Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - While we observe a Phillies parade that we last witnessed back before many of you were born in 1980, our good friend John Altavilla sent us a copy of comments on his blog at the Hartford Courant by Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, about the Phillies winning the World Series.

Earlier in the week during the rain-delay of Game 5 we heard from Yale assistant coach Dianne Nolan, former Fairfield head coach, who grew up across the river in Gloucester, N.J., and whose brother Drew was on the same rioster as the Guru when Temple won the National Invitation Tournament in New York.

Herre's what was said:

Well, Geno Auriemma is one happy guy, it seems. The freshmen are playing well. Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery are excelling. And the Phillies won the World Series.

If you don't already know, Geno is a BIG Philly sports fan. He loves the Flyers, Sixers and Eagles, too. But he's deeply committed to the Phillies, in much the same way I loved the Mets until our messy split in September. I suppose there's a chance we can reconcile by the spring, but those Rays. . .I don't know. It's too early to tell. Love is a tricky thing.

But anyway, Geno obviously got a big kick out of watching the Phillies wrap up the World Series on Wednesday. And he was feeling a little nostalgic about it.

"Philadelphia is one of the few places in America, and I think New York is the same, where the fans decide what the expectations should be," Geno said. "It's not the team, the owners or the general managers [who decide] If they [the fans] think you should win the World Series, then that's what you should do. Anything less than that, you stink. That's a hard way to play in that town.

"My first recollection of the Phillies is when I first came to America [in the early 1960s).They were so bad. The 1961-63 era may have been the worst era in Phillies history. And that's bad when you consider the franchise has lost over 10,000 games.

"And then 1964 rolls around. As a kid, you're getting caught up in all, listening to all the games. Jim Bunning's pitching a perfect game at Shea Stadium on Father's Day. Johnny Callison hits a game-winning homer and is the MVP of the All-Star Game at Shea Stadium. Richie Allen is there for the first time. I can still close my eyes right now and think of the quirks of every guy at every position. If you were 10 years old, that was your life. The Eagles were lousy. Pro basketball really didn't exist. And there were no Flyers. It was win the league and go to the World Series. And to have them lose it the way they did. . .Chico Ruiz [of the Reds] steals home [to start the slide that cost them the pennant to the Cardinals].

"It wasn't like the Yankees; we'll get them next year. There was no next year for a Phillies fan. It is first and foremost a baseball town, always was and always will be. Then [after they won] you've to to deal with the phone calls. One huge Cardinals fan who I won't name, but he coaches Division I basketball in New Britain [Central Connecticut coach Howie Dickenman] called me to congratulate me on the Phillies winning their second World Series since the revolutionary war. What a way to ruin a great night. But we have as many as the Red Sox over the last 85 years."

And here is Dianne's note:

On Monday as we watched the game, my friend Chrissie, now a Judge if California, called and asked whats with the wossie ear flaps?

I even bought two boxes of tateycakes but not able to find Schmidt’s Beer. Since my mom passes, my dad lives with us.

Drew sent him a fitted P hat and is a sight in his pj’s and hat.

Know that the fans are in the south of Ct not just the north!!

GO PHILLIES!!

Dianne M Nolan

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - The Atlantic Ten went a different direction Tuesday in media day events, holding a combined teleconference and videoconference, using the internet, instead of going to a live site for interviews with conference men's and women's coaches and players.

You can listen to all of it at the A-10 site. Your Guru had to deal with most of it to write a print story for both genders while we all wait down here for a certain, ahem, World Series baseball event to continue from the Monday.

Though your Guru was inside the office dealing with the rest of the world for the section as the night wire editor, it became an adventurous darkness-into-sunrise experience, which we'll get to in a bit.

Right now (late Tuesday) at 11:30 p.m., the rain has gone away but some weather God has provided temperature and wind conditions that had been reserved earlier for either Chicago team if they had advanced.

Meanwhile, for you Uonn fans up North, a few quick items, one of which is to justify the headline.

On the A-10 call, the session with St. Joseph's men's coach Phil Martelli ended before the Guru had a chance to ask about the progress of freshman Michael Auriemma, the son of a certain well-known Connecticut women's coach who is a longtime friend of Martelli back from their days together here in the city's Catholic League.

The Guru returned to the waking world briefly to ask new Temple coach Tonya Cardoza, a former longtime assistant to Geno Auriemma, whether she had referenced her friend Dawn Staley, the former Owls coach, about the team.

Cardoza, a former Virginia teammate of Staley, who is now coaching South Carolina, said she wanted to assume command by making her own judgements and impressions without having an influence from someone else's input.

She reported that everyone has been great to date and that perhaps players who had not been used much in the past appreciated a clean slate and new start in a system that is expected to have more emphasis on offense.

The big holes to fill is the point guard slot after Ashley Morris finished her career in memorable fashion and at center, which was dominated by Lady Comfort.

Xavier was picked first, but the balloting was done before Amber Harris' knee surgery. Locally, Temple was picked fourth -- Cardoza thought it would be lower -- St. Joseph's was picked sixth -- coach Cindy Griffin thought the Hawks would be a little higher -- and La Salle was picked 13th.

Griffin thought her Hawks' longtime rivalry with Temple and George Washington would be "a little weird" this year with the departure of GW's Joe McKeown to Northwestern and Staley to South Carolina.

Of McKeown, she noted, "He was coaching GW when I was still playing."

And Fordham coach Cathy Andruzzi reported no scars had been left from the dubious record 0-29 performance last season and her Rams were energized and ready to do battle.

AP Preseason Poll

In the earliest release in what begins the 33rd season -- I think -- of the Associated Press women's poll, the rankings will move on the wire Saturday for Sunday papers, with the preseason All-America team to follow 24-48 hours later.

Election Map in Collegiate Conference Land

Looking at a layout of the projected presidential race across the nation, the Guru has decided the following about BCS conferences: The Big East, and Pac-10 are blue conferences; the Big 12 and SEC are red conferences; and the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast are battleground conferences.

An Adventurous Night

OK, earlier your Guru referred to the previous 24 hours here and now presents another, "When life is not glamorous" episode.

Monday night began with two plans for the paper -- Phillies win and the town blows up or Phillies lose and on to Florida.

But this is Philadelphia, so if you really looked deep into your gut, you could have made a ton of money betting the bizarre would occur.

And sure enough it did when weather conspired to create an all-new on-the-run Plan C for the paper when the World Series game was suspended.

