Women's Hoops Guru

(Updating before the Guru's Connecticut friends send emails reflecting the WNBA portion and adding Swin Cash to the list of formers. The Guru is still adjusting to seeing her name on a Seattle roster. )

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA -- As the Temple search for the successor to Dawn Staley as the next women's coach nears the end of its first week, Connecticut's Tonya Cardoza is on the high list in the category of young, but seasoned assistant coaches who may be ready to take run their own program.

Unlike eight years ago when Staley took the head coaching job and unsuccesfully tried to lure her former Virginia teammate away from the Huskies to join her staff, Cardoza's phone won't be off the hook if Temple athletic officials make an inquiry in her direction.

"I'll definitely want to hear what they have to say if they call," Cardoza said Friday.

"Because of Dawn I feel like already know a lot about Temple and their players and definitely have followed their progress," Cardoza added. "Because of our friendship, she usually phoned or text messaged me pretty quickly after some of her big wins and even right after some disappointing losses.

"I think what they have been able to achieve in Big Five competition with all those titles under Dawn is pretty remarkable because I've always been aware of how intense those local rivalries are in Philly."

Several calls are believed to have been made on Cardoza's behalf. However, Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw and associate athletic director Kristen Foley are at Atlantic Ten Conference meetings this weekend and were unavailable for comment.

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was also unavailable to commernt on his thoughts.

Huskies assistant coach Jamelle Elliott would also be a good catch.

The Hartford Courant recently noted that the close friendship of Cardoza and Elliott, the two are not likely to go after the same vacancies against each other so they might have already determined between themselves who has the better opportunity to move to tfhe area not far where Auriemma spent his youth growing up in Norristown.

If Bradshaw and Foley need additional references during the hunt, they could contact former Atlantic Ten commissioner Linda Bruno, who is following the Temple activity even though she left her former post several weeks ago.

Bruno previously was in the Big East and was also a former chair of the NCAA women;'s basketball tournament committee. In the latter role, she was instrumental in helping Philadelphia land the Women's Final Four for 2000.

"There seems to several quality candidates already out there among both head coaches and assistant coaches, based on the names I've seen floated," Bruno said.

"It appears that Temple will ultimately make an outstanding choice when the interviews are over and they decide which way to go."

Locally Connected to the WNBA

The WNBA rosters were finalized for Saturday's openers and once again the rosters of the 14 teams are accented with players of interest to the Philadelphia area among the rookies and veterans.

As reported off the draft, the newcomer group includes Willingboro's Crystal Langhorne (Washington), Cheltenham's Laura Harper (Sacramento) and the Rutgers tandem of Essence Carson (New York) and Matee Ajavon (Houston).

"People have been talking about the marketing advantage with Essence because of Rutgers being nearby and her having grown up across the (Hudson) river, but we as staff were excited just about what she brings to the basketball," New York Liberty coach Patty Coyle said.

"We were looking at both Essence and Matee and would have loved to have the two of them, but we were pretty confident we were going to land one of them," added Coyle, a former star at Rutgers and West Catholic with her twin sister Mary.

Coyle's name has been tossed around early in the Temple search because of her extensive coaching experience, her ties to Philadelphia, and the fact that she is very much in touch with the collegiate scene because of her blanketing the country during the winter evaluating talent.

"I'm just excited about how we finished last year and the team we have assembled," Coyle said recently without addressing the Temple vacancy when asked if she had interest.

San Antonio Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes likes New York's potential in the Eastern Conference wars.

"Over there in the East, they already have an advantage in that most of them have already played together," Hughes said.

Meanwhile, among the WNBA veterans with Rutgers backgrounds are Tammy Sutton-Brown (Indiana), Chelsea Newton (Sacramento), and Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix), the MVP of the Mercury's title run in the playoffs last September.

Four former Penn State stars are also on rosters: Rookie Kam Gissendanner, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent; Helen Darling (Sacramento), Kelly Mezzante (Phoenix), and Tanisha Wright (Seattle).

Detroit assistant Cheryl Reeve, who is has declared herself as a candidate for Temple, is from South Jersey.

Temple has two former stars who went successively in first-round choices in 2006 and 2007: Candice Dupree (Chicago) and Kamisha Hairston (Connecticut).

Rookie Marcedes Walker, the former Pittsburgh star from University City, signed as a free agent with Houston.

New Los Angeles assistant Marianne Stanley was recently a Rutgers assistant and is a former Immaculata star.

Washington's Taj McWilliams Franklin played for the Philadelphia Rage in the former American Basketball League as did Chicago's Chasity Melvin..

Other former ABL stars, now a dwindling group in the WNBA's 12th season, are Stacey Lovelace (Atlanta), Dominique Canty (Chicago), Sheri Sam (Detroit), Katie Smith (Detroit), Shannon Johnson (Houston), Barbara Farris (Phoenix), Muriel Page (Los Angeles), Yolanda Griffith (Sacramento), Tangela Smith (Phoenix), DeLisha Milton-Jones (Washington) and Washington assistant Crystal Robinson.

The also-dwindling list of WNBA originals from the inaugral season of 1997 are San Antonio's Vickie Johnson, who has played all 12 but spent most of her career in New York; Lisa Leslie, who has gone wire-to-wire in Los Angeles but missed last season due to pregnancy; Sheryl Swoopes, who missed time because of pregnancy and injury in Houston and is now with a new team in Seattle. Houston's Tamecka Dixon, who played originally in Los Angeles, and teammates Mwadi Mabikia, who spent her first 11 seasons in Los Angeles, and the Comets' Tina Thompson, who has gone the distance in Houston but also missed time due to pregancy and injury.

When it comes to draftees suriviving training camp, first-round picks are all on opening day rosters, but four second-round casualties who aren't are UCLA's Lindsey Pluimer (Washington -- 20), Georgia Tech's Chionas Nnamkae (San Antonio - 21), Duke's Wanisha Smith (New York - 27), and UTEP's Natasha Lacy (Detroit - 28).

Third-round survivors include Connecticut's Charde Houston (Minnesota - 30), Virginia Commonwealth's Krystal Vaughn (Washington - 34), George Washington's Kimberly Beck (Seattle - 36), Texas A&M's A'Quonesia Franklin (Sacramento - 38), and Notre Dame's Charel Allen (Sacramento - 43), who was the last overall pick courtesy of an extra choice given in the round to the Monarchs.

As for Connecticut alums vs. Tennessee alums, the Huskies crowd includes Atlanta's Ann Strother; the Connecticut Sun's Asjha Jones, Tamika Raymond, Ketia Swanier, and Barbara Turner (Nykesha Sales is not playing this summer); Los Angeles' Jessica Moore; Minnesota's Charde Houston (Svetlana Abrosimova is not playing this summer); New York's Ashley Battle; Phoenix's Willnett Crockett and Diana Taurasi; and Seattle's Sue Bird and Swin Cash for a total of 12 plus two absentees.

The Vols' group includes Detroit's Alexis Hornbuckle; Houston's Michelle Snow; Indiana's Tamika Catchings, who is currently injured; Los Angeles' Shannon Bobbitt, Sidney Spencer, and Candace Parker; Minnesota; Nicky Anosike, New York's Loree Moore; Sacramento's Kara Lawson; San Antonio's Shanna Crossley, who is out for the season with an injury; and Seattle's Ashley Robinson for a total of 11, that includes two sidelined players.

-- Mel