Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - When Elena Delle Donne was in the seventh grade at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, collegiate coaches began attending her games, though all they could do at the time under NCAA rules was stand outside the gym and watch from behind a closed door.

Communication was prohibted, but Delle Donne was such a prized prospect at such a young age, the nature of the recruiting in the women's game made the trip mandatory for anyone interested in enhancing their program.

One coach of a national power noted that if one (colleague) comes, everyone has to come to keep pace and hope that Delle Donne got wind of their visit.

With that kind of attention back then, Delle Donne's arrival in college was as eagerly anticipated by those in the sport as was launch day to the moon in the 1960s during NASA's formative years.

However, in the manner of some of those disasterous rocket misfires that used to occur, Delle Donne's impending collegiate basketball career appears to have imploded on the launch pad a week short of its scheduled liftoff.

In a terse release from national power Connecticut late Saturday afternoon, the Huskies announced that Delle Donne had informed coach Geno Auriemma that she has decided to forgo her scholarship offer and not enroll to join a team that is the overwhelming favorite to win the next NCAA title.

“I have been recently informed that Elena Delle Donne has decided not to play college basketball and will not enroll at the University of Connecticut,” Auriemma said in the statement. “Everyone at UConn would like to wish Elena the best of luck.”

The statement also added that out of respect for the privacy of Delle Donne and her family, there would be no further comment on the matter.

Delle Donne plans to make a statement Monday, according to Veronica Algeo, her longtime coach at Fencor AAU, who was requested by Delle Donne not to comment further.

Algeo said early Saturday night she did not yet know how the statement would be made or whether a press conference would be held.

Even without Delle Donne, Connecticut will still be considered the overwhelming NCAA favorite this winter off a veteran lineup that includes Maya Moore, last season’s top collegiate freshman.

The Huskies also have talent-rich freshmen, including Germantown Academy’s Carolyn Doty. She and Delle Donne were teammates on Fencor AAU in the area.

The announcement follows a summer of suspense over Delle Donne's intentions that began in early June when she abruptly left the Storrs campus and summer school two days after her arrival.

“I have a lot of personal issues to fix,” Delle Donne told ESPN.com shortly after she returned home.

At the time, it was inferred that Delle Donne had been upset because she was scolded by an upperclass member of the Connecticut squad during a pickup game.

All parties later denied such an event had occurred.

"Elena has always been the perfect teammate and friend to everyone her whole career," said Stu London, who has coached her in the past as a member of the Fencor AAU staff.

Delle Donne's quick exit in June was a surprise to Doty, who awoke the following morning to discover her roommate had suddenly left the campus.

Since then neither Delle Donne nor her parents have commented on her asiprations.

Doty declined to discuss the situation to Connecticut reporters earlier this summer when Huskies newcomers were made available for interviews -- an event that occurs each summer.

Auriemma, who is vacationing at the Jersey shore, reportedly got the call at mid-week.

Amid a sea of new rumors involving Delle Donne and the approaching Aug. 25 date when classes begin at UConn, Auriemma notified the university Saturday it was time to put the word out.

It is not known if Delle Donne, the national high school player of the year, has been given a release from her national letter of intent. The 6-foot-5 guard eagerly announced last September that she had made the Huskies the winner of a torrid recruiting battle with national rival Tennessee. Villanova and Middle Tennessee, where her older brother Gene plays football, were also among her final choices.

The Connecticut release indicated that Delle Donne might be putting basketball in her rear view mirror, at least for now.

If she decided to return to the sport, she could not do so at Villanova because Big East rules prohibit a transfer to another conference school once the letter of intent has been signed.

When Delle Donne returned home in June, she was said to be a little queasy over the next phase of her life, a situation many youngsters experience as their collegiate days approach.

Several weeks ago a member of the Connecticut athletic department, who did not want to be cited as a source because they did not want to speak for Auriemma, expressed confidence that Delle Donne would return.

"The most important thing is that she is ok with everything," the source said.

In early July when Auriemma attended the press conference here for new Temple coach Tonya Cardoza, his longtime assistant, he sounded as he thought Delle Donne would be back at Storrs.

"Everything is low key right now, but come September everything may be back to normal," he said.

But a few weeks later, given Delle Donne's perceived fragile state, Auriemma was reportedly angered by an interview several reporters from the Hartford Courant and Connecticut Post had with Kalena Greene, who has been recovering from a season-ending knee injury suffered at mid-season.

"There's a lot of things going around about why she left," Greene said in comments reported in Rich Elliott's blog in the Connecticut Post. "But if it's what I hear, I don't think she's coming back.

"And I think if she does it's going to be even tougher than before because she's going to have to gain the trust from her teammates and the coaching staff," Greene continued. "We don't really trust people. We only trust each other.

"So when you see something like this, it's going to be really hard because who knows if you might decide to leave if it really gets tough in the tournament. We don't know. I think it's going to be more pressure on her now if she comes back. If she comes back, we're going to welcome her. But she has a lot of trust to be gained."

Preparations had been recently made for Delle Donne's return to Storrs. A down payment had been made on her UConn living quarters and the sports information department had been given the go-ahead to include her in the media guide.