Meanwhile, unrelated to all this but looming ahead for the Guru was the A-10 maraphone call since he was asked by an editor to handle the men's portion along with the women. Note to Drexel men's coach Bruiser Flint -- you're still the main gender equity project for the Guru.

A promise had been made earlier to the Guru's A-10 staff friends help out with interviews of the women's coaches prior to the office adding a little bit to the workload that also included another desk shift on Tuesday night -- like right now.

After leaving here sometime before daylight, the Guru decided to stop for a sunrise snack at his neighborhood late-nite diner and entertain the staff with tales of the evening's activity -- especially Valeria, the recently-arrived young cashier from Romania whom the Guru has been educating to American ways.

Then the Guru departed for home and a few hours sleep to wait for the call. As he steered onto the street in a rental Dodge Avenger he had been using, suddenly the motor cut off and he glided the vehicle to the curb at the front end of a bus stop.

Although the battery was providing power, it appeared some computer glitch was not sending whatever to the ignition. If anyone knows what "No Bu5 or BuS" means on the dash, email the Guru.

He phoned the rental agency, located a few blocks from home, which then sent someone out to check on the situation. After a half-hour wait, someone arrived at 7:30 a.m. and said the electronics baffled him. Meanwhile, it was chilly and rainy.

The Guru next called the rental's roadside assistance, which said it would notify the Philly fleet center. The Guru also notified his local rental staffers, who know him well.

They went ahead to prepare the paperwork for a switch, which meant the Guru was going to spend some time transferring his GPS, his IPod connections, and also had to use the backseat to get to his laptop, which was in a trunk that would not open, although the door locks worked.

Finally, the Philly center from the other side of town said a tow truck would come from the airport. At 9 a.m., someone arrived and we headed to make the switch. That done, the Guru hit home just before the A-10 calls got under way.

All appeared normal to Charlotte coach Karen Aston when the call began and the Guru somehow maintained coherency through noon on the marathon. At that point, taking advantage of a half-hour break before being needed, the Guru drifted into la-la land.

Awakening at 1:30 p.m., the Guru realized there was still time to return to the call and at the moment noticed a text message from A-10 communications official AnnMarie Person, the former UConn women's media relations official and Guru's personal SID when he becomes subject matter, to get back on the call.

As the Guru returned, the A-10 phone back at conference headquarters blew out and so he was in place just in time to pick up the conversation with new Temple coach Tonya Cardoza.

Then it was off to sleep and then return here to write the print story and do another turn on the desk.

Meanwhile, in another somewhat crippling technology disaster for those of you communicating 24/7 with Guru central, his blackberry keyboard on the T-mobile system is half-shot. But he was able to use an existing backup carrier at AT&T to engage a second blackberry (Sarah Palin has nothing on me), but the address file still has to be inputting so we're working with both, for now.

However, the company cell remains ok, although we've been told a new carrier would soon become involved with the company.

That said, it's time to sign off, but like General MacArthur, the Guru will return -- and it won't take two years.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK – Not many months ago Wilmington’s Elena Delle Donne was being discussed as the next great force in women’s basketball.

Straight ahead on the horizon was a freshman season at the University of Connecticut, considered the overwhelming favorite to win the 2009 NCAA championship and quite possibly and few more in the years the former Ursuline Academy star would be on a roster.

That collection already has one crown jewel in sophomore Maya Moore along with a multitude of other gems.

However, less than 24 hours after arriving at the Huskies’ Storrs campus last June, Delle Donne also arrived at the notion that perhaps the great calling of basketball had been a wrong number.

And so she returned home, startling her father Ernie with a knock at the door the following morning, and then let the summer months go by before deciding at the end of August to enroll at nearby Delaware to play volleyball.

But if Delle Donne has withdrawn, for now, as the next great force in women’s basketball, she was very much the invisible gazelle Wednesday at the Colonial Athletic Association’s media day in Washington and st the Big East’s media day here on Thursday.

Two articles in the last week in the New York Times and Washington Post involving interviews with Delle Donne helped fuel the conversation.

Initially, reporters venturing to Newark, Del., to watch the 19 year-old compete with the Blue Hens were advised in advance that Delle Donne was not going to comment further on basketball in the wake of her press conference when she announced her decision to play volleyball.

And for those who have been chronicling the saga, no new ground was broken by either paper in terms of what she had already stated back in September.

But each article contained a bit of a hint that the door was not slammed shut in the long run in terms of Delle Donne returning to that in which she earned the same early high school acclaim that had been given over the years to such superstars as Nancy Lieberman, Cheryl Miller, Chamique Holdsclaw, Diana Taurasi, and more recently Candace Parker.

"The game itself kind of changed for me," Delle Donne said to the Washington Post in discussing with a little more depth the burnout she felt. "I thought the game was a team sport; we're all in this together winning games. At one point, it became the game was me against me. If I didn't score 30 points and have 15 rebounds, then we lost -- even if we did win. The whole team aspect of the sport went away from me.

"At U-Conn., it wouldn't have been that way; it would've been the whole team. I knew that, but I guess it just killed the sport for me over the years. The sport ended up dying for me."
But then Delle Donne said to the New York Times, “I love what I’m doing; I don’t see any reason to change as of now.

“If I ended up missing a sport, I wouldn’t mind just playing here and maybe doing two sports. Or if I really, really missed it and I wanted to go back to Connecticut, that’s always a possibility, too. But right now, I’m happy, so I’m going to stick with what I’m doing and enjoy it.”
Those comments had the CAA folks again speculating how an eventual decision to play basketball at Delaware would transform the league, considered a mid-major.

There’s also the prospect that one benefit of Delle Donne’s participation with the Blue Hens would bring to an end the 17-year reign of Old Dominion, which is again the preseason favorite.

Delaware was picked seventh, but one joke heard was that the ranking had an invisible asterisk with the denotation that if Delle Donne joined the team, the Blue Hens would be minimally upgraded to third.

However, it is believed the NCAA was not asked for a waiver on the release from Delle Donne’s UConn scholarship to play at Delaware because she had declared that she definitely had no interest in basketball for now.

Several hours after the CAA one-on-one sessions got under way, Delaware coach Tina Martin was asked how times she had been asked about Delle Donne.

“A lot. But I have nothing to say,” Martin responded. “She knows where we are. But she has to decide for herself what’s best and we’re staying out of it. So it really isn’t appropriate to say anything else.”

Meanwhile, Delle Donne was also in side discussions here at the Big East event in some ways because of the “what might have been” factors had she remained at UConn.

