up North the following week, most likely, in the conference tournament.

So everything is in place, even with Rutgers' disruptions, for the aforemention trio to get No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

Now if the Scarlet Knights can take down any or all of the above, they will also be in that hunt, even though Rutgers' chance at a pefect run went by the wayside quickly in the opening home loss to Stanford.

But let's get serious, Rutgers wasn't likely to go unbeaten off a schedule that appears to be the toughest of the elite, no matter what RPI figures may ultimately show.

The Scarlet Knights' rugged testing continues Sunday when No. 6 LSU visits in a rematch of last season's NCAA one-sided semifinal triumph by the Scarlet Knights.

LSU already lost to Maryland in College Park a week ago in the WNIT final and will meet Tennessee at least once in SEC competition. So the Tigers, who have been regulars in recent seasons in the Final Four, are in positions to help themselves get a decent placement to return again.

After Sunday, Rutgers' visits here to play St. Joseph's on Wednesday, and then hosts Maryland next Monday in what has become a huge game with long-range implications.

Later in the week, there's a visit to Duke in a rematch of last NCAA regional semifinal in which the Scarlet Knights' rallied, then faced a galling defeat, but survived when Lindsey Harding missed those two foul shots.

The win avenged the rout by the Blue Devils at Rutgers in December.

Once past Duke, it will be time to roll, unless the Scarlet Knights find ways to beat themselves, which has happened.

If Stringer's bunch plays like they did against George Washington,they will be looking at a 14-game win streak or more depending what happens between now and when that portion of the schedule approaches.

The back end of that set begins to get steep with Villanova (who could be back in form), West Virginia, and Pittsburgh, all visiting before Connecticut arrives.

Now mindset will be a factor at that point because the Connecticut and Tennessee games are back-to-back.

Then a mini-roll becomes available into March.

Wins over several of these prime opponents could be enough to put Rutgers in position for a No. 1 seed ahead of LSU, Oklahoma, and, despite the loss, Stanford, if the Scarlet Knights do not become victims in trap games.

Incidentally, media members who cover the game nationally, have been invited to NCAA headquarters, ironically, between the Rutgers-Connectcut and Rutgers-Tennessee games in February to engage in a mock-bracket exercise. It will be simulated to what occurs when the NCAA committee meets to determine the selection and placement of the 64-team field.

Thus, much of what I just discussed, will likely become components, unless we're going to use data from a past season.

By then, we'll know whether all of what has just been said is just the result of too much turkey stuffing from a holiday meal. On the other hand, we sounded the same way a year ago around this time when we noted after the Duke wipeout, while being almost very much alone on the bandwagon, that Rutgers could be doing great things in March.

When it did actually happen, to most it was a major surprise.

This time, if it doesn't happen, the shock will be quite equal.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

It's one thing when an aging Guru might have a senior moment or two, but it's another to see our trusty ward suffer one or two at the junior end.

First, he should be commended for filling the gap in reporting the St. Joseph's 63-46 win over Penn in the previous post in our absence, which we'll get to shortly.

It didn't seemed to be mentioned when we were surprised a little while ago to find the coverage, but next up for St. Joseph's is a visit from Rutgers on Hawk Hill on Nov. 28, a week from tonight (Wed.) at 7 p.m.

The fan base from the north who seem to avidly be among the tops of our readership should know that parking can be a bit of a problem -- a new garage will soon open across 54th St., so it might be smart to get to the campus around 5:30 p.m. or so, though rush hour will present its own challenges.

Without naming the the establishment, per se, time can be killed across 54th St. and Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse at a well-known establishment in the neighborhood that specializes in the Philadelphia cheesesteak.

Also, as one who is actually paid by the same overall employer as the Guru and is privy to scheduling situations in here as part of anticipating Philly.com content, our ward was informed, but might have forgotten in the crush of Phillies coverage, that staffing shortages involving vacations has placed the Guru in a babysitter role on the desk all week.

