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
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