Women's Hoops Guru

(Guru's note: Here's the AP coverage from Monday night)

McWilliams-Franklin helps Shock reach WNBA finals

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) _ Taj McWilliams-Franklin isn't used to being a role player. She couldn't be enjoying it more.

Monday, McWilliams-Franklin scored 15 of her 19 points in the second half to help the Detroit Shock reach the WNBA finals for the third straight season with a 75-73 win Monday night over the New York Liberty.

"For the past couple years, I've been on young teams where I've been expected to be the leader for a lot of young players," she said. "It's been a nice change to be on a team where I'm just one of the veterans — where I have so many great players surrounding me."

Detroit acquired the 37-year-old McWilliams-Franklin from the Washington Mystics during the Olympic break after losing All-Star Cheryl Ford to a season-ending knee injury.

"Taj is damn near the oldest player in the league, and there she was making plays for us down the stretch," Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said. "She's a very smart player. She isn't quick, and she doesn't jump very high, but she knows how to play basketball."

The Shock won the best-of-three Eastern Conference finals and advanced to play San Antonio for the championship. Detroit beat Sacramento in 2006 for its second league title, then lost in five games to Phoenix last year.

"This is where we expect to be every season," Laimbeer said. "We start every year with the goal of making it to the finals, and that's what we talk about all season. To win the title, you have to get to the finals."

Liberty coach Pat Coyle skipped the post-game press conference and declined a request for an interview.

The Shock led by 20 in the first half, but had to fight off the deeper Liberty in the second half. Sixth woman Plenette Pierson, who played well in Sunday's Game 2 just seven days after dislocating her shoulder, was limited to two points in six minutes on Monday.

"I knew that Plenette wasn't going to be able to do much, so I got her out of there," Laimbeer said. "Hopefully, she'll be able to help us in the finals."

Both games were played on the campus of Eastern Michigan University because of scheduling conflicts at the Palace of Auburn Hills — about an hour's drive away. Detroit will also play at least one finals game at Eastern.

Leilani Mitchell started New York's comeback with 12 points in the third quarter, but played less than three minutes in the final period.

"We were trying to keep the pressure on, so we were rotating our players," she said. "I knew we needed to score some points in the third, and my teammates were doing a great job of setting screens and getting me the ball."

New York got within two early in the fourth, but Loree Moore missed a free throw and Alexis Hornbuckle answered with five quick points for the Shock.

Cathrine Kraayeveld missed two free throws with 2:42 remaining that could have again got the Liberty two points away, and Nolan hit a jumper at the other end to make it a six-point game. Detroit had a chance to put the game away from the line, but two misses by Hornbuckle with 17 seconds left gave New York a chance, trailing 75-71.

The Liberty missed two 3-pointers, before McWilliams-Franklin fouled Shameka Christon with 0.8 seconds left. Christon made both free throws, cutting Detroit's deficit to two, but the Shock ran out the clock.

"It's hard to maintain a lead in this league — we knew that team was good to run them out of the gym," said Katie Smith, who scored 16. "But this team is full of players who are willing to do anything to win a game, and that's what we did in the fourth quarter tonight."

Janel McCarville led New York with 21.

"Last year, Detroit beat us in the first round, and this year, we got to the conference finals, so that's progress," McCarville said. "We took the best team in the league to the end of Game 3, and that's something good."

(Guru's note: Here's the AP coverage of Sunday's game in the West)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN ANTONIO — When he became coach of the San Antonio Silver
Stars and directed a team that won seven games his first year, Dan
Hughes didn’t have far to look for the role model to build a
championship team.

“My role was right outside my back door,” Hughes said. “You had
the Spurs sitting here. And the things they represented just
reinforced me that even when we won seven games, you know what, keep
going, keep going, keep going.”

Just as the Spurs played for a championship not long after Tim
Duncan joined the team, the Silver Stars’ fortunes changed when Becky
Hammon came on board.

Hammon scored 35 points, making four free throws in the final 36
seconds, and the Silver Stars advanced to their first WNBA finals
with a 76-72 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in Game 3 of the
Western Conference finals on Sunday.

“We were lucky to get people, and now I’ve got people anybody
could coach,” Hughes said.

Hammon is at the top of the list. In her second year playing with
the Silver Stars after a draft-day trade with New York, Hammon topped
her 32-point performance from last year’s playoffs.

Her 35 points tied for second in WNBA playoff history with the
Sparks’ Lisa Leslie, behind Tameka Whitmore’s 41 points two years ago
while she was playing for Indiana.

The Sparks led 72-67 when Temeka Johnson made two free throws
with 1:57 left in the game, but Hammon tied it on a 3-pointer with
1:03 left.

Hammon was 10-of-18 from the field, including 6-of-8 from 3-point
range, and made all nine foul shots.

“I just try to go up there and knock them down,” Hammon said.
“It’s just repetition. It’s for those moments you work so hard as a
player.”

After Hammon’s 3-pointer, Los Angeles lost the ball the next trip
down the floor when DeLisha Milton-Jones, who joined Candace Parker
to lead Los Angeles with 16 points, was called for an offensive foul.

Hammon followed with four free throws on the next two possessions
to put away the game.

“We come back when things seem impossible,” Hammon said.

The Silver Stars forced Game 3 when Sophia Young hit a turnaround
14-foot jumper that banked off the board and the rim and fell in at
the buzzer on Saturday.

The Sparks missed their final three shots from the floor on
Sunday, going the final 2:16 without a basket.

“I thought our inability to hit key shots during the course of
the game was key for us,” Sparks coach Michael Cooper said. “When we
needed a basket, we couldn’t get it.”

The best-of-five finals will start Wednesday in San Antonio. The
opponent will be determined Monday when Detroit and New York play
Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Ypsilanti, Mich. The Shock
evened the series Sunday with a 64-55 victory.

Hammon, who played in New York from 1999-2006, has a feeling she
will be playing her former team.

“I think New York might be coming out of the East,” Hammon said.
“I hope we do see them.”

The Silver Stars moved to San Antonio in 2003 after six seasons
in Utah. San Antonio lost in the conference finals last year to
eventual champion Phoenix.

With the Spurs ready to start their training camp in two days at
their nearby practice facility, Spurs guard Tony Parker watched with
his wife, Eva Longoria-Parker. They saw the Silver Stars rally from
eight points behind early in the second half to take a one-point lead
with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.

The Sparks took an eight-point lead with 3:39 remaining in the
third quarter when Raffaella Masciadri scored on a drive and made a
free throw after being fouled by Ruth Riley.

But Riley helped San Antonio scored eight straight during the
next 2:01 to tie the game. She hit a 3-pointer and then hit a 14-foot
jump shot to knot it with 1:38 left.

San Antonio took the floor without key reserves Helen Darling and
Edwige Lawson-Wade. Both wore protective boots at the bottom of their
right legs after Darling strained her right calf and Lawson-Wade
sprained her right ankle sprain during Saturday’s Game 2 victory.

By Mel Greenberg

It will get a little less luster because of distance and the WNBA's postseason is not at the championship round, but Sophia Young joined the list of great moment-makers Saturday with a game-saving buzzer beater that kept the San Antonio Silver Stars alive against the Los Angeles Sparks in the Western Conference Finals.

Of course the Silver Stars, with the best overall record in the regular season, where very much alive until the Sparks rallied from a 14-point deficit and took what appeared to be a winning lead.

But then Young, a former Baylor star of the 2005 NCAA championship, had last word.

Her shot may not have been the same as the stature of 50-foot-plus buzzer-beater by Theresa Weatherspoon in Houston when she enabled the New York Liberty to extend the Comets in what was then a three-game finals in 1999, but it was significant enough in the 67-66 win.

Meanwhile, a Liberty source in Michigan reported on the scene from Ypsilanti that Janet Jackson cancelled her concert in Auburn Hills, which now leaves the Palace, home of the Detroit Shock, expect at times in the postseason, unconflicted.

But the move comes too late to change venues and so the Shock and New York Liberty will tangle in Game 2 of the Eastern Finals Sunday at Eastern Michigan.

Now, here's the AP report on the San Antonio-Los Angeles Sparks game.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio coach Dan Hughes had no doubt who was
going to take the final shot with the Silver Stars season on the line
— Sophia Young.

Young delivered with a 14-foot turnaround shot at the buzzer to
lift the Silver Stars to a 67-66 win over the Los Angeles Sparks
Saturday, and forced a deciding game 3 in the Western Conference
Finals.

“She’s just a player you can get a lot from in those situations,”
Hughes said. “It’s not about the play, it’s about the player.”

Young finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead San
Antonio.

Los Angeles rallied from a 14-point deficit to take a one-point
lead with 1.3 seconds left on Delisha Milton-Jones’ lay-in.

After a timeout, San Antonio took the ball at half court. Young
grabbed the inbounds pass and hit the turnaround from the wing to
keep the Silver Stars’ playoff hopes alive.

“If you’ve got players who are playmakers, as a coach its’ your
job to get them the ball,” Hughes said. “I have a few of those.
That’s why we’re still playing.”

The final game of the series will be played on Sunday.

“I thought it was a very, very, very well played basketball game
by both teams,” Sparks coach Michael Cooper said. “San Antonio showed
you why they are the top in the Western Conference with the record
they have; then we showed why we are an up and coming team. The
Western Conference is at stake, so both teams will go at it again.”

Candace Parker led Los Angeles with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
Lisa Leslie, who scored 22 points in game 1, had 17 points and 12
rebounds. Milton-Jones finished with 14 points.

“It was a great shot,” said three-time MVP Lisa Leslie. “You need
a little luck to play this game. Hail Mary right?’ “But we still feel
really good about our chances.”

Los Angeles took a 64-60 lead on Milton-Jones’ layup with 1:33
left in the fourth. Young sparked a 5-0 run hitting two free throws
with 11 seconds left to give San Antonio a 65-64 advantage.

Becky Hammon added 19 points and Ann Wauters had 11 as San
Antonio is looking for its first trip to the finals. They advanced to
the Western Conference finals last year, but lost to the eventual
champions, the Phoenix Mercury.

Los Angeles is looking to return to its first Finals since 2003,
where they lost to the Detroit Shock. They won back-to-back titles in
2001 and 2002.

The Sparks have not won on San Antonio’s home floor since July
26th, 2006.

The teams split the regular season series 2-2, with each team
winning on their home floor.

(Guru's Note: This is written from the home office where the game was viewed on broadband on the computer. Love that techology -- when it works!).

By Mel Greenberg

Memory Lane has been a place of alternating joy and pain in the regular and postseason rivalry between the New York Liberty and Detroit Shock.

On Friday night, it was New York’s Erin Thorn who took a turn to apply the hurt to the boisterous Detroit contingent with five points late in the game that carried the Liberty to a 60-56 win over the Shock in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference championship best-of-three opener in Madison Square Garden.

A year ago, New York suffered a tough one-point overtime loss in Detroit and was eliminated in the third and deciding game of the conference semifinals.

However, the Liberty has a previous memorable moment. That occurred in the deciding game of the 2004 conference semifinals when New York reduced the Shock’s WNBA reign to one season, courtesy of Bethany Donaphin’s turnaround jumper with a half second remaining for a 66-64 victory in Madison Square Garden.

"We just match up well with them,” Thorn said. “Other teams have a problem with their quickness and physicality, we battle with them."

And now the Liberty are a knockout win away with two shots to deliver the punch and advance to the WNBA finals for a record fifth time.

However, New York will have to get the job done on the road in Michigan, but not in Auburn Hills.

It seems the Shock, who are getting a history of coming up short in Palace availability, if not outcomes, will be doing the hosting Sunday and, if necessary, Monday in Ypsilanti at Eastern Michigan.

On Friday night, New York rallied from a six-point halftime deficit and outscored Detroit, 24-14, in the decisive fourth quarter.

Once again rookie Essence Carson out of Rutgers was somewhere to be found when the game was on the line as she was on Monday when New York dispatched Connecticut on the road.

She finished with eight points.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes and whatever my team needs me to do to win,” Carson said.

It seems Big East and NCAA Final Four experience has served Carson well in these situations.

Janel McCarville led New York with 17 points, while Shameka Christon had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Deanna Nolan, one of the top clutch players in the league, scored 22 points for Detroit with 11 coming in the final three minutes. Katie Smith added 13 points.

"It's playoff basketball,” New York coach Patty Coyle said of her team’s determination and close encounters when the two teams meet. “You are not going to get a lot of fast break points and it's going to be incredibly physical. Every time you play Detroit, it's going to be a war. The next game you are going to see the same thing."

Coyle was not too discouraged at halftime, despite the Liberty’s 28 percent effort from the field.

“"I thought we got good looks, but didn't make any shots in the first half. I think in the second half we got good looks, but we were making our shots. I would credit Detroit's defense because they guard you."

Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer, with the comfort of sort-of-home-court-advantage the rest of the way, was still dismayed at the Shock’s inability to take a stronger grip on the series after having control much of the way.

"There was no doubt that was disappointing,” the former Detroit Pistons star said. “We played hard enough to win that ball game. That is the bottom line. We had the game under control, and the offense was struggling.

“We didn't make enough shots to win this game,” he continued. “If we don't make shots and they don't make any shots, then I don't have a problem with that. In the fourth quarter we made bad decisions offensively

“We didn't get into our sets, walked the ball up the court, and didn't call the right plays. I can't live with the fact that we made mental errors. We pride ourselves in being a smart basketball team and for two and half quarters we played smart and the other one and half we played dumb."