However, Delle Donne also has not been away from home for any extensive period, aside from AAU tournament travel and participation on national teams with USA Basketball.

Last summer, however, she bypassed tryouts for one such team, saying she needed a break while deliberating on her future.

And why not? Delle Donne, the all-time top scorer in Delaware girls high school history, had been under the microscope for quite a while.

For the most part, she did not seemed to be hampered by the attention and welcomed the crush of fans and media from the Connecticut area last winter when she played New York power Christ the King in Springfield, Mass. She had 38 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, single-handedly outscored the alma mater of former UConn star Sue Bird and former Tennessee sensation Chamique Holdsclaw in the 57-37 victory.

Delle Donne's apperance followed a layoff of slightly over a month because of mononeucleosis.

"If you can believe it, the support was greater than being in Delaware, which is amazing," Delle Donne said that night.

One reason Delle Donne had considered Villanova was to be near home and close to her older sister Elizabeth, who has suffered the effects of cerebral palsy at birth which left her deaf and blind.

There had been recent rumors, especially around the Dept. of Recreation NCAA Women's Summer League, here, that Delle Donne was going to attend the University of Delaware to play volleyball with the CAA champions this season and then join the basketball team next year.

In fact, early last week, the internet search site Wikipedia had a sentence at the bottom of Delle Donne's biography saying she was heading to the Blue Hens to play volleyball, which she played her senior season. Ursuline volleyball teammate Meghan Bonk is at Delaware.

But Delaware volleyball coach Bonnie Kenny told the Hartford Courant and Wilmington News Journal that there had been no contact from Delle Donne. The sentence was shortly removed from the Wikipedia biography.

However, just as quick, Delle Donne's decision not to attend UConn was already inserted into her Wikipedia page Saturday night.

Some speculation Saturday night centered on whether Delle Donne could be interested in Temple, considering Cardoza is now the head coach and sophomore Lindsay Kimmel played with her in AAU competition.

Cardoza, considered to be the players-friendly coach on Auriemma's staff at UConn, could not be reached for comment.

Former UConn stars Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird with the USA national time in Beijing, China, at the Olympics declined to comment on Delle Donne's exit, saying they did not know her well enough.

Taurasi and Delle Donne appeared on the internet in a photograph talent early in the summer when Delle Donne journeyed to Washington where Taurasi's WNBA defending champion Phoenix Mercury played the Mystics.

One person familiar with the Connecticut program observed after Delle Donne's exit that persons around her want her to be Diana Taurasi but not do what has to be done to become Diana Taurasi and both things are incompatible.

Delaware women's basketball coach Tina Martin said from Europe late Saturday night, where she is currently on vacation, that she could not comment on Delle Donne under NCAA rules and had not been aware of UConn's announcement.

Martin could not become involved, anyhow, until Delle Donne was released from her letter oif intent.

A source familiar with Delaware women's basketball said there had not been any known contact with Delle Donne. But the News Journal reported in Sunday''s editions her parents had made an inquiry about enrollment, citing sources at the university.

The Wikipedia update called the Delle Donne departure as the greatest women's basketball player to walk away without ever playing a collegiate game.

If Delle Donne never plays again, is not the first time a premium talent has left the sport for reasons other than injury with expectations not totally realized.

Nicole Kazmarski out of Long Island went to three different schools before leaving the sport, although she was later briefly on the roster of the WNBA's New York Liberty.

Nina Smith out of Iowa played at Wisconsin and Iowa State, lost the passion, but then tranferred to Division II power Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia.

Kristen "Ace" Clement out of Cardinal O'Hara played her four years at Tennessee but never became a centerpiece with the Vols' contingent.

And Holdsclaw left the WNBA, citing the effects of being bi-polar. Ironically, her departure last summer from Los Angeles helped doom the Sparks but the lowly record enabled the team to land the No. 1 draft pick in April, giving them Tennessee sensation Candace Parker.

Kara Wolters, a former UConn all-American, who broadcasts Huskies games, told Elliott Saturday night in the Connecticut Post: She's so good. What a waste. It's the most bizarre thing I ever heard. To have an opportunity like that to play, obviously, at the best college women's basketball program in the world. ... and she threw it away.

"Geno said, `I thought I had seen it all at Connecticut until this,'" Wolters related.

Mike Flynn, who runs the nationally prominent Blue Stars AAU operation, headquartered in Philadelphia, has seen Delle Dunne from early in her career.

"We first saw Elena around the eighth grade when she came to the Rising Blue Stars camp," Flynn said.

"And she quickly became a big deal going far in tournaments with Fencor," Flynn said.

"Her skill levels were unmatched for anyone we had seen at the age. The only person to compare her with would be Australia's Lauren Jackson (of the WNBA Seattle Storm) who also drew attention when she was very young.

"Athletically, the two of them are comparable. But here's the difference. High school is about skill. In college, you have to have the passion, and it appears to people she has lost that desire about the game. Furthermore, once you get to the pros, you also have to be nasty.

"Even though many think she was capable of going straight to the WNBA, she doesn't seem to have that trait. Elena is basically a very nice kid."