However, the Guru's gender equity training returns with men's games involving Drexel and La Salle on Friday and Saturday afternoon before our arrival here, and we likely will be on the scene Sunday up North for the LSU showdown with the Scarlet Knights

Besides, our good friend LSU coach Van Chancellor would be disappointed if we weren't in the house.

The Agony But No Ecstasy

That would be the way to describe our two are teams affiliated with the Colonial Athletic Association in nonconference games Tuesday night.

Delaware (2-1) suffered a tough setback to Boston College, 53-51, at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark when Stefanie Murphy, who had 26 points and 16 rebounds, put back a missed shot just before regulations to give the Eagles (2-1) a victory.

The Blue Hens stayed in the game, despite an overwhelming 49-33 disadvantage on the boards. Delaware, which got 11 points from Kyle DeHaven and 10 from Courtney Irving, offset to shortfall by forcing B.C. into 20 turnovers.

Meanwhile, a Drexel rally fell short at Army, and the Dragons 1-3) lost, 60-57, to the Knights (2-1).

Coach Denise Dillon's group nearly closed an eight-point gap down the stretch when the Dragons' foreign legion tandeem of Gabriela Marginean (Romania) and Jasmina Rosseel (Beligum) hit three-pointers and Narissa Suber hit a driving layup to pull within 58-57.

But Drexel could not advance further and Army hit two free throws to seal the win.

Marginean had 24 points and nine rebounds, while Rosseel had a career-high 13 points.

Penn State Road Drought Ends

The Nittany Lions (4-1) posted their first win outside the Bryce Jordan Center since beating Georgetown last December by topping South Carolina, 70-63, in Columbia.

It wasn't easy after the Gamecocks (3-1) began closing a 12-point deficit, but Penn State held on at the finish for the win.

Senior guard Kam Gissendanner gained her second-straight double-double with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Tyra Grant got a team-best 17 points, while freshman sub Janessa Wolff scored 12 points.

Coach Coquese Washington's group will return from the holiday break to host Drexel, Sunda.

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

On the day when Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was named the Most Valuable Player in the National League, the first Big 5 game of the year for Penn and Saint Joseph's was won by the team that had more runs than the other.

The tally was two for the Hawks to one for the Quakers. That made much of the difference as St. Joe's rolled to a 63-46 win at the Palestra in the first half of a doubleheader with the Penn men's team's game against The Citadel.

"We made shots when we needed to make shots," Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said.

As this city celebrated its second consecutive NL MVP award (first baseman Ryan Howard slugged his way to it last year), your correspondent got just lucky enough with the subway system to make it to both Rollins' 4 p.m.press conference in South Philadelphia and the 5:30 tipoff in University City.

(There was no sign of the Guru, however, either upon arrival at the Palestra or for the rest of the evening. This was a source of quite some discussion on press row, as he usually makes it to City Series games.)

The two teams were closely matched early on, which was no surprise given the intensity with which Big 5 matchups contested. Just under six minutes into the game, a jump shot by Quakers forward Katarina Lackner pulled Penn to within 15-11 with 13 minutes left in the first half.

But the series as a whole has rarely been that close, as the Quakers had beaten the Hawks only once in 32 tries coming into the night. The lone win came in Penn coach Pat Knapp's first year, which was also the only time the Quakers ever won two Big 5 games in a season.

That history reared its head right after Lackner's basket, as St. Joe's went on a 16-0 run and held Penn without a basket for the next 8:51.

Having said that, the women's side of the Big 5 is occasionally struck with the kinds of surprises that have defined the men's side of things for more than half a century. So it was not as unexpected as you might think when the Quakers launched a 14-1 run to start the second half to cut the deficit to 37-31 just over four minutes in.

But as Knapp pointed out, runs don't just happen because of one team. Indeed, the rout would surely have continued had the Hawks not missed four straight three-point attempts and four straight free throws coming out of the locker room.

