Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

If Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil can recruit for Rutgers the way she chased after Scarlet Knights Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer to join Stringer's staff, look for the parade of McDonald's All-Americans to continue marching through Piscataway, N.J.

A former thorn to Rutgers' NCAA title ambitions back in the late 1980s, Davis-Wrightsil began pursuing the opening soon after Marianne Stanley departed for the assistant position with the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks.

The native of San Antonio, Texas, was considered a prototype of the future when Davis-Wrightsil came off the bench as a freshman mobile post player in 1986 to lead the Longhorns to their long-sought national crown as the NCAA's first unbeaten team.

She later overcame a knee injury to finish her collegiate career and continued to star long afterwards in professional basketball overseas and the United States.

Considering that Davis-Wrightsil is a native of San Antonio, where she helped bring the WNBA's Silver Stars to the Lone Star State, she comes already motivated over the fact that the NCAA Women';s Final Four will be returning to the town of the Alamo in a few seasons.

That little factoid does not preclude the season ahead when Rutgers will again be among the NCAA threats in light of the roster already packed with talent despite the graduation of WNBA rookie sensations Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson.

Davis-Wrightsil will be excellent to assist Rutgers' post game and be a mentor to those aspiring for a pro career. And to the Guru's colleagues up north, sher does have a reputation for being media friendly, except when people like the Guru are still around to jest with her over an incident in the All-Star game of the former ABL in Hartford, Conn., when she played for New England in the winter of 1996.

Maintaining the Hall of Fame credentials that Stanley also held, Davis-Wrightsil represents a generation of stars closer to today's game, which is to take nothing away from Stanley's days as a fiesty all-American point guard with Immaculata in the mid-1970s.

Considering how prestigious and lengthy the sum of DavisWrightsil's body of work the last several decades, here is the full email from Rutgers, which is also on the Scarlet Knights' web site. So if you've been there, you can move on and return to Olympic coverage from Asia.

And if you didn't see the Inquirer's print section or web equivalent at Philly,com 24 hours ago, you can visit there to see Kate Fagan's profile of the WNBA star Becky Hammon who is playing for Russia.

And to the Guru fans on the Rutgers board, I hope you had fun in the droll days with the little guessing game a while back. Just wanted you to get a little excited if the hire occurred, which it did.

Here's the Rutgers release:

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Former National Player of the Year and All-American Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil has been named an assistant coach at Rutgers, University, it was announced by women’s basketball head coach C. Vivian Stringer this afternoon.

“Clarissa is an amazing addition to our staff," said Stringer. "She comes from a rich background, having played and worked for my close coaching confidante, Jody Conradt. Her resume is simply put, mind-blowing. Clarissa has achieved feats many only dream about during both their playing, coaching and professional careers. We are very excited to have her join our basketball family at Rutgers.”

During the 2006-07 season, Davis-Wrightsil was a member of the coaching staff of her alma mater, University of Texas. Prior to UT, she served as the Women’s Basketball Director of Development for the San Antonio Spurs organization (2000-02). Davis-Wrightsil was promoted to serve as Chief Operating Officer for the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars where she oversaw Spurs Sports & Entertainment in its successful campaign for a WNBA franchise. In the position, she oversaw the day-to-day business and basketball operations for the franchise from 2002-06. For her efforts, she was awarded the San Antonio Business Journal's 40 under 40 Rising Star given annually to key business leaders in the community.

A 2006 inductee into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Davis-Wrightsil starred at UT from 1985-89. She made an immediate impact upon stepping on the Austin campus, earning "Most Valuable Player" honors at the 1986 NCAA Women's Final Four. Davis helped lead Texas, with the first perfect record in NCAA women’s history (34-0), to the 1986 NCAA Championship. In the Final Four, Davis registered a combined 56 points and 32 rebounds in the two games.

Davis-Wrightsil was twice selected an All-American and was named National Player of the Year six times (Kodak, United States Basketball Writers Association, Naismith) during her collegiate career. The first All-American nod came as a sophomore when the San Antonio native averaged 18.6 points and 8.4 rebounds.

After a season-ending knee surgery in December of her junior season, Davis-Wrightsil rebounded her senior campaign with even more impressive numbers. She posted 26.3 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game en route to capturing the Margaret Wade Trophy, the Naismith Award and by the USBWA, Champion and Mercedes-Benz as the nation’s top player. In addition to the 1986 NCAA title, Davis-Wrightsil helped lead UT to the 1987 Final Four and two Elite Eight appearances. Among her numerous records, she closed her UT career first in scoring average (19.9 ppg), third all-time in scoring (2,008), fifth in field goal percentage (.539) and eighth in rebounding (882). Those astounding numbers were despite the fact she competed three full seasons.

In addition to the WBHOF, Davis-Wrightsil is a member of the UT Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor (2000), Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame (1997), Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame (2003) and the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame (2003). She was named Southwest Conference Athlete of the Decade (1989) and a member of the NCAA “Team of the Decade” for the 1980’s.

While a collegian, Davis-Wrightsil also starred for USA Basketball, grabbing gold medals at the 1986 World Championships and Goodwill Games, 1987 Pan American Games and an alternate for the 1988 Olympic Team. She was a member and second leading scorer of the bronze medal-winning 1992 U.S. Olympic team in Barcelona, averaging 13 points per game while setting the team record for 3-point shooting percentage.

Davis-Wrightsil played professionally in Europe and Asia (Italy, Japan, and Turkey) for seven seasons. While playing overseas, she was an All-Star, European Champion, Turkish (Fenerbache), Italian (Cesena) and Japanese (Kyoseki) Team MVP’s and leading scorer. Furthermore, she led her respective European and Asian teams to five league championships. Davis-Wrightsil starred for the U.S.’s first professional league for women’s basketball, the now-defunct American Basketball League, for two seasons where she was a selected as a "premier player" and an ABL All-Star. Davis-Wrightsil holds the record for most points (36) scored in an ABL finals game. She joined the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA in 1999, completing a 10-year pro playing career.

In 1985 coming out John Jay High School as the state’s prep player, Davis-Wrightsil was tabbed Texas “Miss Basketball.” She set the San Antonio girl’s and boy’s scoring record with a whopping 2,759 points.

Davis-Wrightsil has been married to Jerald Wrightsil for 16 years and together the two founded TeamXpress Foundation, which creates opportunities for girls to participate in basketball as a summertime activity. The mission of the sports-based mentoring organization is to empower girls through sport by providing positive role models; encouraging literacy, goal setting and community involvement. Jerald, a former collegiate standout and business major at the University of Hawaii, played professionally overseas in Europe and Asia for 10 seasons.