By Mel Greenberg
So the holiday has arrived and with it, perhaps, a new computer (laptop or otherwise) that quickly needs to be broken in but the day being what it is, there isn't much news happening as teams have dispensed for the break.
Well, sit right down and scroll away and we'll provide a little entertainment, much of it by way of the new AP poll for the week that arrived just ahead of Santa's delivery sleigh.
Also, if you want to check going to another screen, we wrote our own version of the AP story for Tuesday's print edition, but the link wans't available in the early A.M. But just lurk around in Philly.com in the Inquirer sports section and you'll find it unless Jonathan reads this with his wheaties Cheerios down in Washington and inserts one.
[Which he has, correcting his breakfast foodstuff of choice along the way.]
You can read the print story right here.
There's a new oldie as No. 1 with Connecticut taking 49 of the 50 first-place votes. The Huskies are there in part because of 9-0 highlighted by a sweep in the Virgin Islands and in part because of two of his colleagues in the profession that have been involved in past and present controversies put together a dandy of a game on the West Coast late Saturday night, Eastern time.
Stanford upset Tennessee in overtime, thus setting up the Vols for a fall from No. 1 where they were perched all season. The Cardinal might have taken the big leap from five all the way to No. 1 had they not lost to UConn in the Virgin Islands.
So who's involved in this unwitting conspiracy to help the Huskies?
On the Stanford side there's one Tara VanDerveer, who is about to get her 700th career win.
Back in the mid-90s when UConn first came on the scene VanDerveer was coach of the famous '96 Olympic squad who less-than-discreetly showed a lack of excitment over the USA basketball committee's selection of Huskies idol Rebecca Lobo on the team.
That's now Bay water over the dot.com industry as they say in Northern, Calif., but it was quite a deal back then to the Connecticut faithful.
And of course, in the other corner Saturday night was one Tennessee legendary coach Pat Summitt, who canceled the regular-season series between the two last summer.
Now that missing piece could become somewhat of a factor against Tennessee in how the No. 1 seeds are planted by the NCAA depending how the rest of the season plays out.
Furthermore, unless Rutgers, North Carolina, or LSU get their two sense against UConn, then the Lady Vols will now find themselves a bit in the Huskies' shadow the rest of the way.
Since it's been noted that Connecticut has the second-most appearances at the top to Tennessee (this week is poll No. 544), here's the list of every team that's ever been No. 1. Two times there were actually ties, including a preseason deadlock one year between Louisiana Tech and Tennessee. Here's the list:
Tennessee 111
Connecticut 95
Louisiana Tec 83
Texas 47
Duke 34
Old Dominion 34
Virginia 24
Southern Cal 16
LSU 15
Maryland 14
Auburn 11
Stanford 9
Wayland Baptist 9
Iowa 8
Penn St. 6
Vanderbilt 6
Delta St. 5
Georgia 5
North Caro. 5
Notre Dame 5
Purdue 4
This week also gives the Big East 100 appearances with a No. 1 current team exceeded only by the Southeastern Conference's 135. More SEC teams have held the spot but were not in the conference at the time of the ranking.
Ok, now to test your mouse/touch pads, click here to keep reading.
Vanishing act
Whatever happened to the Big Ten?
Michigan State's exit from the poll (diispensed by Jen Rizzotti's Hartford Hawks, incidentally), leaves just Ohio State and coach Jim Foster all alone in the rankings at No. 17.
The last time only one Big Ten team was in the rankings was back on Jan. 20, 1997, when Bill Clinton was celebrating his second inauguration day in Washington and Wisconsin was the lone Big Ten team in the poll at No. 16.
That's a big drop in a short time from an all-time high of five conference teams, which last occurred on Jan. 17, 2005. The quintet that week noted here with rankings in parentheses, were Ohio State (3), Michigan State (8), Minnesota (12), Iowa (22), and Penn State (24).
There were previous five spots with even better performances as three Big Tens were Top 10s several times. Two bright spots in the Big Ten's early nonconference wars were Penn State's win over Duke and Indiana last week beating West Virginia.