For one, given her reputation, perhaps Delle Donne would have been named the Big East’s top incoming freshman instead of Rutgers’ super-talent April Sykes, who was given the honor by the conference’s coaches.

The Villanova contingent was also approached about Delle Donne because the Wildcats along with Tennessee and Middle Tennessee were the three other finalists in the recruiting race when she declared for Connecticut.

There was even a brief period a year ago in late summer where Villanova coach Harry Perretta was being told he had become the favorite to land the former player with Fencor on the AAU circuit.

“I am getting more questions about it now than before,” Perretta said.

One reason is some believe that if she wanted to play in the Big East and stay close to home, the Wildcats would be the perfect fit.

And coming from Delaware instead of Connecticut, maybe the Big East transfer rule barring eligibility once a commitment had been given to another member would no longer be applicable.

Both Wildcats seniors Laura Kurz and Siobhan O’Connor, who crossed paths with Delle Donne on the local AAU circuit, were asked what a Wildcat roster would be like had Villanova been the winner in the recruiting race last year.

“She would have been a third force, another option,” O’Connor said, while Kurz added, “She would have helped us tremendously, but we never really thought it was a realistic situation. So it wasn’t like we were getting our hopes up for it to happen.”

Connecticut has moved on and coach Geno Auriemma is not publicly commenting on Delle Donne’s departure or if she would be welcomed in a bid to return.

But a week ago, he did make some allusions during the Huskies’ media day when the following question was asked: “The fact that one freshman who everybody was talking about is not going to be here, not going to be with this program, do you think they (the team) in their hearts want to prove they could win a national championship without her?”

“I don’t think that’s an issue at all,” Auriemma said. “I think they probably want to win a national championship because we lost last year in St. Petersburg (Fla.). I have not sat down and talked to them about any of that.

“I think they know me well enough – I know a lot of coaches talk a lot about who’s not here, who used to be here, who’s gonna be here. It seems there’s more focus on who’s not here. Who should be here,” Auriemma continued.

“I’ve never believed in that. And I don’t think they do either. I’ll be disappointed if any of them needed that as motivation. That would be really disappointing.”

--Mel

By Mel Greenberg

STORRS, Conn. - The Phillies' capture of the national league pennant was a prominent part of the conversation Thursday at the University of Connecticut women's basketball team's annual media day less than 24 hours after the win over the Los Angeles Dodgers leading to baseball's World Series.

Several members of the Huskies contingent, overwhelming favorites to win the 2009 NCAA title in St. Louis next April, have direct hometown ties to the City of Brotherly Love.

The group consists of head coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown; operations director Jack Eisenmann, prized freshman Caroline Doty, a Doylestown native who starred at Germantown Academy; and junior Meghan Gardler of Springfield, Delaware County, who starred at Cardinal O'Hara.

"How about those Phillies? Is the town still standing?" greeted Eisenmann in Gampel Pavilion.

Doty, who missed her senior season recovering from a knee injury, is eager for Friday night's annual Super Show activities and the start of her collegiate career with the formal launch of practice Saturday.

Still, Doty spent some time Thursday among the large contingent of media members discussing her passion for the Phillies.

"I'm a huge Phillies fan," Doty said with a big smile. "I've been watching the whole series. I mean, it's hard up here because people don't have a lot of interest for them. But I've found time. I've been watching them. I've been rooting for them."

Auriemma said he was gratified the Phils won away from home.

"*I have to call home and make sure everything is in one piece," Auriemma deadpanned. "I'm so happy they won on the road. It's such a nice ballpark. I would've hated for (the fans) to tear it up. If they win the World Series, I hope they win it on the road."

Auriemma was in Veterans Stadium when the Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series in 1980.

"I was there when (former Mayor) Frank Rizzo had the police horses and the dogs (to control the fans and protect the stadium)," said Auriemma, who is also a big fan of the Boston Red Sox.

"It looked the old Coliseum in Rome. I expected any minute for the chariots to come out of the bullpen."

Doty, meanwhile, said she's fully recovered from her surgery.

"I think I felt like I was really back when conditioning started and we were doing court work and we were doing our cuts and defensive slides and I felt like `Everything's fine. Nothing's going to happen. and things are going to go well.'"

In discussing her return to action, Doty said, "It's more mental than physical (about being cautious). I'm still going to ice it and be smart about. But thinking about driving (to the basket), in the beginning, `What if I do this, what if I do that?' But if you see our pickup (games), I'll go in for a layup and try to take my (defender).

"Once practice starts and I get on the court, I think I'm going to do anything I can to win," she explained. "Anything to prove I want to be on the court. I will be fearless and I will be going the extra mile to prove my injury is all better."

Doty bubbled over finally getting to the next level and looked forward to the annual night in which the men's and women's teams are introduced to the sellout crowd.

"To be in this uniform is unbelievable. It's a dream come true. It's so real. Friday night, just coming out here and seeing all the fans, I'm thinking, `Wow! I'm finally here and part of a great, great team. Great coaches and great fans. It's just awesome.'"

Doty is separated from her twin brother for the first time, but has compensation.

"Now I have a whole group of sisters. I've always wanted a sister and now I have like 14, so it's really cool."

What is missing is her former AAU teammate and longtime friend Elena Delle Donne, the nation's top prospect out of Wilmington's Ursuline Academy. who officially rejected her UConn scholarship in late August and is now playing volleyball at the University of Delaware.

"I try to stay in touch, but it's tough because she's in season," Doty said. "I've been reading about her and seeing how she's doing."

Doty changed back to her collegiate career and new experiences.

"It's probably the hardest thing I've done, but I have a lot of support and it's going to all pay off in the end," Doty said. "It's rewarding. So you know, you just have to keep fighting through, even when you want to stop. And have everybody fight through every single second, fight through every drill, every single running, every single conditioning. And after you're done, you're just so relieved, so happy.

"I know several weeks ago we were (running) doing hills and we were walking down and everyone was singing. Everyone was hollering. You just know that everything we do here is going to help us in the long run."

Asked whether she would be playing the point or off-guard spot, Doty said, "I don't know yet. Maybe both. Whatever `Coach' wants me to do."

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

SOMEWHERE NEAR THE TAPPEN ZEE BRIDGE, N.Y. -- The Guru is not lost. But it is late/early Wednesday/Thursday after the Guru arrived here as a staging area to grab some sleep and then fetch AP national correspondent Doug Feinberg across the Hudson River at the Metro North Tarrytown Station so we may proceed to suburban Hartford for UConn media day.

