Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

Greetings everyone. Feel free to look at anything you missed the last couple of days.

The Guru's technological center has undergone a major upgrade in the last 24 hours with the purchase of a new state-of-the-art laptop because of problems concerning the one that's served us the last several seasons.

Think like the ignition isn't turning the car motor on. -- it's a hardware issue -- all software is safe.

In fact, the previous unit got jealous immediately and startedwhen we got home from Rutgers, allowing us to begin grabbing favorites, programs and other data, including the vast music collection, and move it on to an externa hard drive to place in the new unit -- yeah, web cam, entertainment center, all the bells and whistles not counting a blue ray dvd that won't play commercial blue ray dvds.

This will avoid to emergency write-with-the-blackberry rescue effort we used during recent games at Rutgers and other local schools. And the laptop will additionally serve the troops well on the road with its entertainment functions.

We've also been figuring out the five-thousand tie situations involving our local la salle team's ability to survive to advance to the A-10 tournament.

We broke the new laptop in with Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer getting her 800th win, working on the fly with total inexperience using windows vista.

Fortunately, Stephen was on hand with enough knowledge to get the Guru operational.

So, we'll be back later in the day or sometime Friday night with the usual and more concerning the NCAA projections, etc.

By the way, as the crowd was busy chanting C.V.S. after Stringer's achievement the Guru thought the scene would have made a nice TV ad for the other nationwide pharmaceutical operation with similar initials.

-- Mel

-- Mel

(Guru's note: Our preview of Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer's first opportunity to collect career victory No. 800 Wednesday night is over at philly.com in the printed sports section of The Inquirer. Stephen was on the scene on campus Tuesday when the Women's Basketball Hall of Famer chatted with the media in Piscataway, N.J. His report follows here. We'll be on hand Wednesday night. --Mel)

By Stephen K. Lee

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – As she prepares for Rutgers’ game against DePaul on Wednesday, head coach C. Vivian Stringer has only one thing on her mind.

And it’s not win No. 800.

Following Tuesday’s practice, the Hall of Fame coach spoke to the media and flipped through three multi-page packets of notes that she’s crafted to ready the No. 4 Scarlet Knights (22-4, 12-1 Big East) for the visiting Blue Demons (18-8, 7-6).

“It’s that important,” Stinger says while pointing to papers that look like study guides for a calculus test instead of a basketball coach’s practice notes. “What I’m trying to say is I’m not going to the mall, I’m not getting sleep. I know that we need to pay great attention. I’m greatly concerned because this is like Villanova but much more athletic.”

For Stringer, who’s in her 37th year of coaching, milestones like her 800th win are overshadowed more by the task at hand. She prefers the benchmark pass quietly without a lot of fanfare.

“I don’t want to lose – not because of the 800,” she continues. “I think there have been plenty of coaches that have had the delay, delay, delay. Before the end of the year, we’re going to win 800, so what’s the big deal?”

“We need to (beat DePaul) because we need to demonstrate to ourselves that we can: 1. play zones, 2. we can play man-to-man defense.”

However, all of the buildup for No. 800 has given Stringer an opportunity to reflect upon how blessed she’s been to do a job she loves.

“I’m aware of Bob Knight and Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt,” she says referring to the man who notched his 900th win on the men’s side last month and the two women who currently reside in the 800 and 900 clubs in the women’s game. “I don’t even think about the 800. Sometimes I get confused and say, ‘Is it 700 or is it 800?’ I really do because no one starts off trying to achieve a number.

“I feel very fortunate because I get excited every day coming to practice. But if someone were to have told me, gee, I’m going to be coaching for 30-something years – that’s a job and I don’ t want to think of it that way.”

In fact, Stringer didn’t think of coaching women’s basketball as a job when she started the 37-year journey that’s taken her to four Final Fours with three different schools.

“I think that when I first started coaching at Cheyney (in the Philadelphia suburbs) – keep in mind that I never planned to coach,” she says. “I always wanted to play, but I just wanted to be a gym teacher.”

Stringer says that she initially envisioned coaching as “boring.” But, after realizing that there wasn’t a league for her to play in back in those days, she later changed her tune when she worked as a graduate assistant while pursuing her master’s degree.

“I wanted to say to my coach sometimes, ‘Why don’t we do this, why don’t we do that?’”

In 1971, Stringer, still in her early twenties, took the head coaching job at Cheyney, a small African-American school, where she got her first taste of how rewarding the occupation can be.

“I can honestly say I don’t even remember the first win,” she says. “But what I do remember is that I felt really worthwhile because it looked to me that those girls…I gave them pride in themselves.”

Stringer later built Cheyney into an early power in women’s basketball before continuing her work at Iowa and Rutgers.

Three of Stringer’s current players (Matee Ajavon, Essence Carson and Katie Adams) witnessed her 700th win when they were freshmen and they are happy to help her make history once again.

“I think it’s a good accomplishment for Coach Stringer,” says Ajavon before recalling her fondest memory of win No. 700.

“I just remember lifting Coach Stringer up and being happy for her and Mariota (Theodoris) holding her on top of her shoulder. So it was a great day.”

Adams shares similar sentiments about her coach.

“She never ceases to amaze me.”

By Mel Greenberg

Connecticut took care of its business Monday night with a win at LSU and by doing so virtually assured itself a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament field. Maya Moore, by her performance, perhaps put away all the national freshman of the year honors, also.

If the outcome had gone the other way, a lot of "ifs," would have entered into play and LSU would have taken another step into the mix.

But with just one or maybe two games against Rutgers left, as long as the Huskies do what's expected -- losses to Rutgers wouldn't be fatal -- UConn appears to be in a "lock" state along with Tennessee.

What losses to Rutgers would do, is cause discussion on which team would be the higher No. 1 seed. The Huskies helped the Scarlet Knights' bid for a No. 1 also.

With a head-to-head win over LSU and the Tigers' loss to UConn, Rutgers wins that discussion.

In looking at Rutgers' case, coach C. Vivian Stringer's team compares favorably against Maryland and North Carolina, who will fight it out in the Atlantic Coast Conference for the remaining No. 1 slot.

The Scarlet Knights compare favorably at the moment against either team based on the data in the Nitty Gritty component simulations.

Atlhough Maryland currently has an RPI ranking one notch higher, the reason is the Terrapins played more games courtesy of the preseason NIT that gave the Terrapins extra wins. Rutgers still has a stronger strength of schedule.

That opponents will get even more stronger with games against DePaul, Syracuse, and Connecticut just ahead. There's also the head-to-head win against Maryland.

Now with that said, Rutgers still needs to win the games not involving the Huskies or otherwise the injury situation will become more dominant in committee deliberations.

Now with that said, here's another update on how the bubble list is shaping up. Even though some teams in the "discussion," column we would take quickly, we know that's where they will land. Fortunately for most of them, our count shows that not many would have to be eliminated to make the field. Some teams could still find their way on and out of the list as we go through the next several weeks.

Incidentally, in a note of trivia, Ohio State's loss to Indiana assures that the regular season Big Ten champion will have the most losses ever in the history of the conference at five.

Here's the lock and discussion list. In some games we're projecting names of conference winners in what will be one-bid situations. If some get upset, they will certainly enter the discussion group, such as Marist, which earned its first ever AP ranking on Monday. In a few situations, a conference race is so murky, we're unable to project a winner and will just name the slot.

The Locks

Total -- 50

North Carolina
Maryland
Duke
Virginia
America East winner -- Hartford
George Washington
Atlantic Sun winner -- ETSU
Baylor
Oklahoma
Kansas St.
Oklahoma St.
Texas A&M
Connecticut
Rutgers
West Virginia
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Louisville
Pittsburgh
Big Sky winner -- Montana
Big South winner -- Liberty
Ohio State
Big West winner -- UCSB
Old Dominion
C-USA winner -- UTEP
Horizon winner -- Wis.-Green Bay
Ivy winner -- Cornell
MAAC winner -- Marist
Mid-American winner
MEAC winner -- N. Car. A&T
Missouri Valley winner -- Illinois St.
Utah
Wyoming
Northeast winner
Ohio Valley winner -- SE Missouri
Stanford
California
Arizona St.
Patriot winner
LSU
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Georgia
Southern winner -- Chattanooga
Southland winner
Summit winner
Sun Belt winner -- Western Kentucky
SWAC winner
Western Athletic winner -- Fresno or Boise St.
West Coast winner -- Gonzaga

"Discussion" group -- 16 for 14 vacancies

Georgia Tech
Florida St.
Boston College
Xavier
Temple
Nebraska
Iowa State
Texas
DePaul
Iowa
Minnesota
Michigan
SMU
TCU
Southern Cal
Auburn

(Guru's Note: In light of recent "events" in Knoxville, this is how the Big Sky handled a men's situation on Monday also involving errors by officials and the game clock at the end of regulation. This is straight off the AP wire, but the Guru believes it would enlighten the readership.)

Big Sky suspends three basketball officials

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HELENA, Mont. — The Big Sky Conference suspended three officials for their incorrect ruling in the Montana-Idaho State last weekend, commissioner Doug Fullerton said Monday.

Eric Curry, Bob Scofield and Scott Harris will be suspended for one game each.

In Sunday game at Pocatello, Idaho, the score was tied at 58 in the final second when a Montana player called for a timeout after securing a rebound.

According to a statement from the conference, television replays confirmed the timeout was recognized by the officials before the final horn.

The statement said Montana had used its allotment of timeouts and should have been called for a technical foul, awarding Idaho State two free throw attempts with time still on the clock.

After the technical foul shots, Montana should have taken possession, the statement said.

Instead, the officials ruled that the timeout was recognized simultaneously with the final horn.

Curry, the head official, made the incorrect call, said Jon Kasper, director of media relations for the Big Sky. However, the game was televised, so all three officials had the option to use replay to determine how much time remained when the timeout was recognized.

They chose not to review the play, and Montana went on to win the game 73-62 in overtime.

“We give officials great flexibility to interpret plays within the rules,” Fullerton said. “We never allow officials to set aside a rule. We’re not sure whether the game would have ended on the free throw line, but Idaho State should have been given that opportunity.”

Reached at his office in Minneapolis on Monday, Curry declined to comment.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee does not recognize or allow protests, so the outcome of the game will not change, the statement said.

By Mel Greenberg

Unlike the recent controversy involving a "frozen clock" in Knoxville that affected the outcome of the Tennessee-Rutgers game on Feb. 11, or the historic decision made in 1995 involving the famed Tennessee-Connecticut game, time won't stand still the next several weeks to keep the Associated Press women's poll and the calendar in synch with each other.

The way the flow of the weekly balloting occurs, all votes from the nationwide media panel are submitted late Sunday night or very early Monday morning and then the tally is publicly released a few hours later in the afternoon for what was originally intended to be targeted toward Tuesday morning print editions.

Before the instant access provided through the internet, this was rarely a problem in terms of reflecting the previous seven days' action. A week ago, the vote was already being dissected in collegiate messenger boards since the tallies are now published at an AP web site.

In 1995, however, on Jan. 16, the flow of the season evolved that Tennessee, ranked No. 1, was scheduled to visit No. 2 Connecticut in the afternoon.

The question arose, if the Huskies pull an upset, it might appear somewhat weird in the early evening to claim Tennessee had maintained its hold on the top of the list when the "reality" would be that the Vols had been dispatched.

Thus, because of the hour the game was scheduled, the voting deadline was "frozen" to await the outcome.It was a simple move to make. Few games were scheduled elsewhere and none of them had any bearing on that week's vote.

Connecticut, as its well known by now, pulled its upset to earn its first No. 1 appearance, which became official that Monday night.

Well, the Huskies are still with us and are still in play involving the penthouse.

They are also part of another quirk that has developed.

In all likelihood, Connecticut will hold on to its No. 1 ranking when this week's vote is announced in the early afternoon hours. But Monday night in Baton Rouge, La., the Huskies will visit LSU, a team quite capable of upsetting the Huskies. Senior post star Sylvia Fowles and company proved as much with the Valentine's Day rally over Tennessee in Knoxville that returned Connecticut to the top.

If Connecticut wins, the situation is unaffected. If the Tigers win, it's another story.

But in this world of instant access, the poll results will already be old news in most places when the teams take the floor. And because of the hour involved and other games scheduled elsewhere, it's too complex to hold up the vote.

The coaches' poll, which operates on a Tuesday ballot submission, won't be affected.

Even more important than the weekly vote, this is another key game involving the tight race for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA women's tournament 64-team field. Connecticut, despite season-ending injuries to Kalana Greene and Mel Thomas, has continued forward for the most part to be considered a "lock" at this early Monday hour the Guru's fingers are hitting the keyboard to write this post.

But a loss begins to dislodge the stability, especially if LSU runs the table and beats Tennessee again or wins the Southeastern Conference tournament, any way, because someone else did the Tigers' dirty work.

A week from now, a similar situation will occur when Rutgers, also in the hunt for a No. 1, also affected by injuries, visits the Huskies on the final day of the Big East regular season. The Scarlet Knights have already won the first meeting.

Again, the vote will be announced Monday afternoon with the game in Connecticut to be played Monday night.

Cornell Heading Into Ivy Showdown

The Big Red's history-making season in the Ivy League has arrived at its most important stop this weekend when coach Danya Smith's team will visit Dartmouth, Friday night, and Harvard on Saturday.

Guided by the former Penn assistant, Cornell, at 17-6 overall and 9-1 in the league, leads the Big Green by two games and the Crimson by a game and already swept both schools at home earlier.

Thus another sweep with only one more weekend to go, afterwards, would minimally clinch a tie as the Big Red seek their first crown.

Already, after Saturday's 65-41 win at Brown, Cornell set program marks for conference wins in a season (9) and extended its win streak to eight games, breaking a 33-year old program record for consecutive games won. The overall record is also a best-ever.

Texas A&M's Blair Celebrates a "Vintage" Career

When Texas A&M coach Gary Blair celebrated his 500th career win last week, having guided three different programs at Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas, and his current one into national rankings, he posed an interesting question for researchers to pursue.

"I was hired at age 39 but didn't get my first win until after my 40th birthday," Blair related.

"So I'm wondering how many coaches in either the women's game or men's game, who have won 500, have gotten them all them after turning 40."

Quiet Monday?

The Inquirer sports department print section on Saturday noted that it could be the first time in quite a while that no Big Five men's team has made it to the NCAA tournament.

That caused a question to be posed to the Guru the last time it happened on the women's side of the fence.

Temple is the only local team that has a chance to earn an at-large slot if an automatic bid doesn't come via conference championship.

The last time the Big Five women were shut out was in the 1997-98 season

Drexel Seeking to Tame Tigers

The Dragons, the surprise team of the Colonial Athletic Association in a three-way tie for third, have an important game Thursday night when Towson visits the Daskalalis Athletic Center.

Drexel took its turn Sunday getting a dose of CAA-unbeaten Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va.

The Dragons (15-11, 10-5 CAA) are currently knotted with the Tigers and Va. Commonwealth, two games behind second-place James Madison, who Drexel recently upset, and three in front of sixth-place UNC Wilmington.

The first four teams will get a bye in next month's conference tournament at Delaware in Newark.

VCU, which edged Drexel, 65-61, on Feb. 10, will finish out hosting JMU, which it already upset 61-60, on the road, Delaware, and visiting William & Mary.

Towson will host Georgia State and Delaware after Drexel.

The Dragons will host George Mason and go to Georgia State after the Towson game.

Villanova Seeking Return to the Big East

After missing the Big East tournament for the first time in quite a while a year ago, the improved Villanova Wildcats are in a three-way tie for 10th in the loss column.

Only 12 qualify, athough next year all 16 teams will be included. Coach Harry Perretta's group is a game ahead of Seton Hall and South Florida.

Georgetown, whom the Wildcats have beaten, travel to Pittsburgh and Syracuse, while hosting Providence. St. John's, whom the Wildcats have also beaten, hosts Seton Hall, travel to Cincinnati, and host Notre Dame.

Villanova will host Marquette Saturday and travel to Louisville next Monday.

Seton Hall travels to St. Joihn's, but will host Notre Dame and DePaul, while South Florida will go to Notre Dame and Marquette, while hosting Pittsburgh.

Stringer, the Authoress

The Guru received an advance copy over the weekend of Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer's new memoir, "Standing Tall."

While quckly thumbing the pages, the Guru stumbled into an account of Stringer's final game at Cheyney when the No. 1 seeded Wolves were upset at Penn State by the host Nittany Lions in a regional semifinal in 1983 before she moved on to Iowa.

The Guru recently went on a research expedition before producing what occurred in the final moments of that game, which we recently posted.

Stringer, who will be going after career win No. 800 Wednesday night when DePaul visits, had asked the Guru to recall that 61-60 game during the postgame press conference in Knoxville after the Scarlet Knights had been deprived at the finish of an apparent victory due to a time freeze that allowed the Vols to get to the free throw line.

As it turns out, she could have saved the Guru effort by noting she's got the Penn State situation covered in detail in her book.

Since we already provided media accounts, here's her viewpoint, which will reveal that times don't really change over the years.

"...It made no sense we had to play at Penn State, because we were the higher seed, but we were used to it by then," Stringer writes.

"In the final minute of the game, we were set to win. We were down by one, but the ball was taken out of bounds, in our possession, under our basket, and we knew exactly what we had to do. They had no choice but to foul us, and we'd win the game.

"But that wasn't what happened. They knocked her down while she was trying to take the shot to win the game, but the foul never came. I can still see Debra Walker going up and falling down, whith no call, and then going up again, and getting knocked down again -- and the referee running off the floor.

"The whole crowd went completely silent. You could feel the collective shame of everyone who sat there. I've never seen anything like it. If you'd said something in a regular conversational tone, you would have heard it at the very top of the stands."

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ George Washington’s Antelia Parrish was elsewhere a year ago in junior college when St. Joseph’s shocked the Colonials in the semifinals of the Atlantic Ten tournament in Cincinnati.

On Sunday afternoon, however, the former J.C. All-American put away the Hawks with a pair of three-pointers in the final two minutes to give No. 17 GW a 61-53 victory at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

The victory kept the Colonials (22-5, 10-2) in a three-way tie atop the Atlantic Ten standings with Temple and Xavier going into the final week of conference play.

Temple (17-11), the only city team wil a chance at the NCAA tournament, will go to St. Louis, Wednesday, and host Massachusetts, Saturday.

Xavier (20-7) will be looking for revenge Wednesday when the Musketeers host Dayton, which recently beat them. They will will then travel to St. Bonaventure, Saturday.

The Colonials, the only A-10 team seemingly assured an NCAA bid without needing the automatic bid through the conference tournament, will travel to Richmond, Wednesday, and then host winless Fordham, Saturday.

If the Rams lose to Charlotte, Wednesday, the Colonials can end Fordham's misery at 0-29, which would be a record.

In Sunday's game, George Washington’s Jessica Adair scored 20 points, while freshman Sarah Acker had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Hawks (14-13, 6-6). Timisha Gomez and Amy Wold each added 10 points.

The game was closely fought most of the way. The Hawks trailed, 52-50, with 2 minutes, 8 seconds left in the game when Gomez missed a three-point attempt.

Whitney Allen grabbed the loose rebound and Parrish connected with her first trey. Wold countered with a similar shot, but Parrish nailed another three-pointer for a 58-53 lead with 1:17 left.

“We missed a defensive assignment,” St. Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin said of Parrish’s heroics. “Some of us thought we were in man-to-man coverage and some of us thought we were in a zone.

"That’s a disappointing thing in Game 27, but it’s correctable.” Griffin explained.

Just under the 18-minute mark of the second half with St. Joseph’s holding a one-point lead, Colonials coach Joe McKeown removed all his starters for the next four minutes.

“We were flat and I thought (the substitutes) came in and gave us great energy, that was really important for us,” said Joe McKeown, a Father Judge grad.

Lin Dunn, the new coach of the WNBA Indiana Fever, made a visit here to look at GW senior guard Kimberly Beck, who struggled on a 2--for-8 effort from the field, scoring nine points and dealing five assists.

"She's such a leader, she still gaves us big plays when we needed them," McKeown said.

A large contingent of Colonials fans made the trip from Washington.

"It felt like a home game," Beck said.

They'll be back in a few weeks when the Hawks host the Atlantic Ten tournament.

McKeown went 2-1 in his native city, beating Villanova in a nonconference tilt in December and St. Joseph's, while losing at Temple.

Meanwhile, in a surprise pre-game ceremony, St. Joseph’s retired the number of assistant coach Sue Moran, one of the all-time players in the program’s history, Her No. 10 was unveiled alongside the only other Hawk women's star of the past who has been given the honor _ Dale Hodges.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ Temple was up a point and minus an assistant coach even before the clock started ticking in the Owls’ Atlantic Ten contest Saturday against winless Fordham yesterday at the Liacouras Center.

The Rams (0-27, 0-12) were assessed a technical foul for not providing the starting lineup in time.

Darius Taylor, a former Michigan co-captain who has been on Dawn Staley’s staff for four seasons, left Friday for a job at NBA headquarters in New York.

Temple (17-11, 10-2), in a three-way fight with Xavier and George Washington atop the conference, shook off a slow start and went on to a 65-48 victory with two games left in the regular season.

Lady Comfort had 12 points for the Owls, while Shanea Cotton and LaKeisha Eaddy each scored 10.

Annie Zopf had 16 points for Fordham and Meghan Mahoney scored 13 points.

Staley praised Fordham’s effort despite the Rams’ record.

“You couldn’t tell by the intangible categories,” Staley said. “They were still hustling, they were still getting loose balls, they were still going after offensive rebounds.

“When a team plays as hard as they played, they make you play harder. I was glad our reserves played with the same amount of intensity and energy.”

The Rams, who are coached by Cathy Andruzzi, could tie Centennary’s futility record of 0-28 when they host Charlotte on Wednesday. They’ll finish the season Saturday at George Washington. Fordham has been eliminated from qualifying for next month’s conference tournament at St. Joseph’s.

Andruzzi ran the local organizing committee here in 2000 when Philadelphia hosted the NCAA Women’s Final Four. That’s the same season Centennary set the dubious record.

She was also the general manager of the Philadelphia Rage in the former American Basketball League when Staley played for the team in 1997-98. Temple assistant Lisa Boyer was the head coach.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

As the saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day."

Conversely, the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks were deconstructed in a summer and are about the reap the reward for futility.

Last season's implosion of the once-champion women's outfit in Tinseltown is but one of the many elements leading to the impending arrival of Tennessee superstar Candace Parker.

The Vols' multi-faceted all-American announced Thursday she will bypass her senior season to play in the WNBA and on this summer's Olympic squad in Bejing.

Los Angeles owns the No. 1 draft pick. Unless the Sparks are willing to listen to an offer from the Chicago Sky, which is willing to provide the No. 2 pick along with the Sears and Hancock towers, neither of which ever played in the WNBA, coach Michael Cooper will be using the phrase "no deal," until the moment a day after the NCAA title game to exercise his prized possession.

"Candace Parker is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Magic Johnson all rolled into one, that's how good she is," Cooper told the Chicago Tribune, alluding to the NBA Los Angeles Lakers' contributions to the all-time greats to basketball.

Curiously, Sparks center Lisa Leslie and the retired Chamique Holdsclaw -- two WNBA all-stars we'll get to in a little bit -- weren't mention.

But then Cooper was simply rebutting the Tribune description of its native women's star, who, on the Sky would be frequently compared to one Michael Jordan, who made the NBA Chicago Bulls a perennial power.