And Arizona State's exit leaves just two Pac-10 teams -- No. 2 Stanford and No.11 California.
A year ago, five Pac-10 teams were in the preseason vote and the total held for the first several weeks.
Monopoly Anyone?
Forget Boardwalk and Park Place? If one wants to get to the NCAA tournament in this version, it would be wise to build with cards saying SEC, Big East, Big-12, and ACC.
Those four conference have most of the teams in this week's Top 25. The Big 12 has six, followed by the Big East and SEC with five, each. The ACC has only three, but Maryland and North Carolina are in the Top 10 and Duke could return soon.
Stealing Suzie's Thunder
Now it's Kathy McConnell-Miller's turn to get some national attention.
The Colorado coach is a sister of Suzie McConnell-Serio, the former Penn State star who went on to Olympic gold, became a successful high school coach in her native Pittsburgh, reached all-star status in the WNBA and later coached the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx into the playoffs.
This season Suzie is making her collegiate coaching debut at Duquesne and will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in June.
On Monday, Kathy's Colorado team cracked the poll for the first time since the final vote of 2003-04 when Ceal Barry had the team.
Kathy, a former Virginia teammate of Dawn Staley in 1988-89, joins Staley in an elite group of 22 players who have performed with and coached AP-ranked teams. The list is below.
Staley will tell friends of her days with Kathy at Virginia that the difference between the two is Staley knew the shorter routes to study hall and the dorm for homework.
Yeah, that's the same Kathy McConnell who along with buddy Margaret McKeown entriced the Guru onto the dance floor at a Final Four in Los Angeles in 1992.
McKeown, incidentally, will be in town this weekend coaching New Jersey Institute Tech against St. Joseph's in the Hawks' tournament, Friday and Saturday. No. 15 Auburn is also in the field with Davidson and we'll be there.
Here's the coach-player list.
AP PLAYER-COACH HISTORY
(Played for and coached Ranked Teams)
NAME SCHOOL COACH SCHOOL PLAYED
1. Katie Abrahamson-Henderson Missouri St. Georgia/Iowa
2. Cheryl Burnett Missouri.St. Kansas
3. Pokey Chatman% LSU LSU
4. June Daugherty Boise St./Washington Ohio St.
5. Nell Fortner Purdue Texas
6. Susie Gardner Arkansas Georgia
7. Wendy Larry% Old Dominion Old Dominion
8. JoAnne P. McCallie Michigan St./Duke Northwestern
9. Kathy McConnell-Miller Colorado Virginia
10. Muffet McGraw Notre Dame St. Joseph’s
11. Cheryl Miller% Southern Cal Southern Cal
12. Kim Mulkey Baylor Louisiana Tech
13. Mary Murphy Wisconsin Northwestern
14. Kathy Olivier UCLA UNLV
15. Carolyn Peck Purdue/Florida Vanderbilt
16. Laurie Pirtle Cincinnati Ohio St.
17. Carol Ross% Florida/Mississippi Mississippi
18. Bev Smith% Oregon Oregon
19. Dawn Staley Temple Virginia
20. Jan Ternyik San Francisco Montclair St.
21. Charli Turner Thorne Arizona St. Stanford
22. Amy Tucker* Stanford Ohio St.
*-Filled in for Tara VanDerveer in 1995-96
%-Four played and coached at same ranked school.
More Poll Trivia
Kim Mulkey reach her 100th coaching appearance in the poll this week, courtesy of Baylor. Pat Summitt is way at the top with 530 appearances, missing only 14 weeks total, and her team is about to make its 400th appearance in the top 5.
Which brings us to a few more charts. First, top five appearances this decade, followed by all-time, and then top 10 appearances this decade followed by all-time.
Total AP Top 5 appearances this decade.