The Guru also departed the City of Brotherly Love after midnight to stay on the scene and soak up the celebration of a certain baseball team's advance to the World Series by winning the National League pennant.

He also planned to report on the above headline 24 hours ago until a conflict arose with a situation involving foreign affairs at one of the Guru's late night diners.

And so we continue.

On Tuesday night, the Guru was on the scene at Chelsea Piers in New York City, as was Feinberg, for the annual V Foundation dinner and fundraising auction that also serves as a preview of the men's and women's games for this season to benefit the fight against cancer.

Rutgers again will participate in the women's event, this time against Georgia in Piscataway, N.J.

Prior to the formal procedings, coaches were available at the reception to chit-chat with reporters -- Villanova's Jay Wright was also in the house to preview the Wildcats' game against Texas in the men's doubleheader at Madison Square Garden.

Judging by Georgia coach Andy Landers and Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer -- both Women's Basketball Hall of Famers -- they used a theme expected to be heard in a lot of places, except where we'll be Thursday afternoon in UConn-land.

"This team is kind of a mystery to me," Landers said about his Bulldogs. "We'll be ok at the post and guard positions, but the wings are a little more of an unknown right now. If they come together, we can be very good."

Rutgers' situation once again is not repetitive from Stringer's last appearance here.

Two years ago, she headed into the beginning of practice with a talented rookie class along with veterans Essence Carson and Matee Ajavon -- now in the WNBA. But Stringer could not imagine how deep the learning curve would be in the early going, highlighted by the Duke massacre of the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway at the Jimmy V game before it all reversed direction down the stretch.

Rutgers got its revenge on Duke and then handled Arizona State to march to the Women's Final Four and national title game, losing to Tennessee.

Last year, Stringer started out with a seasoned group picked to challenge for the national title, thereby having to face a slew of great expectations.

This time, it's sort of a mix from the last two years. A star-studded freshman class has arrived on campus to go with senior Kia Vaughn and junior Epiphanny Prince heading the vets.

But with Ajavon and Carson having moved on, Stringer admitted she needed a different approach.

"It's hard to say what we'll look like. We don't have as many veterans back and we don't have the leadership of those two returning," she said. "So I'm working real hard to make things simple in the beginning."

At the formal presentations, Stringer got personal touching on her own experience as a breast cancer survivor and also referencing the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association's work on behalf of North Carolina State coach Kay Yow, who has been battling the disease.

The late Jim Valvano, for whom the effort by ESPN and the foundation is dedicated, coached the N.C. State men to an NCAA title.

The Guru had a brief chance to catch up with new Rutgers assistant coach Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, another Women's Basketball Hall of Famer besides being a former Texas star, who expressed her thrill to land the position that was vacated when Marianne Stanley left to be an assistant with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.

The WNBA's New York Liberty coaching staff attended and head coach Patty Coyle clarified the report that followed New York's loss Detroit in the Eastern Conference title game.

It said she did not attend the postgame press conference and was unavailable for comment following the Shock victory.

Coyle said she was in a holding area waiting to be called, but apparently the winning coach went on longer -- no surprise considering his name is Bill Laimbeer -- and no one came back to take them to the media room.

Meanwhile, Coyle's boss Carol Blazejowski was in the house and seen chatting with WNBA president Donna Orender for several minutes,

Considering the prez was on the other side of Blaze's famous 52-point game in Madison Square Garden back in the day, it might have been the longest the former Queens star held off the former Montclair State sensation without yielding a point.

But then again, that may not be true considering we were not privy to their discussion.

Staley Gets "Foster" Disease.

What is it about Big Five women's coaches who quickly develop a case of homesickness not long after they take jobs in the Southeastern Conference?

After Jim Foster left St. Joseph's for Vanderbilt -- he's now at Ohio State -- in Nashville, it didn't take long for the Guru to receive a request for local newspapers when he was heading South to cover the Lady Commodores.

Earlier this week, a go-between heading for South Carolina phoned the Guru to get recent print editions for one Dawn Staley, who missed reading the hometown news.

Despite being internet savy, it is at least refreshing to find someone who stiill prefers to have an actual paper in their hand.

It's still early, but as of this hour no request as come from UConn from the head coach for souvenir debris from the Phillies' celebration. And no request has come from the new Temple head coach to return from Storrs with a trinket or two from her previous location as a Huskies assistant.

We'll be back in the next 24 hours with our day in UConn.

Earlier, the Guru had a reference to foreign affairs.

He leaves you with this sound bite from the other individual in discussing cultural experiences.

Guru: "So how did you come to America?"

Answer: "I boarded an airplane, it flew across the ocean, and then I took a taxi to my destination."

The individual, with no connection to the Guru's ocupation or work, then flashed a grin being quite pleased with that response.

To be continued.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Those who argue against taking the WNBA season further on the back end might have a point based on the ESPN2 ratings for the championship series between the winning Detroit Shock and San Antonio Silver Stars.

The ratings fell significantly from a year ago, but understand the wrapup to the 2007 season was completed much earlier and there was prime interest in the Northeast because of the combination of former Connecticut sensation Diana Taurasi and former Rutgers superstar Cappie Pondexter on the winning Phoenix Mercury.

Hadn't seen any of this elsewhere, although the Guru had been working on other things since returning from Detroit. Here's the report from the home office off of what was provided from the network.

Speaking of ESPN, the Guru will be in New York Tuesday night for the annual Jimmy V preview dinner and auction at Chelsea Piers. Georgia coach Andy Landers and Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer will represent the women's matchup.

If new Rutgers assistant Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil is among the Scarlet Knights; entourage, the room will contain four Women's Basketball Hall of Famers.

Later this week on Thursday, the Guru will visit UConn media day, if he can escape a certain city that could be celebrating a trip to the World Series on Wednesday night.

Here are the ESPN numbers, which also run comparisons to 2004, the other time the WNBA season was extended because of the Olympics.

WNBA Finals on ESPN2

4:44pm: San Antonio @ Detroit (Game 3): 0.22 household rating / 286,000 viewers

The game was down -60% versus Game 3 of the 2007 WNBA Finals (Tuesday 9/11/07) and earned a 0.55 rating. Viewership was down -56% (646,000 viewers).

After three games, the WNBA Finals on ESPN2 averaged a 0.26 rating, down -43% versus last season's Finals (0.46 rtg.). An average of 315,000 viewers tuned in, down -42% versus last season's Finals (543,000 viewers).