Meanwhile, if many are surprised at the Liberty’s situation given the roster is the youngest in the WNBA, that group doesn’t include Coyle.

New York was taking critical hits from inside and outside the organization during the preseason and early regular season action when the Liberty didn’t appear to pick right up where they left off at the close of business in 2007.

But there was good reason and Coyle, with her experience as one of Rutgers’ all-time guards, remained calm understanding the cause.

Half the roster was still in Europe, an annual malady that affects virtually every team in the WNBA.

And half of what was here was either brand new or relatively inexperienced.

But Coyle thought things could be fine once everyone was aboard and got some time to know each other.

Sure enough, New York made a run before the Olympic break that virtually assured the playoffs and briefly had the Liberty in the regular-season conference race.

Now all that remains is one more win and she’ll make her first WNBA appearance as a head coach.

Looking ahead. The Liberty may suddenly have gained a cheering section from East Coast media members. If New York gets to the finals, critical games three and four, if necessary, of the WNBA finals will be at Madison Square Garden in the best-of-five series, reducing travel costs considerably.

If Detroit prevails, the Shock need Los Angeles to beat San Antonio in one of the next two games in Texas in the West, to gain home court in the finals.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

If the Los Angeles Spark's Candace Parker is the poster girl of the 2008 WNBA rookie class then Minnesota's Candice Wiggins is right behind her in a supporting role the way she was all season in helping the Lynx off the bench to a major improvement this season.

That performance earned her the league's Sixth Woman honor announced Thursday.

The way the former Stanford star eloquently spoke of her role change from college to the pros makes one think Wiggins might be able to get more done in Washington in a matter of minutes solving the current financial crisis than the politicos currently involved in the process.

The Guru, thanks to his friends in the Lynx public relations department, has a transcript of the call so you can have access to all the answers since the media pursued different angles during the teleconference.

But first, a quick look at the top of the Guru news, which included a fascinating day watching web traffic stream this way courtesy of a WNBA.com media link whose placement wasn't even at the top of the list.

Apparently, though, the use of Sue Bird's name in the headline here based on Guru speculation the scheduled call was going to involve the MVP award sent a bunch of curiosity seekers in our direction.

That continued even when the Guru corrected his course in mid-morning after a reliable league source emailed what was up. Had that source not taken an early shut-eye on Wednesday night, the headline here might have appeared 24 hours ago.

Gone are the days of "Jiggy Up All Night," (an insider aside to the team-level group) though the remark takes nothing away from the excellent work his source provides throughout the year.

Over 1,000 hits came this way, of which 90 percent was directly from WNBA.com.

It was a fascinating number in certain respects. In the past, statistics zoomed off major events bringing people on links from the Rutgers message board when Scarlet Knight items were involved, likewise from UConn nation, and then links coming off ESPN, Women's Hoops, D.C. Basket Cases, other college message boards, and Rebkell, to name a few.

Speaking of Seattle, the Associated Press local site in the Northwest had an interview with Lauren Jackson transmitted discussing her thoughts approaching her first year of free agency availability. Thoughts from Storm officials were also included. The Guru is sure this will appear somewhere off a link.

Meanwhile, the Guru had a brief chat with Olympic gold medalist coach Anne Donovan on a catch-up call since her return from Beijing.

Briefly, her USA Basketball stint is over. There has been no contact from the Washington Mystics involving both the general manager and coaching vacancies, but she would listen to anything coming her way from WNBA cities.

For now, it's just a time to relax and see what's on the horizon. Donovan did not preclude the college rankings if the right opening came along next spring, and we know they always do.

That said, here's the transcript of the Candice Wiggins session. The Guru won't be in New York Friday night but will monitor the game from the home office.

Renee Brown, Chief of Basketball Operations & Player Relations
Opening Statement

Welcome everyone.

As you know, 2008 marks the 12th season of the WNBA. Our tagline this year was "Expect Great." And that is exactly what we have seen on the court across the league. We've seen great rivalries, witnessed the race for playoff spots go down to the wire, watched veteran stars reach milestones, and looked on as the greatest rookie class, and I really mean it, the greatest rookie class in WNBA history make an impact in this league.

Today we want to recognize one of those extraordinary rookie players. So many people have said such wonderful things about this woman, about her athletic ability, about her passion and her drive, about her infectious smile, and her true commitment to the community.

Our president, Donna Orender, summed it up the best when she compared this player to another Stanford product, Tiger Woods. Donna said she's every bit as polished as Tiger. She addresses the sport with the same sense of grace and responsibility that Tiger does. I can't even say it better than that, and truly, she is very, very loving about the game and a very responsible player.

After being the third pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft, she provided the spark off the bench that turned the Minnesota Lynx into a playoff contender with 16 wins — the second best total in club history and a six-game improvement over 2007. Most definitely, Candice came in there and made a big difference. She also set the all-time WNBA record for points off the bench, averaging 15.7 per game, and she ranks among the top 20 in scoring throughout the league. But despite coming off the bench in all but one game, she ranks second on the Lynx in scoring and minutes, behind only her teammate, Seimone Augustus.

As voted on by a national media panel of sportswriters and broadcasters, she is the 2008 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year.

I'd like to congratulate Candice, so Candice, congratulations. Candice right now is actually in Palo Alto recovering from her knee surgery and she is also taking classes, which tells you how committed she is. We will formally present this award to Candice at a later date.

Candice Wiggins
Opening Statement

Thank you so much Renee for that wonderful introduction. First of all, I want to thank the WNBA and President Donna Orender for the award, as well as all the media that voted for me. I appreciate it so much. It is such a huge honor.

As someone growing up a product of one girl who watched the players and watched this league and grew up with it, it really does mean a lot. My coaches and teammates, who have been amazing to me, I'd like to thank them for their continued support and for having the confidence in me.

Even though I was coming off the bench, they always let me know that I had a big role on the team. I just want to thank them and all the people who made it possible. My mother and grandmother are here with me right now and I just want to thank them for their continued support my entire life. Thank you everyone.

Q. On coming off the bench for the first time in her career and the impact it had on her season

It was really a difference challenge for me. It was a different experience.

I've never come off the bench. I have come off the bench with the national team a few times, but as part of a team in a full season, I have never done it before. It was different, but at the same time, I saw different advantages that I didn't necessarily see from starting a game.

You can see how the game is going and when you come in, you're fresh and you can bring a lot of energy. It is a role that you cannot shy away from. You have to embrace it and you have to have the same amount of confidence as if you started the game.

Q. On the recovery from her knee surgery, which was Monday

I am rehabbing. I am getting back and taking classes. I am working on getting back (to full health). It was a very simple procedure, so I think will be good soon.

Q. On offseason timetable

This fall, I am taking classes. My course load isn't too strenuous so I hope to be close to finishing up in December. And in terms of playing overseas, I am just going to see how it goes. Right now I am just focusing on school. Obviously I would love to play, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

Q. On 2008 Rookie Class giving a lift to the WNBA

Every class is special, but I think our class has an extra something. We've grown up together.
Since we were in the Eighth and Ninth Grade, we have all known each other and have been playing with and against each other competitively. The biggest thing is we all have confidence in our game and we know that we can bring a lot to a team.

We grew up watching these players. We were 10 or 11 years old when the WNBA started. It is the generation that grew up watching WNBA basketball therefore our approach to basketball is a little bit different. I know my class has done so well and has been so supportive of each other, and it is a very fun class of players to watch and to be a part of.

Q. On being in a different role, watching instead of playing for Stanford

I think they are going to be so good. I have watched them in a few of their workouts already. They have the perfect mindset (going into this season). They have seen it happen and have experienced it.

They went to the Final Four last year. Obviously I am not part of the team now, but I think they all have confidence and know what they are capable of. Because they have been there, they get it and they know what it is going to take now. All of the things that we had at the end of last season, they are starting this season with that, so I think they are going to be great.

(Sophomore forward) Kayla (Pedersen) is going to be incredible. (Junior center) Jayne (Appel), I think, will have an amazing season. And (freshman forward) Nneka (Ogwumike) is unreal, so it is going to be fun to watch.

Guru's Q: On playing with the U.S. National Team and how it helped make the transition to the WNBA

Playing with the National Team, hands down, was so beneficial to me because you have that moment of awe (when you become a professional). It's different because when you come to college, it's all within four years.

But in the WNBA, you have eight- and 10-year vets, five-year vets — players across the whole spectrum.

These are people you grew up watching. I think it is intimidating. You just have to have confidence in yourself. I think that is the biggest thing.

When you come and play with great players, you still have to know that you're good enough. And playing with the National Team, that really helped me in terms of knowing that I can legitimately play in this league.

Q. On moving from college to the pros

To me it is reminiscent of going from high school to college in terms of everybody going to college was the best at their high school and they are going to a place where everyone was the best at their high school.

It's the same in the league. It's like everyone was the best player at their college and now they are going to the WNBA but it is at an even higher level.

The biggest thing is being confident in the player you are and staying true to who you are as a player. No matter what your role is, you can always be the same player you were in college.

It is obviously easy to say that and harder to execute, but it is the same game. You just have to treat it like that. It is the same basketball game, just different players. You just have to be mentally tough.

Q. On the difficulty when your role changes

I don't feel like I was any different from the player that I was in college to the player I was in the WNBA. My role was just a little bit different. I think I was still able to play my game and be the player that I am. I think it is possible, you just have to have the mental toughness and the confidence to be like that person every day. Your role can change and you can still stay the same.

Q. On her thoughts about her role with the Lynx in 2009

Those roles, starting or coming off the bench, I have learned over the years that you cannot predetermine that. Those are the kind of roles that you can just fall into when the season starts.

I can't say, based on this year, what next year is going to look like. Obviously for me, I just want to be in a position where I can help the team the most. Whether Coach Z (Don Zierden) sees me as starting or coming off the bench, whatever role I am in I just want to make the best of it.

It is hard to say. I know that sounds cliché, but it really is. You have so many factors that happen during a season that are important to a starting lineup. Obviously I am going to work hard to get there, but if not, whatever my role is, I am ready for it.

Q. On her on- and off-court experience in her first year as a professional athlete

Looking back, the best part of the season was the fact that I was in a very prominent role. The WNBA is expanding. It is getting better and bigger and more influential each year. Just to be a part of that process is great.

The off-the-court appearances are what I love the most. Going to People Serving People or going to the Ronald McDonald House, by making those appearances, you are touching people's lives. It really does make a difference.

That was probably the best part of my first year in the WNBA because you feel like what you are doing is serving a higher purpose.

Especially with my work with different charities like Until There's a Cure, those are the things that I am really proud of because you can use basketball, especially women's basketball, as a tool to inspire and lift people in ways that I don't know if I would be able to do if I didn't play basketball. The basketball part was amazing too. You're playing in a professional women's league. It doesn't get much better than that.

Q. On growing up with the WNBA and what inspired her to be in the WNBA

I can sit here and say that it meant everything to me. I started playing basketball at a really young age and there wasn't the WNBA.

There wasn't really that big stage for women's basketball. I loved the game and played it. My mom said to me that maybe one day there would be a professional league that I could play in.

By the time I was 10 years old, even 9 years old, the 1996 Olympics was the first American stage where women's basketball was very high, with Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes and all those guys. When they announced that there was going to be a league, it changed everything for me.

I went from wanting to aspire to do these other things to knowing that I wanted to be a professional basketball player. It was a lifelong dream of mine. A lot of players in my class can attest to that too. It affects you differently because you know that there is somewhere for you to play in the country. I can't even explain how impactful the creation of the league was for me. As soon as it started, I knew I wanted to be in the WNBA. That was my career goal.

More to Come

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

The Bird may still be the word in the WNBA MVP race but as he was writing the last post in the middle of the night in the pre-dawn hours, he actually had made a smart remark and withdrew it that they couldn't possibly be holding a conference call on the sixth woman honor, which the Guru couldn't remember if it had been announced.

The Guru has since learned from a reliable league source that honor willindeed be the subject of Thursday's teleconference ( 3 p.m. in the East)..

A name was not given but a strong clue was.

Thus the Guru will be offer his own clue.

The winner will be one of three women to make news in Miunnesota this year. She would not be the one running for vice president on the Republican ticket or owning an Olympic gold medal recently obtained in Beijing, China.

But she was known for her Cardinal achievements out West during her collegiate career and even won a surprise national honor as it concluded.

That will make the Guru nearly batting .1000 on all the announced WNBA postseason honors to date. His lone error, not to be confused with Wall Street's loan errors, was involving the Sportsmanship award, which the Guru cast his ballot for Cappie Pondexter on behalf of the Rutgers message board.

Incidentally, each team nominates its own candidate for consideration for the Kim Perrott honor and most times it is one of the few that the team PR machines don't offer campaigning reasons for selection.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

There is no direct source and the Guru, who is not knowledge perfect despite the myth, may be way off the mark, but there is a sign that the annual WNBA MVP award may continue to hang around Seattle.

No, Lauren Jackson, a previous winner, will not have her fingerprints on it this time, except as an admiring teammate.

But there is a suspicion that the Storm's Sue Bird, the former Connecticut star who is a future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, is about to earn her first league MVP honor.

Here are all the pieces causing this assumption.

On the heels of Seattle's elimination Tuesday night in the league playoffs, an email arrived late Wednesday afternoon that the WNBA will hold a teleconference Thursday with president Donna Orender and the recipient of an important award.