Incidentally, Parker, who is from Naperville, Ill., near Chicago, could stay put in her winter home in the Thompson-Bolling Arena in Knoxville to pursue her Olympic intentions and go for the gold.

She played with the national team last summer before returning to the Vols. Indeed,Oklahoma junior center Courtney Paris did likewise and has an outside shot at making the Olympic roster.

On the other hand, to not leave Tennessee now would be to risk that the prize behind door No. 1 in next season's WNBA auction might be a summer in -- well, let's leave that for the 2008 final standings to reveal a clue to that answer.

Much has gone into the impending signature moment in the Sparks' 12-year history: romance, disgruntlement, injury, a reluctance to dwell in desert heat, a cameo in this tale by the revitalized San Antonio Silver Stars, and, most important, the Minnesota Lynx's sudden attack of amnesia in the final weekend of last season. That's when the team suddenly forgot how to lose.

Now, as they say in RPI talk, let's look at the Nitty Gritty components leading to Thursday's announcement.

Injury: Parker missed her freshman season after having surgery to repair a torn knee ligament. Had she played, she would be a senior in eligibility, Thus, under WNBA rules she has the option of waiting one more season or turning pro now -- a move not unprecedented.

Tweety Nolan did such a thing leaving Georgia several years ago and helped Detroit Shock coach Bill Laimbeer to a pair of WNBA titles. In fact, he has become such a personality in the women's pro league, that a new generation has come along with no recollection of him as a member of the Detroit Pistons "Bad Boy" era that won several NBA titles.

Actually, his former coach Chuck Daly voiced similar sentiments about Laimbeer last September at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. One of the honorees was former WNBA and women's Olympic coach Van Chancellor, now at LSU.

"Bill's going to get in here, too -- but it's not going to be for anything he ever did for me," Daly, himself a Hall of Famer, quipped.

Parker, who excels in the classroom as much as she does on the floor, was far enough ahead in her studies, she could have actually chose to leave Tennessee a year ago after the Vols won their seventh title, snapping a 10-year drought.

The Phoenix Mercury held the No. 1 pick, but Parker chose to have the best of both worlds -- play with the pros during the summer in USA Basketball competition, and return for a run at another NCAA title.

With Parker unavailable, the Mercury took Duke's Lindsey Harding as the No. 1 pick and promptly dealt her to Minnesota, which had previously collected two No. 1s on their own.

Had the Tennessee all-American decided to go with Phoenix, the Mercury would have been prohibitive favorites to win their first WNBA title.

Come to think of it, two of Parker's USA summer pals helped acquire the trophy without her -- Rutgers alum Cappie Pondexter and Connecticut grad Diana Taurasi. They were guided by WNBA carpetbagger Paul Westhead, who produced the run-and-hit concept. The Mercury were speed demons on the court, but he personally was unable to acquire more cash -- no, not Swin -- and returned to the NBA as an assistant in Seattle.

Romance: This would be multiple MVP winner Lisa Leslie's department.

One of the all time centers in the women's game, the former Southern Cal star, who has been with the Sparks since their outset in 1997, married several years ago and learned prior to last season that early-round draft options can also result in pregnancy.

That meant time off, causing the Sparks to discover new levels. Unfortunately, they were discovered on a downward path.

Disgruntlement. With Leslie gone from the scene, Sparks fans still had hopes because of the presence of Chamique Holdslcaw, Parker's predecessor at Tennessee in the late 1990s who has since been sort of eclipsed by Parker's play in Knoxville.

On July 11, three days before Tennessee coach Pat Summitt's birthday, Los Angeles suddenly announced that Holdsclaw had decided to retire. The result was an immediate dive toward the bottom of the WNBA, with the Sparks plunging 3-12 the rest of the way to improve their chances to acquire the top pick.

Still, it took a little help from Minnesota to enhance the Spark's chances, because the Lynx were able to use such events as Harding's ACL to stay below sea level.

Lotto Dynamics: While a three-way race for the No. 1 seed in the WNBA West playoffs was being contested among the Sacramento Monarchs, San Antonio Silver Stars, and Phoenix, few noticed, except persons with occasional half-baked senses of humor such as the Guru, that real contest for future wealth was being fought at the bottom of the standings.

Minnesota went into anti-choke mode, winning three of the Lynx's final five games. After beating playoff-bound Seattle, 95-74, the Lynx quickly snapped out of their spell, losing to Los Angeles, 89-80, on Aug. 12.

That created a 2-2 tie in head-to-head competition in what had become a two-team race to become the worst of the worst.

Thus, if Minnesota and L.A. frinished with exact records, the first tie-breaker had become unoperable.

Lynx fans had to be thrilled on Aug. 14 when Minnesota fell at Seattle 81-67.

But on the same night, San Antonio, still pushing for tops in the West, beat Los Angeles, 84-77, in overtime.

The Lynx's once-solid last-place locale was being threatened by the Sparks, who were two games away.

When Los Angeles hands out thanks after the pick of Parker become official, nods should be made in the direction of playoff-bound Detroit and San Antonio, which didn't need to use the regulars much on the final weekend.

The result was Minnesota's 87-77 victory over the Shock and 81-55 triumph over San Antonio.

Meanwhile, that "thud" outside the Lynx's door was none other than the Sparks themselves, which lost at Seattle, 97-77, and Houston, 82-72.

Final records at the bottom of the West: Minnesota - 10-24; Los Angeles - 10-24.

Chicago was a distant third-worst at 14-20. The Sky performed all summer with the notion that second-year franchises can become contenders with such blossoming young talent as former Temple star Candice Dupree.

The San Antonio factor: Now, in terms of which of the two - Los Angelesor Minnesota - would be allowed a better shot at the draft lottery balls, the tie-break went to worst holder of in-conference won-loss records.

That result: Los Angeles - 6-16. Minnesota 8-14. The Sparks went 1-10 their final games against West teams. Minnesota was 4-7.

The Sparks also owe some thanks to the Connecticut Sun, which lost a double overtime game at Minnesota, 77-73, on June 13.A Lynx win that day is one to remember in terms of affecting the lotto ball action, although who knows what Parker's thoughts would have been if Minnesota emerged with the No. 1 pick.

Another factor was San Antonio's season 3-0 sweep of Los Angeles, while Minnesota went 2-1 against the Silver Stars. San Antonio coach Dan Hughes, incidentally, has held No. 1 picks when he headed the former Cleveland franchise.

Minnesota was also 2-2 against Seattle, while Los Angeles was 0-4.

All that remained was the luck of the lotto ball and Parker's announcement, the second of which occurred Thursday

Still, Minnesota, holding the No. 3 pick, will draw some attention the next few weeks with the Lynx's draft day move the first bit of suspense right now.

Chicago, failing to gain No. 1, had publicly indicated that if the Sky can't get Parker, they will be quite contented to take LSU's Sylvia Fowles at No. 2.

Click her on the jump to read Dawn Staley's reaction.

(Guru's Note: Here's the Associated Press story)

By Beth Rucker
Associated Press Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Candace Parker, the Tennessee All-America forward who made dunking in women’s basketball almost commonplace, ended all the speculation.

Parker, the first woman to win a national slam dunk contest, will skip her final season at Tennessee for the chance to play professionally.

“This was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make, but my family and I think this is the best choice for me,” Parker said Wednesday.

“I’ve been blessed with great coaches and teammates, an outstanding education and the best women’s basketball crowd support in the country. I will miss Tennessee, but I am eager to take this next step in my career.”

The redshirt junior will graduate at the end of this season and plans to participate in the summer Olympics and pursue a professional career, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. Parker redshirted her freshman season to recover from surgeries to repair a torn knee ligament.

Parker will be honored as part of the third-ranked Lady Volunteers’ senior night activities before the Feb. 28 game against Florida.

“Obviously we’d love to have her another year,” Summitt said. “Who wouldn’t?”

The 6-foot-4 Naperville, Ill., native leads the team in scoring with 20.6 points per game and rebounds with 8.8 and is one of six women to have dunked in the college game.

Kara Lawson, a Sacramento Monarchs guard and former Lady Vols star, said Parker’s experience at Tennessee has prepared her to play at the professional level.

“Playing for coach Summitt, the opportunity to play with the players they have there, the tough non-conference schedule all gets you ready,” she said. “You look at the success of the players who have gone there and what they’ve done at the next level.”

In 2004 Parker beat five male competitors to win the slam dunk contest as part of the McDonald’s High School All-American Game.

Since then she has dunked seven times, becoming the first women’s player to go above the rim twice during a game and in a NCAA tournament game.

After leading the Lady Volunteers to their seventh national championship last season, Parker played with the U.S. national team during her summer break as the team earned its 2008 Olympic bid.

“Candace was ready for the pros two years ago,” U.S. team coach Anne Donovan said. “I think it’s an exciting day. Tennessee’s had her long enough.”

Parker also earned the women’s 2007 John R. Wooden Award.

Parker likely would go in the April WNBA draft as the top pick to the Los Angeles Sparks, which would give Parker the opportunity to play alongside Lisa Leslie and former teammates Sidney Spencer and Tye’sha Fluker. A spokesman for the Sparks declined to comment about Parker entering the draft.

Playing in Los Angeles would also put her just a few hours away from fiance Shelden Williams, who was traded Saturday from the Atlanta Hawks to the Sacramento Kings.

Donovan said Parker plays at a higher level whenever she’s around top-notch players such as Leslie.

“With Lisa coming back and Parker coming out that’s going to be a formidable combination for years to come,” she said. “I know L.A. is dancing in the streets right now.”

AP Sports Writer Doug Feinberg in New York contributed to this report.

(Guru's note: Information used in preview post is repeated here.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - In many ways it was appropriate that a point guard would transform into a scoring explosion in the final minutes of Temple's narrow 63-60 victory over St. Joseph's at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Wednesday night that made the Owls' Dawn Staley the winningest coach in the program's history.

That's exactly what former Central star Ashley Morris did to rally Temple (16-11, 9-2 Atlantic Ten) after the Owls trailed the Hawks, 60-54 with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left in the game.

Morris, who finished with 20 points, went on a personal 8-0 run that gave Temple the lead and eventual win in similar fashion to the playing days of Staley, who had a storied career at the position, beginning her at Dobbins Tech, continuing on at the University of Virginia, and then as an All-Star in the former American Basketball League and WNBA.

And let's not forget three Olympic gold medals for the USA Senior National Women's Team, of which she will be an assistant coach at the Beijing Games in China in August.

She retired from the WNBA after the Houston Comets were eliminated in the 2006 playoffs.

Staley’s record in eight seasons with the Owls is now 167-78, including five Big Five titles, four conference crowns and five NCAA appearances.

On Sunday, a win over Duquesne enabled Staley to tie the previous mark by former coach Linda MacDonald, who was 166-130 in 10 seasons through 1990.

The triumph completed a two-game sweep by narrow scores over the Hawks (14-12, 6-5) in the regular season and kept the Owls in a three-way deadlock with George Washington and Xavier on top of the Atlantic Ten.

Temple edged St. Joseph's, 70-67, on Jan. 30 at the Liacouras Center in the final minute on the way to an unprecedented fourth straight 4-0 sweep of the Big Five.

“I think they should start these games with one minute to go and save everyone the drama,” Staley quipped. “It was another typical game down to the wire.

“The last time they rallied and almost beat us. This time, we were behind and had to find a way to win the game.”

Until she finally blossomed this season, Morris spent most of the past three years finding it difficult to please Staley until the light clicked on when she led Temple to a win over Nebraska in a first-round NCAA game in Raleigh, N.C., in March.

Her latest heroics came on a night when La Salle senior Carlene Hightower, who is a leading contender for local player honors with Morris and Villanova's Laura Kurz, scored a career-high 32 points in the Explorers' win at Rhode Island.

Morris also got the job done in a venue she starred leading Central to Public League titles.

“She was made for these games,” Staley said. “I think she reverted to the times she played at St. Joseph’s for Central. She just willed us to win the game.”

The Hawks will also be the hosts in a few weeks for this season's Atlantic Ten tournament.

Morris' jumper brought the Owls within four at 60-56 with 2:33 to play.

St. Joseph's senior Timisha Gomez, who tied a career high with 21 points, missed a jumper and then Morris responded with a three-pointer to bring Temple to within a point at 60-59 with 1:41 left.

The Hawks, who have now lost 12 of their last 13 in the series with the Owls, most of which have gone to the wire, commited a turnover. Morris then nailed another trey with 1:18 left for a 62-60 lead.

Gomez missed a shot with 57 seconds left, and Temple's Shenita Landry got the rebound.

But then Morris committed a turnover with 33 seconds remaining.

Senior Lady Comfort, who had 10 points and 13 rebounds blocked another attempt by Gomez.with 19 seconds to go. St. Joseph's got the rebound but with the clock running down, freshman Sarah Acker launched an errant trey attempt and Temple got the rebound with five seconds left.

Comfort was fouled. She missed her first attempt at the line, but made the second to wrap up all the scoring on the night.

Junior transfer Shanea Cotton added 16 points to Temple’s total, while LaKeisha Eaddy scored 15 points.

Acker, the Atlantic Ten co-rookie of the week, was held to two points, while Brittany Ford and Ashley Logue scored 10 points each for the Hawks.

All three league leaders will be in town this weekend. St. Joseph's will host George Washington, Sunday at noon, while Xavier will be at La Salle, Saturday, at 1 p.m. The Explorers are fighting for one of the final playoff berths in the conference tournament.

Temple will host Fordham at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Rams lost to Xavier Wednesday night and at 0-26 are losses from tying the NCAA record for futility with three games left.

Also, as Staley gained one record, she's about to lose another at Virginia, where Sharnee Zoll is 16 assists awat from topping Staley's mark in the early 1990s with the Cavaliers.

Here's a recap of highlight wins under Staley, although a few potholes in terms of setbacks are also tossed into the narraitve for historical purposes.:

Nov. 17, 2000 Temple 89, Lehigh 55 -- First Game, First Win, First Home Win.
Nov. 27, 2000 Temple 74, (a) Rider 65 - First Road Win.
Dec. 9, 2000 Temple 80, Penn 64 - First Big Five Win
Jan. 5, 2001 Temple 84, (a) St.Bonaventure 64 - First Atlantic 10 Game, First A-10 Win
Jan. 9, 2001 Temple 69, Geo. Washington 62 - First A-10 Win Over Perennial A-10 Leader.
Mar, 3, 2001 Temple 76, La Salle 69 - First A-10 Tourn. Game, First A-10 Tourn. win.
Feb. 24, 2002 Temple 71, La Salle 61 - First Big Five title
Mar. 4, 2002 Temple 63, St. Joseph's 58 - First Atlantic Ten title (at Liacouras Center)
Mar. 16. 2002 (a) Iowa St. 72, Temple 57 - First NCAA game (a loss).
Nov. 29, 2002 Kansas St. 72, Temple 65 -- Loss to No. 2 Jayhawks in Stanford's tourney.
Dec. 28, 2003 (a) Virginia 72, Temple 71 - Loses to alma mater in first trip to Charlotteville.
Mar. 8, 2004 Temple 53, (a) St. Joseph's 48 - Second Atlantic Ten title.
Nov. 28, 2004 (a) Tennessee 52, Temple 48 - Narrow loss to No. 1 Vols in Knoxville.
Dec. 13, 2004 Temple 71, # 22 Rutgers 60 -- First win over AP-ranked team.
Jan. 23, 2005 Temple 82, (a) ESPN-#25 Richmond 62 - Owls' First AP Ranking Next Day.
Jan. 27, 2005 Temple 72, Geo. Wash. 64 - Key win on way to perfect A-10 regular season.
Feb. 27, 2005 Temple 69, (a) St. Joe. 46 - Second Big Five title.
Mar. 7, 2005 Temple 70, (a) Geo.Wash 62 - A-10 tournament win.
Mar. 20, 2005 Temple 66, La. Tech 61 - First-round and first NCAA win at Storrs, Ct. Owls' 25th straight overall.
Dec. 19, 2005 Temple 69, #17 Georgia 66, ovt. - First outside-area win over AP ranked team.
Jan. 19,. 2006 Temple 48, (a) #9 Rutgers 47 - Win Over Hightest Ranked Opponent.
Feb. 17, 2006 Temple 59, St. Joseph's 53 - Second straight Big Five title and third overall.
Mar. 6, 2006 Temple 59, Geo. Wash. 54 - A-10 tournament win at St. Joseph's.
Feb. 12, 2007 Temple 68, La Salle 55 - Third straight Big Five title and fourth overall.
Mar. 18, 2007 Temple 64, Nebraska 61 - NCAA first-round win at Raleigh, N.C.
Jan. 19, 2008 Temple 68, #13 Geo. Wash 66 - Key A-10 win over nationally-ranked rival.
Feb. 2, 2008 Temple 60, La Salle 55 -- 4th st. Big Five title and City Series streak at 18.
Feb. 20, 2008 Temple 63, (a) St. Joseph's 60 -- Staley becomes winningest coach at 167.

--Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Who would have believed that in the three years since the Guru started blogging in the late winter of 2005 that Tuesday's post attempting to explain how a fifth-place team in the Associated Press women's poll could get eight first-place votes would draw an all-time one-day Guru-post record number of hits (around 500), perhaps with a bounce off the site-links out there still ahead.

That's a little more than the Imus controversy, more than the Penn State coaching change, slightly more than the recent mock bracket coverage at NCAA headquarters, and several other events.

But after watching some of the reaction to the post -- and "hi" back to the Rutgers message board -- the Guru would like to clarify what was discussed in terms of the knowledge base.

Most seemed to understand the discussion, but a better analogy, since we've seen it used during the current presidential campaign season, is the sampling of 17 "experienced" voters the Guru used can be compared to the "super delegate" concept being tossed around in coverage of the Democratic race for the nomination.

Understand, this is not a bad voting board -- AP headquarters rarely has to chase votes down except when someone might get caught out of pocket in a travel situation.

And there are probably as many worthy reasons votes not used in the Guru's sample were cast the way they were.

The "super delegate" group individually tends to look at things nearly parallel to the NCAA committee, so a lot more attention is placed on strength of schedule, the season-to-date of one team in total body of work compared to another, and the head-to-head against ranked teams, as well as the not-successful efforts. Because we sort of get around, at least regionally, we're also usually on the phone talking to each other about the teams we've seen.

But also understand that from reading philsophies of voters in the men's poll, there are legitimate differences of opinion -- some go with the way a team is playing now and toss out early bad losses, some still use a bit of a punishment factor.

Each week in New York from AP headquarters, Doug Feinberg, who does not vote but counts the ballots and then interprets the result, sends out records and reports of the five teams who just missed the poll from the previous week to help create a pool of candidates beyond the regular "fared" report.

He also emails the how-they-fared so those away from access to the wire report in the home office can have that information in their hotel rooms. And every ten days or so, he and I look at ways to grow the knowledge base to make sure there's at least an awareness of what's out there as we get deeper in the season.

That said, there are other factors that have affected voting in this particular season.

On a given week, losses have not been plentiful in the lower portion of the poll to cause vacancies. And when vacancies occur, either six teams might each have a good case for selection -- thus blocking consensus for one -- or some weeks no one does. For example, as previously stated, it was tough to really jump teams into the top 10 this week because of losses from No. 11 through No. 16.

Another problem with the growth of the internet is a way needs to be found to streamline email information coming from the sports information directors.

Many keep all of us on one list forcing a lot of unecessary duplication besides choking our servers and preventing outbound replies until we can get on the publishing systems to store what we need in side folders.

Example, last week the NCAA warned us of the approaching deadline for Final Four credential applications. The NCAA also sent the note to the various conference media contacts, who in turn sent the note to their member schools, who all in turn sent the same note to us.

The Guru counted no less than 120 duplications in a four-hour period. The same thing happens with the various national awards. "Wooden" sends out the names on the watch list and then every school in the country sends out a national email if they have a candidate.

Then, there's the campaigning for rankings and postseason awards.

And if a particular league has a teleconference scheduled, their notification should be enough. Taking the "make-pretend-conference" (to keep real names out of this) as an example: if they send me an email, the only other email where duplication is understandable is those that come from my "local" team in that conference. And if that "local" team has me on a national list, that's understandable, although usually in this part of the world the SIDs are smart enough to put us on one or the other.

So, hopefully, this little discussion has enhanced the previous discussion. But keep the dialogue going. And, while there's been a lot of Rutgers topics here, understand, they are also one of my "local" teams besides being on my national watch list.

Ok, Voepel, wherever you are, it's your turn to explain what I just explained.

-- Mel
But we will find a way in this area to get to a common solution to make both sides happy.

And in a few days, the Guru is going to post a capsule list here of teams with decent records that may have been overlooked -- some with good reason, which is why the warts will be shown with the beauty marks in a capsule -- good loses, bad losses, rpi, strength of schedule, and a few other items.

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ In a sense, there's a sort of irony that Temple coach Dawn Staley's eight-year journey with the Owls would lead to Hawk Hill, where Wednesday night against arch-rival St. Joseph's her team will attempt to make her the winningest coach in Temple's history.

Some of Staley's memorable moments have occurred either at or against St. Joseph's in terms of Atlantic Ten tournament titles and Big Five wins.

Last month, The Owls escaped the Hawks at home in the Liacouras Center and went on to win at La Salle a few days later to become the first women's Big Five team to win four straight outright City Series titles with a 16-0 record.

Beyond the extra attention on Staley's record is the Atlantic Ten race in which Temple is currently locked in a three-way tie for first. St. Joseph's, meanwhile, has gone on to play some of its most consistent ball since the visit to the Owls.

Furthermore, the Hawks are probably getting tired of the long spell the Owls have held with an 11-1 record in the last 12 games of the series.

Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, the site of Wednesday night's game, will again be a host site in next month's Atlantic Ten tournament. The conference is looking to go off campus locales in the near future.

On Sunday, Staley tied former coach Linda Hill MacDonald, who coached the Owls from 1980-1990, in total wins. The former Virginia star in her eight seasons is 166-78, while Hill MacDonald was 166-130 in 10 seasons on North Broad St.

Also, as Staley attempts to grab one record, she's about to lose another at Virginia, where Sharnee Zoll is 16 assists awat from topping Staley's mark in the early 1990s with the Cavaliers.