2000's (to present)
Tennessee 136
Duke 110
Connecticut 106
LSU 57
North Caro. 46
Stanford 39
Texas 29
Notre Dame 28
Georgia 26
Maryland 26
Ohio St. 25
Oklahoma 25
Kansas St. 15
Baylor 14
Louisiana Tech 13
Purdue 10
Iowa St. 9
Texas Tech 9
Vanderbilt 9
Penn St. 8
Rutgers 6
North Caro. St. 2
Wisconsin 2
Auburn 1
.
All-Time Top Five Total Appearances
Tennessee 399
Louisiana Tech 279
Connecticut 206
Texas 157
Georgia 145
Stanford 137
Old Dominion 131
Duke 111
North Caro. 83
Southern Cal 74
LSU 71
Maryland 69
Auburn 66
Long Beach St. 60
Virginia 57
Iowa 54
Vanderbilt 45
Penn St. 43
Steph. F. Austin 42
Rutgers 40
Purdue 38
North Caro. St. 34
Ohio St. 29
Notre Dame 28
Cheyney 25
Oklahoma 25
Wayland Baptist 23
Colorado 22
Delta St. 22
Texas Tech 22
Mississippi U. 19
La.-Monroe 16
UCLA 16
Kansas St. 15
Baylor 14
UNLV 13
South Carolina 12
Kansas 11
Immaculata 10
Western Ky. 10
Iowa St. 9
Alabama 8
Cal-St. Fullerton 7
Colorado St. 5
Kentucky 5
Washington 5
Montclair St. 3
Wisconsin 2
Florida 1
Illinois 1
St. Joseph's 1
Tennessee Tech 1
Top10 2000's (to present)
Tennessee 150
Connecticut 140
Duke 135
Stanford 93
LSU 88
Purdue 76
North Caro. 75
Louisiana Tech 62
Georgia 59
Baylor 55
Rutgers 55
Ohio St. 54
Oklahoma 53
Notre Dame 52
Texas Tech 51
Maryland 43
Iowa St. 39
Kansas St. 33
Texas 33
Penn St. 32
Vanderbilt 27
Michigan St. 15
Minnesota 14
Arizona St. 12
North Caro. St. 9
Florida 6
South Carolina 6
Arkansas 5
Auburn 5
Geo. Wash. 4
UC Santa Barb. 4
Wisconsin 3
Texas A&M 2
Colorado 1
DePaul 1
Houston 1
Mississippi St. 1
Oregon 1
UCLA 1
All-Time Top 10 Total Appearances
Tennessee 482
Louisiana Tech 373
Connecticut 249
Georgia 247
Stanford 247
Texas 217
Old Dominion 179
Rutgers 173
Long Beach St. 166
Maryland 163
Virginia 154
LSU 151
Duke 150
North Caro. 150
Penn St. 149
Purdue 147
Texas Tech 134
North Caro. St. 133
Auburn 119
Southern Cal 110
Vanderbilt 110
Iowa 108
Ohio St. 99
Mississippi U. 94
Steph. F. Austin 79
Notre Dame 76
Cheyney 73
UCLA 67
Baylor 55
Kansas St. 55
Colorado 54
Oklahoma 53
Iowa St. 42
Wayland Baptist 37
Western Ky. 37
Alabama 35
Kansas 34
Delta St. 31
South Carolina 31
UNLV 29
Kentucky 26
Arkansas 24
La.-Monroe 24
Washington 23
Montclair St. 22
Florida 18
Michigan St. 15
Arizona St. 14
Minnesota 14
Arizona 13
Colorado St. 12
Immaculata 12
Queens 12
St. Joseph's 12
Geo. Wash. 11
Illinois 11
Cal-St. Fullerton 9
Oregon 9
Tennessee Tech 9
Miami 7
Missouri 7
Wisconsin 7
Mississippi Coll. 5
Missouri St. 4
UC Santa Barb. 4
Clemson 3
Northwestern 3
Memphis 2
San Diego St. 2
Texas A&M 2
Virginia Tech 2
William Penn 2
DePaul 1
Houston 1
Mercer 1
Mississippi St. 1
Southern Conn. 1
Valdosta St. 1
-- Mel
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