This year's Finals faced tougher sports competition than last year's Finals. The 2008 WNBA Finals faced MLB Division Series competition for Games 1 and 2 and NFL Regular Season and MLB Division Series competition for Game 3.

The Finals were down -13% versus the 2004 WNBA Finals (0.30 rtg.) on ESPN2. 2004 was the last year in which the WNBA Finals were played in October . Viewership was down -9% versus 2004 (345,000 viewers).

The game averaged a 1.2 rating in San Antonio on ESPN2. Local ratings for Detroit are unavailable.

The game peaked at a 0.28 rating between 6:30-6:45pm.

Competition on network television included ABC World News Tonight (1.6 rtg.) on ABC, NFL on CBS - Regional Coverage (12.6 rtg.) on CBS and NBC Nightly News (3.3 rtg.) on NBC. Competition on cable included the MLB Division Series (3.2 rtg.) on TBS.

-- Mel

(Guru's tongue-in-cheek note: Due the sensitive nature of the event the Guru attended on a visit to College Park Wednesday, he agreed to allow Terrapin censors examine the copy before the posting. Changes made compared to the original appear in italic type.)

By Mel Greenberg

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Guru took a quick trip down here late Wednesday afternoon at a quaint setting far from the hustle of the Maryland student social hub on Batlimore Ave. to join a small group of friends and co-workers paid homage to Terrapin sports information director Natalia Ciccone.

The primary contact for two national powerhouse women's sports -- field hockey and women's basketball, Ciccone is heading to assume the women's basketball media contact position for the Pac-10 conference, among other duties.

Although the Guru agreed not to provide quotes in this report because Ciccone still has another day on her Maryland contract according to a source familiar with her departure for the San Francisco Bay Area, he did not hear anyone refer to her as a turncoat considering one of her new teams will be Stanford, the squad that ejected the Terrapins in the elite eight last season in basketball.

Incidentally, to those atendees worried about the Guru's return home because of the presence of two elderly women walking around the setting dispensing different flavored fruit punch offerings, the Guru said Kristi Toliver's three-pointer against Duke in the 2006 NCAA title game to force overtime is still the most memorable shot associated with the program inside or outside the arena.

Ciccone made her mark in landing two national titles in her sport after arriving from Penn State, a school that has been known for its fond relations with the Terrapins over the years.

The Guru was on hand to represent the growing print industry converage of women's basketball, since he was the only one in position to say farewell to Ciccone and salute her work with Maryland while at the same time welcoming her as the media contact for the Pac-10.

At the event, besides key representatives of both field hockey and women's basketball, a total of 25 of the 27 Maryland sports were represented at the goodbye tea.

The Guru agreed not to name the two missing sports, but one has been in the news further up the coast for recently attracting a local star at Delaware who had been headed for a basketball scholarship with a team getting overwhelming preseason acclaim as the 2009 NCAA favorite.

The other sport also involves a ball but with a lot of time spent in a pool during the competition.

The Atlantic Coast Conference media office did not send their women's representative, but she is believed to be getting ready for the conference's annual media event.

The goodbye gifts consisted of different items associated with the Pacific Coast, presented in a tote bag with a peace sign adorning its side.

A ruling is still being awaited from a candidate running for vice president on the national ticket as to whether the symbolism could be an indication of Ciccone or Maryland, itself, being associated with known terrorists.

As for Ciccone's replacement. Maryland officials indicated that with several weeks away from preseason activity, they had plenty of time to properly vet candiates applying for the job.

Despite the myth of the Guru as a clearing house, all resumes should be sent directly to Maryland.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

YPSILANTI, Mich. – A golden oldie, although not an original, has helped establish the Detroit Shock as the new standard by which the rest of the WNBA measures itself.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Smith scored 11 of her team-high 18 points in the fourth quarter Sunday to propel the Shock to a 76-60 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars for a three-game sweep of the best-of-five WNBA championship series.

“It means more because of what we’ve gone through this year,” Smith said of her second champagne bath after being named MVP of the finals. “First, you talk about the Olympic break. That just throws a curve ball at everybody. Some people liked it – it probably helped us – some people are like why did it ever happen?

“Other than that, you talk about suspensions, you talk about injuries, you talk about trades. You talk about people in and out of camp. You talk about people playing a lot of minutes.

“You talk about all that stuff and we’re here. You take everybody’s best shot. I’m just proud that we not only have the competitors, not only the players, but our coaches are amazing.”

Her allusion was to head coach Bill Laimbeer and assistants Cheryl Reeve, a former La Salle star, and Rick Mahorn, a former NBA star.

Before Smith’s arrival via trade with the Minnesota Lynx late in the 2005 season, Detroit had one trophy in its collection – the fabled worst-to-first achievement in 2003.

Since then, the Shock have added two more in the past three seasons, allowing the Phoenix Mercury to get the best of them last year after Detroit held a 2-1 lead and played the deciding game at home.

Houston earned the first dynasty acclaim for capturing four straight crowns, beginning with the WNBA’s launch in 1997.

Now the same description can be applied to Laimbeer’s “Bad Girls,” a reference to what he has brought to the women’s pro game from his earlier years as a member of the NBA Detroit Pistons’ “Bad Boys” championship contingent.

“You have to look at the reality,” San Antonio coach Dan Hughes said after his Western Conference champions, owning the league’s best overall record, were unable to stop another Shock attack.

“I don’t know if they have had the consistency you saw early, but the simple reality is that they are playing to that level,” Hughes said. “And you have to tip your hat to them.”

Laimbeer has been a magician of sorts in his other role as general manager. Smith isn’t the only rabbit he has made appear out of nowhere to make Detroit a perennial contender.

After saving the franchise from the verge of extinction when he became coach early in the 2002 season, Laimbeer grabbed Ruth Riley in the dispersal draft involving the former Miami Sol roster the following winter. He then picked up Cheryl Ford with a high first-round pick in April 2003.

Together with Swin Cash, a first-round pick in the 2002 draft prior to Laimbeer’s arrival, the three components along with former Georgia star Deanna Nolan helped the Shock short-circuit the Los Angeles Sparks’ two-year title rule.

This past season when Ford was lost with an injury prior to the Olympic break, a casualty of the Sparks-Shocks notorious set-to that resulted in several suspensions, Laimbeer plucked Taj McWilliams-Franklin from the Washington Mystics.

The former member of the Philadelphia Rage in the defunct American Basketball League fortified the post attack. In Sunday’s game at Eastern Michigan University’s Convocation Center here. McWilliams-Franklin added 13 points, while Nolan scored 12.