Here's a recap of highlight wins under Staley, although a few potholes in terms of setbacks are also tossed into the narraitve for historical purposes.:

Nov. 17, 2000 Temple 89, Lehigh 55 -- First Game, First Win, First Home Win.
Nov. 27, 2000 Temple 74, (a) Rider 65 - First Road Win.
Dec. 9, 2000 Temple 80, Penn 64 - First Big Five Win
Jan. 5, 2001 Temple 84, (a) St.Bonaventure 64 - First Atlantic 10 Game, First A-10 Win
Jan. 9, 2001 Temple 69, Geo. Washington 62 - First A-10 Win Over Perennial A-10 Leader.
Mar, 3, 2001 Temple 76, La Salle 69 - First A-10 Tourn. Game, First A-10 Tourn. win.
Feb. 24, 2002 Temple 71, La Salle 61 - First Big Five title
Mar. 4, 2002 Temple 63, St. Joseph's 58 - First Atlantic Ten title (at Liacouras Center)
Mar. 16. 2002 (a) Iowa St. 72, Temple 57 - First NCAA game (a loss).
Nov. 29, 2002 Kansas St. 72, Temple 65 -- Loss to No. 2 Jayhawks in Stanford's tourney.
Dec. 28, 2003 (a) Virginia 72, Temple 71 - Loses to alma mater in first trip to Charlotteville.
Mar. 8, 2004 Temple 53, (a) St. Joseph's 48 - Second Atlantic Ten title.
Nov. 28, 2004 (a) Tennessee 52, Temple 48 - Narrow loss to No. 1 Vols in Knoxville.
Dec. 13, 2004 Temple 71, # 22 Rutgers 60 -- First win over AP-ranked team.
Jan. 23, 2005 Temple 82, (a) ESPN-#25 Richmond 62 - Owls' First AP Ranking Next Day.
Jan. 27, 2005 Temple 72, Geo. Wash. 64 - Key win on way to perfect A-10 regular season.
Feb. 27, 2005 Temple 69, (a) St. Joe. 46 - Second Big Five title.
Mar. 7, 2005 Temple 70, (a) Geo.Wash 62 - A-10 tournament win.
Mar. 20, 2005 Temple 66, La. Tech 61 - First-round and first NCAA win at Storrs, Ct. Owls' 25th straight overall.
Dec. 19, 2005 Temple 69, #17 Georgia 66, ovt. - First outside-area win over AP ranked team.
Jan. 19,. 2006 Temple 48, (a) #9 Rutgers 47 - Win Over Hightest Ranked Opponent.
Feb. 17, 2006 Temple 59, St. Joseph's 53 - Second straight Big Five title and third overall.
Mar. 6, 2006 Temple 59, Geo. Wash. 54 - A-10 tournament win at St. Joseph's.
Feb. 12, 2007 Temple 68, La Salle 55 - Third straight Big Five title and fourth overall.
Mar. 18, 2007 Temple 64, Nebraska 61 - NCAA first-round win at Raleigh, N.C.
Jan. 19, 2008 Temple 68, #13 Geo. Wash 66 - Key A-10 win over nationally-ranked rival.
Feb. 2, 2008 Temple 60, La Salle 55 -- 4th st. Big Five title and City Series streak at 18.
Feb. 20, 2008 Temple (a) St. Joseph's. -- (To be updated at conclusion of game).

(Guru's note: We were down here in Philadelphia on the desk but Stephen was on the scene at Rutgers.)

By Stephen K. Lee

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – On Tuesday, the Rutgers women’s basketball team once again used a second-half surge to come away with the win at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

The No. 5 Scarlet Knights (21-4, 11-1 Big East), who received a school-record eight first-place votes in Monday’s AP poll, overcame an eight-minute scoring drought from the end of the first half into the second to down No. 14 Notre Dame 57-51.

“We were getting the looks but we weren’t capitalizing off of the good looks,” said Rutgers point guard Matee Ajavon at the postgame press conference. “Credit to Notre Dame defense – they kept us scrambling and at times making bad decisions. We just had to get ourselves together.”

Notre Dame tied the game at 22-22 by halftime after overcoming an eight-point deficit with 6:16 remaining in the first. After the break, the Fighting Irish held Rutgers without a field goal until the 15:36 mark of the second half when center Kia Vaughn made a layup to bring the Scarlet Knights to within 28-26.

Following a couple of lead changes over the next four minutes, the Scarlet Knights finally took control of the game with a 9-0 run that gave them a 41-33 advantage and allowed them to keep the Irish at bay the rest of the way.

Rutgers was able to surge ahead thanks to the play of its big players in the second half.

Sophomore center Rashidat Junaid was half of that solution for the Scarlet Knights.

“In the first half I wasn’t hitting my shots and we talked about it as a team at halftime,” said Junaid, who scored four of her six points during RU’s big run. “Coach told me I need to be calm and take my time and that’s what I was thinking all second half – be calm and settle myself.”

“(Notre Dame) looked a little nervous,” she added in regards to the Irish’s failure to contain Rutgers two big players. “Their center Williams was trying to play both me and Kia – it kind of made it difficult.”

Junior center Kia Vaughn scored 10 of her 14 points in the second half. The combination of Vaughn and Junaid helped Rutgers control the paint as the duo accounted for 12 rebounds.

Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said that Notre Dame’s zone defense was giving her team problems.

“(Notre Dame’s zone is) very active, it’s wide and it changes,” Stringer said. “They went from 2-3 to 1-3-1 and probably everybody in the country knows that we struggle with it. I don’t think it’s anything special for us, that’s just the way they play. We just didn’t handle it, we never have because it requires a heck of a lot more patience – there is no one-on-one.”

Stringer added that Rutgers can use this game as a learning tool for the future.

“Just like every game that we’ve played, the LSU’s, the Tennessee’s, the Connecticut’s, this team, Notre Dame, that plays a zone, it’s important with their style of play. Notre Dame was capable of giving us a 1-3-1 half-court press. Well you know who else plays that extremely well? North Carolina."

Depending on how the draw is designed in next month's NCAA tournament, it's possible Rutgers and the Tar Heels could meet in a regional title round.

That site could also be Greensboro, which is near UNC as it was to Duke a year ago when the Scarlet Knights pulled off the upset that sent the overall No. 1 team home after the regional semifinals.

“So, in advance I already know in my mind what things other people do and Notre Dame was an excellent game for us to play. We struggled quite a bit. I should hope that we do better – it’s been exposed. We’ll get better and we’ll do better.”

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw was pleased with her team’s effort against a tough Rutgers opponent.

“We’ve played all four of the teams that a lot of people think are going to go to the Final Four, probably be No. 1 seeds,” McGraw said. “I think a big difference – I think we’ve gotten a little bit better each game and this was a great defensive effort out there.”

Though they lived up to their billing as second-half warriors, the Scarlet Knights know that they would be better off not having things come down to post-halftime surges.

“I actually think that’s bad because in any game you always want to play 40 minutes and that’s what Coach Stringer has been stressing to us,” said Ajavon, who finished with 15 points and seven assists. “We have to play both halves. We can put ourselves in trouble in the first half and we can’t always expect ourselves to dig ourselves out in the second half. So, we just have to become a 40-minute team.”

Epiphanny Prince led RU in scoring with 18 points on six-of-eight shooting. The sophomore guard also had five assists.

Rutgers's next game is a trip Saturday to face Providence (12-13, 2-10), which can't be taken lightly following Tuesday night's 62-58 upset of No. 22 Syracuse at home.

Future Fab Five Freshmen Ease Sadness Over Departing Seniors.

The time is drawing near when Rutgers seniors Essence Carson, Matee Ajavon, and Katie Adams will transform into the past as one of the brighter eras of the Scarlet Knights' storied history.

But after the farewell tears are shed and the postseason dinner has concluded, an air of eager anticipation will exist over the super recruiting class that will be arriving in the fall.

All five of Rutgers' future freshmen -- Jasmine Dixon and Nikki Speed from California; Chelsey Lee of Fla., Brookilyn Pope of Texas, and April Sykes from Mississippi -- have been named McDonald's All-Americans.

“I’ve never had five McDonald’s All-Americans," Stringer said of her incoming abundance of talent. "They’re going to be in Tampa, Florida. Wow.

“The coaches did a great job – in particular Charlene Mitchell, who’s our recruiting coordinator," Stringer said. "I’ve been coaching many years, I really don’t know, we may have had something close to that when I was at Iowa, but never five people…

“To have five All-Americans. Most people only have one,"Stringer added. "So, we have five and I’m happy to say that because my statement to them was they need to serve notice to everyone: play hard, play great defense, be sharp, be friends, become the family that you are now so that the whole world can see the future Scarlet Knights.

"And so I’m going to look forward to them doing that and I’m going to look forward to hanging out with them and making sure that they begin to think like a Scarlet Knight," the Rutgers coach said.

“That’s pretty special for New Jersey and the future of our basketball team.”

By Mel Greenberg

So go ahead and say it:

Guru, given your analysis and expectations going into Sunday night's vote, you must have been a little surprised that Rutgers landed where it did in Monday's Associated Press women's poll from a nationwide media panel?

The answer is in the affirmative but now the Guru knows the reason the Scarlet Knights stayed in fifth place and it's a harsh truth: Simply, the knowledge base across the 50-member panel is not as deep as one would like.

Let's pause a moment, though, to go through some parameters.

When the voting panel is assembled in the early fall, the attempt is made to get the best people. But in trying to fulfill a number, the slots are usually greater than the available candidates to meet requirements.

Then comes the next step. Find candidates who are at least on top of their "local" game and as the season moves along, it's hoped that they'll figure out how to get more into the local/national mix.

Some people on the voting board have been around for quite a while, but others are still sort of finding their way. And in a season, such as this one, it becomes a bit challenging as to where the levels of acceptance for rankings truly exist.

Voting the top 10, itself, was an adventure Sunday because to drop Baylor a few slots for losing to Texas or drop Oklahoma for losing to Baylor, one had to find replacements. But except for Old Dominion, which has less challenging competition in the Colonial Athletic Association, most of the next-in-line contenders all took hits.

Meanwhile, some voters only get to see certain Top 10 teams from outside their area once or twice during the season.

Some have wondered why the Scarlet Knights didn't fare as well among Southern voters.

One reason is the only "live" impression some have was the loss at Duke. That was a game that in one stretch the Scarlet Knights took so long to score between field goals that when the previous shot was made, a baby girl was born somewhere in America. By the time Rutgers scored their next field goal, coach C. Vivian Stringer was said to be arranging a home visit to her for recruiting purposes.

Some people were focused more Rutgers' losses, forgetting that a loss to a lesser ranked team in the Big East conference is allowed to happen at least once. Writers who cover the Big East seemed to understand that.

In turn, we, here in the East would like to see California a little more, when possible, so the Bears don't feel like an oddity with their top 10 ranking, which is new for them. Of course, it's a given that we know their coach Joanne Boyle comes from good stock in having built the program so quickly.

The Guru was forecasting a top three ranking for Rutgers while mentioning the potential for a No. 1 because of the discussion among a bunch of the voting veterans in phone calls last week after the Scarlet Knights were victimized in the "frozen" clock debacle at Tennessee.

The disparity in knowledge is a reason that Rutgers, as a No. 5 team became the first to get so many first-place votes (eight) at that ranking level.

And as it is, if one looks at the total points, Rutgers is in a virtual third-place tie, trailing No. 4 Maryland by 18 points, and No. 3 Tennessee by 35 points. Several shifts of sixth and seventh-place ballots to fourth and fifth place votes could mean an improved ranking of one or two slots.

Having seen the vote initially analyzed on the Rutgers message board during the day, your Guru went in a different direction Monday night after his desk duties in sports.

Having spoke of the "knowledge base," the Guru went to the AP voting site and randomly grabbed names of media whose awareness of the scene and rhythm of the season might be more extensive than others. Some exceptions were made to get "beat" writers of local teams in the mix, while not every name was taken from those considered to be a bit more aware, nationally.

Ballots were not looked at until the printouts were made of a group of 17 voters, including the Guru's own ballot. (That's because you all think the guru is is knowedgeable.).

Geographically, five ballots were from the East, five from the South, five from the Midwest, and two from the West. -- they're a little younger out there.

Using that subset, the result was quite revealing in that Rutgers landed third and was very close to second.

The first seven teams in the real poll were used for ranking purposes and totals were the same applied in the regular formula for a full poll. All seven took seven spots in each of the 17 ballot, with the exception of one in which Baylor got a fifth-place vote, pushing LSU to eighth.

Here's how the teams ranked when the counting was done.

!. Connecticut (10 first-place votes), 413 points.
2. North Carolina (1), 395 points.
3. Rutgers (6), 386.
4. Maryland, 367.
5. Tennessee, 366
6. LSU, 351
7. Stanford, 339
8. Baylor, 21.

Breaking down the ballots:

Connecticut 10-first, 6-second, 1-seventh.
UNC 1-first, 6-second, 7-third, 2-fourth, 1-fifth.
Rutgers 6-first, 2-second, 1-third, 2-fourth, 3-fifth, 1-sixth, 2-seventh
Maryland 2-second, 3-third, 4-fourth, 3-fifth, 4-sixth, 1-seventh.
Tennessee 1-second, 4-third, 4-fourth, 3-fifth, 4-sixth, 1-seventh.
LSU 1-third, 4-fourth, 4-fifth, 5-sixth, 2-seventh, 1-eighth.
Stanford 1-third, 1-fourth, 2-fifth, 3-sixth, 10-seventh
Baylor 1-fifth.

Meanwhile, if these were the only votes on the board, Virginia, which is vastly underrated, would be ranked. The Cavaliers, who have only lost to Maryland, North Carolina, and Duke in the ACC, were on most of the ballots,including the Guru's,

Notes of Irony

Notre Dame will visit Rutgers Tuesday night in a key Big East game. The matchup comes one day after the Irish's coach Muffet McGraw tied Stringer's total at Iowa at 22nd for most ranking appearances for a coach at one school with 155 appearances.

Wendy Larry, at 139, needs two more ranking appearances to tie former coach Marianne Stanley's Old Dominion total at 141. Stanley is now an assistant coach at Rutgers.

Ohio State's Jim Foster has tied former Auburn coach Joe Ciampi at 10th place on the all-time list for overall poll appearances at 290, just two behind Virginia's Debbie Ryan.

His Buckeyes' ranking total -- he also had ranked teams at Vanderbilt and St. Joseph's -- is 91, ahead of previous coaches _Tara VanDerveer and Nancy Darsch -- with ranked teams at Ohio State.

Temple's Dawn Staley is about to add one record and lose another. Her next win will give her the all-time total for the Owls at 167, which could come Wednesday night at St. Joseph's. Meanwhile her assist record for Virginia in her glory years in the early 1990s as the Cavaliers' all-American point guard of 729 will soon be surpassed by Sharnee Zoll, who needs 16 to set the new mark.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Atlhough our previous post discussed the case for Rutgers to become No. 1 when the Associated Press women's poll is released early Monday afternoon -- a ranking we've since learned not likely to happen this time around -- what will be a bit of fascination is in which direction the coaches go with their vote,

The ESPN/WBCA poll runs a day behind the AP media vote, so with the No. 1 position open after Tennessee's thrashing by LSU last week, it will be a bit intriguing which way the coaches go.

The results of the AP vote will be known before the deadline for their ballots. It would seem that the coaches would be a bit sympathetic toward their colleague: Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer whose team lost to Tennessee a week ago when the Vols were able to hit two foul shots because of a "frozen" clock that prevented time from elapsing before the penalty was called against the Scarlet Knights.

So if Rutgers doesn't make the kind of advance the Guru believes worthy in the media vote -- yeah, we voted them No. 1 --- will the coaches suddenly become more conservative with their choices.

Meanwhile, the Baylor loss to Texas and ensuing win over Oklahoma in the Big 12 conference made for much angst in completing the first 10.

Duke's loss to Maryland prevented the Blue Devils from making a move forward and everyone except Old Dominion in the next five took a loss.

California will get a chance to put a strong hold on the Pac-10 lead when it faces Bay Area rival Stanford, which will be after a deadlock, when the two meet this weekend.

Temple Gets Atlantic Ten "Dress Rehearsal" Wednesday night.

Following the Owls' narrow escape from Duquesne in the last minute Sunday at the Liacouras Center, Temple will meet St. Joseph's on Hawk Hill Wednesday at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse -- the site of next month's Atlantic Ten tournament.

It's a big week for both teams. Temple moved back into a three-way tie for first with George Washington and Xavier, which both suffered upsets.

Coach Cindy Griffin's Hawks will be looking to avenge last month's Big Five loss to the Owls, who went on to complete their unprecedented fourth-straight 4-0 City Series sweep.

St. Joseph's will host George Washington, Sunday, in the first meeting of the two since the Hawks upset the Colonials in the semifinals of last season's conference tournament.

"I think the atmosphere of what we're going to face on Wednesday will be a tell-tale sign of what it's going to be like during the tournament," Temple coach Dawn Staley said.

"As much as we can talk about it, playing St. Joe's at St. Joe's is going to give us a very similar atmosphere to the tournament. We're going to use that experience as one we can draw on at the tournament."

Staley tied former Temple coach Linda Hill MacDonald for most wins in the program's history at 166, although the former WNBA all-star reached her total in eight seasons, while Hill MacDonald achieved her total in ten seasons through 1990.

The three-time Olympic gold medalists did not want to dwell on her achievement.

"I want to win them all," Staley said. "I wasn't really paying attention, but I would have loved to be here (at the total) a little bit sooner, but that's the way the ball bounces sometimes."

Drexel Stays in Knots in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Subtract Old Dominion from the mix in the CAA and it would be quite a battle for the regular season conference title.

Drexel, in a three-way tie for third place, upset second-place James Madison, Sunday, in an effort to earn a bye in next month's conference tournament at Delaware.

"A win like that erases the bad taste from the close one we lost at Northeastern," Dragons coach Denise Dillon said.

Villanova Seeks Return to Big East Tournament

After missing last season's Big East donnybrook while suffering its worst-ever record, Villanova is moving closer to qualify for this year's fiesta of nationally-ranked teams that will meet in Hartford.

The Wildcats' win over Cincinnati at the Pavilion, Saturday, moved then into 10th place, two wins above Seton Hall and South Florida.

A big reason for Villanova's turnaround is the additon of former Germantown Academy star Laura Kurz, a transfer from Duke, who appears to be part of a three-way race for Big Five player of the year honors with La Salle's Carlene Hightower and Temple's Ashley Morris.

Rush On Hall Ballot

Former Immaculata coach Cathy Rush is among the candidates on this year's Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame ballot for enshrinement in September in Springfield, Mass.

It is her sixth nomination.

We found it a bit surprising that the women's subcommittee didn't also move Rutgers' Stringer forward, although in recent seasons there has been a reluctance to name two for fear the ballot might be split, depriving any women's nominee of induction.

Considering that Stringer will most likely have her 800th win in her resume next time around -- she's three away -- that might help strengthen her cause among voters, as if any strengthening is needed.

We'll be back late Monday after we have time to study the results of the new A.P. poll

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Officiating errors contributed to preventing No. 5 Rutgers' shot at history last Monday in Knoxville when an apparent victory became a 59-58 loss to Tennessee, denying the Scarlet Knights from becoming the first women's team to beat top-ranked opponents in succession.

Rutgers had upset Connecticut at home the previous week in a Big East game that ended the Huskies' unbeaten run.

Then just as it seemed coach C. Vivian Stringer's squad had edged the Vols in a reunion of last season's NCAA title game opponents, the clock "froze" at the finish, providing enough extra time for Tennessee's Nicky Anosike to get to the foul line and make the winning free thorws with 0.2 left.

It was revealed the next day that the three officials failed to follow procedure and use a stop watch to measure the "real" elapsed time on the video monitor, although TV replays showed the game had ended before the foul call on Rutgers' Kia Vaughn.

Conversations soon began among AP voters on how to handle the situation in the next vote.

Then on Thursday night, No. 7 LSU rallied from a 19-point deficit, also in Knoxville, to upset Tennessee, 78-62, most definitely making the Vols' return to the top a a one-week experience.

Had Rutgers "officially" won the game, the Scarlet Knights would certainly be the frontrunner to fill the vacancy, which would be the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking.

"Everybody saw the tape and everybody saw the highlights,” South Florida coach Jose Fernandez said after his team fell to Rutgers, 71-50, Saturday night in a Big East game in Tampa, the home of this season's Women's Final Four. “Those free throws should have never been shot. If they weren’t shot, they’d be the No. 1 team in the country, right now. ... You feel for Vivian and feel for her kids.”

A rise to the top of the poll would also make Stringer the first to ever coach two different teams to a No. 1 ranking, having previously achieved the feat at Iowa 1988.

That same week former Temple coach John Chaney, her longtime friend and colleague when the two were at Cheyney State, took the Owls to their first-ever No. 1 ranking.

If Rutgers gets as high as No. 2 this week, matching an all-time ranking achievement last occurring on Feb. 16, 1987, Stringer would be the first to take three different programs to either a No. 1 or No. 2 ranking in the 32-year history of the AP poll that began in 1976.

Her Cheyney team was second the last five weeks of the 1982 season when she took the Vols to the championship game of the first-ever NCAA women's tournament.

Before the nationwide media panel begins phoning, faxing or emailing ballots Sunday night to AP headquarters, three key games affecting the vote will be played Sunday.

Connecticut, which only fell to second last week, will be at No.18 Pittsburgh, while No. 4 Maryland, which edged Rutgers in the last vote by 16 points, will visit Duke in a high-powered Atlantic Coast matchup.

No. 3 North Carolina, which held of Virginia, Friday night, will host Florida State in another ACC contest, which will be in Chapel Hill.

The upper portion of the ballot will certainly give enough pause that the situation will be similar to collegiate football in the fall where No. 1 teams continued to fall.

If Tennessee is perceived with a defacto loss to Rutgers to go with its blowout by LSU, the question will be how far to drop the Vols in the mix depending on Sunday's results and how much to reward LSU.

The Vols are at No. 25 Vanderbilt, incidentaly, while LSU will be at Mississippi in Tigers' coach Van Chancellor first visit as an opponent to the place he had previously coached before moving to the WNBA in its inaugural season in 1997.

Rutgers' body of work includes wins over Connecticut, LSU, and Maryland, with evaluation to be made how to treat the Tennessee result.

Pitt coach Agnus Berenato, who was the sole voter to give the Scarlet Knights a first-place vote in last week's ESPN/WBCA poll -- the vote was after the Tennessee game -- can help their cause with an upset of Connecticut.

Rutgers' other losses are an upset setback at nationally-ranked West Virginia, a nonconfernce defeat at Duke in December, and a controversial season-opening loss at home to Stanford on another foul call at the end of the game.

North Carolina, who will note meet the Scarlet Knights in the regular season, would be miffed at being bypassed, but in a head-to-head comparison, the Tar Heels have losses to Tennessee and Connecticut.

A study of the 50-member AP panel shows nine representatives in the East, 16 each from the South and Midwest, and nine from the West. However, many media members cover leagues that cross regions.

A comparison was made among the balloting for Connecticut, Rutgers, and North Carolina to get some idea of what might happen in Sunday night's vote.

One reason Rutgers did not rise higher as week ago after the win over UConn., was the Scarlet Knights only picked up two No. 2 votes and four No. 3 votes, one of which was ours in case the readership is wondering.

Connecticut got five first-place votes -- the others went to Tennessee -- and 31 second-place votes. North Carolina got 10 second-place votes and 35 third-place votes. Rutgers was fourth or lower on 44 ballots, including 14 fourth-place and 16 fifth-place votes.

But all that was a week ago before Monday night's events began to unfold so it's possible there may not be a clear consensus in any spot. Potentially Rutgers could gain No. 1 in a close point total by landing on a majority of top-three ballots.

Now We Know What Went Down in '83 at Penn State

During the past week, we have made references to coach Stringer asking us at the postgame press conference in Knoxville to recall another painful loss at Penn State in a regional semifinal in the second year of the NCAA tournament.

Some references and paraphrases have been made in subsequent posts. However, clips have no electronically arrived of coverage of the game from our good friend Mary Jo Haverbeck, the retired sports information director of the Penn State women's program.

Here are exceprts, drawing on coverage by the Center Daily Times, The Patriot in Harrisburg, and the Daily Collegian. Some will be repetitious just as you get different angles on video replay.