Barring some unknown change, here is the history of how postseason awards have been presented, which most of the time have gone to players on teams making the playoffs.

Traditionally, a key inidividual award has been given at the home site of the recipient. What are the key awards. Of the seven indvidual voting categories the media was involved, besides the all-league selections, three would be considered major -- Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and MVP. This is not to belittle Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth-Man of the Year, Most Improved, and Kim Perrott Sportsmanship Award.

Now over the years there have been some deviations, especially when players' teams have been eliminated and then the winners were brought to one of the televised conference finals.

Usually, the MVP has been given at the championship finals, unless conflicts of scheduling loomed with a player no longer participating in the postseason.

One year, Lauren Jackson got her MVP award in Detroit.

This season's Coach of the year went to The Connecticut Sun's Mike Thibault and he was given his trinket last Saturday in Uncasville.

That leaves Rookie of the Year and the MVP.

Well, barring the discovery of hanging chads or other items on the ballots to cause a protest, the rookie of the year award has had Candace Parker's name written all over it, though from time to time another newcomer gets mentioned to be politically correct.

When last checked, the Los Angeles Sparks are still alive and it would seem unlikely the league would not not want to make the presentation to Parker Thursday in Los Angeles.

OK, Time out. This just popped into the Guru's head. Maybe it is the rookie award and the league is trying to get an extra buzz.

But otherwise, if a San Antonio Silver Stars player was getting the MVP, then the Lone Star State would be the scene this weekend. However, chances are that Becky Hammon and Sophia Young took votes away from each other since both were in the mix with good arguments made for both.

The same two-for-one situation may have been involved with Parker and Lisa Leslie, though worthy cases were also made for each. But with two superstars, the future and present-past in the same lineup, neither had to single-handedly carry Los Angeles.

Among the remaining strong candidates, which included the Phoenix Merrcury's Diana Taurasi, there was a big push made for Bird, especially in the wake of Jackson's post-Olympic surgery.

And now that the Seattle season ended and Russia is calling again, Bird may need to get her acclaim quickly.

Again, the Guru cautions, he is working on circumstantial evidence.

Speaking of sources, the Guru has heard from several well-placed persons that Sparks assistant Marianne Stanley, who held a similar role for two seasons at Rutgers, is heading to Russia to coach.

The Guru hasn't checked time frames, so it is possible she could be back with the Sparks next summer.

Remembering Hunter

The Guru is surprised that some of his friends in several places -- they know who they are -- didn't phone with the news of the recent passing of former Kodak executive Hunter Low. a Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, who was a major supporter of the sport beyond his acclaim as the father of the Kodak/WBCA All-America team.

Fortunately, that's why the WomensHoops site stays on the prowl 24/7 with a break here and there.

Several years ago Hunter and the Guru recalled old times during the weekend of Low's induction into the WBHOF in Knoxville.

The Guru remembers back in 1980 when the onset of the NCAA's involvement in women's athletics loomed, Low and his associates summoned the Guru to Kodak's headquarters in Rochester to discuss the implications ahead and which way most schools would lean.

Knowing the AIAW would still be alive side-by-side in the short-run, ways were discussed to keep the sport ahead of the politics. The Guru, at the time, had poll issues off the schism just as Kodak had business issues.

Soon thereafter Kodak became a principle mover and shaker in helping the launch of the WBCA, which was seen as a way to circumvent the politics that existed higher in the athletic directors' offices.

And Kodak kept the all-America standard going until recently when, with Low long-since retired, other business issues evidentually involved handing off sponsorship.

He will be missed.

A Chat With the New ACC's Women's Commissioner

New in title, but not in friendship, Nora Lynn Finch got back to the Guru earlier this week to return a call seeking reaction on the recent passing of sportswriting pioneer Mary Garber.

Finch has succeeded new Atlantic Ten commissioner Bernadette McGlade in charge primarily of women's basketball activity in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Garber worked out of nearby Winston-Salem. Finch previously had been the primary women's administrator and had also been an assistant to Kay Yow at North Carolina State.

She was also the first chairperson of the NCAA women's basketball committee and as such had to oversee the construction of competition format as part of the NCAA's launch of the tournament.

Finch, in remembering Garber, said "She was just a fabulous writer who saw a story or feature in everyone.

"I really missed reading her after she retired. Mary was a great writer, period, without regard to her gender. She was a pioneer in every sense in the word and pursued her passion.

"She's known for what she did in paving the road for women in sportswriting, but she would have been a pioneer in any event, it just so happened, her achievements occurred with gender," Finch said.

"She was not going to let anyone put her in a box or stereotype her. She did what she did with great zeal and no one was going to detract her from her passion."

The Guru asked Finch on how she ended up moving to succeed McGlade in the conference office after all the years with the Wolfpack.

In fact, the Guru remembers one time when Yow was campaigning to make Finch a co-head coach before the concept of associate head coach was introduced to the profession, Yow said simply, "We are equal. I coach the offense and Nora Lynn handles the defense."

As for the move about an hour west from Raleigh to Greensboro, Finch said, "I wasn't planning to leave N.C. State anytime soon.

"I was ready to stay until the end of my career. But (ACC commissioner) John Swofford is a fantastic recruiter. He's just great at what he does.

"Bernie did such a great job here that I have only one thing to worry about this season -- I don't want to screw up or wreck what she built here. Everything is in solid shape."

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: Here's the AP report from the West and East semifinal action on Tuesday night)

PARKER LEADS LOS ANGELES OVER SEATTLE

SEATTLE (AP) _ The Seattle Storm acquired all the players they could before this season to try to end their habit of early playoff exits. They just didn't have the chance to draft Candace Parker.

Los Angeles' dynamic rookie scored 20 points, including a key layup with 2 minutes left, to lead the Sparks into the Western Conference finals with a 71-64 victory over the stunned Storm on Tuesday night.

Seattle was an WNBA-best 16-1 at home in the regular season, then held Los Angeles to a season-low 50 points in a 14-point win in Game 2 on Sunday to force the decisive game.

"Brilliant," Sparks coach Michael Cooper said of Parker.

He would know. Cooper played on the "Showtime" Lakers of the 1980s with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Los Angeles will host San Antonio in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday.

The Sparks split four regular-season games with the Silver Stars, with each team winning twice at home.

Parker, still wearing a shoulder brace from an injury she sustained in the NCAA tournament earlier this year, slashed for powerful layups and spun for smooth jump hooks. And she bulled through defenders on the few times she wasn't racing free while going 8-for-13 from the field.

"The first two games I wasn't going through contact. I was expecting to get the foul," said
Parker, who had 21 points combined in the first two games of the series. "I worked on powering through contact."

Cooper wasn't surprised.

"Nothing new," he said of the former star at Tennessee. "This young lady played in the NCAA tournament with a dislocated shoulder — and she got it done then, too."

Veteran leader Lisa Leslie added 15 points then hugged Parker after the final buzzer as the celebration began for the Sparks, who beat Seattle in the first round two years ago in their last postseason appearance.

"I was just not ready to go home," said Leslie, who had a baby in June 2007 and missed last season while the Sparks went 10-24. "I knew we had the better team. It just didn't feel like it was time to lose."

It was for Seattle — yet again. It is out after one round for the fourth consecutive year.

Former Penn State star Tanisha Wright scored 20 points — 12 above her season average — Camille Little had 17, and guard Sue Bird added 16, 11 in the second half, for the Storm.

Bird scored 20 points in Game 2. But Shannon Bobbitt and Temeka Johnson hounded her into missing seven of her first 11 shots Tuesday, as Los Angeles built a 61-47 lead early in the fourth quarter. Bird finished 7-for-16.

Seattle gained a final hope when Leslie went to the bench with five fouls and Los Angeles leading 61-51 with 5:43 left. Griffith then made two free throws, Bird made a 3-pointer and a driving layup, the crowd was roaring and suddenly the Storm pulled to 61-58.

After the key layup by Parker, Leslie fouled out on a charge with 2:16 left. Bird's tough runner — her third consecutive made shot — made it 65-62, but then turnovers doomed Seattle.

Wright charged into Marie Ferdinand-Harris in the open floor with 1:12 remaining. After Bobbitt missed two free throws for L.A., the Sparks forced Bird into a late pass when she was looking to shoot, and Wright could not get her 3-pointer off before the shot clock expired with 36.9 seconds left.

Through it all superstar Lauren Jackson was relegated to nervous sideline cheerleader. She's recovering from ankle surgery after the Olympics last month.

The Storm, who still haven't gotten past the opening round since winning the championship in 2004, made big changes in the offseason They brought in veterans Sheryl Swoopes, Yolanda Griffith and Swin Cash — with seven WNBA titles between them — and changed coaches from Anne Donovan to Brian Agler.

But Griffith, who's had knee and ankle problems, couldn't contain Leslie in the finale. Cash, bothered much of the season by back pain, had just two points in 21 minutes.

And Swoopes, the 37-year-old three-time league MVP recently sidelined by a concussion and 11 months removed from back surgery, missed her first six shots. She didn't make a field goal until 8:07 remained. Seattle was down 61-49 by then. Swoopes finished with three points in 21 minutes.

"It's disappointing. I personally didn't play not just how I wanted to play, but how I needed to play," Swoopes said.

When asked what was next for her, she said, "I've talked to a few people about coaching. I have a son who is in school here. It's time for me to go be a full-time mom."

So, retirement?

"I don't know," Swoopes said.

Cooper moved Parker from trailing on fast breaks and at the low post in halfcourt sets, out to a wing to afford her more open space. Parker responded by having 12 points 7½ minutes into the second quarter.

"She's exceptional," Agler said.

SHOCK HEAT COOLS FEVER

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) _ The Detroit Shock played angry Tuesday night.

It turned out pretty well.

Detroit led Indiana 41-10 midway through the second quarter and cruised to an 80-61 victory in Game 3 to advance to its third straight Eastern Conference final.

"Obviously, that was a spectacular performance on both ends of the floor," Shock coach Bill Laimbeer said. "That was the way a championship-caliber team plays."

Detroit, which got 21 points from Deanna Nolan and 15 from Katie Smith, will face New York in the conference finals. Last season, the Shock beat New York and Indiana in the first two rounds before losing the WNBA finals to Phoenix.

"That's a very tough team — we learned that last year," Smith said.

The Shock were furious about an incident in Game 2 that saw star forward Plenette Pierson suffer a dislocated shoulder after being flipped to the court by Indiana's Ebony Hoffman. The Shock's outrage only grew when Hoffman was fined, but not suspended, by the league.

That meant she was on the floor for Tuesday's opening tip while Pierson was on the Detroit bench with her right arm in a sling.

"When you are a man down, you are always going to pick up your game, but this was different because of the way it happened — this was one of our players getting intentionally injured by an opponent," Laimbeer said. "The league's pathetic response incensed us even more."

The fired-up Shock scored the game's first 12 points, led 30-7 at the end of the first quarter and continued to pour it on in the second.

"I think we were stunned," Indiana's Tamika Catchings said. "There was a point where you looked up at the scoreboard and we were down by 30 in the first half, and they were still coming at us on both ends of the floor. I just wanted us to wake up."

The half might have been summed best by the final 20 seconds. Indiana held the ball for a last shot, despite trailing by 30 points, and Tammy Sutton-Brown hit a layup with 7.1 seconds to play.

The shot turned out to be meaningless, though, as Nolan dribbled through a static Indiana defense and hit a buzzer-beating jumper that gave Detroit a 49-19 lead at the break.

"I think losing Plenette added a little fire to our game," Nolan said. "Bill told Katie and me to get our shots tonight, and we just wanted to run and keep going after them."

Nolan, Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Smith combined for 34 points in the half, while Indiana's trio of Katie Douglas, Catchings and Hoffman were scoreless on 0-for-12 shooting. For most of the opening two periods, the Fever had more turnovers than points.

"Give Detroit an enormous amount of credit, because they just rammed the ball down our throats and we didn't respond," Indiana coach Lin Dunn said. "We had talked about the way we knew that Detroit would come out after the way they lost Game 2, but I don't think our team processed that information."

After getting 15 points in the controversial Game 2 win, Hoffman didn't score in Game 3.

"I had hoped that all of this wouldn't bother her, but look at the scoresheet — she was 0-for-6," Dunn said. "I know she was very upset about being fined and given a flagrant technical foul."

The Fever made their only serious run in the third quarter, starting the period with a 22-5 run to cut the margin to 54-41. During one stretch, Douglas had breakaway layups on three straight possessions as the Shock began to look rattled.

Detroit moved the lead to 60-43 at the end of the period, then scored the first five points of the fourth and cruised to the victory.

Because of scheduling conflicts, the Shock will play their home games against New York — on Sunday and, if necessary, Monday — at Eastern Michigan University, about an hour from the Palace of Auburn Hills. In 2006, Detroit clinched their second WNBA title at Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit in similar circumstances.

"It is what it is — we'll have our floor and our baskets, and I expect that the place will be packed with Shock fans," Laimbeer said. "We'll handle it."

Laimbeer said Tuesday that he does not expect Pierson to play against the Liberty, although she told the team that she intends to try.

(Updating with west results. The Guru is in Philadelphia, but is writing what he would have written off the result had he been on the scene.)

By Mel Greenberg

Former members of two Rutgers glory eras -- one distant past and one near present -- were on the winning side Monday night as the New York Liberty stunned the Connecticut Sun, 66-62, to advance to the WNBA Eastern Conference finals.

However, Chelsea Newton, another Rutgers alumnae, will have to wait until next year to add to her WNBA title trinket collection.

