Women's Hoops Guru

(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