To cut to the chase, Penn State had gone ahead, 73-72, in boiserous Rec Hall and Cheyney had the ball as the clock wound down. The game, incidentally, as previously noted, became the last Stringer would coach at Cheyney before moving to Iowa, where she built her second program into a national power.

Cheyney, incidentally, was the No. 1 seed in the region and had beaten Penn State twice during the regular season.

Center Daily Times: (Louise) Leimkuhler's heroics weren't over yet. Following the biggest bucket of Leimkuhler's life, Cheyney brought the ball down court. Penn State freshman Lorraine McGirt fought with Cheyney's Rosetta Guilford and forced a jump ball with 11 seconds left.

Cheyney controlled the tip and Yolanda Laney fired up a 12-footer from the left baseline. It ewas short but (Debra) Walker managed to grab the loose ball off the rim. Walker went for the gamer but missed and grabbed her own rebound in the lane. Again Walker attempted to nail down the gamer but this time Leimkuhler was on the ball and blocked the shot,.

The referees called for a jump ball on the play but it was at the buzzer ...

Daily Collegian: Then came the mess (after Laney's shot).

Four, perhaps five or maybe even six players srambled for the rebound which ended in the hands of Cheyney's Walker who attempted to get up a shot.

The referee signaled for a jump ball, but the clock read :00. Penn State had made it to the finale eight teams in the nation and will play Old Dominion (coached by Marianne Stanley), which beat Maryland ...

But let's get back to those strange 11 seconds.

Both players and coaches either saw it or didn't in a different way.

"I was jumping up and down and all I saw was 10 people jumping up and down,"(Annie) Troyan said. (She later became Rene Portland's assistant).

"It all happened so fast, I don't remember what happened," Leimkuhler said. "The rebound came down and I just went up for it."

As for Portland, she will have to wait for the game films to see what happened.

"I don't know what happened in the last second of the game," Portland said. "To be honest, I'm not great at watching the last seconds of a game."

For Cheyney coach Vivian Stringer, the final seconds was very clear. The Lady Wolves' coach said although her team may have been outplayed, her players were effected by the very closely officiated game.

"The game didn't go our way and that's the way it is," Stringer said. "I felt three fouls could have been called (in the final seconds)."

Harrisburg Patriot: "I just went up to block it," said Leimkuhler afterwards of her defense against Cheyney State's Deb Walker, who desperately tried to go up with a rebound as the final seconds ticked off. "I think I fouled her but ... "

Following Leimkuhler's rejection of Walker's shot, teammate Sharon Taylor grabbed the ball but was tied up at the buzzer, much to the dismay of Cheyney State coach Vivian Stringer.

"I believe there should have been a jump ball, not only that, a foul should have been called," voiced a disappointed Stringer afterwards.

The play began with a jump ball at the foul line controlled by Cheyney State. With five seconds left, Yolanda Laney mised a running 15-footer and that's when the board battle began.

And this little pearl from the columnist of the Patriot on the game, talking to Portland, whose program had taken a major step upsetting Cheyney. ODU, incidentally, won the next night, and got to go to its own arena back in Norfolk, Va., for the Women's Final Four.

Harrisburg Patriot: "They showed a lot of guts," Portland said. "At the beginning of the year, that's what was missing. Now when I'm recruiting, I say, `If you don't have guts don't come.' I don't want any more wimps on the team."

Click here to read other items on the electronic "jump" page.

By Mel Greenberg

This is a very short exercise for lack of other things to do on a Friday night.

The following is a rough cut to identify how big the so-called bubble group will be versus the amount of forecasted total of open slots for at-large teams in the NCAA women's tournament field.

We'll do this every so often the next two weeks and changes can be made. The "lock" list now includes slots for conference automatic qualifiers from leagues likely to send just one team. For now, it will be whomever the leader is at the close of business prior to a particular post.

So change can occur.

Once the real conference tournaments are decided, we'll add to the bubble mix any perceived winner that dominated the regular season but got upset.

We will not identify a particular forecasted conference winner in the major conferences because it is not necessary for this particular exercise on this particular date.

Some teams we'll refrain from placing in the lock category because they may not be so in the combined private thinking of the committee at the moment, even if we like them. As it is, many of those types are still likely to make the field of 64 in the 33 at-large slots. So this is just a roll call of sorts and nothing more.

But feel free to discuss among yourselves as many of you did during our recent "insiders" guide during the "mock tournament committee sessions" in Indianapolis.

Incidentally, we're only using the conference standings to identify teams, not number of representatives.

The Locks (52):

North Carolina
Maryland
Duke
Virginia
*America East - Hartford
George Washington
*Atlantic Sun - East Tennessee St.
Ohio State
Kansas St
Baylor
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Nebraska
Texas A&M
Texas
Connecticut
Rutgers
West Virginia
Pittsburgh
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Louisville
*Big West - UCSB
*Big Sky - Montana
*Big South - Liberty
Old Dominion
UTEP
*Horizon - Wis.-Green Bay
*Ivy - Cornell
*Metro Atlantic - Marist
*MEAC - N.Carolina A&T
*Mid-American winner
*Summit - South Dakota St.
*Missouri Valley - Illinois St.
Utah
*Northeast Conference - Quinnipiac
*Ohio Valley - SE Missouri
Stanford
California
Arizona State
*Patriot - Army
*Sun Belt - W. Kentucky
LSU
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Georgia
Auburn
*Southland - Texas State
*Southern - Chattanooga
*SWAC winner
*Western Athletic - Fresno St.
*West Coast - Gonzaga

The Bubbles (17 --for 12 slots if the above becomes accurate)

Note: Some teams in this comparisons are obvious stronger than others.
This means that if the above holds firm with no wrong winners in perceived one-team conferences, it is not so large a bubble in which only five of the below must be sliced to produce the remaining at-large OR conversely the best 12 must be picked from the same group. This list will change as we go. We might like some teams a week from now we didn't mention in this first go-round. And we might also cut others that are currently listed below.

Florida State
Georgia Tech
Boston College
Xavier
Temple
Iowa
Purdue
Minnesota
Iowa State
DePaul
James Madison
TCU
Wyoming
Southern Cal
Middle Tennessee St.
Florida
Kentucky

--Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - The only thing memorable for Drexel coach Denise Dillon about the Dragon's 48-42 win over Delaware Thursday night in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center will be the final score.

Drexel (13-10, 8-4 CAA) jumped to an 8-0 lead, sunk into a mire with the Blue Hens (6-18, 5-7), fell behind by seven-points in the second half, and then rallied to complete the Dragons' first season sweep of Delaware since both were in the America East in 1998-99.

Dillon's team broke an 18-game losing streak against the Blue Hens in Newark earlier this season.

"It wasn't the prettiest game of basketball, but we found a way to pull it out," the former Villanova star said. "As we told our players, the hustle plays are always going to be key for us. And they played hard."

Drexel, a preseason pick of eighth, moved into a third-place tie with Virginia Commonwealth and Towson, two games behind second-place James Madison, whom the Dragons will host Sunday at noon. Old Dominion, the perennial CAA champion, is unbeaten in the conference and nationally ranked.

Gabriela Marginean scored 15 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to lead Drexel, while Narissa Suber had 14 points.

Delaware's Sha'Ron Harrison was the only Blue Hen in double figures with 13 points.

"We're still young," said Delaware coach Tina Martin, who has had a rebuilding situation on her hands after the Blue Hens were picked as an at-large team last season for the NCAA tournament.

Drexel connected on 7-of-29 three-point attempts, although Dillon said that attempted perimeter attack was not part of the original game plan. Suber hit 4-of-8 treys, while Jasmina Rosseel hit 3-of-10.

It was the Dragons' turn to participate in the ongoing "Think Pink," campaign for breast cancer awareness, thereby transforming the blue and gold colors that usually predominate the Dac.

Temple will be doing its Think Pink day on Sunday when Duquesne visits at 2 p.m.

"There was a little bit of a flow down the stretch, but that was after a basketball was made, which is usually the case. But we held the lead and definitely needed this one going in our next stretch.

"Once the kids learn to make better decisions, we're going to be a very good team," Martin said.

Temple's Dupree in NBA Skills Contest

Former Temple star Candice Dupree, one of the top players last summer in her second season in the WNBA, will again performaer this weekend in the annual All-Star Haier Shooting Stars Contest in New Orleans.

Dupree, who plays for the Chicago Sky, will team with the NBA’s Chris Duhon and Chicago Bulls’ legend and three-time NBA champion B.J. Armstrong to form Team Chicago.

The competition will be televised nationally as part of NBA All-Star Saturday Night, which also features the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout, Sprite Slam Dunk and PlayStation Skills Challenge. TNT and ESPN Radio’s national coverage will begin Saturday, February 16 at 8 p.m. EST.

The trio will compete against defending champion Detroit (Chauncey Billups, Swin Cash and Bill Laimbeer), Phoenix (Amare Stoudemire, former Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter and Eddie Johnson) and San Antonio (Tim Duncan, Becky Hammon and David Robinson).

Pondexter's Phoenix Mercury are the WNBA defending champions.

The Haier Shooting Stars contest features one current NBA player, one current WNBA player and one NBA legend on each team.

There are six numbered shooting locations of increasing difficulty, with each team attempting to make all shots in numeric order in the fastest time. Each team will select a specific player rotation to follow throughout the competition.

Each shot must be made before the next player begins shooting in succession. Teams have up to two minutes to complete the entire shooting course and the team that completes all six shots in the least amount of time is declared the winner. In case of a tie, a shoot-off will be used to determine the winner.

A two-time WNBA All-Star, Dupree finished second in last year’s contest after teaming with Ben Gordon and Bulls’ legend Scottie Pippen.

Incidentally, Xavier lost to host Dayton, 44-43, Thursday night, dropping the Musketeers into a second-place tie with the Owls in the Atlantic Ten, although Xavier has the tie-break by virtue of last week's win over Temple.

Holy Family Still Unbeaten

A trio of Tigers scored in double figures to keep seventh ranked Holy Family University unbeaten with a 67-54 win over Goldey-Beacom College in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) contest on Thursday night at the Campus Center in Northeast Philadelphia.

Coach Mike McLaughlin's team, also ranked first in the NCAA Northeast Region, is now a perfect 23-0 overall and 14-0 in CACC play. Goldey-Beacom is 10-13 overall and 7-7 in the conference.

The Tigers were led by guard Kelly Killion’s 13 points. Guard Melissa Brooks added 10 points and a team-high three blocked shots. Center Christine McCollum scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dealt four assists and had three steals.

On Saturday, Holy Family will travel to Dominican for a CACC cross-over game at1 p.m. The Tigers can cllaim home-court advantage throughout the CACC Tournament with a win. The game will be broadcast via CSTV broadband: http://www.cstv.com/ncaa/divii.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Some Tennessee fans may have had some sheepish glee on their faces Monday night when the top-ranked Vols escaped No. 5 Rutgers, 59-58, aided by a "frozen" clock in the final seconds in Knoxville.

But those smiles most probably are all be gone by now after No. 7 LSU erased a 19-point deficit and rallied to a 78-61 victory in the same arena over Tennessee Thursday night in a battle of Southeastern Conference unbeatens.

By all indications, the Tennessee implosion will make the Vols' return to the top of the Associated Press poll a one-week experience after replacing Connecticut Monday afternoon as the No. 1 team.

Now the question is did new LSU coach Van Chancellor do his 2004 assistant with the United States Olympic gold medalists a favor by puttting C. Vivian Stringer's Rutgers group in position to grab a first-ever No.1 ranking?

The assumption, before moving forward here, is that Rutgers will win Saturday night at South Florida in what could be a dress rehearsal for another Women's Final Four appearance, which this year will be in Tampa.

That said, had Rutgers been declared the "official" winner Monday night if the referees had followed all the procedures properly, the Scarlet Knights would definitely be knocking on the door for some program history.

As it is, some media members who voter in the Associated Press women's poll were already speculating among themselves whether to give Rutgers the No. 1 vote anyway after watching "human error" allow Nocky Anosike to make the tying and winning foul shots with 0.2 seconds left on a clock that should have been expired.

The magnitude of LSU's win could make things easier, depending on how the body of work measures up among the hopefuls.

Connecticut, which still got five first-place votes after its loss to Rutgers in the previous week, is standing in the normal one-step away position in second place.

But head-to-head, there is a loss on the books to Rutgers, although at least one and maybe two opportunities exist for revenge.

Furthermore, Rutgers has the apparent win over Tennessee, while UConn, through no fault of its own, is in a no-play stance after Vols coach Pat Summitt cancelled the decade-plus series last summer,

North Carolina, at No. 3, has clear losses to Tennessee and Connecticut and a win over Maryland, which at No.4 in the current poll, has losses to Rutgers and North Carolina..

Rutgers has two losses outside the elite at West Virginia and Duke, and another controversial last-second loss to Stanford in the season opener. However, the Scarlet Knights have also navigated a brutal schedule, producing wins over Connecticut, Maryland, LSU, and an "apparent" one over Tennessee.

The Guru did a little side-checking with some of his media colleagues and also some coaches Thursday night after the LSU victory over Tennessee, asking whether it would be outgrageous to leap Rutgers to No. 1 and all said that the Scarlet Knights have as legitimate claim to No. 1 one as any of the contenders.

We didn't talk to Pittsburgh's Agnus Berenato, but her stance already went on the record when she gave Rutgers a No. 1 vote Tuesday in the ESPN/WBCA coaches' poll, which included the Tennessee game among the week's action.

On Monday afternoon, while dining on hamburgers at one of our favorite establishments in Knoxville, a colleague from the Tennessee media indicated that a potential Rutgers win would merit a No. 1 vote.

"I'd say that beating UConn and then Tennessee, two No. 1s, that's a heck of a week or two that nobody has ever done," he said.

As for the issue of moving up after a loss, well, we've seen teams move into the poll after a competitive loss to one of the members of the women's establishment.

It's also possible that while Rutgers may not get a majority of the first-place votes, Stringer's bunch may get enough total combined votes in the top three slots to outpoint the other contenders and soar to the top.

Beyond the voting, here's how the race for the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament seem to appear following the LSU win.

Tennessee: Still solid for now as the overall No. 1, but that particular status could be in jeopardy with another loss to LSU in the SEC tournament and a loss to someone else along the way.

Connecticut: Still solid, for now, as to obtaining one. However, a loss at LSU and another loss to Rutgers, especially if it were in the Big East championship, would drop the Huskies to closer scrutiny and comparison with the other contenders. The injury situation that cost UConn Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene could also become a factor if it is seen as having been an impact on any potential loss.

North Carolina: In the hunt, for now, but still must play out its Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, including a Friday night stop at Virginia, another game against Duke, and the tournament.

Maryland: In the hunt, but more likely looking at a No. 2 for now unless the Terrapins win the ACC, directly beating the Tar Heels.
Connecticut still has to be beat Pitt this Saturday, although the chances of a loss are slim considering the Panthers' performance in recent games.

Rutgers: Wins over Maryland, LSU, and Connecticut, and an "apparent" win over Tennessee on a killer schedule is quite a body of work that would merit a No. 1, no matter what happens in the next one or two Connecticut games. The case got stronger this week, but another Big East loss will definitely bring the Scarlet Knights back to the contender pack for comparison. And again, the wild card for everyone will be the ability to avoid an upset loss.

LSU: The win over Tennessee puts the Tigers in the contender role, though Sylvia Fowles and company would likely need to win again over the Vols to merit a No.1 seed.

However, based on our mock seeding exercise at NCAA headquarters a week ago, be warned, that seed number and geographical bracket placement are not necessarily in synch once the attempt at balance begins. A team could be the second No. 1 seed in the original secret deliberations of the committee and land in the Western site or even slip to a No. 2 if the total effect would be to create better balance, according to --- ready class? -- the NCAA's principles and procedures guidelines.

Meanwhile, as for LSU's win Thursday night on its own merits, it had to be satisfying for Chancellor, who often met frustration at the hands of the Vols when he coached Mississippi prior to jumping to the WNBA when it launched in the summer of 1997.

He reached notoriety taking the Houston Comets to the first four WNBA titles and later guided the United States Olympic team to a gold medal at the Athens Games in Greece in the summer of 2004.

Before Thursday night, his most memorable visit to Knoxville was his induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. That night he had Georgia coach Andy Landers, who was to be later inducted with the Guru among four others last June, do the video presentation of Chancellor.

In his acceptance speech, Chancellor quipped that, "the reason I chose him is I know what you all think of him here in Knoxville and this is my way of getting even."

Details of the game are out by now, but here are extensive quotes sent from Tennessee, which usually arrive after every Vols game.

TENNESSEE HEAD COACH PAT SUMMITT:

(Opening remarks) “Obviously, I’m very, very disappointed in this team. Make note, LSU played a terrific game. They came after us. We did some good things early. Bench play was pretty much non-existent. We can’t expect Candace (Parker) to carry us every night. We got exactly what we deserved. We didn’t defend, and we didn’t make shots.”

(On what happened) “I have no idea. I can’t figure this group out. We got a win over Rutgers. They went in understanding that we could win the league tonight if we took care of business. If both of us had losses, going head-to-head, we still would have been league champions. That didn’t seem to matter very much.”

(On starting strong) “We started well against Rutgers, too. Maybe the players can tell you what happened. We can’t win relying on just a couple of players. Our offense affected our defense. I’m not happy about it. It is unacceptable.”

(On Tennessee’s weaknesses tonight) “We had a couple of players taking shots and not making them. We were turning the ball over. It is hard to win when you do that against a team as strong as LSU. Take nothing away from them. There is no quit in their team.”

(On giving up large leads in the last two games) “Looking back at Rutgers, they made their run, and we didn’t shoot the ball well in the second half. This team doesn’t get excited about remaining committed to playing 40 minutes. They pick and choose when they are going to play. This team reminds me of the team (1998-99) following the undefeated team (1997-98). They were a pain to coach. This team is not quite as hard to coach, but there is no great sense of urgency. They start great, get casual, and tonight they got beat.”

(On how opponents always key on Candace Parker) “They were keying on Candace and trying to double her. Others have to make plays. There were lots of shots, but not lots of baskets. (Angie) Bjorklund has got to do something. Alberta (Auguste) was 1-of-7, and (Alex) Fuller was not playing her usual offensive game. There was not a lot of help.”

TENNESSEE SENIOR GUARD ALEXIS HORNBUCKLE

(On how Coach Summitt keeps talking about playing 40 minutes) “It has sunk through for me, personally, but we didn’t put together 40 minutes tonight. We played 25 minutes.”

(On LSU’s performance) “They did a great job of committing to their offense and getting the ball inside to Sylvia (Fowles). (Quianna) Chaney and (Allison) Hightower were knocking down the threes. We weren’t knocking down shots or getting to the boards. They are a very active team. They are quick and get in the passing lanes. We weren’t playing Tennessee basketball. In the second half, Coach told us to get the ball inside and get to the boards. Everything we weren’t doing, she told us to do.”

(On watching the 19-point lead evaporate) “Honestly, I don’t know how to explain it. We were up 21-2, and I looked at the board, and it was 29-20. Shots weren’t falling and when they are not, we have to commit to defense. I can’t speak for my team, but I wasn’t complacent. I hope my team wasn’t either. I hope we can figure it out before it is too late.”

(On regrouping) “We’ve got to regroup. Coach was upset and not happy. It is time for us to recover. We’ve got to have an open mind to criticism because it is going to come.”

TENNESSEE JUNIOR FORWARD CANDACE PARKER(On letting the lead slip away) “Obviously, it caught up with us tonight. We had been getting away with it. We lost a big lead at Stanford and several other games similar to this game. Against Rutgers, we were able to come back. We had turnovers, were missing shots and not putting it up. In the first 10 minutes, we were in lockdown. We didn’t let them score. They were putting up garbage. They played to our weaknesses, and after that 10 minutes, we let them score

(On what Tennessee can take away from this game) “There are always positives that you can take away from any loss. I’d rather it have been a win. We need to get better on one-on-one defense. I thought our rebounding was good. We’ve got to work on keeping leads. We’ll address this at practice.”

Click here to continue reading as you would turn a newspaper page.

By Mel Greenberg

This just in a little while ago via email and being posted thru Guru's blackberry:

The New York Liberty announced Thursday that Basketball Hall-of-Famer Carol “Blaze” Blazejowski has been named president and general manager of the team. The announcement was made by Steve Mills, president and chief operating officer, MSG Sports.
 
“We are pleased to congratulate Carol Blazejowski on her promotion to president and general manager of the New York Liberty,” Mr. Mills said. “Over the last eleven years, Blaze has excelled at combining her business acumen with deep knowledge and unrelenting passion for the game. We believe that she is the right person to continue leading this team into the future and to achieve our only goal – delivering a championship-caliber team to Liberty fans.”
 
Blaze has led the Liberty for 11 years and during that time the team has won three Eastern Conference Championships and made appearances in four WNBA Finals. In addition to assembling the team on the court, Blaze is responsible for overseeing the team’s marketing and business efforts. Under Blaze’s guidance, the Liberty successfully hosted the inaugural WNBA All-Star Game held at Madison Square Garden in 1999, and again in 2003 and 2006, and the historic Game at Radio City Music Hall in 2004.
 
Blaze’s professional career includes a 10-year run with adidas (1980-90), where she developed and implemented marketing initiatives for women’s sports programs. She then served in the NBA league office as Director of Licensing (1990-95) and Director of Women’s Basketball Programs (1995-96). Blaze was named the newly formed WNBA’s Director of Basketball Development before joining the Liberty as vice president and general manager on January 7, 1997. She was promoted to senior vice president and general manager in 2000.
 
During her playing career, Blazejowski earned Kodak All-American honors (1976, 1977, 1978) at Montclair State and was the first winner of the Margaret Wade Trophy as Women’s College Player of the Year (1977-78). Blaze’s on-court heroics earned her enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1994, an honor she currently shares with only 20 other women. In 1999, she was also inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, along with 26 other pioneers of the women’s game.
 
On September 18, 2003, Blaze reached yet another milestone when she was inducted into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame for her 52-point effort against Queens College on March 6, 1977 - which still stands as the men's and women's collegiate scoring record in the current Madison Square Garden.

By Mel Greenberg

On Monday night, Tennessee's superstar Candace Parker tried to put a philosophical spin on the controversial finish in her top-ranked team's 59-58 win over No. 5 Rutgers that was aided by a "frozen" clock of 1.3 seconds.

That was enough "extra" time to allow a foul to be called on the Scarlet Knights' Kia Vaughn, sending Tennessee' Nicky Anosike to the line where she hit the winning free throws with 0.2 seconds left.

Parker, who scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, besides blocking five shots, was asked about the frantic finish afterwards in the postgame press conference in Knoxville.

"We're not going to make the best plays all the time," she said. "We're going to turn the ball over, and the referees aren't going to make the right call all the time. That's the game of basketball. We won and came out with the victory with a 'W' on our side."

Apparently it's not the first time in Parker's storied career that one of her teams dodged an upset with a call in their favor at the finish.

Our colleague Steve Tucker of the Chicago Sun Times checked in Wednesday night with notification about a call at the end of a high school game that allowed Parker's Naperville squad to prevail in overtime.

"It was wild," he said. "There were lawsuit threats and everything.

"But the bottom line was Naperville won and went on to capture the state championship, when the reality is they should have been eliminated in the sectional," Tucker explained.

Writing in his blog for the Sun Times, Tucker recalled that controversy.

