(Guru note: This post takes the form of a guru speak format as opposed to news-style, or he thought so in mentioning it here before he started writing)
By Mel Greenberg
PHILADELPHIA - In a quick reversal, Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has granted a release to former prime blue chip recruit Elena Delle Donne, allowing her to play volleyball this season at Delaware where she said Monday she would enroll.
The former star of Wilmington''s Ursuline Academy did,not say she intended to play any sport in her announcement, indicating she decided to stay close to home instead of several hundred miles away.
Auriemma emailed the Hartford Courant Wednesday with his change of position after saying earlier in the week he was not going to grant a release.
That meant at the time Delle Donne couldn't play any sport, other than basketball, if she chose. It also meant basketball coaches couldn't approach her, be it longtime Blue Hens coach Tina Martin, who is now in an interesting spot, or anyone else.
Delle Donne, one of the most acclaimed women's basketball player of all time at any level, told Auriemma, coach of the NCAA favorites, last week she would not be returning to Storrs after having quickly left the university's summer school session in early June following a brief stay of several days at the most.
Auriemma announced her decision in a statement released through the university last Saturday.
At Ursuline, the 6-foot-5 guard who can play any position, averaged 30 points last season and led the school to the state title. Pursued by college coaches within NCAA rules since the seventh grade, Delle Donne was said to be one of the few capable of going straight to the WNBA, though the pro league does not allow that occurrence under its eligibility rules.
She is the all-time high school girls scoring champion in Delaware.
Reasons for Delle Donne's reversal remain between her and her family for now, until she decides otherwise to make public comments.
While Delle Donne does not appear to be joining the Blue Hens basketball team anytime soon, she could later decide this season to go to practice to get back in shape. It is certainly a plausible situation, especially if she were to attend Delaware games and start feeling the passion to play the sport again.
Ironically, Delaware is coming off its worst season in some time (didn't look it up yet if it is the worst) because of a number of key players who graduated last summer.
Villanova went through a similar experience two years ago and then for a brief time found itself among Delle Donne's final choices last summer along with Middle Tennessee, where her older brother Gene plays football; Connecticut and Tennessee.
The latter two, national rivals who were in the news last summer when Tennesee coach Pat Summitt cancelled their reknown rivalry, were considered the front runners.
Delle Donne took an abrupt break from basketball last summer before enthusiastically announcing Connecticut in early September as the school of her choice.
The freshman class was already loaded with such talents as Germantown Academy's Carolyn Doty, a teammate of Delle Donne's with Fencor AAU who was going to be her roommate at UConn.
The Delle Donne saga has drawn wide interest nationwide since her mysterious departure in June.
For example, on any day the Guru didn't offer any new posts, this site was still drawing 50 hits from people who were googling Delle Donne's name to see if there were any new nuggets of informatiion.
(Guru's note: Obviously, these totals about to mentioned aren't even close to what our pro beat people get on print and blog coverage, but it is interesting in terms of self-measurement.)
On Monday, off Sunday's Guru analysis and Delle Donne's subsequent announcement the next day, the Guru site set a one-day site record of 1,350 hits. Since Sunday, the total has been over 3,500 hits, although some of the included content is the ongoing Guru-provided AP coverage of the USA team's participation in the Olympics.
Based on numbers Jonathan has provided from time to time from the frontal part of Philly.com's operation, totals there are usually higher than the Guru's own measuring devices.
The record total is more remarkable because previous highs here have been fueled off the Rutgers board when the Scarlet Knights were in the news or the often-reference women's hoops sites.
Neither were a factor, Monday, although the Guru is aware many of you were coming directly here anyway once the word of Delle Donne's decision became public.
As a matter of comparison, Guru totals were in the 800s when he took people through the NCAA mock bracket experience in February. A few days later that number soared just past 1,000 off the controversial "clock-gate" last-second, or so, victory by Tennessee over the Scarlet Knights in Knoxville.
That threshhold was reached again the night of the NCAA bracket announcement that put Connecticut and Rutgers on an early collision course.
The total was slightly surpassed and remained high when Dawn Staley made it known she was heading from Temple to South Carolina to coach. The search for Staley's successor kept traffic high and then it became more plentiful along the way with the news that Joe McKeown was heading to Northwestern after 19 seasons at George Washington.
The search for the Colonials' new coach to follow McKeown also kept totals high, with a little of Bernadette McGlade becoming Atlantic 10 commissioner thrown in the mix.
There were also a slew of Rutgers fans who bought into the Guru's guessing game as to the identity of C. Vivian Stringer's potential assistant coaching hire, which ultimately occurred with former Texas star Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil landed the plum position.
But Delle Donne news eclipsed all that, to the point that it was already responsible for a two-day record total early Monday afternoon at the same time the daily number was already way ahead of the pace of previous traffic records.
More to come, but the Guru will be spending Wednesday night at the annual postseason gathering of the summer league.
-- Mel
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