Newton's Sacramento Monarchs extended the San Antonio Silver Stars into overtime in the Lone Star State before losing the West semifinal deciding matchup 86-81.

New York will be in the Eastern Finals for the first time since 2004 and will face either Indiana or Detroit, who will meet in Michigan Tuesday night.

Tammy Sutton-Brown, a member of the Rutgers Final Four contingent in 2000, is on the Indiana Fever squad which is trying to end of a string postseason eliminations by the Shock.

In the other West semifinal, the Seattle Storm will be hosting the Los Angeles Sparks to determine who moves forward.

For veteran Liberty players, Monday night's win erased sore memories from last year's opening round when New York powered over the Detroit Shock in the Madison Square in Game one, only to lose the next two in suburban Motor City by narrow margins, including a 71-70 overtlime setback that allowed the Shock to move on eventually to the WNBA championship series.

"It just wasn't our time yet," Liberty coach Patty Coyle reflected several weeks after New York surprised with a late run to advance to the postseason.

Coyle, a West Catholic graduate, represents the earlier of the Rutgers eras as a member of the Scarlet Knights' continent that won the last-ever Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament, which was held at the Palestra in Philadelphia in 1982.

Monday''s triumph was aided in large part by a member of Rutgers' more recent success as rookie Essence Carson led the Liberty team she grew up watching, courtesy of a 15-point performance and the game-clincher at the finish.

She also made a key stop on Sun all-star Lindsay Whalen at the finish.

"Essence Carson stepped up and played a terrific game," Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said. "She struggled during the series but she had a terrific second half and probably was the difference in the game."

Carson, who was eyed a zillion times in recent seasons by Coyle in advance of her draft, was selected in the first round last April as the seventh overall pick.

She quickly moved into the starting lineup because of her defensive play.

"She was terrific tonight," Coyle said. "I talked with her after shoot around and I said you have the biggest job tonight. You have to guard Lindsay Whalen. You have to make her life miserable.

"I think Whalen is such a great player and should be the MVP of this league. The one thing I did tell (Carson) was I wanted her to be aggressive. I didn't want jump shots and take it to the rim. Thankfully, I think she heard what I said."

Carson is used to an ear-beating having had the game of defense drummed into her by Rutgers legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer.

"I was very accepting of the job (guarding Whalen)," Carson said. "It's definitely a staple to my game, defense. I wanted to guard her."

On describing her move during Whalen's final drive, Carson said, "I consider myself sort of long. I have that advantage on a lot of guards. I knew someone had to get a piece of that ball or it was going in because she's a big-time player."

As for her offensive performance, Carson noted, "I knew on the offensive end, to be successful we had to all be threats out there. I knew I couldn't be the weak link tonight."

During Carson's Rutgers career, trips to Connecticut were often painful with setbacks to the Huskies in Big East wars.

But two seasons ago, not only did the native of north Jersey help the Scarlet Knights down the Huskies in Hartford for the conference crown, she also helped lead them to the NCAA title game in Cleveland.

So it had to be extra sweet to win against a rabid fan base in Unncasville, many of whom share their aduration over both the Huskies and the Sun.

"I am used to playing in the atmosphere in the Big East," Carson said. "I learned to love it."

Carson was 6-for-6 from the floor in the second half.

"Essence was huge," said Liberty center Janelle McCarville. "I don't think we would have won this game without her. We waited for her to step up all year and she picked a great game to come out and give everything. She did everything that she needed to do in this game."

Teammate Shameka Christon, herself a former first-round pick, was equally praiseworthy of the Liberty newcomer.

"She did absolutely great. As soon as I came into the locker room, I said, `Who is this rookie?,' and everybody yelled `Not Essence.!' She stepped up huge for us tonight and that is what great players do."

Carson was aware of last year's playoff exit even if it wasn't spoken to her.

"They didn't talk to me individually, but I could hear it around the locker room," Carson said. "I watched the Liberty quite a bit being in New Jersey and the Liberty being the home team."

Christon, who played in the shadow of other Southeastern Conference stars in her Arkansas career, added 13 points to the Liberty total, while McCarville scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Whalen, who was Carville's teammate at Minnesota, led the Sun with 19 points, while Asjha Jones added 18 points and 11 rebounds.

"We took another step forward tonight," Coyle said. "This journey that we're on isn't finished yet."

San Antonio, which has the overall best record, got 27 points from former Baylor star Sophia Young. The Monarchs overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter when Nicole Powell tied the game with 8.5 seconds left in regulation. She was Sacramento's high scorer with 21 points.

Mystics Revolving Door

As Jonathan flashed earlier in the day, the Washington Mystics have relieved former general manager Linda Hargrove of her duties as another rotation in the door of the 11-year of the franchise continues to spin.

One-term members in the House of Representatives and the Senate have lasted longer in the nation's capital than coaches with the Mystics, who also have a vacancy in that position, which is a way of life.

Which direction Washington proceeds with the two openings remains to be seen, but Olympic coach Anne Donovan has experience having done both duties when she was with the Seattle Storm.

Donovan's plans have been unknown since she guided the Americans to the Oluympic gold medal in Beijing, China, last month.

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

I just got a press release from the Washington Mystics saying they have fired general manager Linda Hargrove.

Mel will be on later to offer his thoughts, but for now, here's the release:

Washington Mystics Chief Operating Officer Greg Bibb announced today that Linda Hargrove has been relieved of her duties as General Manager of the team. Hargrove was named General Manager prior to the 2005 season.

“We are extremely grateful to Linda for all of her hard work and her dedication to the Mystics organization during the past four years,” Bibb stated. “No one has been more committed to bettering our organization than Linda. At this point, however, we felt it was best to make a change and move in a different direction in regards to our general manager position. Our basketball team has struggled to make progress and move forward and we feel a change at the top of the basketball side of the business was necessary to begin the process of improving our team. We wish Linda the best of luck in her future endeavors. I’m confident she will find success in whatever she decides to do.”

The Mystics finished the 2008 season 10-24, fifth in the Eastern Conference and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

Hargrove served as a scout for the Mystics in 2003 and was an assistant coach with the team during the 2004 season.

Mystics President and Managing Partner, Sheila C. Johnson added “‘Linda Hargrove is going to be sorely missed within our operation. She understood that it was time for a change in order for this franchise to grow. We parted on extremely great terms and she will always be a friend to the Mystics family.”

By Mel Greenberg

The WNBA made history of sorts Saturday and Sunday with results that made playoff history.

All four best-of-three conference semifinal series are even at 1-1 and that is the first time each of the four best-of-three series are going the distance since the present sub-divisional format began in 2000.

In terms of holding home-court advantage, Detroit and San Antonio each wasted one shot after successfully winning openers on the road as the higher-seeded team.

On Saturday night in Texas, the prohibitive favorite San Antonio Silver Stars, owning the best overall record, allowed the banged-up Sacramento Monarchs to stay alive 84-67 after Becky Hammon and friends had taken the opener 85-78.

Likewise, the East-favorite Detroit Shock fell at home to the Indiana Fever, 89-82, in overtime Sunday after Detroit won on the road, 81-72. The Fever's Tamika Catchings had 27 points and 10 rebounds.

In the other two series, Seattle and Connecticut each used their arenas to stay alive.

The Connecticut Sun bounced back from the New York Liberty's opening Madison Square Garden 72-63 triumph by evening the score with a 73-70 win in Uncasville, Saturday, staving off a furious New York perimeter attack in the final minutes.

Seattle shock off its 77-67 loss at Los Angeles to beat the Sparks, 64-50, Sunday, as Sue Bird scored 20 points and Sheryl Swoopes added 16..

The four survive-and-advance encounters, as Jim Valvano once labelled the NCAA tournament, begin Monday when Connecticut hosts New York, while San Antonio hosts Sacramento.

The other two series will conclude Tuesday night.

In this most-competitive year, it is hard to say which way things go based on the games played to date. But for the fans, they will be fun.

Remembering Mary Garber

Mary Garber, who was considered the first fulltime female sportswriter died Sunday in North Carolina at age 92.

The Guru first met the legendary Garber years ago in his fledgling days of women's hoops coverage when introduced by North Carolina State coach Kay Yow and her then-assistant Nora Lynn Finch on a visit to Raleigh.

Garber eventually became a Mel Greenberg media award honoree of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) but she has earned many accolades and honors elsewhere.

Here is the obituary off the Associated Press wire. Her own paper has its own tribute, which can be found through the usual google method -- the Guru forgot to grab the link.

We'll try to get some reaction and comment from our friends in Atlantic Coast Conference country the next several days.

Associated Press

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Mary Garber, among the nation’s first female sports writers and the first woman to win the Red Smith Award, The Associated Press Sports Editors’ highest honor, died Sunday. She was 92.

Rose Rush, a longtime friend whose father was an editor at the Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel where Garber worked for 51 years, said Garber died early Sunday afternoon.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported Sunday that a minister was making the rounds at the Brookridge Retirement Village where Garber was a resident, and he asked what she had in mind for a spiritual reward in heaven.

“Football season,” she said.

Garber was a sports writer for the Journal and the Sentinel from 1946 through 1997. She started as a society writer during World War II, and moved when the all-male sports department of the Sentinel was depleted.

“Not because I had any ability in sports,” Garber once told the Women’s Sports Foundation, “but because it was the war, and every man was in the armed forces.”

Even though she was banned from locker rooms and forced to sit with the players’ wives instead of in the press box, Garber lobbied to continue covering sports after World War II ended.

Garber first gained access to a locker room at the 1974 Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament, 30 years after her sports writing career began. She retired from the Winston-Salem Journal in 1986, but continued to work part-time until 2002.

Garber served as president of the Football Writers Association of America and the Atlantic Coast Sports Writers Association, groups that initially denied her entry. Also in 2005, she became the first woman to win the Red Smith Award, given to someone who has made major contributions to sports journalism.

In 2006, the Association for Women in Sports Media named its annual Pioneer Award for Garber.

“We could not have picked a better namesake,” AWSM president Jenni Carlson said Sunday. “Many of us would not be where we are today without Mary’s trailblazing. She truly paved the way and served as a role model for women in sports media.
“This is a sad day for everyone who works in sports media, but it is particularly sad for the women in this industry. Mary was a pioneer in every sense of the word.”

Also, Garber also was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and, most recently, the National Sportscasters and Sportwriters Hall of Fame, located in nearby Salisbury.

Garber is survived by a niece and three nephews. Funeral arrangements were pending Sunday night.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Maybe it was the blue and white colors that created a sense of nostalgia -- oops wrong blue and white.

Perhaps it was the name of the opponent -- oops right opponent, wrong sport.

Welcome to the weekly Delle Donne volleyball progress report.

As it quickly has evolved from back in Elena Delle Donne's sensational high school basketball career at Wilmington's Ursuline Academy, a once-envisioned headline became reality Saturday but it involved a sport whose net runs across a court instead of one hanging from a backboard above it.

The Delaware freshman, who was the national high school player of the year, had a career high 11 kills against the Duke Blue Devils in the College of Charleston's tournament. However, because the Blue Hens' two captains are sidelined with injuries -- one for the season, coach Bonnie Kenny's team couldn't capitalize in 3-1 loss in North Carolina.

Nevertheless, the 6-5 teenager who recently turned 19, continues to make rapid progressm.

Delle Donne arrived at nearby Delaware a month ago at the last minute with only a year of volleyball experience behind her after turning aside a scholarship from NCAA hoops-favorite Connecticut, who also happen to wear Blue and White, similar to the Blue Devils.

Duke, incidentally, has been a UConn rival, nationally, in recent NCAA title chases.

In four-weeks time, Delle Donne has moved quickly to starter, in part by necessity, and is now being mentioned higher in game coverage in the school web site report.

Furthermore, an action shot of Delle Donne from the weekend action appears on Delaware's site.

Overall on the weekend, the defending Colonial Athletic Association champions got back into the winning column, Friday, with a 3-0 sweep of Gardner-Webb with match results of 25-15, 25-13, and 25-18 as Delle Donne had seven kills and five blocks. Teammate Katie Dennehy had 12 kills, while Paige Erickson posted eight.

In the Duke contest, the first of two games Saturday, the Blue Hens grabbed the first set, 25-23, before dropping the next three at 25-9, 25-15, and 25-20.

Dennehy was still team-best at 14 kills in front of Delle Donne's career high.

The Blue Hens left the South at 3-10 overall after College of Charleston swept all three sets at 25-17, 25-17, and 25-18. Delle Donne had five kills in the match.

Next up is a vist from state-rival Delaware State Tuesday night at 7. And, as the Guru learned on his recent visit to the Temple game at a Newark campus where every other building begins with the name Carpenter, or it seems that way, the volleyball team plays just on the other side of town and not at the football-basketball stadium-arena complex.

And now back to tracking other news.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK – The New York Liberty was able to distinguish itself quite nicely Thursday night from some of the current issues facing the nation in upsetting the Connecticut Sun, 72-63, to begin the WNBA playoffs Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Unlike nearby Wall Street, the Liberty's "outside" help came from within, courtesy of a three-point shooting show from Shameka Christon.

Furthermore, unlike the Liberty's financial neighbors, a looming collapse did not cause any panic, especially in the third quarter when the Sun threatened to wipe out what had been a 15-point advantage early in the game.

And talk of energy shortage was nowhere to be found among New York coach Patty Coyle’s postgame remarks when she praised her team’s effort.