"You go on a 14-1 run and the next thing I know I'm calling a timeout because we're down 10 or 12," Knapp said. "The the run ended when we didn't stop them and they got too many second chances."

By Mel Greenberg

From some 45-60 miles to the North, we could hear the howls from the Rutgers faithful when the Associated Press women's basketball poll for the week was announced Monday afternoon.

How could the Scarlet Knights look that impressive against George Washington Sunday night and not re-gain some upward movement, let alone drop another spot?

The question is well-merited but relax.

If you look at the point total, the spread between No. 5 North Carolina, through No. 6 Louisiana State by Maryland, and Rutgers is only 12 points.

Basically, forget the ranking, per se, it's a virtual tie for fifth place.

If you consider that No. 8 Georgia is about 100 points behind in the eighth slot indicates most of the votes for Rutgers fell into the 4-5-6 range.

To answer a question, we have seen, AP would like ballots in by midnight, Sunday, although some never make it until Monday morning because of voters who may be traveling.

Furthermore, in the media business, may voters are working on Sundays and, early in the season, when schedules are not uniform, there is a tendency at times to vote early, without regard to an 8 p.m. Eastern start time.

Furthermore, ESPNU is not readily available in all places voters happen to reside -- like here.

A week ago, Rutgers may have gotten the benefit in that the Stanford game wasn't taken into consideration. But word was out through either media reports or observation that controversial officiating aside, the squad didn't really play all that well and should have been able to avoid the last-second whistle by being enough ahead to make it a non-factor.

The performance against Creighton, Friday night, despite the win, didn't help, either.

So many went to the votingt both playing catch-up with those two events in the profile.

Over the years when we ran the coaches' vote, many times we would see a re-adjustment a week later based on events that had happened during late Sunday games.

However, Rutgers can quickly take care of its own business in the poll. A win over LSU at home Sunday, which will be played in mid-afternoon, should cause a rise. On the other hand, a setback will kind of leave the team right where they are or down a couple of notches.

One ranking we would question above is how the Tar Heels moved up, but considering the voting, it wouldn't take many ballots to push UNC ahead when figuring out the comparisons in that 5-6-7 range.

On the other hand, there could be other factors. And to get a clue there, the Guru doesn't have time to examine the individual votes as many of you do.

So here's the link now that it appears the new board for the 2007-08 has finally been updated at the AP women's voting site.

Time Out: There's one little problem. As we went to get the link, it appears that only the pre-season vote is in place, though if you see week 3, you'll know it's been updated.

But at least you have the link.

Moving on elsewhere in the voting, another problem caused by an in-ordinate non-uniform start, is who to insert when teams below start to lose.

A lot that occurred last week, so it was a dart toss per se.

But take the Guru's advice, enough power teams are playing each other that wait until Dec. 12 or so before taking things a little more seriously.

Hightower's Grand Night

Yes, we were on the desk Monday night and handled the La Salle-Albany game by remote from the Explorers' Tom Gola Arena.

But in the process of jump-starting the report off the box score, we were ahead of an important detail.

Senior Carlene Hightower had 22 points as La Salle beat Albany, 70-59, to even its record at 2-2. That we had. What we didn't have was that she became the 22nd member of La Salle's 1,00-point club during the game.

The all-time leader is Jen Cole with 1,875, followed by current assistant coach Chrissie (Donahue) Doogan at 1,818.

Earlier in the day, Hightower was also named the Atlantic Ten co-player of the week.

Three-Catch at Penn State

The first three recruits of the Coquese Washington era were announced by Penn State on Monday and two come from the Midwest she used to mine for Notre Dame as an associate head coach to Muffet McGraw.

Zhague Gray, a 5-8 guard is from Chicago, while 5-4 point guard Emily Phillips is from South Bend, Ind., right near the Notre Dame campus.

Renee Womack is from these parts in nearby Lansdale where she led Methacton High to a first-ever playoff win in history in Suburban One.