“If Taj isn’t here, I don’t know if we get this done,” Smith said. “It was a huge, huge, move.

“Everybody on this team has that little fire – it’s just you want to be the best, you really want to be the best.”

Ann Waulters scored 19 for San Antonio and Sophia Young added 15, but Becky Hammon, a runnerup in the league MVP contest, was held to five points and shot 1-for-10 from the field.

Kelly Schumacher, who was a member of several Connecticut NCAA champions, has now been on back-to-back WNBA winners, having played with Phoenix a year ago.

“They’re all different, they’re all different situations,” Schumacher said of her trophy collection. “But it’s always a special feeling. Most of the time you feel it even before it happens. You notice the team has a certain chemistry and just the way they play together makes it possible to win championships.”

Detroit is getting to be a gypsy of sorts in celebrating trophy acquisitions. The Shock won their first title in their regular home at The Palace in Auburn Hills.

The next occurred at the Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit. The game played here Sunday was because the Disney On Ice show was appearing at The Palace.

It is a bit ironic that for a league that once thrived on glitz and had experienced its greatest summer of competition in its 12 year history, that the grand finale was here in a throw-back ABL-style arena in front of a noisy but much smaller crowd of 8,952, which was a sellout.

Smith, incidentally, played against McWilliams-Franklin in the first ABL championship in 1997, winning with the Columbus Quest when McWilliams-Franklin’s team was still in Richmond.

When Smith learned she was dealt to Detroit in 2005, Smith said Sunday there were a lot of doubts running through her mind about her role.

“This league is tough. It is hard to get here at the end,” she said. “When I got here, he (Laimbeer) told me he wanted to set this team up to win championships for years to come.

“When I first got here, I didn’t know anything. I never played point guard,” Smith said.

“There were a lot of question marks. After I spent that first preseason with everybody, I earned their trust, they earned mine, We’re all here for one reason and that’s just to win. And its just been a great experience. But I was a huge question mark. Where do I fit in?”

Laimbeer was complementary of Smith’s game,

“I congratulate Katie Smith,” he said of the former Ohio State star who played in the 1993 NCAA title game. “I don’t give her all the credit that she deserves throughout the course of the year, and she really showed it.

“The Detroit Shock are a great basketball team and we have great players. And does it grind us that sometimes we don’t get the individual accolades that some of our players deserve? Yeah, it does a little bit, we’ll be honest,” he continued.

“But you know, we take that in stride and that’s little bit of motivation because the most important thing is that trophy we hold up at the end.”

-- Mel

(Guru's note: Here's the AP advance. The Guru will be parachuting into Michigan Sunday morning to be on the scene.)

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YPSILANTI, Mich. — The WNBA season might end in the Detroit area again.

After the Detroit Shock won the 2006 title by beating Sacramento in Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, they lost the deciding game last season to Phoenix at their regular home — the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Shock will be going for a sweep of the San Antonio Silver Stars at yet another “home” arena Sunday, when they host Game 3 at Eastern Michigan University.

Scheduling conflicts at the Palace meant the Shock have already played twice at EMU’s Convocation Center — beating New York in Games 2 and 3 of the Eastern Conference finals — and Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer doesn’t think his team will suffer by playing an hour away
from home.

“I expect a full house — an atmosphere second to none,” Laimbeer said.

“The Palace is great, but this building is actually louder, because the fans are right on top of you. We’ll have people who have never been to a WNBA game, and they’ll all be cheering for the
Shock. It’s like a college atmosphere, and that will be great.”

Of course, by winning the first two games in Texas, the Shock have given themselves three chances to wrap up the title, each of which would come in different buildings.

Game 4 would be back at the Palace on Monday night, with a possible Game 5 Thursday back in San Antonio.

“We can’t let up now,” Deanna Nolan said. “I don’t think we have to adjust anything, but we have to keep playing the way we played the first two games.”

The Silver Stars came into the series with a 14-0 record against Eastern Conference teams, but have been unable to solve Detroit’s defense. Becky Hammon is shooting just 9-for-23 in
the finals, while fellow MVP candidate Sophia Young is 13-for-39.

“I still believe in my team, but the problem is that I haven’t seen my team yet,” Hammon said. “They are outplaying us, and Katie Smith is killing us.” Smith has averaged 23.5 points in the first two games along with her normal tough perimeter defense.

“I want to win,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it is a pickup game or here — I always want to win, and these are the biggest games there are.” At the age of 34, and at the end of a long season that also included a trip to Beijing to win her third Olympic gold medal,

Smith’s effort has impressed even the tough-to-impress Laimbeer.

“I expect so much from Katie that it is hard for me to compliment her, but I’ve had to do it after each of the first two games,” he said. “I played her 40 minutes tonight, and she could played another 40.” Laimbeer didn’t expect this kind of stamina and longevity when an out-of-shape Smith showed up in Detroit after a 2005 trade.

“She was coming off a knee injury, and weighed 20 or 25 pounds more than she should, and said it was just because she couldn’t work out before the season,” he said. “I had to believe her, but I told her that she needed to lose that weight for the next season. She did —
there isn’t a player in this league that can compete with her work ethic or her physique.”

The Silver Stars, playing in their first finals, face a formidable task. They need to beat the league’s strongest franchise three straight times, with the first two coming
on Detroit’s pair of home floors.

“I’ve said that it isn’t in our DNA to give up, but we have to be done just talking the talk,” Hammon said. “Now it is time to walk the walk. We’ve got to keep believing, keep fighting and mostly, we have to start hitting some shots.”

(Guru's note: Some copy is from AP in San Antonio, including quotes)

By Mel Greenberg

The fans who made Candace Parker's jersey the best-seller in the WNBA were given proof Friday why the replica is worth every penny they spent.

Concluding an unprecedented year for a women's hoops star, the former Tennessee sensation who was the overall No. 1 pick in April's draft by the Los Angeles Sparks was named both the rookie of the year -- an unanmous choice -- and the Most Valuable Player.

It is the first time in the WNBA's 12-year history that a newcomer was also named Most Valuable player, although if the calendar and history were different, the milestone might have been achieved by the likes of Cheryl Miller, Nancy Lieberman, and even Seattle's Sue Bird, who was a finalist in the MVP voting.

In her redshirt junior season before declaring for the draft, Parker won every collegiate player of the year award except the Margaret Wade honor, while leading Tennessee to a second-straight NCAA title.

The Chicago-area native was also a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in Beijing.