Indeed it was Connecticut that was unable to receive a bailout from elsewhere on the court when New York reduced what had been a collective 43.6 regular season scoring average to 33 from the normally point-producing trifecta of Lindsay Whalen (6), Tamika Whitmore (16), and Asjha Jones (11), who did not reach double digits until the fourth quarter.

The announced crowd of 7,649, including actor Matthew Modine, which decided to put off the final hours of Yankee Stadium for another day, was treated to a perimeter show from Christon, who nailed 4-of-5 three-pointers and finished with a game-high 19 points.

Cathrine Kraayeveld added 15 and completed a double-double performance with 10 rebounds, while Janelle McCarville scored 13 points.

Rookie Essence Carson, showing she learned her defensive lessons well from C. Vivian Stringer at Rutgers, helped shore up the Liberty with some key stops and frustrations during the Connecticut thrust.

New York’s board work was pretty solid also with a 35-29 rebounding advantage that was more dominating at 13-4 after the first quarter.

"Rebounding and offensive execution were two of the three goals that we actually accomplished tonight,” Coyle said. “We have to take better care of the ball (19 turnovers), It makes our lives better. We played with a lot of energy tonight."

There must something to be said of the Liberty's team play these days in that contenders for postseason honors from New York may fall short but the togetherness concept continues to endure.

The Liberty campaigned for WNBA coach of the year honors for Coyle, an award that Connecticut’s Mike Thibault is also in the mix.

However, if New York can find a way to prevail in this series, which will either end with a Liberty win on Saturday or go to Game 3 Monday, both in Connecticut, others may soon be campaigning the Liberty front office for another contract extension for Coyle.

As for the ability to shut down the Sun’s power attack, Coyle sounded like it was just one of those nights in which things went right in the Liberty’s direction.

"I have the utmost respect for Asjha Jones and Tamika Whitmore,” said Coyle. “They have three legitimate all-stars on that team. They are going to make their shot s, we just have to make it a little more difficult for them. They are a terrific team and they made their run, fortunately we were able to withstand it."

Christon took a trip down memory lane to discuss motivation factors reflecting last year’s series against eventual Eastern winner Detroit, which lost here to the Liberty in the opener and then won two narrow outcomes at the finish in the suburbs of the Motor City.

"We are probably the deepest team in the league as opposed to last year were we had a rotation of 7 or 8 and I think that will definitely be key for us,” Christon said. “Everybody can come in and contribute and we trust each other and are very confident.

“It’s very important for us to continuing to go out and be the aggressors. We’re a better team if we are the aggressors. What was different tonight (avoiding a third-quarter meltdown), normally it snowballs when we hit a wall in the third quarter and then everything just stops. Tonight we bounced back and kept fighting and gained our momentum back.”

Connecticut finds itself in a place it has visited in the past due to the nature of the best-of-three series in the first two rounds.

The second-seeded Sun must win on Saturday and then prevail again Monday night to stay alive.

“When we went to the finals in 2004, we lost the first (playoff) game in Washington but we bounced right back,” Thibault said. “Lindsay and Asjha have been through that. They understand that.

“I’m glad we’re going home to play,” he said. “I don’t like the format but it is what it is. We’re going home to try to correct things. I think the young players got their indoctrination and we’ll play better. But I can’t lay it on young players. There isn’t anybody tonight who had a good game tonight.”

Thibault felt that, defensively, his group stabilized after being rocked in the opening minutes.

“In a playoff game you can’t have two or three bad possessions in a row,” Thibault said. “It would help if we just made easier shots.”

As for the offensive execution, at one instance the way the Sun were unable to find the basket, Elena Delle Donne’s scoring proficiency in pickup games in her brief two-day existence at the University of Connecticut was better than the Sun overall effort as a team.

“The first quarter was a disaster,” Thibault said. “The confidence Kraayeveld and Christon had shooting in their building was great. We have to get more people involved, offensively. We have to do a better job. Somebody else besides our two post players has to step up and make shots. Svet (Svetlana Abrosimova) got going for a short stretch. But it wasn’t long enough.

“If we’re going to miss that many shots (24-for-64 from the field), we need a few more offensive boards,” Thibault added.

Connecticut shot a paltry 4-for-22 on three-pointers, but Thibault noted many came on desperation as when the shot clock was running down.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz, who is recruiting in the New York area, was at the game to view McCarville and Whalen, two players who were at Minnesota when he was an assistant there under Brenda Freeze.

Meanwhile, in a Western semifinal opener Thursday night, the San Antonio Silver Stars did not repeat last year’s start against the Sacramento Monarchs when a loss in California forced the Texans to recover with two straight at home before extending the eventual WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury in the Conference finals.

Becky Hammon made six treys and finished with 30 points to lead San Antonio to an 85-78 win in Sacramento.

On Friday night, the Indiana Fever host Detroit in the East, while the Seattle Storm will be in Los Angeles against the Sparks.

College Noteworthy

Illinois head coach Jolette Law, a former Rutgers associate head coach with the Scarlet Knights before accepting the Illini job a year ago when Theresa Grentz left, is being honored Friday night in her hometown as the Florence (S.C.) District One Distinguished Graduate at the Seventh Annual School Foundation Celebration.

The email from Champaign notes the following about Law:

Law was a three-time Kodak All-American at Wilson High School in Florence before heading to Iowa to play collegiately.

As the Hawkeyes' floor general, she helped C. Vivian Stringer lead the team to four consecutive Big Ten titles and a record of 105-18 from 1987-90.

A Kodak District V All-American in 1990, she was a four-year letterwinner and two-time first-team All-Big Ten Conference selection (1989 and 1990) at Iowa. A member of the Iowa Hall of Fame, Law graduated from the University of Iowa in 1990 with a degree in sports studies/corporate fitness.

Following her collegiate career, Law joined the Harlem Globetrotters from 1990-94 as the only female team member, completing three worldwide tours with the team.

As an ambassador of goodwill with the Globetrotters, she coordinated several basketball seminars and clinics in addition to her on-court performances. During her stint with basketball's greatest team, her picture appeared on Wheaties cereal boxes with her Globetrotter teammates.

She then spent 12 years at Rutgers University under Stringer where she became regarded as one of the top assistant coaches in the country. During her tenure at Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights saw remarkable success, including two Final Fours, three Elite Eights and three Sweet Sixteen appearances, among them the run to the 2007 national championship game in Cleveland.

-- Mel

(Updating to include Loree Moore, who the Guru had on paper with the Liberty on the Tennessee count but made a slight omission typing. Also, print story did not make print, the Guru has since learned, but it is over at Philly.com.)

By Mel Greenberg

Since the Guru's serious playoff notation appeared in the print section of Thursday's paper, or had been targeted that way, and is over at Philly.com's main sports venue, the Guru offers a little playoff player-graphics in this space for your amusement.

You'll never guess which schools dominate the total combined rosters of the eight teams that get under way Thursday and Friday night in the two divisions.

By the Guru's count, give or take one or two slots -- the email from the league didn't arrive in precise column format, of the 104 eligibles, almost 20 percent or 20 players -- 10 each -- are alumnae of either Connecticut or Tennessee.

The Huskies roll call of ten, thanks to the large group of collectibles out of casino-land, consists of Svetlana Abrosimova, Asjha Jones, Ketia Swanier, Tamika Raymond, and Barbara Turner out of the Connecticut Sun (and remember Nykesha Sales isn't around this year); Ashley Battle with the New York Liberty; Kelly Schumacher with the Indiana Fever; Sue Bird and Swin Cash with the Seattle Storm; and Jessica Moore of the Los Angeles Sparks.

Rookie Charde Houston and league superstar Diana Taurasi -- last year's news with the former WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury -- just missed making the field.

The ten former Vols are rookie Alexis Hornbuckle with the Detroit Shock; Loree Moore with the Liberty; Tamika Catchings with the Indiana Fever; Kara Lawson with the Sacramento Monarchs; Shyra Ely and Ashley Robinson with the Seattle Storm; Shanna Crossley with the San Antonio Silver Stars; and Shannon Bobbitt, Candace Parker, and Sydney Spencer with the Los Angeles Sparks.

Rutgers, incidentally, since the Guru knows you types are always lurking and want the shoutout, has a trio of Chelsea Newton (Sacramento), Tammy Sutton-Brown (Indiana) and rookie Essence Carson (New York).

Prominent Scarlet Knights absentees in the just-missed category are Cappie Pondexter, last year's playoff MVP with Phoenix; and rookie Matee Ajavon (Houston Comets).

Meanwhile, 50 percent of the first-round in April's Draft made the postseason, for whatever the dynamic is worth. The seven are Parker (1-Los Angeles), Hornbuckle (4-Detroit); Carson (7-New York); Amber Holt (9-Connecticut); Cheltenham High's Laura Parker (10-Sacramento); Swanier (12-Connecticut) and Erlana Larkins (14-New York).

Those hoping to add WNBA gold to Olympic gold include seven of the 12-member roster which got things done internationally in Beijing, China.

The magnificent seven include the Sparks trio of Parker, Leslie, and DeLisha Milton-Jones; Detroit's Katie Smith; Indiana's Catchings; Seattle's Bird; and Sacramento's Lawson.

The five out of the running are, as previously noted, Pondexter and Taurasi with Phoenix; Seimone Augustus with Minnesota; Sylvia Fowles with Chicago; and Tina Thompson with Houston.

WNBA Post-Season Spin and Bounce

Papers across the country, including the Guru's print story, are running with the upbeat numbers the WNBA released Tuesday showing increases in attendance,TV ratings, and internet traffic, along with merchandise items.

That's different than several years ago when many out there were quick to label the league "endangered" as the postseason got under way.

Incidentally, the last time the playoffs began later than usual because of the Olympics -- when Seattle won in 2004 -- there was what became needless concern about going up against football in the fall.

That was always an early reason why league officials wouldn't let the entire season drift past Labor Day.

This time, other than your Guru mentioning it here for the sake of mentioning it, the topic does not seem to have surfaced anywhere except perhaps in the boardroom of ESPN.

And in this political year when it comes to bounce, the Guru saw an item in Wednesday's election news that a certain female vice presidential candidate who played basketball on a high school champion in a state adjacent to the Western Canadian border cited Title IX as a reason for her being able to participate.

So to answer a question put to the Guru several weeks ago that did not appear in public, It is quite probable the high school athlete in question probably heard of the Guru long before the Guru had any idea of her existence.

But while on the that topic, attention (former Temple assistant coach) Fred Chmiel, if you are reading this, since you have past ties to that state, did you ever have any idea who she was?

You know where to find the Guru.

Promising Future

The previous triggeed the Guru's mind to relate some healthy statistics about female participation in sports that was released in August from a survey done by the WNBA and Seventeen Magazine, which is being featured in the Sept. edition. Who knows, maybe another future presidential or vice-presidential candidate is in this crowd.

Here's some discussion sent to the Guru by email from his friends in Gotham in the WNBA home office:

The WNBA teamed up with Seventeen magazine to
poll teen girls on how sports plays a roll in their lives.

In light of the people screaming about how "inactive" the youth of today are it's
interesting that this study found that nearly 90% of teen girls (age 13-16)
are active in sports. Two, whatever the arguments surrounding Title IX may
be, this study shows that teen girls are more active, competitive and
confident than any generation of women before them.

Some of the results:

-- Nearly 90% (87.1% actually) of teen girls age 13-16 actively participate
in sports.

-- 61.3% of teen girls say that playing sports will help them succeed in
life.

-- Of the reasons for taking part in sports, most teen girls named
"exercise" (68.4%), while "hanging out with friends" (57%) and the "thrill
of competition" (48.7) were also popular reasons.

-- 68.2% of teen girls said that being competitive was a positive thing.

The survey revealed that 83% of teen girls play sports with basketball ranked as the number one participatory sport.

Girls play sports for a variety of reasons, but the top reason found in
this survey is to exercise (68.4%). Other top reasons included forming
friendships, competing and representing their schools. Challenges that
young female sports enthusiasts endure include insecurities; 33% of girls
who don’t play sports say it’s because they’re worried that they wouldn’t
be good at it. In addition, 35% of girls also say their teams don’t get as
much equipment or field time as the boys’ teams and 35% of girls have heard
their peers make homophobic remarks about female athletes.

Despite these factors keeping some girls from playing sports, teens are
able to look to inspiring pros, such as Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, Serena
and Venus Williams, as they take sports to a whole new level and even
dismiss outdated stereotypes. The survey also revealed that 66% of teen
girls believe that cheerleading is a sport, not some sideline event, and
71% think female cheerleaders should cheer at girls’ sports events.’

“Sports can have a profound impact on the lives of teen girls, helping them
grow into emotionally and physically strong young women,” said Seventeen
Editor-in-Chief Ann Shoket. “The challenge of competing, the thrill of
winning and the lessons of losing will stay with them forever.”

The research, conducted in April, surveyed more than 1,000 13-20 year old
females.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

With the WNBA regular season 99.9 percent completed, thanks to a slight delay of one game caused by Hurricane Ike, the finish at the top and bottom is a little less than dramatic than a year ago.

The playoff teams were determined before the final games of the weekend, although look for activity to become much more exciting when the postseason gets under way later this week.

The bottom, however, which has a bearing on the offseason conversation concerning the draft, does not lend to much anticipation as it did 12 months ago.

There was as much at stake finishing with the worst record as there was at the top because of the likely availability of former Tennessee star Candace Parker, who became the No. 1 pick of the Los Angeles Sparks.