If this is your first stop on the internet today, just head to the Penn State site to get further details.

Clearing the (Schedule) Record

Those of you who have been grabbing the Guru's operation schedule on an exile file that Jonathan recently posted, please insert under Dec. 6 -- Rutgers at Duke (how could we miss that one??)

We accidentaly lost the line while trying to line up page breaks for the printed version the editors here receive.

Meanwhile, we have to run over to FedEx and get a recommendation sent on behalf of Acacia, who is contending for a Hearst fellowship.

We'll be back after Tuesday night's action.

--Mel

By Mel Greenberg

There's no truth that George Washington coach Joe McKeown's post-game remarks, Sunday night, following his No. 14 Colonials' 67-42 loss to No. 6 Rutgers at the Smith Center, caused authorities in the nation's capital to close every bridge across the Potomac River to Virginia where the veteran mentor resides.

After all, unlike the amphibian "Ducks" that transport tourists into and around the well-known waterway, McKeown's vehicle is not known to possess similar floating capabilities.

"I'm embarassed by our effort," McKeown said, as reported in Associated Press coverage of the one-sided affair. "And I promise you you're not going to see that again the rest of this year, or you'll see people changing uniforms very quickly. That's not us. That's not what we're all about. And again I apologize to the fans who came out because they were expecting to see a great game, and I hope they get achance to come back because I think they're still going to see a great team at GW this year."

The 42 points were the Colonials' lowest at the Smith Center since a 50-40 loss on Jan.31, 1983.

That was the inaugural year of Atlantic Ten competition, when Rutgers, which later joined the Big East in the fall of 1995, and GWU were charter members and often fought for conference supremacy.

The Colonials (3-1), the overwhelming favorite in the A-10 this season, shot 22 percent for the game.

A check into the statistical archives show George Washington hadn't been this cold since spending an 18th century winter at Valley Forge, not far from where McKeown grew up in Northeast Philadelphia.

"Tonight was a kick in the stomach," McKeown said. "We've got to bounce back."

He need only look to his Sunday' opponent for a lesson in resiliency.

Almost a year ago, C. Vivian Stringer was expressing similar thoughts about her Scarlet Knights (2-1) after a rout at home by Duke.

But that group was much more inexperienced at the time than the current GWU contingent, which is coming off one the Colonial's best performances in the program's history.

By the end of last season, Rutgers reversed itself and was capturing the Big East title over host Connecticut, upsetting the same Duke team in the NCAA tournament regional semifinals, and advancing all the way to the title game.

It was such fun that apparently Rutgers, which at times has shown a tenacity to self-destruct, had been having some difficulty catching up with the start of this season.

Controversial officiating at the last second aside, the Scarlet Knights were sluggish a week ago in a 60-58 season-opening loss to then-No. 7 Stanford at home in a national telecast.

Then five days later, interrupted along the way by the giddy announcement of landing one of the very best recruiting classes in the nation, Rutgers struggled Friday night in a lackluster win over Creighton.

"It seemed like we were lost," junior center Kia Vaughn said. "And so we're back."

She had 13 points and 12 rebounds behind teammate Matee Ajavon's stellar effort with 19 points, including four-of-five three-pointers, as Rutgers short-circuited GWU's 15-game home win streak.

Stringer was in a much better disposition after her team had shown itself on another nationwide telecast.

"We definitely needed a great effort," Stringer said. "We needed to see how we could play. I've been kind of frustrated with the way they've been playing. It's been kind of sluggish. It's almost like we were afraid to play -- we want to hold on to where we were (last year). It was great to see we could shut people down. We know we can -- we just hadn't done it."

Rutgers has a week off before Sunday's visit from No. 4 LSU, which will arrive with somewhat of a lower ranking after the Tigers' 75-62 loss to No. 3 Maryland a few hours early just north of the District of Columbia in College Park.

Follow the jump to keep reading.