"Candace Parker was not a part of the controversy at Tennessee on Monday night," he wrote.

"She also wasn't a part of the controversy from Naperville Central's sectional "victory" against Neuqua Valley five years ago. But she did benefit from both wrong calls," Tucker continued.

"In a 2003 sectional, an apparent game-winning basket by Neuqua that replays show clearly beat the buzzer was not allowed and Naperville Central went on to win the game in overtime and the first of their two Class AA state titles

"On Monday, the clock at Tennessee mysteriously stopped and a foul was called that allowed Tennessee to make two free throws with 0.2 seconds on the clock and beat Rutgers by a point.

"It wasn't a bad call, it was a wrong call."

A little google action turned up the first few paragraphs of coverage of that game by the Daily Herald sportswriter Dave Miller.

Sometimes even the No. 1-ranked team in the state needs to be good and lucky.

Top-ranked Naperville Central watched Neuqua Valley's game- winning shot waved off by a referee at the end of regulation, then took advantage of its second chance.

Big East Gets Official on Officials.

In our previous post of the fallout from the game, we noted certain information that apparently had been obtain from the Big East Conference, though the organization itself had not indicated it would make any public proclamation, other than its previous disassociation from the Southeastern Conference statement that everyone acted properly.

On Wednesday, the Big East decided to make a public statement on its findings.

“It is truly a shame that such a great game ended the way it did," Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese said in a statement. "I have personally spoken with SEC Commissioner Mike Slive on two separate occasions. In addition, Barbara Jacobs, our women’s basketball coordinator of officials, has spoken with her counterpart at the SEC.

"The game officials, who were assigned by the SEC, never asked the timer about the stoppage of the clock and did not follow procedures as defined by the NCAA Mechanic Manual," Tranghese said of Bob Trammell, Tina Napier, and Bonita Spence, who also work Big East games.

"As a result, they rendered their judgment that the foul occurred with .02 seconds remaining in the game. The SEC was asked to speak with the timer, who said that he did not stop the clock and the clock was controlled by the officials."

The Guru spoke briefly Wednesday with LSU's Judy Southard, who chairs the NCAA women's basketball tournament committee, about how the group would handle the result in its deliberations next month.

She concurred with the response we reported from Sue Donohoe, the NCAA vice president of Division I women's basketball, in the previous post.

Southard's own team is heading into the wake of the Rutgers debacle Thursday night when new coach Van Chancellor will be guiding the Tigers against the Vols in a battle of Southeastern Conference unbeatens.

Adjusting the Voepel

Mechelle Voepel, another one of our colleagues, has some entertaining references to your Guru in her most recent take on Monday night's events in Knoxville.

Although she noted that the Guru has been around for Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer's disappointments involving a number of contests that had controversy attached to them, the Guru also has been around for a number of her highs, though not as many when she was out at Iowa.

In fact, and we may have mentioned the occasion long ago in a post on this or the former blog, both Stringer and myself were not thrilled to land in Oregon for the West regional in 2000 when Philadelphia was host for the Women's Final Four.

Travel was the main complaint for both of us for different reasons when Rutgers was the No. 2 seed to a powerful Georgia team.

In fact, Stringer was mildly surprised to see the Guru appear at the opening press conference, thinking he would be sent elsewhere or stay home to help prepare the sports section for its Final Four coverage.

In response, the Guru told her, "You know I've been around for most of your big moments. Now you're not happy you're here and I'm not happy I'm here, BUT if we're both here together there must be a reason.

Several nights later when Rutgers upset Georgia to make Stringer the first men's or women's coach to take three different teams to a Final Four, we just smiled at each other before the press conference began.

As to Voepel's comment about the vending machine, that could only happen in our headquarters where the Guru's dollar bills and quarters are challenged nightly by the equipment in place, let alone what is actually worth the purchase.

In Other Basketball Matters

A key Atlantic Coast Conference game will be played Friday night when North Carolina travels to Virginia.

For you locals in Philadelphia who feel abandoned in the middle of the cotroversy, we note that Holy Family, located in the Northeast not far from the Guru's home, continues to be unbeaten (20-0)in Division II and ranked seventh, nationally, and first in the NCAA.Northeast Region.

Coach Mike McLaughlin's team is also 13-0 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

Meanwhile Drexel will be going for a sweep of Delaware in a Colonial Athletic Association game when the two meet Thursday night here in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

On Saturday, in the A-10, St. Joseph's will be at Richmond, Fordham will be here at La Salle, and Cincinnati will be at Villanova.

On Sunday, James Madison will visit Drexel, while at 2 p.m. Duquesne and new coach Suzie McConnell make their second trip in a week to the city, this time to play Temple, which has been idle since the Xavier loss.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

A day after top-ranked Tennessee's narrow and controversial 59-58 victory over No. 5 Rutgers Monday night, reaction, and reaction to the reaction, came in the form of some parties slipping and sliding around the issue of the stalled time clock at 0.2 seconds at the end of the game in Knoxville, Tenn.

The passage of 1.3 seconds of real time, according to television replays, was enough for Rutgers' Kia Vaughn to be charged with a foul, allowing Nicky Anosike to get to the line and give Tennessee the win with a pair of free throws.

The actuality is the game should have been over before the foul was assessed, which would have allowed Rutgers to become the first team ever to beat top-ranked opponents in successive contests.

A week ago, the Scarlet Knights upset Connecticut _ in the first of at least two Big East contests against the Huskies, which enabled Tennessee to regain the top of the Associated Press women's poll earlier Monday afternoon.

It didn't take long after the end of Monday's contest for a firestorm to flare about the outcome, especially from fan message boards such as the one at Rutgers.

Some comments were thoughtful, others extreme. For example, one remark criticized Tennessee coach Pat Summitt over not commenting on the controversial finish in her postgame press conference.

It was clear from the Hall of Fame coach's reaction to the first question that she was totally unaware of the building controversy.

By Tuesday morning, explanations were being made or still being sought as to what precisely happened to effect the outcome and who was responsible.

The Southeastern Conference issued an imprecise statement, in terms of accountability, claiming "there is no indication that anything improperly was done by anyone involved."

That flew in the face of Precision Time, the corporation that makes the device used by the officiating crew to control the clock.

The corporation contended that it was quite possible that an official erred or that the Thompson-Boling Arena timekeeper may have stopped the clock. That's contrary to a statement handed out after the game, saying the scorer's table did not have control of the clock in the final minutes.

Furthermore, the SEC statement appeared to have concurrence from Rutgers officials and the Big East Conference, which also uses Monday night's crew - Bob Trammell, Tina Napier, and Bonita Spence - in their contests.

Rutgers athletic director Robert E.Mulcahy III, who claimed he had not been called by the SEC, went further in describing how the timing sytem functions.

Mulcahy suggested an error had been made by either the officiating crew or others.

"It appears to be a case of one of those involved not accepting responsibility," he said in a statement.

The Big East also denied concuring with the SEC statement, and while the conference was not going to issue any public statement of it's own, the denial can be taken that the Big East is not very happy about the way things were handled.

In fact, on Tuesday it was revealed by Mulcahey in his statement that the officiating crew erred when they "did not ask the timer about the stoppage of the clock, nor did the lead official use a stop watch with the replay monitor, something officials are instructed to do in these types of situations."

One place where footing was sound was in Indianapolis where Sue Donohoe, the NCAA's Vice President of Division I women's basketball, spoke of the effect of the defeat on Rutgers, which is one of five teams, including Tennessee, in play for a No. 1 seed in next month's NCAA women's basketball tournament.

"The game, itself, is a conference matter," Donohoe said of the Southeastern and Big East Conference investigations into the game officials' actions or lack thereof at the finish.

"But when it comes to the basketball tournament committee's deliberations in making up the field and the seeds, they are aware and made aware of situations impacting the final score in close outcomes," Donohoe said.

"What happened is unfortunate, but the season hasn't ended," Donohoe said. "There's a month to go with a bunch of important games across the country still to be played. Those contests will be added to the bodies of work for determining not only bracketing and seeding, but also inclusion into the field of 64."

A week ago, a group of media representatives, including the Guru, and several former coaches met in NCAA headquarters to undergo a mock bracket exercise, described in earlier posts on this blog, using data, most of which was current through last Wednesday's games.

Had we been performing the same function a week later, Monday night's controversy would be part of our deliberations, as they eventually will when the real committee meets next month.

. Based on how we determined the No. 1 seeds, perhaps the only difference would be whether Rutgers would now be considered the second No. 1 instead of the third, which would place the Scarlet Knights in the New Orleans bracket instead of the Oklahoma City regional.

A bump of Rutgers ahead of Connecticut, which was made the second No. 1 by the mock group, could occur by the closeness of the Scarlet Knights to Tennessee, the head-to-head win over UConn, and, here we go again, the lack of a Huskies-Volunteers game for comparison as would have been available in the past.

However, as Donohoe said, there's still a month left and Rutgers must still meet Notre Dame, Syracuse, a faded DePaul team, and the second of the UConn matchups.besides the rugged Big East tournament.

Tennessee still has several major encounters, including Thursday night's SEC clash with LSU.

And in Atlantic Coast Conference country, North Carolina and Maryland still have key games, including the tournament, involving Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Duke.

One place where some of the fallout could land is in the next balloting of the Associated Press women's poll.

Had Rutgers officially beaten Tennessee, assuming a Saturday win at South Florida, the Scarlet Knights would have been in position to make a leap to their first-ever No. 1 ranking.

It could still happen.

If LSU upsets Tennessee, the top spot becomes open, making it possible for Rutgers' rise.

As it is, in private conversations Tuesday between some media voters who covered the game and others who were asking about it, there was a sense of giving the Scarlet Knights a consideration for the top spot, anway, depending on results through Sunday.

In Tuesday's coaches' poll, which included Monday's game -- the writers vote Sunday nights -- Rutgers received a first-place vote from Pittsburgh's Agnus Berenato, a rival in the Big East.

Officiating Crew's Postgame Comments

The media, admittedly, were slow to thinking of having a "pool" reporter chase down the officiating crew for a comment after the game on their decision -- it was the ever-sharp Rutgers spokeswoman Stacey Brann who first mentioned to the Guru if one had been sent.

By then the officials had long high-tailed it out of the arena.

The Tennessee PR department was aware a comment might be needed and sent someone in, but the answer addressed the moments after Anosike's foul shots -- not the "frozen" clock.

In reality, we probably woudn't have gotten much anyhow.

The reason we weren't quicker to the task is these situations occur much less in the women's game, especially in high-profile situations, than in the men's game.

Often, writers who also cover local men's teams and the women are more aware of the "pool" interview with a crew involving controversy and will think a little quicker.

Usually, we are more in tuned in NCAA tournament situations, because someone is instructed to have us identify a pool reporter before tip-off.

But, given all that, the Guru will get on the soapbox for a rare little speech, because it is good this has come into discussion.

In a little hang-around-the-eating facilities last March at the Regional in Greensboro, the Guru was involved in a discussion with a well-known referee from this part of the country, and it was mentioned that no one every really writes about the officials and they care as much about this game as anyone.

So following up on that, the Guru says this to anyone of important affiliation regarding officiating crews who might be reading this marathon work:

If we want to grow this game together, and a situation arises such as it did Monday, and the crew has an awareness there's an issue, it wouldn't hurt for the lead official of the group to find the host PR or send a message to the host PR asking, "Does a pool reporter want to talk to us?"

It doesn't mean you have to go against the grain -- you may say nothing or you may have something to offer that will enlighten the situation - but at least the housekeeping will have been taken care of quicker. It's just a thought.

Hit the "jump" link to keep reading.

By Mel Greenberg

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – An apparent time freeze of two-to-three seconds Monday night enabled top-ranked Tennessee to emerge with a 59-58 victory over No. 5 Rutgers, preventing the Scarlet Knights from historical notoriety in the nationally-televised contest.

Trailing by a point, the Vols had missed successive shots under their basket as the clock showed two-tenths of a second remaining in the game. As Tennessee senior Nicky Anosike went after another offensive rebound, a large portion of press row and several WNBA coaches noticed that time was standing still. TV replays later indicated likewise.

Poised to celebrate a great moment, Rutgers was stunned as junior Kia Vaughn was called for her fifth foul, sending Anosike to the line.

The 6-foot-4 senior center, who had shot 0-for-7 from the field, hit both free throws and controversy once again wrapped its arms around another Rutgers nightmare finish.

“Basically, I hadn’t done anything to help my team or help us win,” Anosike said of her thoughts at the foul line. “I knew I was going to have to step up.”

Tennessee (22-1) had regained the top spot in the Associated Press women’s poll earlier in the day, replacing Connecticut after the Huskies had been upset by Rutgers (19-4) last Tuesday in a battle of the two Big East titans in Piscataway, N.J.

Had Rutgers won here Monday night, the Scarlet Knights would have become the first team in the 32-year history of the Associated Press poll to beat successive No. 1 teams back-to-back.

The defeat was not costly in terms of Rutgers’ bid for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Scarlet Knights have already beaten Connecticut and Maryland, who are contending for top spots. Tennessee is also in the hunt, and the narrow result probably helps coach C. Vivian Stringer’s team more than it hurts.

However, a month remains until the NCAA tournament committee meets, and Rutgers still has at least one game left with Connecticut on March 3, and potentially one a week later in the Big East title game if both teams advance.

Rutgers wore pink uniforms and the entire Thompson-Boiling Arena with a crowd of 17,690 was awash in pink as part of the sport’s ongoing breast cancer awareness campaign across the country this week sponsored by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The referees had pink shoelaces and pink whistles, and even Tennessee men’s coach Bruce Pearl wore attire more reflective of the initiative than the normal splash of orange that is Tennessee’s predominate color.

Monday night was the first time the Vols and Knights met since Tennessee prevailed in last season’s NCAA title game in Cleveland, ending a Cinderella run by Rutgers after a woeful start in November and December.

But it is not the first time Rutgers has been involved in wild finishes the last two seasons.

The Scarlet Knights lost to Stanford at home in the season opener in November when Epiphanny Prince was assessed a foul with a tenth-of-a-second on the clock and the Cardinal gained an upset.

A year ago in March, Rutgers dodged what would have been a gauling defeat in the NCAA regional semifinals against Duke. That’s when Blue Devils all-American Lindsey Harding missed two foul shots with one-tenth of a second on the clock, although there was nothing controversial about the foul call on then-freshman Myia McCurdy.

“It just seems those tenths of a second just seem to keep popping up in the Scarlet Knights’ life,” Rutgers senior Essence Carson said after the Tennessee game.

They’ve also popped up over the years in the storied career of coach C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa and Cheyney prior to joining the Rutgers program in the summer of 1995.

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer was visibly distressed here while she attempted to address the situation without getting herself in trouble with her comments.

“I just happen to be on the end of human error too many times with too many erasers at the end of my name and I’m sorry, because these women deserve better. The clock froze.

“The game did not deserve this. Tennessee didn’t deserve this. (Coach) Pat (Summitt) did not deserve this. Those great players didn’t deserve this and neither did my great team deserve this. It is what it is.”

Bob Trammell, Tina Napier, and Bonita Spence worked the game.

A statement from the officials obtained by Tennessee’s sports information department addressed a situation, but it spoke of the time after Anosike’s foul shots and not what seemed to have occurred before.

Debbie Jennings, the Tennessee women’s media contact, said the clock is operated by the game officials on the court and not the scorer’s table.

She said the arena manager described the device the game officials use to stop and start the clock. They were using “precision time,” which controls the game clock and also the game clock because they are in a synchronized mode.

The official’s whistle has a microphone attached to it and each official carries a belt pack. The whistle stops the clock and the belt pack has a switch which starts the clock.

Noise goes through the microphone to a processor in the pack and the pack sends a wireless signal to the precision time base unit, which is attached to the clock.

The question is how many milliseconds does it take for the signal to get to the base unit.

The arena official, commenting on any electrical flaw, said batteries are fresh each game and the belt pack can be changed immediately if there is a problem.

Summitt did not appear aware of the “time freeze” issue when she arrived at the postgame press conference and began addressing Tennessee’s narrow escape.

“I’m not sure how we managed to win,” Summitt said. “Statistically, what I was proud of was we were able to keep ourselves in the game, even though midway through the second half we were 1-for-15 from the floor.

“You’re not going to win many games shooting that way unless you take care of the ball. We kept our turnovers down.

Summitt said despite Anosike’s struggles, she placed her in the game for defensive purposes. “And then she made both of those free throws,” Summitt said.

“We were fortunate to win. I’m just proud we found a way to win.”

Junior Candace Parker, the projected No. 1 player in the WNBA draft if she opts out of Tennessee, which is legally entitled, showed little effects from a bruised knee suffered Thursday night at Mississippi State.

The native of Chicago had 27 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocked shots. Angie Bjorklund added 13 points.

Prince had 21 points for Rutgers, Carson scored 18, and Vaughn grabbed 11 rebounds.

Rutgers, which is now 0-5 here, struggled in the first half, trailing 34-23 at the end of the period. But Stringer’s bunch were not dismayed after experiencing second-half rallies in the wins over Connecticut and Maryland.

A 10-0 run at the start of the second half brought Rutgers within a point at 34-33 after Matee Ajavon hit a 12-footer with 15:15 to go in the game.

Tennessee, which shot 29.6 percent from the field in the game, made only six field goals in the second half.

“Rutgers did a rtremendous job,” Summitt said. “They are so good off the dribble and in their halfcourt offense. Their shot selection was more impressive than ours tonight.”

Prince hit a layup to give Rutgers a 39-38 lead with 10:21 to go and except for a brief tie, the Scarlet Knights stayed narrowly ahead much of the half.

An upset looked close to reality when Vaughn’s putback gave Rutgers a 56-51 lead with 1:39 left in the game.

But Shannon Bobbitt from Manhattan nailed a three-pointer with 1:24 left and then Bjorklund followed with a trey with 49 seconds left to give the Vols a one-point lead at 57-56.

Rutgers wasn’t finished, however.

After the Scarlet Knights retained possession on a scramble under their basket, Carson hit a 19-footer with 23 seconds left for a 58-57 lead.

As the clock began to count down, Tennessee went length of the court, but Bobbitt missed a shot, Parker got a rebound and then she missed, and then the controversial moments began as Stringer and her staff were starting to celebrate.

“We really thought we had won,” Stringer said. “That’s an interesting emotion. Being picked up (by an assistant coach) and before you can even come down, you’ve been tapped and `hello.’ That’s a cruel joke they’re playing down here. That’s an amazing thing to go from an extreme high to an extreme low.

Stringer said she talked to the officials about the clock.

“They said everything was fine. The foul was called before and they had looked at the clock on the monitor and the foul was called before time went off,” Stringer said.

“So now we’ve got bad eyes, too. I think that (Rutgers spokeswoman) Stacey (Brann) said they looked at it in slow motion, so they somehow missed in it real time.”

When Rutgers’ postgame press conference began, a Tennessee sportswriter asked Stringer about the clock situation.

“Looked like the clock froze,” he responded.

“Here at Tennessee. Wow!” Stringer said.

“Looked like the clock froze.

“That’s a good one. I’m going to remember that one. I’ll just remember at the end of it, the explanation _ the clock froze.”

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - If the guru's aging memory is correct, Monday night's Tennessee-Rutgers game here in the land of the color orange is the replacement a certain local coach referenced when being questioned several months ago about her cancelling the annual you-know-what encounter.

As it evolves, quite much is on the line, other than the NCAA championship, which is what was at stake when the Vols beat the Scarlet Knights in their last meeting in Cleveland in April.

A loss by Rutgers, for now, changes little in the scheme of things as to where coach C. Vivian Stringer's bunch would stand in the long-range picture. At worst, the Scarlet Knights' RPI components probably get a little stronger.

A win, however, in the immediate short range will shove Rutgers further into the limelight the Scarlet Knights have experienced in the last week since upsetting Connecticut at home to bring down the only remaining Division I unbeaten women's team.

Besides the value of a major upset here, Rutgers would make history by becoming the first women's team to beat No.1s back-to-back in successive games since the Associated Press poll was launched in November, 1976.

Few teams have even been in the situation of having the shot, the most recent being Maryland in its NCAA championship season in 2006.

The effect of Rutgers toppling UConn is that Tennessee will undoutedly become the new No. 1 early Monday afternoon, hours before Rutgers once again meets Pat Summitt's charges in a chess match of Hall of Fame coaches.

When the poll is released, It will be interesting to see how far Rutgers moves up the list.

The Guru's top five went like this -- and remember Rutgers was higher on his vote last week than where the team landed after the loss at West Virginia.

Tennessee was made No,1 in a non-brainer.

North Carolina was moved up to No. 2. The thinking is the Tar Heels are really hot right now and it wouldn't be fair to drop them behind other people.

Then, in a mixed sense, it was Rutgers third, Connecticut fourth, and Maryland fifth.

The ingredients in this was a reward for the win for the Scarlet Knights and the head-to-head factor with the Huskies. The Rutgers jump pushed Maryland back to fifth, but, again, Rutgers also has a win over the Terrapins, who are still solid but performed a little less stellar in the last week, depending on how wants to grade the comeback.

The other issue at-stake, some of this based on the way the special NCAA panel produced the mock women's bracket, is Rutgers, with a win, could challenge for the second No. 1 seed, which would mean being sent to New Orleans in a regional finals advancement.

Last Friday, the mock committee made Rutgers the third No. 1, which, by the geographical computer assigment, placed the Knights in Oklahoma City.

A few weeks ago, as long as Connecticut was unbeaten, the Huskies were projecting as the overall No. 1 seed. But the loss to Rutgers and a potential Scarlet Knights upset Monday night drops coach Geno Auriemma's squad to the third No. 1.

That's also part of a negative effect on UConn with no Tennessee game in the body of work.

When the Vols lost to Stanford, they had the negative effect.

A Tennessee win just moves the Vols closer to the overall No. 1 seed in terms of clinching it.

But LSU will play a role in all this with a game against Tennessee later this week, a visit from Connecticut later this month, and the SEC tournament.

Rutgers, of course, has one more UConn game, and another potential go-round in the Big East tournament.

Oh, just for the record because it's been out there for hours: Tennessee's Candace Parker, who suffered a bruised knee Thursday night, has been declared good-to-go as have all of Tennessee's injured players.

Mock Committee React

And so the question has quickly come from the home base up north, what does Temple's loss to Xavier, Saturday, do to the Owls' NCAA chances, given the way the mock group gently squeezed Temple into the field during the exercise.

For now, the way the Guru sees it, the setback simply reduces Temple's margin-of-error.

Remember, the A-10 in our simulation had three teams in the field, but the automatic qualifier -- Charlotte -- was inserted as such by the NCAA as a way to simulate the bumps and curves the real committee hits during its deliberations.

The result in the mock exercise, off the data and the upset, was that Xavier was one of the just-miss teams left out of the field.

If Temple were to run the table and get to the Atlantic Ten title game at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia, the Owls could still be an at-large invite as long as George Washington and Xavier are the only two other teams in the hunt.

Memory Lane

Unlike his last trip here for a certain, ahem, event in early June, the Guru arrived Saturday with an entourage of "none."

On Sunday, next door to the hotel at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Tennessee's Summitt and Rutgers' Stringer participated in an autograph signing, which was probably much less expensive for the Hall then the signings the two coaches with a combined 1,600 or more wins engaged in their most recent contracts with their schlastic institutions.