Coming down the stretch in 2007, the Minnesota Lynx had a slight cushion in terms of being in the best position to cash in on the lottery until the Sparks continued to lose and Minnesota suddenly brain-locked its way into a few closing victories.

Not that the Lynx did that terrible, considering the No. 3 pick of former Stanford star Candice Wiggins in what was a draft of premium talent deep into the first round.

Right now, there is clarity surrounded by fog.

The clarity is that the expansion Atlanta Dream had the absolute worst record at 4-30, and the Washington Mystics were absolutely the next worst at 10-24. Chicago slots next at 12-22, with the Western crowd of the defending and soon-to-be former champion Phoenix Mercury, Houston Comets, and the Lynx all bunched together.

In terms of the prize, itself, there is no name right now dominating the discussion as Parker did a year ago.

Much will be said about Oklahoma senior Courtney Paris, but the talk will also note until the collegiate season proves otherwise, how the Sooners have yet to go a long way in the NCAA tournament despite her presence on the roster.

Indeed, the collegiate player of the year competition might be found more among the juniors than the seniors, based on a quick glance at the one of the early watch lists involved in such pursuits.

True Parker was a junior winning awards last season, but in reality a de-facto senior because of her true freshman non-season caused by an injury.

Whoever held the No. 1 pick a year ago, absolutely had to take Parker no matter how loaded that team was.

This time, the person picked could come more because of a specific roster need than consensus concerning the best availability.

A lot of dealing might occur this time akin to two seasons ago when the Phoenix Mercurry traded its top choice for a veteran player who helped bring last season's title.

Paris could certainly help one of the lotto six, but so might Maryland senior guard Kristi Toliver.

Washington could be in an interesting spot when the Mystics, whose future coach is yet to be determined, is on the clock.

A year ago, Washington only had to look right in the neighborhood to pick Crystal Langhorne, the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year from Willingboro High.

The temptation could exist to stay near the nation's capital in taking Toliver.

In terms of seniors, Rutgers center Kia Vaughn, off another challenging Big East and nonconference schedule, could play her way into being a top three pick.

Louisville's Angel McCoughtry, Connecticut's Renee Montgomery, and Maryland's Marissa Coleman are a few other names of seniors to come to mind right now. But a month from the annual start of collegiate practice, Connecticut's choice as the team-to-beat is the only area that is not wide open.

Delle Donne in Volleyball Land

Continuing the Guru's ongoing update for those of you who arrive here by googling the name of Wilmington's Elena Delle Donne, the former national high school player of the year out of Ursuline Academy who nixted a collegiate career with UConn to play volleyball at nearby Delaware, here is the latest since the Guru's visit to the Newark campus last week for the match against Temple.

In a tournament at Wake Forest on Saturday injuires continued to plague the Blue Hens (2-8) overall with Michelle LaLonde sidelined in Winston-Salem, N.C. after Delaware had previously lost Kelly Gibson for the season in the opener in California.

Delaware fell to Western Michigan, 3-2, with match results of 18-25, 25-19, 17-25, 25-23. and 6-15) before getting swept by Wake Forest, 3-0, with scores of 25-16, 25-22, and 25-17).

In the Western Michigan match, ther 6-foot-5 Delle Donne had six kills, two errors, and a block. In the Wake Forest contest, she had four kills, three errors, and a block.

On a side note to the Guru's friends at D.C. Basketcases who emailed during the week in the middle of some blackberry issues here since resolved, the Guru has not become a volleyball convert yet but continues to offer public service to those who seek knowledge past and present of the women's basketball universe.

Pull That Lever

Who has time to pay attention to the Democrats or Republicans on the presidential campaign trail with others busy stuffing ballots in the Guru's direction concerning other issues.

Thanks to those who automatically solicit the Guru, in the next 24 hours votes must deterrmine WNBA postseason awards, preseason picks in the Colonial Athletic Association, along with acceptance to be part of a new "Blue Ribbon" ACC awards panel, although Maryland is the nearest conference school some 120 miles south of Guru headquarters.

Our friend Doug Feinberg added to the mix Sunday night by doing an early roll call to see who all will be returning to cast ballots in the weekly Associated Press poll so he can determine vacancies to fill.

The Guru will jump into the WNBA preseason at New York on Thursday.

More to come.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

NEWARK, Del. - Elena Delle Donne is having fun again, even if the volleyball wins at Delaware at the moment are not as plentiful as the slew of victories at nearby Ursuline Academy in Wilmington where she had been the reigning national high school girls sensation.

"I love it, " Delle Donne said Tuesday night at the Carpenter Sports Building's Barbara Vierra Court after Temple stopped her Blue Hens, 25-17, 25-23, 2514 in a nonconference match.

Delle Donne had five kills and two blocks in the match and she has quickly moved into the starting lineup.

"I have so much to learn. I keep trying to improve myself every day in practice as much as I can," the 6-foot-5 Delle Donne added. "But I have so much fun when I practice. I look forward to every practice, every game. I'm just enjoying it."

Several months ago Delle Donne was thought to be elated over the start of what was projected as a high-profile collegiate hoops career with NCAA-favorite Connecticut, until she began to have doubts and returned home two days after her arrival in Storrs for summer school in early June.

Thus began nearly three months of suspense over whether Delle Donne would show up on the first day of class. The outcome was finally resolved when she proclaimed a week before her scheduled return that she was turning down the UConn scholarship.

Two days later, Delle Donne in a statement announced her intention to enroll near her home at Delaware. A week later she tranformed rumor into fact when the Blue Hens called a press conference to introduce her as the newest member of the volleyball team, a sport she played for just her senior season a year ago at Ursuline.

Delle Donne's arrival was so late that no trace of her exists in the school media guide and under NCAA rules by arriving after Aug. 1, she is listed as a non-scholarship player with the defending Colonial Athletic Association champions, who are 2-4 in the early season.

Her father Ernie joked on Tuesday night that the money he would have had to spend on gas making the 500-mile round trip so he and his wife Joanie could watch Elena at UConn can now be re-invested in her tuition costs.

At the press conference Delle Donne revealed she had suffered burn out over the attention that had been placed on her since the seventh grade in basketball.

"Ask (Tennessee) coach Pat Summitt who first told her about Elena," Blue Hens volleyball coach Bonnie Kenny, a Vols' graduate, said of Delle Donne's early presence on the basketball landscape. "The burnout must have really been bad. In the seventh grade I thought she was better than Carol Blazejowski."

Kenny's reference is to the former Montclair State scoring sensation of the late 1970s, a hall of famer who holds the Madison Square Garden individual game record for men or women and is now the administrative head of the WNBA New York Liberty.

Of course, one sport's loss is another's gain and Kenny is enthusiastic over what she sees in the budding stages of Delle Donne's career.

"She's coming along really well," Kenny said. "We're teaching her that little step out and that slide. She's working hard on her blocking. She has good timing. She just doesn't have the vision yet you need to be a really good blocker.

"But her presence is obviously something we need at the net and she's doing a good job helping us there."

The rules of volleyball media interviews at Delaware matches these days is that the time for the basketball discussion was at the press conference. However, Delle Donne will talk about the transition of coming from a sport she seemed ready to play at birth to one in which her experience had been virtually non-existence.

"It's tough because, obviously, I've never played volleyball, really, other than last year and last year I just hit the ball and swung at it," Delle Donne said.

"There's so much I have to learn. With basketball, since I played it since I was age two, I was so used to it. But now I'm just picking up on things every day, but I love it," Delle Donne explained.

There are some aspects of her basketball talent that have been helpful.

"Layups and running slides," she said. "Running a slide is a lot like running a layup."

The Blue Hens suffered a tough injury when senior co-captain Kelly Gibson tore her ACL in the season-opener out West.

Temple dominated the first set Tuesday night, but the Blue Hens pushed the Owls in the second before the visitors then powered away in the fthird set to make up for last season's loss in Philadelphia after Temple led 2-0.

"We're working on that killer instinct to fight back and get through games like that," Delle Donne said. "We just need to keep working in practice and improving."

Sometimes, being the local talent can bring its own pressure but Delle Donne is enjoying having the home folks around that she grew up with.

"It's great. I love seeing people I know in the crowd so I really enjoy it."

Temple coach Bob Bertucci praised Delle Donne's upside.

"She's going to be a phenomenal volleyball player if she decides to stay with it," Bertucci said. "She's a big kid, athletic, I mean she made one block against our big kid, so I think it's just a matter of time."

As for the statistical star, that honor went to Temple's Yun Yi Zhang of Shanghai, China, who had 19 kills and just two errors while Cayleigh Ashman had 10 kills.

"They served us right off the court," Kenny said of the Owls.

"They always have an outside hitter and No. 12 (Zhang) did a good job of that. She ate our lunch. She had us at will. She could do anything she wanted and that's pretty disturbing that one player can dominate so much against six," Kenny added.

"We made her look like an all-American, but she is a pretty good player, now. I'm not going to take anything away from her. She can do a lot with the volleyball."

Delaware now heads to Atlantic Coast Conference country in North Carolina this weekend where the Blue Hens will compete in Wake Forest's tournament.

-- Mel

(Guru's update note on 9/10. Thanks to our Immaculata friends, this now updates spelling questions and fills in some blanks in Cathy's speech that were inaudible on the transcription date). Here is Cathy's Friday night speech in 98 percent of its entirety. A few crowd reacts have been inserted to offer the feel of the room. This begins a few paragraphs into the speech since her reaction on getting the phone call of notification from the hall has already been addressed.)

Talking about getting the phone call and continuing:

“I cried. Women cry at everything: Happiness, sadness, joy, grief.

As I’ve spent the last few days with these wonderful people and I can’t express my joy any greater to be a part of the Hall of Fame and in particularly this class.

It’s been magnificent. I’m so proud. I’ve been to so many events and I was thinking the other day, I hadn’t coached in 31 years Sometimes when my sons aren’t around, I don’t even admit to being that old.

Thirty-one years and yet all these wonderful people are bringing back memories of those wonderful years and they were wonderful. So my line before Adrian (Dantley) stole it was: In so many ways we’re the same and in yet so many ways we’re so different.

Immaculata, 400 students, Catholic school, we had no gym. In fact, someone asked me about our budget and I said, I don’t think we had a budget.

We didn’t have a gym. We had one set of uniforms, we wore the same color all year – Tunics, by the way, (inaudible) (sneakers) Chuck Taylors.

Our gym had burned down before I arrived so we ended up practicing across the street. We had no home court and all of our games were on the road.

And on the road, all of our players found a way to get to the game. We’d meet the day before and say, Hey can you get a ride? Anybody have a car? And they would get to the next game.

So we had no gym. No budget.

In 1972, the first year of the national tournament and 11 players, wonderful woman on my team, I had to tell three of them we didn’t have enough money to take them to the national tournament.

I took eight players, three stayed home. We flew standby to Chicago. Rented cars and drove to Normal, Ill. (Illinois St.). And that was our first national tournament.

And I was saying to someone today – No assistant coach. No manager. No trainer.

Somebody’s down. Get up, you’re not hurt. (big roar of laughter from crowd).

It was a scary time. But in reflecting back, there have been so many wonderful times and so many people alluded to them. We were pioneers before we knew what pioneers meant.

And people ask us about that experience and did you think? Did you dream?

No we didn’t. Everything that happened to us was certainly a shock. The team (West Chester) we beat in the national tournament had beaten us the week before by 42 points.

People ask how did you win that game and I go, huh, coaching. (Big laughter and applause).

They didn’t ask how I lost the first one by 42, of course. (More laughter).

But I accept this honor for all the women who played and coached so many years ago who have been forgotten, who’s scores and skills have never been brought to the fore, but they played for the love of the game.

And so many of these wonderful players as we’ve gone around the last couple of days have talked about the love of the game and our players truly had that.

And for all the people here tonight, I would like to thank all the Immaculata faithful who are here again. So many of my former players. So many of the nuns are here. And the fond memories we have of beating the buckets. You have to be an Immaculata fan to understand that whole story.

The "Bucket Brigade"

One of our player’s fathers had a hardware store and he thought our games were too quiet. So he would bring six buckets and some wooden mallets. And then they’d start beating on the buckets. And as he was leaving, they’d say, Can you bring a couple more buckets next time. So he’d bring a dozen, and then two dozens, and then in our stands we had hundreds of nuns, which, of course, helped us (lots of laughs) in their full habits beating on the buckets, yelling at the referees. (Big laughter).

I’d like to talk about my small part in this basketball juggernaut that started. I’d like to first thank the president of Immaculata College. Just a fabulous woman. She hired me as a 22-year-old junior high school coach and I’m coaching a college team.

And she was a player – she was about 5-10. Twenty-five years later after mass, and you understand we had lots of those before games, lots of masses, Sister Mary of Lourdes, put her hand on my shoulder and said, That first year Cathy. I paid you $500.

And I said, No Sister. You paid me $450. And she said we would have gone to $500. (Big laugh).

Hopefully, there’s a movie coming out and I’ll get to that in a second, but our team, like so many Catholic schools, started with a prayer. And at the end of the prayer there were all these people to pray to, which I didn’t understand – St. Christopher, which became Mr. Christopher. And the other one was Our Lady of Victory pray for us.

And I had teams with my mom, who also was my coach and I said – I played on a church team – and I said, You know these girls start with a prayer and then they play like hell. (Huge laugh).

In Praise of Rush's Stars

Immaculata was led for those first four years by Theresa Shank Grentz. And I made the comment the other day that all of us coaches that are here know that when we have good players, we’re very good coaches.