And had not Sophia Young rescued San Antonio at the last second in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, Parker would be vying to become to pull a women's basketball hat trick in the championship series, trying to become to win all titles in the same calendar year.

Parker edged Connecticut’s Lindsay Whalen and Seattle’s Bird in
the MVP race.

“You know, Coach (Michael) Cooper set this goal for me early on,
and I looked at him like he was crazy,” Parker said. “He’s like,
’We’re going to win the rookie of the year, and you’re going to win
a championship and you’re going to win the MVP.’ I just looked at
him like, ’That’s what you expect of me already?”’

Parker averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds She had a high of 40 points and grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 17 games. She led the league in double-doubles with 17, led the league
in rebounding and led rookies in scoring, blocks (2.3 bpg) and minutes (33.6 mpg).

The all-rookie team, selected by league coaches, included Parker, Minnesota’s Candice Wiggins and Nicky Anosike, Chicago’s Sylvia Fowles, Houston’s Matee Ajavon, the former Rutgers star; and Connecticut’s Amber Holt. Ajavon and Holt tied for the fifth spot on the team.

Parker received 276.79 points, while Whalen finished second with 242.08 points and Bird came in third with 218.51 points.

Rounding out the top six vote getters in one of the closest MVP races in WNBA history were San Antonio’s Sophia Young (169.62), Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi (148.98) and San Antonio’s Becky Hammon (131.75).

By Mel Greenberg

So who is it?

In a period spaced apart by ten minutes, the WNBA will announce the rookie and player of the year awards in San Antonio late Friday afternoon or early Friday night, depending on your location on the planet, prior to the start of Game 2 of the championship finals between the host Silver Stars and Detroit Shock.

WNBA president Donna Orender as part of her state of the league several days ago made a reference to the race being the closest in league history.

At least the Guru thought it was in the transcript -- it has been a looong night on the desk and this is coming to you right from the top of the Guru's head.

Having been deprived a little history in Los Angeles' narrow loss to the Sparks in the deciding Game # of the Western Finals, former Tennessee star Candace Parker can no longer become the first player to win a WNBA title to go with an NCAA and Olympic championship in the same calendar year.

But the native of Chicago could still become the first to win both the rookie and MVP in the same WNBA season.

Having been the overall No. 1 choice of the Sparks in April, Parker lived up to the expectation and it would be the only shock not associated with Detroit for someone else to be given the rookie honor.

So the fact that both awards are happening in close proximity to each certainly makes her a prime candidate.

The Guru was unable to reach either Sparks or league sources to ask how many plane tickets had to be sent to Los Angeles, considering Lisa Leslie could be in the MVP mix.

Another clue, but maybe meaningless, comes by way of a coast-to-coast call to the Guru's good friend Jayda Evans, the beat writer for the Seattle Storm, home of Sue Bird, another strong candidate.

Is Bird the one?

On one hand Evans noted, she might be since Bird's name was thrown around a lot.

On the other, Evans said she had not been able to reach her usual contacts, many of which are also associated with the Guru.

"Usually, they let the writer in the city involved with the winning player know ahead of time and no one has called me and I hadn't been able to reach anyone," Evans reported.

A third possibility could be a San Antonio player, likely Becky Hammon if the vote was close.

Home city is usually worth extra publicity and after Friday night, if the Silver Stars don't prevail, holding off the winner would become a major gamble because San Antonio could be finished with its season in Texas, dropping 2-0 in the best-of-five series.

Appropriately, being located not far from the Alamo becomes significant for the Silver Stars because the new Mexican general Santa Ana is Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer who is not known for taking prisoners -- just technical fouls and not always by his request.

A loss Friday night and San Antonio will once again be down to its last shot. And after Sophia Young's heroics in Game 2 of the Western Finals to keep the Silver Stars alive, how many last shots are left in the arsenal?

-- Mel

(Guru's note: Here's the AP enhanced coverage of the WNBA Opener)

SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ Someone finally figured out how to stop Deanna Nolan. Katie Smith and Taj McWilliams-Franklin were more than enough to help the Detroit Shock make up for it.

Smith scored 25 points and McWilliams-Franklin had 24, and they helped Detroit take a first step toward reclaiming the WNBA title by leading the Shock to a 77-69 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the WNBA finals.

"It was clear they were trying to take Deanna Nolan away," Shock coach Bill Laimbeer said. "But Katie Smith was huge. Taj was phenomenal."

Nolan scored 10 points, a playoff low this season after averaging 20.7 points per game in the postseason coming into the finals. She made 5 of 16 from the floor and missed all four of her 3-point tries.

"Katie and Taj set the tone for us," Nolan said. "It's not necessarily that I have to get off (and score) because we have other players that can step in and help."

Smith, a member of the Shock team that won the title two years ago, had nine rebounds, was 4-of-8 on 3-pointers and made all 5 free throws while playing all 40 minutes.

McWilliams-Franklin was 11 of 16 from the floor despite asthma problems.

The Silver Stars, who lost to an Eastern Conference team for the first time this season after 14 wins, were led by Sophia Young's 21 points and 16 from Ann Wauters.

San Antonio's Becky Hammon, who scored 35 points in the decisive Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday, scored 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting in Game 1.

"I thought we let them get too comfortable offensively," Hammon said. "We just weren't ourselves in the first half. It's disappointing to come out and lack energy in a game like that."

Detroit, WNBA champions in 2006, also won Game 1 last year but lost a five-game series to Phoenix. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Friday in San Antonio.

Smith came through for the Shock at the most critical times.

"She wanted the basketball," Laimbeer said. "Her will pushed us a long way today."

Smith helped the Shock build a 10-point lead at halftime when she connected on a 4-point play — a 3-pointer from 22 feet plus a free throw after Young's foul — that put Detroit ahead 40-30.

"I put it up and got hit in the chest," Smith said.

Smith's jumper from 19 feet with 8:19 to play gave Detroit a 14-point lead. But the Silver Stars outscored the Shock 20-6 during the next six minutes.

Hammon scored on two straight layups and then hit two free throws to tie the game with 2:16 to go.

But Kara Braxton scored inside and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but Detroit rebounded and Smith sank a jumper to make it 73-69 with 1:44 left and the Shock hit four free throws to close out the game.

"It wasn't surprising that they made a run against us," Smith said. "We had a couple of looks. But we missed a couple of shots, and they hit a couple. The crowd gets into it. It does happen."

Detroit didn't get its first lead until 2:19 into the second quarter when Smith made two free throws to go up 21-20 before the Shock outscored San Antonio 21-12 the rest of the half for the double-digit margin.