The Guru, greeted Stringer, with the phrase, "It's about time you got here. We've been waiting for seven months for you to arrive so we can start the ceremony."

For those of you who weren't following the coverage of the Guru's induction, Stringer was to be his escort down the grand staircase at the Tennessee Theatre to begin the night's festivities.

However, the airline-scheduling disaster up North caused by bad weather stranded Stringer, and the Guru quickly went to Atlantic Ten commissioner Linda Bruno as a replacement.

Upon hearing the Guru's remark on Sunday, Stringer simply smiled and said, ``Waiting? I hope you know how much money it cost for me to go nowhere."

The Rutgers team took a tour of the Hall, which also has a plaque for past inductee Marianne Stanley, a Scarlet Knights assistant coach, besides one for the Guru and Strnger.

And a note to the blogging team who was on the scene here in June: The Guru attempted to go to Litton's, the famed burger place of which action shots exist on this blog.

However, all the detours involving I-40 are now sending vehicles in different directions from last June making almost impossible to get out of the neighborhood. And when the Guru got there, he learned it was closed on Sunday.

However, we made it to Calhoun's Sunday night where a little gathering including WBHOF executives Karen Tucker and Dana Hart. A contingent of the Rutgers support staff got their Calhoun's initiation, including Dustin and Stacey, while the Guru also picked up colleague Aditi Kinkhabwala from the airport to speed her arrival to the night's sociality. Paul Franklin is here, also, but was still writing.

And now it's time for the Guru to stop writing since he is the most knowledgeable person of this area from up North here for the game and may have to play tour guide prior to the tipoff.

-- Mel

by Erin Semagin Damio

8:48

Game over. Ursuline wins, 36-57. A player from each team will receive an MVP trophy soon.

Manchester's is...Teighlor Clare-Kearney!

Ursuline's is...Elena Delle Donne!

8:47

Elena comes out with 40 seconds to play, and there's a lot of applause. Manchester's trying to get something done in the last few seconds...Ursuline trying to score one more time with their bench cleared...

8:45

I'm nominating Kayla Miller for the Mel Thomas award for diving after the ball and landing the floor more than anyone else.

And Elena has 30, with jut under a minute to go in the ballgame. Ursuline's ahead 35-55.

8:40

3:26 left in the ball game, 49-33 Ursuline.

We're in the middle of a timeout now, with Manchester trying to figure out how to outscore Ursuline by 16 in three and a half minutes, I'd imagine.

8:33

Beginning of the last quarter, and Manchester's still fighting with a full on full court press. Almost just managed a steal. Lots of hustle on both teams.

8:28

End of the third...it's 44-31 Ursuline

Ursuline led by Elena Delle Donne with 22, Shannon O'Hanlon with 10, Kayla Miller with 6, and Erin Edwards with 4. Manchester is led by Teighlor Clare-Kearney and Quortne Young with 8, and Natalie Smith with 6.

8:26

Elena just had a pretty awesome block. Ann Miller of Sportspage (sitting next to me) says it's her third, and I'll believe that, since Ann is far better at keeping stats than I am.

8:25

Manchester's still staying in the game. Under 2:00 in the quarter, 31-42 Ursuline.

8:16

Inside our first timeout in the third quarter, 6:45 to go, and it's 24-36 Ursuline. Manchester's still staying in the game with some key steals and good shots.

8:00

And it is halftime. 34-17 Ursuline, Elena with 18 points, Mancheseter led by Marci Reisman with 7 and Quortne Young with 6.

Did I mention the wonderful mascots of the teams playing tonight? We've got the Manchester Indians against the Ursuline Raiders, which doens't seem quite politically correct.

Elena's proving an ability to score from anywhere on the floor, though at this level she's also shooting over people's heads... UConn coach Geno Auriemma's here to watch his future player... and the cheerleaders are doing a halftime show...

7:50

Manchester making a run. It's 26-12 Ursuline now.

7:46

First quarter over, score 6-20 Ursuline.

Elena has ten points and Erin Edwards and Shannon O'Hanlon have four each. Kayla Miller seems to be racking up the steals too.

7:43

Dale Nosel, a notorious Uconn fan who paints himself blue and white to cheer, is here in full costume.
Score -- 4-18 Ursuline, 1:10 left in the first quarter.

7:36

With 4:10 left in the first quarter (wow quarters! It's like the WNBA again) Ursuline is ahead 13-2. Kayla Miller, Ursuline's point guard, is also showing some hustling ability -- she's signed to George Washington University for next year.

7:32

15 seconds in and Elena's scored the first layup of the game. Manchester having a hard time getting the ball in against Ursuline's defense.

7:30

Just heard the national anthem. I've got to say, I do not miss high school. No offense to these girls who are all wonderful, but I did play basketball for a year in high school and this is bringing back some memories...;)

7:15

I've just been chatting with Mike D'Avino of Sportspage Magazine. He's been here for a while taking quite a lot of pictures -- should be a big gallery up after the game.

7:00

I am not writing going to write a lot of new entries, just continue to edit this one, bringing back memories of that lovely game in Phoenix.

The Manchester team is here now. I had a moment of worry when I saw people come in Manchester jackets and wondered why the team was so short and all wearing pink bows, but those were the cheerleaders. Both teams are in the locker rooms.

6:30

My mother, a friend, and I have braved the snow and cold to come to see this high school basketball game tonight. I'm sitting in Chase Arena on the University of Hartford campus, where the gym is pretty empty and the Ursuline Academy Raiders are doing their warm up shots in front of me. The clock on my computer says it's only 6:25, but the scoreboard has just started it's 60:00 countdown clock to tip-off -- supposedly at 7:00. The foyer is already filled up with the UConn faithful, and the line is starting file in now... I'll keep some updates coming throughout.

(Guru's note: As we worked through the night setting up the last of the coverage of the NCAA Mock Women's Toiurnament Sessions in Indianapolis, Rutgers women's basketball media contact Stacey Brann was likewise awake digging out special facts for the Rutgers-Tennessee, 2007 NCAA title game reunion showdown, Monday night in Knoxville.)

VERSUS TENNESSEE: Rutgers and Tennessee are meeting for the 17th time on the hardcourt . The Scarlet Knights trail in head-to-head meetings, 13-3. RU has never beaten UT either on the road or on a neutral court (0-12). The teams have met six times in NCAA Tournament play.

Tennessee has played spoiler for Rutgers each of the last three seasons. Last year, Rutgers national title hopes were halted by UT, 59-46 in the title game in Cleveland. The Lady Volunteers ended the Scarlet Knights 2005-06 campaign in the regional semifinals in Cleveland. The 2004-05 season concluded with a loss to UT in the Philadelphia Regional final.

OF NOTE: Monday’s meeting marks the highest the Scarlet Knights have ever been ranked when facing the Lady Vols. Previously, Rutgers was ranked No. 8 when taking on second-ranked Tennessee during the 1999-2000 season.

Tennessee has been ranked No. 3 or higher 12 of 16 times it has faced Rutgers. They have been ranked No. 1 on three occasions, including on Jan. 17, 1994 when an un-ranked RU team upset the Lady Vols, 87-77. The teams have each been ranked in 11 of the 16 meetings. Tennessee was last ranked No. 1 versus Rutgers on March 21, 1998. The Scarlet Knights were unranked at that time. UT was ranked No. 2 last facing RU - with a #25 showing - on Dec. 11, 2003. In 2004 (12-29) - Rutgers last win in the series - the Scarlet had a No. 24 AP ranking and UT was #8.

• •With Connecticut’s loss to Rutgers, Tennessee is expected to move to the No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll to be released on Monday, Feb. 11. If so, RU would face two No. 1 teams back-to-back. Most recently, Maryland faced two number one squads back-to-back in February of 2006- The Terrapins beat UNC (2/9/06) 98-95 in overtime and then feel to Duke on Feb. 13, 90-80. In 2005-06, No. 16 Texas played at #2/1 Tennessee on Dec. 1 and lost 102-61 and then played #1/1 Duke on Dec. 4 and fell, 84-70.

-- Mel

(Guru's note: While the Guru spent the last two days on a make-believe NCAA panel in Indianapolis, Stephen was on the scene Friday with Rutgers in Piscataway.)

By Stephen K. Lee

PISCATAWAY, N.J. _ When the Rutgers women’s basketball team steps onto the court to face Tennessee on Monday, it will attempt to make two statements – one through fashion, the other through play.

The No. 7 Scarlet Knights (19-3, 9-1 Big East) will be adorned in all-pink uniforms and “Think Pink” shoes supplied by Nike to promote breast cancer awareness.

In their new gear, the Knights will try show that pink is the new orange as a win over the Lady Vols would all but guarantee a coveted No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.

After taking down No. 1 Connecticut 73-71 this past Tuesday, Rutgers will try for an encore performance against soon-to-be No. 1 Tennessee in Knoxville.

However, the Scarlet Knights will also look to avoid an encore performance of last year’s national championship game in which they fell 59-46 to the Lady Vols (21-1, 8-0 SEC).

But, judging by how things in the world of women’s hoops have unfolded over the past few days, Rutgers is in good position to do the former instead of the latter.

On Thursday, Tennessee star player Candace Parker injured her left knee while chasing a loose ball late in her team’s 87-69 win over Mississippi State. Doctors called the injury a hyperextended knee and Parker has said that she will be “rehabbing like crazy” to be in the lineup when her team faces Rutgers on Monday.

Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer doesn’t anticipate Parker’s injury will dampen Tennessee’s intensity.

“The Tennessee team, keep in mind that they are all All-Americans and sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle, have all national level players,” Stringer said after practice on Friday. “We are glad when one of our players is All-State (with a smile). We have a few that have reached national levels but, every last one of the Tennessee players are national players.”

Rutgers junior center Kia Vaughn wished Parker well and added that she hopes to see the Lady Vols’ star on the court.

“With her there it gives us more competition, we would not want her to be out that game,” Vaughn said. “I just hope that she is really ok. I heard she is not really injured too bad, and I know that with a little bit of pain strong players and great athletes push through it and you would never know.”

While Parker may or may not be slowed by her injury on Monday, Vaughn is just starting to hit her stride. After the Knights win over the Huskies, Stringer pointed out that Vaughn’s pregame swagger during player introductions has returned and it showed in her 14-point performance.

“People call it my ‘signature walk’ when I come out after they call my name,” said Vaughn, who admitted changing it up for the new year. “It actually fires up my team. This year I walk high. Last year I would come out walking low.

“Coach Stringer called me a Canary, she said I look like a Canary now coming out like ‘Boo!’ She told me that I am not scaring anyone. I did not notice that it made a big difference, but I guess it did."

Senior guard/forward Essence Carson has noticed Vaughn’s reawakening too.

“It seemed like she was returning to herself, to the Kia of last year, and we need that,” Carson said. “I know she knows that and it took a while but, you know what, I don’t care how long it takes, as long as it shows up.”

So, let’s do a quick review here.

Heading into Monday’s game, Tennessee has an injured star and Rutgers has a star re-emerging. Oh yeah, throw in Epiphanny Prince fresh off the best individual performance (a 33-point Jordanesque spectacle) the Knights have seen since Cappie Pondexter.

But the one thing that sticks out – the one difference-maker that Rutgers didn’t have the last time it faced Tennessee – is the Knights’ ability to hit their opponent with their two bigs (Vaughn and sophomore center Rashidat Junaid) on the court at the same time.

In the championship game, the Lady Vols outrebounded the Knights 42-34 (24-14 off the offensive glass).

“Last year we got out-rebounded like crazy,” said Carson, who has witnessed Tennessee put an end to each of Rutgers’ past three seasons.

Vaughn paces the Knights in rebounds, averaging 8.6 per contest, and Junaid, a graduate of Camden Catholic in the Philadelphia area, grabbed seven against UConn in the duo’s most successful game together.

Carson added that the lineup with Vaughn and Junaid (each 6-4 in height) will be an important factor for Rutgers against the strong Tennessee team.

“We’ve just always been a small team – small but quick,” she said. “So we will always have that quickness, of course, but to just add another realm to our game, to add another aspect, it’s great to have another post player in there so we can battle on the boards a little more and switch it up here and there in the game.”

Vaughn spoke of the advantages that moving over the four spot brings to her game.

“Last year, a lot of teams focused on me and because of that I would get double teamed on a box out,” she said. “Now, you have to box Rah out and myself out because she is going to get an offensive rebound.

“I like the forward position because I get to see the rebounds, with my back to the basket and I am able to grab them.”

On Monday, Tennessee will be undoubtedly given the No. 1 overall ranking before it faces Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights will try make sure the Lady Vols’ stay at the top spot (at least in the minds of everyone) is as short as their own stay in Knoxville.

PREDICTION: Rutgers 55, Tennessee 50

-Stephen

(Guru's note: This is a local spin story, had there been room in the printed sports section, that might have been written off our deliberations in Indianapolis. In the two posts below, the last of the in-depth reports is written along with a second post with the Guru boasting how well he did in his at-large forecast with his 64-team ballot.)

By Mel Greenberg

INDIANAPOLIS _ Rutgers earned a No. 1 seed, while Temple was one of the last schools selected Friday for the simulated 64-team NCAA women's tournament field selected by a 16-member mock committee composed of coaches and members of the media at the organization's headquarters.

Tennessee, was made the overall No. 1 seed in the Greensboro, Regional, while Connecticut was namde the top seed in the New Orleans regionial. North Carolina was sent West to Spokane, Wash. with the other top seed.

After much deliberation, Temple, one of three Atlantic Ten teams, was given an at-large slot for the Owls' fifth straight NCAA appearance under coach Dawn Staley. George Washington, the preseason favorite, was also given an at-large slot after Charlotte had mythically won the conference tournament as part of the "curve balls" the NCAA tosssed at the mock committee.

The group met for two days, sequestered in a ":war" room with all the computers, data, and help the real women's commitee will use a month from now to produce the 2008 draw.

The mock commitee, because of the compressed amount of time, did not get everything achieved the actual committee has to accomplish, but the panel did get involved in many aspects of the selections and delibrerations that occur.

Rutgers had just beaten top-ranked Connecticut, the Scarlet Knights' major Big East rival, at home Tuesday night in Piscataway, N.J. to bring an end to the last unbeaten record in Division I. Coach C. Vivian Stringer's team will be involved in a rare scheduling moment Monday night when Rutgers plays at Tennessee, likely the new No. 1 ranked team.

In the 32-year history of the Associated Press women's poll. very few schools have played successive top-ranked teams and none have ever beaten both back-to-back

The last team to make an attempt at the feat was Maryland, during its NCAA championship year in 2006, when the Terrapins upset North Carolina, 98-95, in overtime in Chapel Hill on Feb. 9 and then lost to Duke, the new No. 1 team, 90-80, four days later.

Maryland later got both Atlantic Coast rivals back-to-back in the Women's Final Four with the Terrapins wnning the title in Boston in an overtime battle with Duke.

In the real world, Rutgers' NCAA seed would be its first-ever at the top. The mock committee placed the Scarlet Knights in the Oklahoma City regional, where Maryland was sent as a two-seed.

Rutgers rallied to beat the Terrapins in the Jinmmy V game at Rutgers in December.

In filling out the top portion of the bracket, the Greensboro regionial will also have second-seeded Baylor, the mythical Big 12 champion, third-seeded Duke, fourth-seeded Virginia, along with No. 5 George Washington, and No. 6 Arizona State under Tennessee.

Virginia has not been to the field in several years, but it will be like old times if the Cavaliers make a run and catch up with longtime NCAA opponernt Tennessee.

LSU, which will host Connecticut for real in a few weeks, was made the No. 2 seed behind the Huskies. West Virginia, one of eight Big East teams in the field, was named the No. 3 seed, while No. 4 Kansas State, one of six Big 12 scjhools, followed. Old Dominion was made the fifth seed, and Georgia the sixth seed.

Two teams from the Sooners State follow Rutgers and Maryland in No. 3 Oklahoma and No.4 Oklahoma State. Texas, a third Big 12 team in the region, got the fifth seed, and Ohio State was made the sixth seed.

In the West, the Tar Heels were followed by No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Pittsburgh, and No. 4 California. Vanderbilt got the fifth seed in front of No. 6 Texas A&M.

Temple's draw was unknown as where every game in the first two rounds because the mock group worked in a compressed amount of time compared the four-day marathon sessions held by the real basketball committee.

The Owls were credited with a tough non-conference schedule in which Staley's group played several Top 10 teams. They also had been on a run for recent weeks, tied for the top spot in the Atlantic Ten with George Washington and Xavier, whom the Owls had traveled to play in Cincinnati, Saturday night.

Just as in the real world, there were some mild surprises in the field. The Big Ten, which had only one ranked team in the AP poll much of the season in Ohio State, also had conference-tournament winner Minnesota and Purdue in the field with Iowa.

Hartford, which was upset in its simulated America East tournament by Vermont, was given an at-large spot. The Hawks, coached by former UConn star Jen Rizzotti, had two key nonconference wins, beating Virginia in Hawaii and a home win over then-ranked Michigan State.

The once-powerful Southeastern Conference had Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky in the field besides Tennessee and LSU.

Believed still on the board, but not taken, according to an insider at the sessions, were Xavier, Boston College, Florida, Illinois St., and Florida.

Four former coaches were among the panelists in Theresa Grentz, who left Illinois after last season but now does Big Ten women's telecasts; Marsha Sharp, who led Texas Tech to the 1993 NCAA title. The Red Raiders featured Sheryl Swoopes. Former Auburn coach Joe Ciampi, who does SEC telecasts and led the Tigers to three straight Final Fours in 1988-90, participated as did Carolyn Peck, a former Purdue and WNBA coach who now broadcasts on ESPN.

-- Mel

(Guru's note: The final main story is below this post, and a simnulated local story is above.)

By Mel Greenberg

INDIANAPOLIS _ The Guru can't help but notice how well he did with his original 64-team ballot and the results from the NCAA mock women's tournament committee.

Remember, the command was to produce a list that included some advanced designated automatic qualifiers. Furthermore, the NCAA tossed a curve in that a few were so-called wrong winners as the committee often experiences while producing the draw.

In the Atlantic Ten, for example, we were given that Charlotte had won the confernce tournament -- the 49ers would not have been in the field otherwise. That forced us to make considerations on how many we might pick: George Washington, the projected winner was taken, as was Temple as an at-large. But Xavier, which might have otherwise made the field, was one of the last ones not selected for the field by the group.

Also, remember the Guru used some of his own philosophy, focusing on getting as close to the 33 at-large pick candidates.

The original ballot upper focus had 48 teams, including 17 automatic qualifiers.Additionally, three teams -- Baylor, Utah and Fresno State -- who were on our first-group considerations, got named automatic qualifiers by the NCAA during the exercise.

That left the Guru with 28 names in his upper group for definitive consideration.

In that group, he was high on Hartford, even if the Hawks would not have won the America East. Two more teams, of which he felt would merit a lot of discussion if they were not automatic qualifiers, were Wis.-Green Bay, the simulated regular-season Horizon champ, and Middle Tennessee, although he felt the duo were his weakest but put the team in the upper half, anyway.

Conversely, he felt Temple was a personal strong pick, but dropped the Owls to the second group, fighting for the last spots because he felt they would have mixed support.

Green Bay, the projected Horizon winner, lost out to Cleveland State in simulation and was not taken. The Guru would have thought that would be the case had it been in play that way at the time of his ballot. Middle Tennessee was another, although had he known of the team's loss Wednesday night he would have dropped the team to the general group.

Illinois State was also on the list if the projected Missouri Valley champions faltered and they did in the simulation. They were one of the top just-missed-the-cut teams, but if one less wrong winner had occurred, they might have made the field.

So having mentioned those waggles, the Guru is proud to report the remaining 25 off the prime choices of his 64-ballot all made the simulated field as at-large picks.
They are:
ACC- 4 - North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Georgia Tech
Amer East 1 - Hartford
A-10 -1 - George Washington
Big Ten 1 - Ohio State.
Big Twelve 6 -- Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Texas A&M
Big East - 5 - Rutgers, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Syracuse,
Mountain West - 1 - Wyoming
Pac-Ten - 2 - California, Arizona State
Southeastern - 4- Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Auburn,
Total -- 25

Now, out of the next group, to fill the final eight, the Guru would have and did advocated Temple, Iowa, De Paul, Louisville, UTEP, and Southerrn Cal, which brings us to 31.
Xavier did not make it, but was a top also ran.
Lost between the cracks when the Guru was doing some last-minute changing for the blog, were Kentucky and Purdue, which would have been. That gives us 33.

Depending how wants to score the Guru on the last two, his only at-large strikeouts were Xavier (which might have made it without the Charlotte simulation), and Illinois State, although with no strong emotion going in, might have just gotten the perfect score with the aforementioned Purdue and Kentucky.

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: Having just discovered the Guru's original ballot prior to arrival in Indy, we feel good enough to do a little boasting. A sidebar to this is in the post above showing how the Guru fared.

There will also be a locally-targeted mock story that simulates the local ncaa story for Philly as if the mock committee's work had been real.)

By Mel Greenberg

Having had a "subcommittee" session in the hotel sports bar Thursday night, aka. The Champions Subcommittee, to get a jump start on Friday, the 16-member mock committee group returned to NCAA headquarters to finish the seeding and bracketing, as time allowed.

Incidentally, several mock committee members, especially TV types, fell in love with some of the software and ratings terminology as we went through the process.

"Toggle," "Tiling," and especially, "Nitty Gritty," were phrases that might come up during braodcast games the next several days from Debbiie Antonelli, Theresa Grentz (who now broadcasts Big Ten action,) Carolyn Peck, and Beth Mowins.

The Nitty Gritty, besides being a '60s song by Shirley Ellis, is also the readout of component numbers that help create the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).

Several questions were answered from the NCAA staff as we went through team and seed selection: The format that determines which referees will work the tournament was explained as was the nominating process that results in individuals getting named to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Committee.

Mechelle Voepel will probably have more detail on these subjects in her report at ESPN.com.

Speaking of ESPN, there is a chance if another mock session is held next year, the sports network that covers the tournament might bring TV cameras in to film the work of the group.

It was noted in a previous blog that conference quotas are never addressed in deliberations. The other "never" is whatever happen last year or previous in past has no relation to the current deliberations.

It was clarified that we can report on the deliberations as they occurred but the specifics of the data in conference reports and regional rankings profiles were restricted for several reasons.

It was a little interesting in that real committee Jane Meyer of Iowa and Heather Gores of Gonzaga sat and listened to our deliberations, which included focused discussions on both of their teams.

The 33 at-large teams that were on the board when we frinished Thursday's work remained as such, although challenges were made by a late arrival due to a TV broadcast assignment on the listing of Iowa and Temple.

Those two were then revisited along with several other teams -- some just in and some just out.

Each of us were then assigned to drill down on a particular team from the data and offer five good reasons the team should be included and five more why the team should not.

Voepel and the Guru were partnered on Florida, which was one of the top also rans.

In discussing Temple's qualities, the Guru's name, by virtual local coverage, was invoked by other panel members.

The Owls situation enabled an NCAA official to point out in evaluating schedules, rememver some teams are "locked" into certain games, such as The Big Five, which in other years have offered higher opposition values, but not as much recently.

CSTV's Greg Amsinger noted how in producing the 33 at-large we had not really talked about specific RPI numbers, as such. The Guru noted that in researching 2007 men's mock meeting coverage, that group, too, discovered that the specific RPI number of teams were not discussed.