When we have great players, we’re great coaches.

Theresa Shank Grentz, who used to say she was 5-11 ½, I think she was about 6-1, 6-2, in the regional, national tournament at that time – understand there was no money.

Our 16 teams would play four games in three days. We’d play Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning, so we did not have to pay that extra night’s lodging.

So it was four games in 48 hours. I had eight players. In those four games, Theresa Shank averaged 24 points and 18 rebounds. Plus, in the game that we actually beat the team that beat us by 42 points, Theresa would bring the ball up for us as well.

She is the greatest player, anyone who played in the ‘70s, will say that and I look forward to being here hopefully on this stage. (big applause).

Not to be overlooked are players Rene Portland, who went on to coach for 30 years., and (WNBA Los Angeles Sparks assistant) Marianne Stanley, who cried on the phone to say she couldn’t be here.

Marianne went in to tell her head coach of the Sparks that her coach had made it to the Hall of Fame.

And he said, Great.

And the next day, the coach of the Sparks said my coach (Pat Riley) made it to the Hall of Fame. And being the head coach, Mr. (Michael) Cooper said, assistant coach, you’re staying and I’m going. So Marianne is not here.

But Marianne Stanley played on two national teams as an unbelievable point guard.

You know as coaches we love that center-point guard combination. She was fabulous. She went on to coach three national championships at Old Dominion.

And somebody asked me one time, Do those players coach like you.

And I said, Absolutely not. They’re nothing like me. They are so much more intense and they are dynamic and I couldn’t be more proud of them.

There’s a verse in second Corinthians that talks about the seen and the unseen.

And so often we focus on the seen – the things that are visible to great players, the great passes.

And there’s the unseen. The things that remain that are enternal. And we had a group of women in 1972, eight players went to the national tournament and three couldn’t go. And I would be remiss to not mention them (the three) – Judy Marra, Betty Ann Huffman, and Sue Forsyth O' Grady.

And so many of them are here – Denise Conway Crawford, Theresa Shank Grentz, Dr. Lorie Gable Finelli, Dr. Marie Ligouri Williams, Maureen Stuhlman, Betty Ann Huffman, Sue Forsight O'Grady and Judy Marra – Mrs. Phil Martelli.

Eternal Love

The other unseen quality was love. My players loved one another, loved the school they were in, and that love was returned to us a hundred-fold.

I always said if I was ever depressed – which I’m not – I would go to Immaculata.

Because my name there was Our Mrs. Rush. Our Mrs. Rush. And I thank them all for coming today.

I would like to acknowledge Tim Chamber, Anthony Gargano and Pat Croce who had invested in Our Lady of Victory, which is a dynamite move about this team and hopefully will be released in April in 2009, coincidentally between Final Four and Easter.

I would also like to thank my family and friends.

And I have to mention Ed Rush. Ed and I, you know, are divorced. But Ed was so dynamic in making Immaculata into a media darling.

And I’ll tell a quick story. Ed wanted us to have a media day, which none of us had ever heard of. And I saw my players and said, We’re going to have a media day. Wear stockings and heels, a nice outfit, put your hair up.

Well, we had the girls come in, in nice heels, stockings, and Ed said, Where are their uniforms?.

Now our uniforms were wool. I said, they're at (inaudible.)

And he said, It’s a media day and you need uniforms on your players. So our players ran and got their tunics on with stockings and high heels. (laughter)

And I always credit that for having great attendance at games, so I do thank you (laughter).

I’d like to say a special thank you to my sister Alice, who is here today.

I’ve not been the easiest of people to live with and Alice at one point told me she was praying for my safety.

One year I did 23 cities in 12 weekends doing coaches’ clinics.

And Alice said I pray for your safety. And I thought oh that’s so nice.

Well, she was watching my two boys and her two boys, every weekend of those 12 weekends, knowing that if anything happened, she would have those four boys. (laughter).

My mother who is 89 is not here tonight. Just a fabulous woman who reminded us everything can be done better with a smile on your face. And I thank you mom and I hope you have the right channel on (laughter).

And lastly to my sons Ed Jr. and Michael, who I love dearly. One of the five previous times when I didn’t get into the Hall of Fame, Ed emailed me and said, You know you may not be a Hall of Fame coach, but you’re a Hall of Fame mom.

And thankfully, I can be both. Thank you very much.

(Guru's note: This comes slightly delayed due to the Guru's late Friday night and the desire not to duplicate Kate Fagan's coverage for the print section, but it comes nonetheless since our friends at Womenshoops.com told you it would)

By Mel Greenberg

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- When former NBA coach Pat Riley made his initial remarks during Friday morning's press conference for Naismith Baskethall of Fame Inductees, he referred to Immaculata's coach Cathy Rush, saying, "She's the best coach here."

Later during the pre-ceremony reception, Rush remarked to some well-wishers, "This is amazing. All these famous people."

To which West Chester women's basketball coach Deirdre Kane remarked, "But Cathy, you're just as famous, also."

Kane was part of the Golden Rams delegation representing Rush's alma mater that also included athletic director Ed Matejkovic and interim university president Dr. Linda L. Lamwers.

When Adrian Dantley, the former Notre Dame and NBA star, began his acceptance speech, he noted the numerous failed campaigns previously for himself and Rush.

"Cathy and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited ... "Dantley began.

Lights, Camera, No Action

Early in the afternoon, the Guru ran into Tim Chambers, the director of the "Our Lady of Victory" movie about the first of the three AIAW titles won by Rush's Mighty Macs.

Chambers gave him the press kit complete with a DVD that features the opening six minutes.

When the Guru returned to his room to play the disc on his laptop, he received a message it was in unrecognizable format. Stay tuned.

Chatting With the Commish

The Guru hooked up with NBA Commissioner David Stern for a quick set of hellos that we usually do at this event.

After talking a bit further about Val Ackerman, the founding WNBA president and current president of USA Basketball who received the John Bunn award, Stern mentioned the women's pro league, saying "The WNBA is doing great this season.

"I don't hear people asking me anymore how long is it going to last."

Two minutes later after the Guru moved on, his blackberry buzzed with an email from Houston saying the Comets had appointed a new executive in charge of day-to-day business operations.

Scholarship Update

In a previous post located below not far from this one, the Guru's report mentioned former Rutgers player Rebecca Richman receiving the first of two scholarships -- one to each gender -- to go toward work in sports management.

To add further detail, the scholarships are part of the Manny Jackson Human Spirit awards for community service that this year went to Sonny Hill, who aids youngsters in Philadelphia, and former NBA star David Robinson.

Jackson is a former owner of the Harlem Globetrotters.

The scholarships are each worth $5,000.

While on the subject of Rutgers, a few media types were speculating when legendary Scarlet Knights coach C. Vivian Stringer would at least get to the formal nomination level, let alone the actual vote of induction.

With more than 800 wins and Final Four appearances with three different teams, those achievements should be enough to merit recommendation from the women's subcommittee.

But obstacles still exist. In recent seasons, the committee has been hesitant to send two names forward, fearing they would cancel each other out by voters of the actual induction committee, who might go for only one of the recommendations on their respective ballots.

The Guru has already heard here of a campaign for next year boosting Cynthia Cooper, the former WNBA star who helped lead Houston to the first four league titles.

As for coaches, the only other one who could get an edge as of now, per the informal media speculation in Springfield, is Stanford's Tara VanDerveer who has coached an Olympic gold medalist squad as well as two NCAA champions out of Palo Alto, Calif.

The Shoe On Geno's Other Foot

So the Guru was chatting with UConn coach Geno Auriemma, already a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, when his longtime friend Phil Martelli, the St. Joseph's men's coach and Martelli's wife, Judy, a former Immaculata player for Rush, arrived.

Martelli was heard to ask Auriemma,"Did you call? They played their first 2-on-2 today. Find out what happened."

It was then that the Guru remembered that Auriemma's son Michael is now a freshman with St. Joe's and Martelli must have been talking about a pick-up game like the ones known to be played in the summer among the women at UConn.

At that point, the Guru whispers to Martelli, "Do yourself a favor. Make sure your guys don't say to his kid, `You know, down here we do things differently at St. Joseph's. We run up and down both ends of the court.'

"Geno doesn't need any surprise visits through his door at 7 in the morning."

On a serious note, during the intro video, Auriemma, who worked at Rush's camps and escorted her to the podium, remarks, "The schools they played and beat -- they were like a community college playing and beating the Lakers."

Press Conference Highlights

Here are Rush's opening comments before the one-on-one sessions Friday morning at the Hall of Fame.

"You know I'm listening to these wonderful men talk about dreams. I grew up in a time when young women, girls, didn't have these dreams. There was no state tournament, national tournament.

"When I went to Immaculata, an all-girls Catholic college of about 400, it was supposed to be a low key job, just something to keep me busy while Ed was out refereeing.

"Obviously it didn't turn out that way. We didn't even know in 1971 that there was going to be a national tournament. And so many women who went ahead of us and planned, and wanted this to happen -- One of our players who went to the national tournament said, `We went to the party and took it home and never gave it back.'

"I just thank everyone now for giving women equality, a chance to succeed in so many things.

"I was looking the other night people talking about breaking the glass ceiling. And I just think that young girls and young women now have people to look up to in team sports as well as individual sports.

"I thank you for this. It certainly is a big honor. I never dreamed it, but it certainly is a dream come true."

Excerpts from the One-on-One Session

"All of us hoped at one point the game would reach great heights. I didn't think anyone thought it would happen this quickly.
"If you look at the development of the men's game, and the push shot and all the crazy things men did, women have gone through the same transition in a condensed period of time.
"I stopped coaching, I can't believe it, almost 30 years ago. And it's so different, it's so fast, the people are so big, and the media response whether it's Connecticut or Tennessee, or the impact of the WNBA, the Olympic gold medal, it's amazing. I'm overwhelmed."

"I always say that Immaculata was the only school that Title IX adversely affected. Because we were an all-girls school. There was no budget to match. So all of a suddent Immaculata was losing players to St. Joe's, Penn State, Villanova and those girls that would traditionally go to Immaculata, were now going to La Salle, Villanova, St. Joe's.

"But on a positive note, I really think the effect that it's had, society-wise, people are now more encouraged to have their daughters play. And that's the best thing that ever came out of it."

On getting an offer to coach Maryland (1975-76) -- "At one point, (men's coach) Left Driesel said Maryland was going to be the UCLA of the East. When they didn't do well after the first few seasons, some said that Immaculata was actually the UCLA of the East.

"Their athletic director (Jim Kehoe) called me and Ed down, surreptitiously, to do an interview and he wanted me to take the job, we were considering the job and moving to that area, and there was sort of a player revolt that they wanted their assistant coach, Chris Weller, to have the job.

"And their head coach Dottie McKnight thought it was appropriate for her assistant to take over. And sometimes we actually look at decisions and you look at them years later and you say, `Boy that was good that I didn't go to that thing and it didn't happen. And that was one of the good things that happened because I stayed in Philadelphia, it's where I wanted to be, and as time went on, I knew with my family, I didn't want to coach as much and wanted to stay involved in the game but with their lives."

(Acceptance speech to come)

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Wilmington's Elena Della Donne out of Ursuline Academy continues to make progress as a budding collegiate volleyball star at Delaware even if life is a little different than it would be at the moment if she had enrolled at Connecticut as the nation's top high school basketball recruit.

For example, for now, one must go a little deeper into the Blue Hens' match account to find a first mention of Delle Donne, as opposed to a first sentence notation that was part of the package that came with her other talent.

And a packed house at a match near Delle Donne's front porch means some 280 as opposed to some 10,000 in the Huskies' Gampel Pavilion or 16,000 in the XL Center in downtown Hartford.

But based on accounts -- the Guru will be in Newark, Del., on Tuesday live for the Temple match -- the nation's player of the year in the other sport appears to be fitting in quite nicely.

In fact, if the Guru is reading a boxscore correctly, she may have even earned a start.

Incidentally, while in Springfield, Mass., on the scene for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction events, the Delle Donne change of venue drew inquiries to the Guru from USA Basketball executive types, who had been out of the country harvesting gold medals in Beijing, China,

And traffic continues to run through here on Guru non-performance days because of high interest that remains across the country on Delle Donne's activity.

You don't think the Guru would be writing volleyball news otherwise, do you?

Oops, just joking, Bonnie.

Anyhow, to bring things up to date, the Blue Hens went 2-1 at their own tournament this weekend, Delle Donne's first appearances in front of the home folks.

Delaware beat New Hampshire, Friday night, 3-2, with match scores of 15-25, 25-21, 25-15, 19-25, and 15-9. Her stats featured six kills and five blocks.

On Saturday, the Blue Hens beat Syracuse, 3-0, with match scores of 25-23, 25-19, and 25-17 in the early event as Delle Donne tallied six kills and a block.

Michigan State eventually took the tournament, however, 3-0, with match scores of 25-19, 25-23, and 25-8, as Delle Donne's statistics showed four kills and three blocks.

-- Mel

(First item will be updated with more detail on Friday afternoon)

By Mel Greenberg

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - While legendary Rutgers women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer remains on the waiting list for nomination to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, one of her former players made a little history here Thursday night at the first event of this year's induction weekend.

Rebecca Richman, a graduate of the class of 2005 and currently assistant director of academic support and compliance at Wagner, became the first female recipient of a new set of scholarships to each gender for work in sports management.