The Silver Stars went cold, shooting 4-of-16 in the second quarter. San Antonio played without key reserves Helen Darling and Edwige Lawson-Wade. Darling strained her right calf and Lawson-Wade sprained her right ankle during Saturday's Game 2 victory over Los Angeles in the Western Conference semifinals.

Detroit, already without All-Star forward Cheryl Ford, missed Plenette Pierson for the third time in the last five games because of a labrum tear in her right shoulder.

(Guru's note: To avoid duplications and rehashed analysis that is available every else at this hour, the Guru offers his own off-the-top musings going into Game 1 of the WNBA finals from a town that only understands Game 1 is Phillies vs. Brewers.

If Game 4 is not necessary someone will have to bail the Guru out from an extra day in Michigan to return to the City of Baseball Love, which may or not be by then.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA (So you know where I am) - According to the WNBA playoff bracket, the New York Liberty's stirring postseason run has been shortcircuited by the Detroit Shock.

If so, then who are some of those key players hiding in San Antonio Silver Stars uniforms?

Let's start at the top with Becky Hammon, the former darling of the Madison Square Garden crowd.

In fact, should San Antonio go on to make life miserable for the Shock, the 2007 WNBA Draft Day will have to be amended to two key deals made back-to-back at the top that resulted in championships.

The first was already achieved a year ago when Phoenix dealt its No. 1 pick for Tangela Smith from Minnesota and the swap helped the Mercury win its first title at the expense of Detroit.

Soon after the Mercury played its card, San Antonio coach Dan Hughes, in his home state of Ohio, in Cleveland, emerged to say the Silver Stars had acquired Hammon from New York.

Meanwhile, Ann Wauters, a former No. 1 pick from Belgium, migrated from the Liberty as a free agent to the Lone Star State. Then there's Vickie Johnson, one of the mainstays in New York's earlier appearances at the finals.

Finally, assistant coach Vanessa Nygaard, the former Stanford star, also saw time with the Liberty, although she had suffered some injuries that limited her activity.

Bailout Kings

Maybe Congress needs to borrow Hughes and Detroit Shock coach Bill Laimbeer to help dissolve the financial mess in Washington.

By now, the Laimbeer story is well know. Shock owners wanted to deep-six the franchise until he went into the front office and claimed he could save the day and turn things around.

As soon as he took control, an early streak was halted and the follow season in 2003 the Shock became the Worst-to-First darlings when they upended the two-time reigning champion Los Angeles Sparks to win a thrilling final, rallying in Games 2 and 3.

A major star in the Shock ascendancy was Ruth Riley, who will now be on the other side playing for the Texans.

Since then, the Shock have become perennial championship contenders, although the darling phrase is no longer, well, appropriate.

When it comes to Hughes, if anyone calls his two previous places of employment for references, they'll think his resume is loaded with fiction. The numbers of the Charlotte Sting and Cleveland Cavaliers are now unlisted, as are the two former franchises, themselves, in the league standings.

The Silver Stars used to be known be known as the Utah Starzz, a team which made editors challenge reporters to see if their "z" keys on their laptop computers were stuck because the letter at the end of the alphabet kept showing up in repetition in the copy.

Of course, the franchise after its shift from the Salt Lake City was still in danger of being flushed down the Riverwalk until Hughes arrived and turned San Antonio into one of the jewels of the West.

The Meaning of Taj

While the Shock have regaled into a reputation as the WNBA "Bad Girls" in the personna of Laimbeer's time as a member of the Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys" NBA champions, people are openly cheering for veteran Taj McWilliams-Franklin, who was acquired late in the season and has helped Detroit make do without the injured Cheryl Ford.

Just before the Olympic break, the Guru was in the Washington Mystics lockerroom interviewing McWilliams-Franklin, who once played for the Philadelphia Rage in the former American Basketball League.

She was busy offering calculations as to what the Mystics had to do to make the postseason.

Fate has now given her another way to achieve the goal if not more. And for those who were born yesterday, Shock teammate Katie Smith and McWilliams-Franklin were on opposite sides in the first ABL championship when Smith's Columbus Quest beat the then-Richmond Rage in 1997.

Smith got her first WNBA title two years ago in Detroit and now McWilliams-Franklin, a native of Texan, could earn hers.

Guru Marketing Idea for San Antonio

Speaking of Texans, former Baylor star Sophia Young is now getting even more notoriety after her buzzer-beater in Game 2 of the Western finals rescued San Antonio from elimination by Los Angeles.

So if the Silver Stars win it all, why not take the team to the nearby Alamo, have Young stand in front of them launching a ball, and then produce a T-shirt with the phrase "Remember the Shot!"

Michael Cooper Phone Home

With Los Angeles' elimination, the Guru was reminded of the theory he espoused several years ago, called "The Curse of the No. 1 pick."

At that time, with Suzie McConnell-Serio's departure from Minnesota, the Guru noted that every coach, except Van Chancellor, in the history of the league who held the No. 1 pick, was gone from their job with a year.

We're still trying to remember how to qualify Phoenix, which held the pick last year, though dealt away, and no longer is coached by Paul Westhead.

Well, the Sparks, predicted by all in the preseason to run away with the title with the addition of Candace Parker, didn't make it.

So L.A. coach Michael Cooper should check his voice mail a little more often this winter, although the Guru expects that a member of Sparks ownership will read this and call the Guru to say the curse streak won't continue.

Paul Newman and the Guru

Bet you are wondering what this item is all about. Well, the passing of acclaimed actor Paul Newman last weekend recalled a moment from the Guru's youth as a high school senior.

The Guru and his cousin had faked their way into the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, a short ride from Philly, as bonafide media representatives -- yeah, it'd be jail time in today's climate.

When one of the big nights of the week arrived, the Guru was down near the front with the Pennsylvania delegation, some of whom he knew because they were politicos from the neighborhood.

Well, in those times of pre-video and every other technological toy associated with the Guru, the only way to view the speeches live by Ted Kennedy, etc., was to stand on the bridge chairs because that's how close to the podium the Pennsylvania crowd was located.

So as the Guru held his own on top of his seat, he suddenly felt a person behind him, kind of leaning on the Guru's shoulder to balance himself.

The Guru glanced backwards and it was -- Paul Newman.

And no, several years later, the Guru did not try to remind Newman of their meeting when directors were looking for someone to play the role of the Sundance Kid to Newman's Butch Cassidy.

-- Mel