That's because RPIs are the results of a lot of organized information and we spent more time on the components.

So, what's most important in terms of splitting hairs to find teams? Strength of schedule?

The answer is there is no one specific and members of the committee will use different emphasis to vote for teams. Thus, a team's inclusion comes from the consensus nomination, even though that consensus is reached through different emphasis from each member.

To speed the simulation along, all the automatic qualifiers were pre-determined for the purpose of the exercise and entered into the tournament.

That said, here's who made the field of 64, with a few Guru notations.: To keep a running count, teams listed that are sent to at-large candidates due to wrong winners, and teams that come off at-large pile due to automatic qualifiers will be listed in parentheseis.Also, to keep a total, every time am automatic qualifier frrom a low conference is inserted, that will also cause a running count to see how the Guru's original ballot was impacted.

Click the link here to go to the "jump" page to keep reading.

A Note From Erin

Hello,

Saturday, I will be attending and reporting on a basketball game at the University of Hartford. The game will feature Uconn recruit Elena Delle Donne playing for Ursuline Academy against Manchester High School. If anyone's interested in seeing Elena play, tickets will be available at the door starting at 6:30 (Tip-off is at 7:30) -- $10 for bleacher seats and $12 for seats with backs.

By Mel Greenberg

INDIANAPOLIS _ Day One of the 16-member NCAA Mock Women's Basketball Tournament Committee was quite an education Thursday in terms of the intensity in attempting to produce a 64-team simulated bracket using the same principles and procedures the real committee will use a month from now.

As we headed out of our hotel to the bus to take us to NCAA headquarters, the Guru mused to ESPN's Carol Stiff and Carolyn Peck, `Gee I thought you would have TV cameras on the sidewalk with a reporter broadcasting, `And there they go leaving the hotel to be sequestered for the rest of the day and tomorrow to produce the components of this season's Big Dance."

We arrived and were escorted to the "war room," where an array of TV screens and computers along with NCAA staff were assembled to give us a sense of everything the real committee undergoes.

And believe it or not, the real committee was on hand to observe us after having had its own private session earlier to get a head start on the women's scene entering the stretch drive.

We got under way at around 2:30 p.m. and by 9:30 p.m. had somehow produced, but not officially signed off, the 64-team field that will compete.

The next major steps to complete the sessions will occur very early Friday morning when we seed the teams and then place them into the bracket.

Each of us took the role of a real committee member, thus not being allowed to discuss certain teams, and also given resonsibilities on balancing the bracket when we get to that phase of the simulation.

On Wednesday, the Guru's report showed how he deliiberated his individual 64-team ballot.

Aware of the "role playing" involved, he was going to jokingly remark, ``With my luck, they'll make me be Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference commissioner Richard Ensor," who is on the real committee.

The Guru has known the MAAC commissioner for a long time.

Upon taking my seat, you'll never guess what name was assigned to the Guru?

"Gee, I can't wait to tell my mother Mel Greenberg was me," Ensor joked. Former Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp served as a chair along with ESPN's Stiff at the head of the table.

A giant TV screen at one end of the room enabled us to "watch" several games at once and also get a line on the news of the world.

The NCAA staff filled the room with snacks and drinks for us, the way it would for the real committee and we also took our dinner at headquarters.

Several introductory remarks were made by different NCAA officials and then, with the help of the staff, we were guided into the software programs in the laptops in front of us that had all the team data and voting mechanisms for us to operate.

The ground rules as the Guru understands them is we can't share our approach to specific teams with specific data, but we can talk about the experience of the deliberations in a general sense.

As we deliberated, we were able to run team profiles side-by-side, and go through the various steps in placing at-large candidates into the tournament.

Nmber of teams out of a conference were not allowed to be discussed because the issue is never addressed in the real deliberations.

We also simulated that the season had ended right before we arrived here. Thus, as mentioned earlier, we had some automatic qualifiers -- including some who gained the distinction with upsets,

We were given updated results from the night before. Some eye-catchers were Temple's win over Charlotte in the Atlantic Ten and a loss by Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt.

It will be interesting Friday morning to see if the hyper-extended knee injury to Tennessee's Candace Parker Thursday night becomes part of our discussion.

To return to the narrative, after we were given a "tour" of the laptop software, we each entered our 64-team ballot into our computers. Any team that received seven votes went into the field.

Some teams we put on the board would ultimately move off the at-large group into the automatic qualifier contingent if they would go on and win their conference tournaments.

Seventeen of the 31 titles will be decided by the time the real committee gets to work here.

The NCAA magically created a number of automatic qualifiers as part of the simulation. Some of this is discussed in the previous post about this exercise.

One piece of data not mentioned much in the media, but of critical importance, is the monthly regional rankings by advisory panels of coaches. A specific team can be tracked as to how its regional coaches ranked it early in the season, in the middle of the season, and just before the tournament discussions get under way.

It was also noted that as the shufflings on and off the board get down to the last few teams being placed in the tournament, one should step back from the computer and the numbers and go to the reality: Which of these (remaining) teams absolutely belong in the field?

There were several differenting groupings in attempting to get the 33 at-large teams identified. From a large "nomination" category, a consensus number would propel anywhere from four to eight teams into the "holding" column and then from there we would rank those teams in another vote. The ones with the best consensus would move.

There were moments when we pulled teams from the board in favor of other teams.

In one surprise, there was a conference that didn't have a high regard from media members as the deliberations got under way, but it ultimately fared better when individual teams would be compared.

Besides the data on teams, when several would be real close in the comparisons, different mock panelists would be allowed to address positives on teams from their own area to the rest of the group. Thus, Midwest panelists discussed teams in the Chicago area, while the Guru was asked about one of his local teams that was being compared with others in the voting.

The NCAA staff helped the mock committee in its deliberations to speed things up, but it was noted that in the real committee discussions, the same topic might be on the table for several hours while data comparsions were made.

Injury situations played a role in our moving teams on and off the board depending on whether a candidate had been able to prove it could still operate at a high standard after a player or players had dropped off the active roster.

So now it's time to get some shuteye for the early wakeup -- Associated Press national women's writer Doug Feinberg noted we were going to be arisen at a time when some of us usually go to sleep.

Besides these reports, Steve Tucker is giving his take at the Chicago Sun's web site, Doug will be writing the wire story in the next day or so, and Mechelle Voepel will be writing at ESPN.com and the Kansas City Star.

Incidentally, a large chunk of the Guru's personal 64-team ballot made the field, as it stands.

In fact, very early on when we began deliberations we were a little stuck because Voepel and I believed much of what went up on the board from the get-to was going to find its way into the real field.

However, every team standing when we left headquarters Thursday night is still susceptible to being taken off the board and replaced until we sign off on our final bracket.

-- Mel

(Revised for any of you non first-time readers with insomonia who saw this earlier, as well as you new arrivals, before and after the Guru needed to make corrections when looking at the actual ballot instructions that had a few purposefully intended curve balls.

By Mel Greenberg

And so a wild ride simulating the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Committee's assembling the 64-team bracket is about to begin for the 16 of us on the panel at the organization's headquarters in Indianapolis.

In our simulated world, the regular season ended Wednesday night, not a month from now. Make-believe conference tournaments leading to 31 automatic bids have already been decided in simulation in some instances and some purposefully with "wrong winners" -- (teams we would not have necessarily considered otherwise). All real data existing as of Wednesday night will be available to us when we arrive Thursday afternoon.

Thus, the Rutgers win over Connecticut Tuesday night is part of our mathematics. But Monday's forthcoming game featuring the Scarlet Knights against Tennessee is not. However, in simulation, Connecticut has already won the Big East tournament for the purpose of the exercise.

The first order of business, as to what each member of the real committee would do, is to produce a list of 64 teams to submit to the NCAA staff on Thursday. The NCAA's simulated conference qualifiers are to be considered part of the list. Otherwise, if not yet designated as having produced representatives, entire leagues can be left out. There are eight of those on the Guru's non-list but their winners will ultimately gain tournament access as automastic qualifiers, thus forcing the Guru and others to bump eight teams from each of their ballots.
In correcting the pre-determined eight simulated winners through upsets or otherwise, the Guru had to alter some of his original choices.

It is at this point that the Guru must briefly pause before taking you all on a personal tour of his mind as he deliberates his ballot.

In projecting the 33 at-large teams in recent years, the Guru has always skipped to the real chase several steps ahead of the committee's actions, although this has ultmately resulted in some surprises once the bracket has been produced.

In our little media world, we usually begin to get to a discussion of "locks," which are teams that are absolutely in the field, and "bubbles," teams that don't have as great criteria, but are needed to get to the field. Some years, the bubble list is large enough that getting rid of teams has been emphasized over finding teams.

Usually, scary as it may seem, using our own data and the thinking of individual committee members over the years, we could foresee a situation where maybe only six spots had to be filled and there were only 12 teams with good enough critieria for consideration.

But in other times, we could foresee a bunch of slots available and a ton of contenders with the same data. How to separate to get the very best of the mob becomes problematic.

Most of that dynamic, however, has to be put aside in performing the mock exercise with the simulated committee. Incidentally, the visit will include the Guru getting his problematic laptop checked out by an NCAA techie. You get your perks where you can.

However, the Guru does not wish to totally abandon his focus on who might ultimately become the 33 at-large teams. So while 64 is the starting element, 33 will be in our subset.

Atlhough at some point conference affilation will become mixed, it's important now from an organizational standpoint to put the names on a piece of paper.

The Guru used the Real-Time RPI website as a guide because (a.) sunrise will be too late to wait for data at another site, as will next week from yet another. Once in Indy, we'll be working with NCAA numbers. But all these RPIs are in the same ballpark.

Mathematically, the Guru worked it this way as he looked at each conference, and you'll be treated shortly to that adventure. "Definitely," went into the first column on the Guru's worksheet, which also included the NCAA simulated declared qualifier. That total came very near the magic 33 at 30, plus the 17 predetermined auto qualifiers for a total of 47 on the prime list. In that elite group, without regard to wrong upsets, eight of the Guru's orginal teams became conference winners with automatic bids. That means more must be found from "the next" group and once the ignored conferences come into play, it means the Guru will be trying to name three of 16 choices to complete the at-large slots.

Some kind of bubble fun, eh?

As the Guru looked at each conference, after submitting the absolutes, he tossed other teams into the deliberation pile, knowing he had to grow a list to 64.

There were also 11 conferences that did not merit consideration of their members in comparison, orginally, on the Guru's ballot until he noticed the NCAA had already predetermined five of champions from that group, which had to be inserted into the elite "in the tournament" field. That knocked some of the original "second" group off the list.

However, since the Guru struggled to get to 64, there were not many tears shed in thinking who might be gone in a matter of hours.

However, Temple and/or Xavier becomes at-risk from the Guru's list because Charlotte had been made a wrong winner frrom the Atlantic Ten.

When it comes actually determining at-large teams in commitee talk, the Guru will be very attentive to someone making a "basketball visual argument" like, for example, in talking up UCLA. But in terms of pure data on the Bruins from the Guru's perspective, an 11-11 record overall, along with an RPI of 101 on a schedule strength of 66 just doesn't cut it.

And speaking of numbers, there used to be a belief, although it was more myth, that 20 wins was a magic total to get in the field. The Guru did not look at total wins from any teams, especially since a recent increase of two games on schedules make 20 wins a common achievement.

So with all that said, click the link to the jump page and join a step-by-step tour of the Guru's considerations.

By Mel Greenberg

It didn't take long after Rutgers turned Connecticut into a lame-duck No. 1 team Tuesday night for followers of the Scarlet Knights to contemplate the unprecedented possibility, at least we think it is unprecedented, of coach C. Vivian Stringer's team being the first to strike down two straight No. 1s since the poll was launched in 1976-77.

We think there were occasions, but not many, when a team went up against two straight poll leaders when the changed had occurred within the same conference, such as the Southeastern or, several years ago,the Atlantic Coast.

And some playing a national schedule could have stumbled on the path that Rutgers is now traveling as the Scarlet Knights head for Knoxville this weekend and Monday night's encounter with Tennessee.

At the moment, the Vols are No.2, but Rutgers will meet coach Pat Summitt's team several hours after Tennessee's expected rise to the top when the new vote is announced early in the afternoon.

To look for past occurrences, the Guru created a sub-set of the main poll database file, limiting it to No.1 ranked teams and only listing the changes in-bound and out-bound.

If some of you SID types out there who are reading this blog would like to help the Guru and other media types hone in on any prior back-to-back games against No. 1, you can look at the file by clicking here. If you see any potential previous situations where a team crossed between two No. 1s, give a shout.

A warning, though, the file is a bit large at two megabytes, so the download might take a minute or two.

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: A version that was covered for the printed Inquirer sports section appears in the Inquirer pages on Philly.com. Due to the guru's ongoing laptop difficulties that story was actually written in its entirety and filed on a blackberrry. Love that backup technology.)

By Mel Greenberg

PISCATAWAY, N.J.- For two months and 14 games, the two monster opponents comprising this week-apart stretch of the Rutgers' marathon schedule had stood out the way two distant peaks of the Rockies loom in the distance while navigating westward across Kansas.

Connecticut-Tennessee.

One would be a home-shot advantage to get a leg on Big East bragging rights. The other this coming Monday night in Knoxville would be a chance to avenge last season's NCAA title game defeat that came at the end of Rutgers' Cinderella run through March.

Connecticut would be the first challenge, but prior to Tuesday night, it seemed the experimentation coach C. Vivian Stringer employed of using two big posts in junior all-American Kia Vaughn and sophomore Rashidat Junaid of Camden Catholic to be ready for this moment still needed some work.

"We need them both to be able to counter the size of Connecticut," Stringer said.

Junaid had awaken in the previous game from her slumber to rescue Rutgers at Pittsburgh, Saturday, after the Scarlet Knights had been upset a week ago at West Virginia.

Vaughn, too, had struggled in recent weeks prior to Tuesday night.

Although both answered the call against the previous unbeaten Huskies, it did not seem enough to surmount the five-time former NCAA champions, especially when UConn took an early 10-point lead in the second half.

But then sophomore Epiphanny Prince exploded with all but two of seventh-ranked Rutgers' points in a 16-4 run and the Scarlet Knights (19-3, 9-1 Big East) were on their way to a narrow 73-71 victory.

It was the best comeback this season for Stringer's team.

Rutgers is becoming a bad stop for streaking UConn teams. It was here in the 2003 Big East tournament final that Villanova pulled its memorable upset that ended the Huskies' NCAA-record 70-game win streak.

Prince Tuesday night finished with a career high 33 points, including 27 in the second half, and was 11-for-11 from the foul line as the Huskies fell to 21-1 and 8-1 in the conference.

Stringer explained what an achievement her team had just gained here before an energized home crowd of 8,026 persons and why her players didn't act like they just won an Olympic gold medal.

"We have so much respect for Connecticut, I mean so much respect," said Stringer, whose team had beaten the Huskies in their last matchup a year ago. That victory brought Rutgers its first Big East tournament title in the Huskies' second home in Hartford."I'm sure everybody came on high alert.

"They're legendary. They're not just anybody. Don't you think we would respond winning the same way against Tennessee?. It's probably only those two teams that would be afforded that kind of respect.

"They are such a great team. This is not an ordinary UConn team. They're exceptional in everything that they do, trust me. Probably most people are surprised we scored 73 points, but if Epiphanny is on like she was, that becomes a difference maker."

Rutgers was able to force tempo to start coming up with steals.

Vaughn, who Stringer said "set the tone," scored 14 points, and Matee Ajavon had 13 points. After a paltry 33.4 percent from the field in the first half, Rutgers shot 53.3 percent in the second half.

"When Kia established the tempo, that was a real good sign. It showed all cylinders were going to be functioning," said Stringer who had bemoaned that "not more than two players (at a time) had performed well in games in recent weeks.

Renee Montgomery, who had become more of a scoring option for UConn after the Huskies had lost Khalana Greene and Mel Thomas to knee injuries, finished with 24 points, but she lost the ball in the final seconds when the Huskies attempted to tie the score.

"We lost our composure, plain and simple," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said of his team's first regular-season defeat in the Big East since a loss to Rutgers here on Feb. 27, 2006.

Essence Carson made one of two foul shots for Rutgers with six seconds left and then Ketia Swanier scored just before the buzzer for the final score.

Stringer labelled Prince's performance "spectacular," while Auriemma noted, "It wasn't like she made easy shots. I don't think she had many stand-there-and-shoot-them wide-open shots. They were tough shots."

Ajavon said she was not worried when Rutgers fell behind, 40-30, with 16:19 left in the game.

"If we would have thought, `Oh, no!,' then we would have defeated the purpose of even playing. We just kept on fighting and that was the difference in the game," Ajavon said.

"I said this game would be good for a lot of reasons, because we would find out who we are, or we would find out who we are," said Stringer, yet adding another in a long history of memory comments. "And we found out who we are. And it's important at this particluar point because we go to Tennessee with their 22,000.

"We play in front of big crowds, but we've got to believe in ourselves. I thought it was a great game for the Big East -- a great game for the nation. UConn is still all that," said Stringer while offering an endorsement of the toughness of the conference.

"The Big East is the most dominating conference in the country -- bar none. Connecticut will take their game to LSU. We'll take our game to Tennessee. We will show up again and this time we will have the ingredients.

"There's no time like the present and I'm glad we showed up now. It was big. It was huge."

Stringer then actually offered a translation of the "who we are" comment.

"The Scarlet Knights have been warriors. We have that never-say-die mindset. We're fighters. We're going to fight to the end and we're going to believe," Stringer explained.

"And when people back us up into a corner, we come out fighting. We don't know how to drop our heads and make excuses, or to hide. We are fighters. There's an honor that is there.

"It is an honor that must be embraced by this team and every other team and anyone else who's ever played for the Scarlet Knights. Our defense has been key, but we have demonstrated we can score points. But we're fighters and you should never count us out. You should never count us out. And that's what it means to be a Scarlet Knight."

Rutgers likely put itself in the position to play two straight No. 1 teams in successive games, with Tennessee likely to return to the top of the AP poll Monday afternoon before the Scarlet Knights meet the Vols.

The Scarlet Knights beat then-No. 1 Duke last season in the memorable 53-52 upset of the Blue Devils last March in an NCAA reginal semifinal in Greensboro, N.C. They also beat then-No. 1 LSU here on Jan. 5 2005.

Tuesday night's win put Rutgers firmly back in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and unhinged Connecticut's chances a bit. The concern for the Huskies is that with LSU still ahead and at least one more Scarlet Knights encounter at home at the end of the regular season, risks still remain. Then, of course, there's the conference tournament, aka known as the AP poll playoffs with as many as seven Big East teams in this week's poll.

"We're not getting a lot out of our offense," Auriemma said and once again was forced to address the on-and-off performance of Charde Houston.

"I can't play Charde, that's the bottom line," Auriemma said. I've tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and I can't. There's just too many things that happen on the court when she's out on the court and I'd rather go with Kaili (McLaren).

Still, Auriemma tried to remain philsophical.

"Obviously, it's not the outcome we wanted, but I don't know if this has any effect on what's down the road."

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

A year ago, members of the United States Basketball Writers Association were invited to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to simulate the bracketing experience the men's tournament committee undergoes, but doling it in a compressed amount of time.

Later this week, the NCAA is hosting an similar experience on the women's side and your Guru will be part of a 16-member group who will pretend to be this year's NCAA women's committee on Thursday and Friday.

A check with the NCAA learned "everything is fair game," so yoiur Guru will spend different sessions taking you through the experience. Other media members of the group will probably do likewise.It may get so hectic, however, that we may not get around to reporting until after the sessions, end.

We will begin Thursday afternoon and finish Friday afternoon using "live" data through Wednesday night's games. Obviously, we cannot project the future, and will be operating with what the nation is right now. For example, Rutgers-UConn on Tuesday night, will count, but Rutgers'Tennessee next week will not.

A little googling action on the internet Monday night resulted in reading some of the experiences by the men's group last year. Some of their highlights were they blew the deadline for the CBS broadcast, they were served the same snacks, sandwiches, etc., the committee gets in the war room, conference quotes were not in play, and, yes, it was a bear getting the last teams into the draw.

Also, someone, as last year, will be named the chair to take the heat on a simulated announcement broadcast. The Guru is not campaigning.

I've added the NCAA mock committee category to this blog so you can filter coverage from the normal course of news and events.

Three component categories will have representatives -- Media (11), Coaches (3), and WBCA (2), who will be Beth Bass and Betty Jaynes.

The three former coaches are Joe Ciampi (Auburn), Marsha Sharp (Texas Tech), and Theresa Grentz (St. Joseph's, Rutgers, Illinois).

Upon learning this when the agenda arrived last week, the Guru, who had just interviewed Grentz for her appearance at the Philadelphia Sportswriters' Association Dinner, noted to her in a subsequent phone call that Ciampi went to three Final Fours or knew he was going to rub up somewhere against Tennessee.

Marsha Sharp was usually somewhere at the top of the bracket with Texas Tech, thanks to Sheryl Swoopes getting things started in Lubbock, and Grentz always had the Guru to explain it all to her.

"Anyone else complained so much, the NCAA wasn't interested in giviing them an invite."

The media group, besides yours truly, will be represented from the print side by the Lafayette Journal-Courier's Mike Carmin, who covers Purdue; Steve Tucker of the Chicago Sun Time, who covers DePaul in the Big East, Illinois in the Big Ten, and several other conferences; and, of course, Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star and ESPN.Com.

No, the Guru has not heard of former NCAA chairs campaigning the NCAA to make her the simulated chair so she can be on the other side of criticism she has dealt over the years. Voepel, besides covering national matchups, concentrates on the Big 12 for her newspaper.

Doug Feinberg, the AP national women's basketball writer out of New York, will also be on hand from the print side. Since your Guru and Doug cover a lot of the Big East, the Guru projects that in the simulated sessions we will probably be kicked out of the room when deliberations are made over Rutgers and Connecticut.

So don't blame the two of us if you find yourselves several days from now punching simulated airline tickets to Spokane, Wash., or to play North Carolina in Greensboro, in projected regional finals.

The electronic representatives in the media group are Debbie Antonelli of ESPN/Westwood One, Greg Amsinger of CSTV, Kara Lawson, Carolyn Peck, Beth Mowins. and programming czarina Carol Stiff of ESPN.

I know what you're thinking, you conspiracy theorists. Lawson played at Tennessee, and Peck, who has been a head coach at Purdue, Florida, and in the WNBA, was once a Tennessee assistant. Bass was once a Tennessee graduate assistant SID under the legendary Debbie Jennings. Therefore, even in a mockup, Tennessee's Pat Summitt has influence on the committee.

It is not known if Mowins and Antonelli will do their weekly WBCA podcast live from inside the war room.

The gender makeup is 10 females, six males, but we do not have a list of all the male coaches. Thuds, don't expect to see a "men's bracket," as was an accusation of past committees several years ago.

The nice thing from this group is that during a break, we have a great lineup for pickup basketball, of which your aging guru will only report. Grentz can coach one team with Ciampi and Sharp on her staff -- Grentz has all-America playing experience. Jaynes and Peck coach the other. Bass can establish the traveling budget. Lawson and Antonelli will have to be on opposite sides.

So much at an attempt at pre-dawn comedy.