"I applied for the scholarship and was really, really happy to learn I would be receiving it," Richman said. "It really is a great honor."

Richman was drafted by the New York Liberty in the WNBA and then played two years on the Jamaican National Team.

"I owe all my basketball success to Coach Stringer at Rutgers and all my teammates, but I'm really, really happy and proud. It feels real good to be the first," Richman said.

"I'm sure Coach Stringer would be proud. I'm sure Rutgers would be proud. We're always doing things to keep the great name of Rutgers positive."

Alphabetically Speaking

Former Immaculata coach Cathy Rush, one of the seven inductees at Friday night's ceremonies, was looking to buy time from other inductees for her acceptance speech.

"They told us `five minutes,' and everytime I have come up with a word, I have a story to tell," Rush fretted.

If the organizers here continue to go by the alphabet, which isn't always the case, Rush will be the sixth of seven speakers.

"The whole program is suppose to be two hours," said Rush, calculating her strategy no different than when she was guiding the Mighty Macs to the first three national Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national titles (1972-74).

"I'm thinking that some of the inductees in front of me won't be speaking very long, so when my turn comes, the TV director will be doing this," Rush said giving the TV signal to fill time because the program is running short.

Rush has experience, having done analysis in the past for national TV broadcasts. She also used to be a local commentator when the Big Five had a women's package.

Her work in that area landed her into the Big Five Hall of Fame, one of a few individuals who earned induction without ties to any of the local universities.

Time limit rules get broken anyhow, if Thursday night's event is an indicator.

Bob Wolff, the electronic media recipient of the Curt Gowdy media awards, went over his limit, causing the Guru to label it the first-ever commercial-free acceptance speech.

When Wolff said he had done his own commercials, the Guru then realized why Wolff was able to be extensive -- "He never had to go to the break."

David Dupree was the print recipient and when he got up after Wolff, he remarked, "I once worked for USA Today. Trust me. I know how to be brief."

Pulling Rank

Lori Mann, a former Mighty Mac, arrived here in time for Thursday night's dinner.

One person who wanted badly to appear, but will not, is WNBA Los Angeles Sparks assistant coach Marianne Stanley, who has enough credentials with three national titles as a coach and also more as a player for her own induction here.

Originally, according to a knowledgeable source here, Stanley had been clearance to go by Sparks head coach Michael Cooper, who later claimed he had to go to a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for his own Los Angeles Lakers coach, Pat Riley.

When Stanley noted that it was the same Hall of Fame, well, Cooper played the boss card, so to speak.

Geno the Presenter?

Unlike the procedures at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Rush did not get to select who would present her at Friday night's ceremony in the introductory video.

Rush would have liked to pick Ann Meyers-Drysdale, A Naismith Hall of Famer and general manager of the WNBA defending champion Phoenix Mercury, whom Rush coached when the former UCLA All-American played on the 1975 Pan-Am gold medalist coached by Rush.

She guessed that the intro will be done by Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, which is fine, also, considering he was once on the staff of one of her summer camps and was on hand to express interest when Debbie Ryan phoned to say she was looking for an assistant.

Staley London Bound?

It may be a while before the identity of the next Olympic women's coach is known for the London Games in 2012.

By winning the Beijing Games gold medal, the United States has next year off, not having to go through the qualifying process for the FIBA World Championship.

Several USA Basketball officials here for president Val Ackerman's special award Thursday night, indicated former Temple coach Dawn Staley could become the next head of the Olympic squad, though there seemed to be a difference of opinion on the eligibility status that is needed to make it happen.

Staley, the new South Carolina coach who won three gold medals as a player, was an assistant on this year's squad under Anne Donovan.

One official didn't think a candidate had to be a WNBA head coach at the time of appointment. "It's more like two and two (WNBA and college)," the source said.

"Anyhow, the fact that a college coach headed the men's team may have broken the ice."

Another official, however, said the current rule would have to be changed, but didn't see the move as a major problem, though USA Basketball need not be in a rush to rewrite the guidelines.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Friday night is for the seven inductees that make up this year's Class of 2008 to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Thursday night, however, belonged to Val Ackerman, the founding president of the WNBA and current USA Basketball president who recently had the thrill of watching the USA men's and women's teams both earn gold medals at the Beijing Games in China.

"I was a little worried about the depth situation and short time frame the women's team had to prepare, but they were magnificent and much deeper than I thought," Ackerman said.

She continued to vacation in China afterwards but left her family to get here in time for Thursday night's honor.

The Bunn award is considered the highest honor exclusive of being an inductee.

Here is the text of Ackerman's speech, though a few portions of the digital were slightly inaudible due to the Guru's table assignment for the dinner. Also forgive some mispellings, if you spot them. This is being written right into the blog:

"This is very special and an unexpected honor and I want to express my deep felt thanks to the ... Bunn selecton committee for making this possible tonight.

"I want to start off by tipping my hat to (Curt Gowdy Media Award winners) Dave Dupree and Bob Wolff, who really have had illustruous careers and their awards tonight are very well deserved.

"And I want to congratulate this year's class -- they're all basketball giants and together they represent an amazing group who have done so much for the game we love so much.

"Basketball is the No. 1 sport in the world. Sorry foosball, or whatever sport they call it. It really is the No. 1 sport in the world and the reason is the great people that are associated with our game.

"During the years I spent in basketball, I've had the privilege, and I mean that, the privilege to know and learn from and be inspired by many incredible people from so many different spheres in our sport.

"And I can tell you that for me just being part of the basketball continium has truly been an unparalleled honor.

"If somone had told me 20 years ago, or even 15 years ago, or even 10 years ago that would have the opportunity to work with people like (NBA Commissioner) David Stern, or David Gavitt, or Boris Stankovic, the longtime secretary-general of FIBA, or Pat Summitt, an incon in women's basketball, just to name a few, or that I'd be following in the footsteps of emminent people in our sport ... as president of USA Basketball, I just wouldn't have believed that.

"For me, just being part of this distinguished list, has been its own reward.

"Speaking of USA Basketball, I'd like to give a Yeee Howl gto my colleagues Jerry Coleangelo, but thank you for being here.

"I can tell you that a number of us have recently spent a lot of time in China where a great deal of work went into preparing our two teams for the Olympics

"And if you followed closely how much has happened, how much has changed in the world of basketball in the last 15 years, you would know and appreciate that the results that we had -- two gold medals was not only a very satisfying result but also an affirmation on the strength of American basketball at a time when the game continues to expand and the rest of the world keeps getting better, better, and better all the time.

"The changes in international basketball have, of course, been rivaled by the great changes in women's basketball and I feel very lucky to have been have to build on the foundation that has been laid by so many people in the women's game -- players, coaches, and adminstrators, front office people and members of the media, really, so many others who have worked so unselfishly to help bring women's basketball to its rightful place on the sports landscape.

"It has been a source of such great pride for so many of us to see the strides the women's game has made the past couple of decades and I know the progress will continue along with the efforts of the great young players in the game today and the ones that will follow, the great coaches, as well as the many people who serve on the front lines.

"There are three personal acknowledgements I'd like to make before I sit down -- My husband Charley, and my two daughters Emily and Sally are on their way back from China. We had an extended trip there -- 31 days -- and unfortunately couldn't be here.

"But I am accompanied by my mother Barbara, she's the one taking pictures on the front row. She's been a very enthusiastic supporter of all my pursuits including basketball, so mom, thanks for being here and what you have done for me and what you continue to do for me and my family.

"There are two other people without whom I know I wouldn't be standing here tonight.

"The first is Russ Granik. Russ is was just a privilege to work with you and learn from you and to try in a very rough way to emulate your style and your approach to decisiion making and problem solving, a very considered and practical approach, I might add, not to mention your way of dealing with others -- very inclusive and very respective at all times.

"So thank you for opening so many doors for me and being such a tremendous source of council and guidance and friendship over the years. So thank you very much.

"The second person I"d like to acknowledge is David Stern. Every now and then you hear how transformative and in the world of sports David has been that and so much more.

"I do not have enough superlatives, having worked with David for so many years, to describe what he has done for basketball -- to the modernization of the NBA, to his forward-looking approach to branding and globalization, to his support for the WNBA and by definition women's sports -- the list goes on, as there is very little he hasn't done or hasn't impacted.

"I'm kind of fond of saying David sees things that others can't but what really sets him apart is he doesn't just see things, he visualizes things, he doesn't just imagine things, but he actually goes out and gets them done. He makes things happen.

"I can tell you it has absolutely been just the highest of honors to be part of his world and ti try to keep up with him as he goes about his business. And I really thank him for giving me the opportunity to contribute even in a modest way to this great man.

"Again, I'm very greatful to the Hall for this honor and thank all of you."

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Those who predicted last year that the next time Tennessee and Connecticut might meet again in the regular season both Vols coach Pat Summitt and Huskies coach Geno Auriemma will be living in well-to-do retirement communities might have been on to something.

Well the two universities, whose famous women's basketball rivalry was cancelled by Summitt, are on each other's calendar -- but in football.

The pigskin duo will first face each other in 2015 in East Hartford, followed by a visit to Knoxville the following season.

By then, both Summitt and Auriemma should ... (you can complete the line in your discussions).

That's it for now. The Guru has to head over for Thiursday night's first Hall of Fame event here in Springfield, Mass., but since Jonathan sent the football story to the blackberry while the Guru was adimiring how the Holyoke Mall has grown from a woodshed into a megaplex, he thought he should way in to keep you entertained until our return.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - No, the Guru is not on the scene for fraternity or sorority activities at Springfield College.

And ESPN aside, we'll get to that in a moment, it can also be tagged "Dantley," "Olajuwon," "Dantley," "Davidson," Riley," or "Vitale" week in honor of the individuals set to be inducted into the Nasimith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Former Immaculata coach Cathy Rush, after several failed campaigns, is among the group of honorees who will be celebrated in festivities over the next several days.

The other inductees are former collegiate and NBA men's stars Adrian Dantley, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Patrick Ewing; former Miami and Los Angeles coach Pat Riley, who guided the Lakers to several NBA crowns, Detroit Pistons (NBA) and Shock (WNBA) owner William Davidson, and, as a contributor gaining honors, longtime collegiate broadcaster Dick Vitalte,

This year's class is one of the more popular groups of honorees in recent years (not discounting the area-attraction in 2005-06 involving the back-to-back UConn coaching tandem of Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma) . The public portion of ticket availability was sold out several weeks ago.

Sports department colleague Kate Fagan, who unlike the Guru actually played the game, will be handling print coverage in Friday's and Saturday's paper.

The Guru, who unlike Fagan, was actually a member of the planet at the time the Mighty Macs won the first three national Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) titles (1972-74) in the pre-NCAA era, will be right here where he always is giving you everything else, which is why the early arrival along with Rush and some of her entourage.

Oh, about that ESPN reference. The network of Dickie V made like a network email erasure earlier this week. When sending the media word of a teleconference with its star celebrity, it managed to mention all the other inductees except Rush.

Then again, like Fagan, they weren't on anybody's blueprint either during the glory days. And they have remembered to broadcast the NCAA tournament, enhancing multimedia coverage and will be again bringing us the WNBA playoffs in a few weeks.

And to be even-handed and fair while having some fun with the Guru's friends, you can go back in the archives to last April, if you missed it, and read an extensive feature on Immaculata written before it was known that Rush had been voted into the hall here. She already is an inductee of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.

The weekend's festivities begin Thursday night with subsidiary awards, sort of like Vice President night at the political conventions.

The most notable honor, as reportedly recently, will be the John Bunn award going to former WNBA president and current USA Basketball president Val Ackerman, who will be arriving here with the golden glow of the success of the men's and women's USA teams at the recent Olympic in Beijing, China.

Ackerman, a former player at Virginia who grew up near Trenton, remained in the Orient to vacation with her family before heading directly here.

Friday's two main events are the morning press conference in which, based on past Guru observations, Rush will find herself being interviewed by a bunch of media types who have never been to a women's game but will attempt to sound intelligent with their questions.

Then comes the induction itself Friday night followed by several events here and at the Mohegan Sun down in Uncasville, Conn., Saturday morning and night.

Many former Immaculata players will be attending, including Denise Conway, Judy Martelli (the wife of St. Joseph's men's coach Phil Martelli), and Theresa Grentz, who was recently made a vice president at her alma mater after returning there a year ago following her resignation as longtime coach at Illinois.

"I didn't even apply for it," Grentz said with a smile at lunch last week of her promotion.

The official Immaculata delegation will also include current coach Patty Canterino, the school president, Grentz, and several other school officials.

When Rush took the job right after graduation from West Chester State, her new place of employment was a tiny women's school located in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.

Today, the university, which competes in NCAA Division III in the newly-named Colonial States Athletic Conference (former Pennsylvania Athletic Conference), fields 15 men's and women's sports, several intramural sports, has an undergraduate enrollement of 1,000, and a post-graduate population of 3,000.

OK, so the Guru knows what's in back of your mind through all this.

What happened to that movie (Our Lady of Victory) they were filmining on campus last summer.?

Here's the latest from the director, Tim Chambers, who will be here and emailed the Guru earlier this week:

Three weeks of screening are left, most with the major studios. A few indie distributors screened expressed interest.

If all goes good (he said previously it takes several months to develop a marketing strategy), the target is the late-March/early-April period next spring which involves the Final Four, Holy Week, and spring break.

That's enough to get you started. The Guru will be attempting some surprise interviews along with other behind-the-scenes activity. Stay clicking.

-- Mel