Our first homework assignment prior to arrival in Indy, as does occur with real committee members, is to compile a ballot of 64 teams without regard to conference champions, etc. Soin theory we can place the entire Big East on the list and none frrom a lesser conference, for example, not that any of us will. On the other hand, with seven ranked teams in the current AP poll ...

And I may vote for Villanova just to have coach Harry Perretta around for entertainment.

So the next installment will offer the Guru's ballot, although I just spent the last several hours feverishly placing want adds in newspapers up and down the West Coast looking for candidates beyond Stanford, California, and, perhaps, Arizona State to put in the field.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

A third coach with Philadelphia-area ties reached a milestone victory total Monday night when Long Island's Stephanie V. Gaitley reached No. 400 as the Blackbirds beat Wagner, 57-53, in a Northeastern Conference game in Staten Island, N.Y.

Sophomore Valerie Nainima, of Suva, Fiji, led all scorers with 24 points.

The win increased the Blackbirds' record to 17-4, and 8-2 overall in the NEC.

The magic total was almost put on hold when the Seahawks (4-17, 2-8) nearly erased all of a double-digit deficit, rallying to within three points at 43-40.

Gaitley, a star on the 1982 Villanova team that went to the former Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women finals, began her coaching career at Richmond, and later moved to St. Joseph's, where she continued a tradition of Hawk dominance in the Big Five in the 1990s.

Asked Monday night if she recalled her first victory at Richmond, Gaitley said, "I know we went 0-6 before we got it."

Gaitley has led the Blackbirds to the regular season NEC title -- LIU's first a year ago -- and the Blackbirds are in the hunt again this season.

Speaking of Nainima, who has helped bring the Blackbirds to new achievements, Gaitley said, "She's only a sophomore, but keep an eye on her. I think she could play for anyone in the country right now."

The 400th win follows George Washinton's Joe McKeown, a Father Judge graduate, who got career win No. 500 Saturday night at Duquense. His head coaching career began at Oklahoma.

Former St. Joseph's coach Jim Foster, who once had Gaitley on his Hawks' staff, earned his 650th win a week ago when Ohio State beat Penn State. He also coached at Vanderbilt and is one of a handful of coaches to have had three different teams ranked in the Associated Press women's poll.

Poll performance: Connecticut vs. Rutgers

Tuesday night's super showdown will be in Piscataway, N.J., when No. 7 Rutgers hosts top-ranked in and unbeaten Connecticut in the first of at least two Big East battles between the Huskies and Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers' upset loss at West Virginia a week ago took the Scarlet Knights down from No. 4 to its current slot in this week's poll. But the reality is, this a Final Four-level matchup. Both teams are contending for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

After losing twice in the regular season to UConn a year ago, the Scarlet Knights beat the Huskies for the conference tournament title in their home-away-from home in Hartford and advanced all the way to the NCAA title game. In fact, had not Geno Auriemma's team lost to LSU in a regional final, the two would have met again in the NCAA national semifinals in Cleveland.

But that being said, here's how the two programs and Hall of Fame coaches compare in various categories updated through week No. 550 in the AP history that began in November, 1976.

Rutgers got a head start under then-coach Theresa Grentz by a little more than a decade, earning its first appearance in 1977-78, while UConn's first ranking occurred in 1989-90.

Of course the Huskies later caught up in the mid-1990s on the strenth of the first of five national titles under Auriemma. Around the same time after Grentz moved to Illinois, C. Vivian Stringer returned East to take over Rutgers and has had her squad in recent seasons challenge the Huskies' longtime Big East supremacy.

In terms of total poll appearances, Rutgers is ninth at 311, just two behind LSU. Tennessee, the overall leader, has missed just 14 poll appearances under coach Pat Summitt, another Hall of Famer.
Connecticut's total appearance number is 304, ranking right behind the Scarlet Knights.

In Top 10 appearances in the current decade, Connecticut has been in the high-rent district of the Top 25 a total of 146 for second place behind Tennessee's leading 156. Rutgers, in the category, on Monday moved into a three-way tie for ninth with Georgia and Baylor at 61, just one behind Louisiana Tech. No matter what happens Tuesday night, Rutgers should stay in the top 10, being idle until next Monday's trip to Tennessee. That would probably result in the Scarlet Knights and Baylor moving into a three-way tie for eighth with the Techsters.

In overall top 10 appearances, UConn is third at 255, far behind runnerup Louisiana Tech, which is at 373, behind Tennessee' dominance at 488. Rutgers on Monday moved into a tie with Old Dominion in seventh place with 179 appearances, behind Texas' 217.

In top five performances in the current decade, UConn trails Tennessee, 142-112. Rutgers is tied with Purdue for 16th place with 10 appearances, but the Scarlet Knights trail by three positions, and Baylor and Kansas State -- two Big 12 powers -- by five.

Overall, Tennessee's leading Top Five appearance total is 406, followed by Louisiana Tech (279) and Connecticut (212). Rutgers is 18th at 44, which is one Top Five all-time appearance behind Vanderbilt and one ahead of Penn State.

Connecticut has been ranked No. 1 a total of 101 times, exceeded only by Tennessee's 111 rankings at the top. Rutgers has never been No. 1, but the Scarlet Knights has been as high as No.2, which occurred twice in February, 1981, and twice in February, 1987.

However, in the coaching appearance category, Rutgers' C, Vivian Stringer, who has taken three different teams to Final Fours and two to championship games, has reached a combined total of 370 on Monday, good for fourth on the all-time list behind Tennessee's Summitt (546), Georgia's Andy Landers (428), and retired Texas coach Jody Conradt.

That makes Stringer third on the active list. Auriemma, at 304, is eighth on the all-time list, but when Conradt and former Penn State coach Rene Portland are pulled from the active list, Auriemma is sixth behind Stanford's Tara VanDerveer (344), who is fourth, and North Carolina State's Kay Yow. (326).

Since some Rutgers fans might be musing about a member of Stringer's staff, assistant coach Marianne Stanley, who led Old Domion to three different national titles, and helped take Stanford to a Final Four when VanDerveer was with the 1996 Olympic team.

Stanley is 22nd on the all-time list at 183, counting stints at Southern Cal and the 18-week season at Stanford. She fell behind Texas A&M's Gary Blair by one spot on Monday when his team returned to the rankings.

-- Mel

By Stephen K. Lee

PISCATAWAY, N.J. _ On Tuesday night, the Rutgers women will try to become the second New Jersey-based team within two days to put an end to perfection out of New England.

The No. 4 Scarlet Knights (18-3, 8-1 Big East) will do battle at home in the Garden State in what is the first of at least two encounters with top-ranked and undefeated Connecticut (21-0, 8-0). Another one will follow next month when the Huskies host the Scarlet Knights.

That will be a week before the conference tournament in Hartford, where both could repeat their Big East title game appearance of last season. There's also the chance of meeting in the Sunshine State down South, but that would be getting way ahead of either team's current focus.

With both teams in the hunt for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament as well as Big East supremacy, needless to say the nation is looking upon Tuesday's event as one of the super aspects of the 2007-08 women's basketball season.

Rutgers arrives at another highlight point of one of the most challenging schedules in NCAA Division I after a bumpy ride through the Appalachian Mountains last week. That's when the Scarlet Knights went up against two Big East renaissance programs that are both nationally-ranked in the Top 15.

The Scarlet Knights were ambushed by West Virginia in Morgantown and then rallied in the closing minutes to emerge with a victory at Pittsburgh.

With Connecticut up next, Rutgers will be doing anything but looking ahead to the next item on the agenda -- a trip to Knoxville next Monday night to meet No. 2 Tennessee for the first time since the Vols beat the Scarlet Knights in Cleveland in April to win the NCAA championship.

Speaking of last times, Tuesday night's showdown with Huskies will be the first since the Scarlet Knights pulled a 55-47 upset over UConn in the Big East Tournament championship game.

Despite having rosters that more or less mirror their 2006-07 versions, both Rutgers and UConn look very different from the two teams that slugged it out in Hartford nearly a year ago.

And due to injuries, both are a little different than they were at the start of the season. UConn has lost Khlana Greene and Mel Thomas to knee injuries, although the Huskies do not seem to have lost much of a step to date.

Rutgers freshman Khadijah Rushdan has also gone to the sidelines, while sophomore Brittany Ray is still recovering from knee surgery, affecting the Scarlet Knights' depth situation.

After losing 64-54 to West Virginia last Tuesday and pulling a 64-60 come-from-behind win over Pitt, the Scarlet Knights look like a team still searching for consistency, a trait that frustrates head coach C. Vivian Stringer.

“On any given night, anyone (on the team) is capable of playing well,” said Stringer according to a press release of her Sunday afternoon teleconference. “But on most nights, you have two or the other three just chugging along. So, I don't know. We have not had one game where we have had three people play well.”

Though guards Epiphanny Prince (13.1 points per game) and Matee Ajavon (12.6 ppg) pace the team in scoring, they also combine for nearly six turnovers per game, an area that's a chief concern for their Hall of Fame coach.

Stringer views the Knights’ win over the Panthers as bullet dodge instead of a positive turning point.

“We did not get it together, we survived,” she said. “(Pitt center Marcedes) Walker was hurt. You saw that. Unfortunately, one of her own players knocked her down. I wonder what would have happened had she stayed in the game.”

After practice on Sunday, Rutgers senior guard/forward Essence Carson said that one of the positives coming from the win was a reminder that the Knights are still good enough to bounce back.

“(The win) gave us some time to let ourselves know that we’re still here and that we still can play together,” Carson said. “I mean especially after a win like Pittsburgh, it shows that we can fight back.

“We really weren’t in that position a lot this year and that second half really showed us our true colors – that we can be the warriors that we’ve always been and that no matter how much of a hole we dig ourselves in, we still have an opportunity and a chance to somehow crawl back out.”

Against Connecticut, the difference-maker for the Scarlet Knights may be Rashidat Junaid. The sophomore center stepped up big against Pitt when the Walker, the Panthers’ star center, left the game at the end of the first half with an ankle injury.

A Pitt spokeswoman said Sunday night that Walker, a former star at Philadelphia's University City High, was day-to-day.

“We knew that Marcedes Walker was a big presence and a big part of their offense,” said Junaid, a product from Camden Catholic just outside Philadelphia, who netted 10 points during the Scarlet Knights’ crucial 15-2 run late in the second half. “So, when she got out, the game plan was to attack the inside.

“I could step up and be the X-factor,” Junaid said in regards to the upcoming matchup with the Huskies.

Stringer said that when Junaid plays well, it enables Rutgers to move into its double-post unit with Kia Vaughn shifting over to power forward.

“We will do whatever we have to do,” she said. “To play at this level you have to play two posts.”

One thing that is similar about last year’s and this year’s Rutgers squads is the year-long, work-in-progress approach for frequently implementing Stringer’s “55” defense, a tactic that enabled the Knights to pester the Huskies in the Big East Tournament.

“We haven’t used (the ‘55’) that much in the past this season, because we’re still working on it and growing into it,” Carson said. “But when the time comes, it will be applied. You never know when it will be.”

Shifting focus to Connecticut, the Huskies biggest difference from last year to this year is the stellar play of freshman sensation Maya Moore out of Georgia.

Moore is averaging 17.0 points and 6.7 boards per contest while shooting 54.6 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from beyond the arc.

Stringer recognizes the challenge that Moore will present.

“She is a great competitor, highly skilled in a great program and she comes once every ten years,” Stringer noted. “She does it all. She is quick fast, shoots well, drives well, posts and understands the game and probably appreciates every second she is on the floor.”

The play of Moore with center Tina Charles’ strong sophomore effort, along with guard Renee Montgomery becoming more of an offensive threat, has enabled the Huskies to continue to present quite the challenge.

So, after New Jersey’s registered voters participate in tomorrow’s state-wide presidential primaries to help seed the leading candidates, Super Tuesday’s most interesting matchup may be in the Louis Brown Athletic Center, where red and blue will truly battle for supremacy in the polls.

(Guru's note: This is an enhanced version of the print story at Philly.com
Another post below this one has a bunch of facts, figures and notes involving the Temple Big Five streak.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ On a weekend where the words super and perfect[/ITALIC] are being spoken frequently, the Temple women remained both Saturday to give the Dawn Staley coaching era another signature moment.

The Owls used a gritty 60-55 last-minute victory over La Salle at the Explorers’ Tom Gola Arena to become the first team to win four straight outright Big Five women's titles, all with 4-0 records.

"With Philadelphia being a rich basketball town, you want to be considered the best, not just amongst the best,” said Staley, who at 164-77, is just three wins from becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach.

Former Temple coach Linda Hill MacDonald was 166-130 in 10 seasons through 1990.

"I thought our team wanted it," Staley said of the exciting finish. "I thought Ashley (Morris) wanted it for her being a senior. She wanted to play a significant role to make sure that happened."

The tightly-contested battle was little surprise considering the history of overall Big Five competition without regard to men or women.

The win over the the Explorers (9-13, 1-2 Big Five) was Temple’s second straight narrow escape this week.

On Wednesday night, the Owls (13-10, 4-0) gained another last-minute triumph, beating St. Joseph’s, 70-67, at the Liacouras Center.

By staying super Saturday, the Owls extended their overall Big Five record winning streak to 18 games. The 16-0 mark, which includes the four titles, began in 2004-05.

Appropriately, Morris, a Central High graduate, and Lady Comfort clinched yesterday’s win in the final 20 seconds when Morris hit two foul shot and Comfort sank one.

The duo, who have played in all 16 games, along with seniors Nicole Pittman and Candice Borrows, are the only women to go unbeaten in City Series play, which began in 1979-80.

“It' a blessing to experience Big Five basketball at its best," Morris said."And to sweep the Big Five in four years and to come out as seniors and have an accolade like that is very impressive.

“In the Big Five, everyone competes," Morris continued. "There’s a lot competitiveness that goes on within the city.

“(La Salle senior) Carlene Hightower, she was a former AAU teammate of mine, I’ve played with her throughout the years from back in high school. She’s just relentless. She put it all out there today but luckily we came up with the win.”

The former Archbishop Prendergast star had 18 points before fouling out near the end of the game.
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“This was the best she's played in awhile,” La Salle coach Tom Lochner said.

"She's a very dangerous player," Staley said of Hightower. "We did a pretty good job on her last year, but didn't do a good job this year. They put her in positions in the scoring area, where we weren't in positions to challenge shots like the previous year.

"She's an explosive player. We just wanted to make her work harder for her points today."

Melanie Gibbons added 10 points for the Explorers.

Comfort and Shenita Landry each scored 12 points for Temple, while freshman Shaqwedia Wallace added 11 points and LaKeisha Eaddy scored 10.

"In the beginning, I wasn't too sure what this Big Five was all about," said Comfort, who is from Florida. "Our first year, it was all about the A-10. Then we started winning in the Big Five and we were like, `Oh, we can do this, too, We can break the record. It's just a real exciting accomplishment for me, Ashley, Candice, and Nicole. We're real happy about this win today.

"It was a typical Big Five road game," said Comfort, whose Owls have won nine of the sixteen games in the run of perfection away from the Liacouras Center. Two years ago at the Gola Arena, Temple had to go into overtime to win a title and keep the streak alive.

"We never play well here," Staley said. "It always takes some kind of performance (to win) by some person other than who we think is going to play well. For us it was Shenita and Shaqwedia who gave us some very good minutes off the bench."

Staley managed to blend veteran blood with newer blood to achieve Temple's Big Five accomplishment.

"I think our players are growing up," said Staley, whose team's defeats have been mostly to top 10 and other nationally-prominent opponents., "They're learning to play well together. It's still a learning process but we'll keep trying to get some of those wins back that we lost earlier.

"I just felt Shaqwedia was ready to play," Staley said of the freshman from Wilmington, N.C.. "She had a great couple of days of practice. Sometimes when other people aren't playing or feeling as great as they were in the previous games, you gotta make a change.

"It's not hard for us to recognize when that change needs to be made."

Despite recent changes, Staley said the starting five is still in flux.

"Right now it's a crap shoot. Whoever comes to practice and plays well and competes, they're going to play. If you don't do that, you're not going to play."

The Owls dominated the boards with a 36-18 rebounding advantage, including 13-3 on the offensive glass.

"We knew coming into the game, that's where we could make our mark," Staley said. "If we miss shots, we have a great opportunity to get the ball back and get an extra possession.

"Even with Shenea, she's notorious for getting offensive rebounds, but I think it was Shenita's day. And when Lady plays more than 30 minutes, we win ball games."

In the Staley era that began in the fall of 2000, Temple has now won five Big Five crowns in her eight seasons.

Overall, 25 players on Temple rosters have been involved with the 16-0 streak.

"It's no secret what we've been able to accomplish (including four Atlantic Ten titles)," Staley explained. "Nobody really likes the people at the top. You want to hone in on that position. We want to not be liked for a very long time in the Big Five."

Many of the players Saturday compete with and against each other in the Philadelphia Deptartment of Recreation's NCAA women's summer league.

The injury-riddled Explorers were back down to eight active players because of an ankle injury to Meghan Ahl. That offset the recent return of freshman Ashley Gale.

However, using half-court sets and patience in the manner of Villanova, the Explorers were able to stay close to Temple most of the afternoon.

The Owls finally got some breathing room by using the press on defense to break from a 42-42 tie with 11:45 left to play on a 10-0 run to make it 52-42 with 5:24 left.

But La Salle wouldn't quit.

A three-pointer by Gale, along with a pair of foul shots and field goal by Morgan Robertson had the Owls squirming again with a margin reduce to three at 52-49 with 3:51 left in the game.

Then Temple rookie Lindsay Kimmel fired a trey to make it 55-49 with 2:11 left.

"I knew coming in today it was a big game and I knew how much it meant to our seniors to be undefeated in the Big Five," said Kimmel, a native of Binghamton, N.Y. "I just tried to do my part and let the rest come. But it was a team effort, it really was."

LaSalle's Jamie Walsh offset that with a trey with just over a minute left, but Eaddy nailed a pair of foul shots to make it 57-52 with 37 seconds left. It was a that juncture Hightower fouled out.

Walsh missed a jumper and fould Morris, who then extended Temple's lead to 59-52 with 19 seconds left.

Margaret Elderton kept La Salle's hope alive with a trey to make it 59-55 with nine seconds left. Shen then quickly committed a foul to try to get the ball back.

Comfort, who closed out St. Joseph's, on Wednesday, went to the line to hit a pair of free throws and made the first, but missed the second. Elderton got the rebound, but then Landry stole the ball and turned it over as time ran out.

Lochner is a Temple graduate, as is his assistant coach Stacey Smalls, who was Staley's first point guard.

"It was a good game and they beat us on the boards," Lochner said. "It was hard to come them off and I pretty much think that's where the game was won. They were relentless on the glass and they pulled out a couple more shots because of that."

Lochner has been around the Big Five for a long time, serving as an assistant to former coach John Miller before Lochner became the head coach in 2004.

"I give them all the credit (on four straight titles)," Lochner said after his team fell to 1-6 in the Atlantic Ten. "I've been here long enough to know that Temple days were different at times and Dawn's done an outstanding job of turning that thing into a strong basketball program."

Meanwhile in the business of the Atlantic Ten, Temple’s win kept the Owls (6-1) atop the conference, where they began the day deadlock with No. 16 George Washington, Xavier, and Charlotte.

George Washington beat Duquesne later Saturday night, but Charlotte was upset at Saint Louis. Xavier will be at Rhode Island, Sunday.

Temple has already beaten George Washington, will host Charlotte Wednesday at noon, and travel to Xavier on Saturday.

"It's a huge week," Morris said. "We really have to compete against Charlotte and Xavier. We want to outright be No. 1 in the conference and it's going to take a lot of work."

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: This is now updated with new headline to reflect new content. There is a print story in philly.com off the game but because of limited space due to a certain annual football event, a larger enhanced game story appears in the post above. This focuses more on almost everything you need to know about Temple's historic run. As soon as we can get a program to input all 16 Temple boxscores, we will have more readouts.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA _ It was said here in the advance post that the math would be simple but the competition against La Salle would be more complex because its usually is.

And it was complex, going to the final half-minute before Temple grabbed a 60-55 victory over the Explorers

Thus, we get to the simplicity of the math 16-0, four years, four straight outright Big Five titles. This is a first in the women's competition that began in 1979-80.

Fittingly, the La Salle game was the typical Big Five nail-bitter, following another one that occurred Wednesday when the Owls gained a 70-67 win over St. Joseph's at the Liacouras Center.

Temple also extended its overall record streak to 18 straight that began with a 61-60 overtime win at St. Joseph's on Jan.25th, 2004.

But before moving ahead, there is some housekeeping that needs to be done in terms of previously noting after the St. Joe game that Temple, which had clinched a tie, was the first to be involved with four straight titles, including shared ones.

In fact, at that point they were the second and the best extended run with ties (meaning a loss or two along the way) still belongs to the Hawks.

In researching data on the streak if it came about, through re-checking of the Big Five yearbook, and we're surprised nobody else in town caught this besides it taking us so long, shows St. Joseph's involved in six-straight titles, with a shared-one breaking up the outright strings.

The Hawks went 4-0 in 1989-90 and 1990-91 and then shared a three-way with La Salle and Villanova in 1991-92 at 3-1 before putting an outright trifecta together in 1992-93, 1993-94, and 1994-95.

Jim Foster was the coach in the first one of the sextet before moving on to Vanderbilt. Now at Ohio State, he earned his 650th win on Monday night when the Buckeyes beat Penn State in Columbus.

Incidentally, another local coaching product, George Washington's Joe McKeown from Father Judge, picked up his 500th career win Saturday when the Colonials beat Dquesne.

And Rutgers' C.Vivian Stringer is five away from career victory no. 800 after the No. 4 Scarlet Knights rallied over No. 14 Pittsburgh in the Steel City, Saturday.

Returning to our dialogue and housekeeping, after Foster's departure, Stephanie Gaitley, a Villanova grad who played on those early Wildcats Big Five powerhouses and is now coaching Long Island to all-time success, was involved coaching the Hawks in the next five.

Incidentally, she picked up career win number 399 on Saturday with number 400 potentially set to occur on Monday.

Some key Hawk players in that run were Dale Hodges, a two-time Big Five player of the year; Katie (nee Curry) Gardler, a three-time all-Big Five first team player; a certain current Hawks coach Cindy (nee Anderson) Griffin, who was twice one the all-Big Five second team, and Amy Mallon, a Big Five player of the year who is now an assistant coach at Drexel.

New Zealand's Megan Compain was on the 1994-95 team. She later was named the Big Five player of the year in 1997 and was a WNBA player when the pro league began later that summer.

Now that the Guru called out enough people who could have complained over the four-straight accolade involving a tie, which apparently took a bunch of people in the sports department over Niagara Falls given what he has discovered, let's return to the significance of Saturday's game.

With Temple's win, Villanova clinches second place at 3-1 for the third time in the Owls' four-year run. St. Joe was 3-1 last season. One game is left between La Salle and St. Joe for third place. The Hawks and Explorers are each 1-2. Penn finished at 0-4.

Since the women's City Series began, Temple, off of last season, and St. Joseph's, as has been mentioned, have claimed three straight titles all by 4-0 sweeps. Villanova won the first two and then earned a third in a three-way split at 3-1 with Temple and St. Joseph's in 1981-82.

La Salle, under former coach John Miller, shared titles with Villanova and St. Joseph's in 1986-87 and 1987-88 before taking an outright in 1988-89.

Click the jump link to see notes involving Temple' drive to history .