Women's Hoops Guru

(Guru's note: Here are more player blogs written in the last few days for the Associated Press' season series.).

UConn's Renee Montgomery

STORRS, Conn. - Today (Friday) is the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm having a hard time staying awake long enough to type this. Turkey has some serious side effects.

At this point we have played four games, all of them were at home except one. The one game that wasn't at home was all the way in Utah against BYU, and it made Storrs seem like Times Square.

Our coaches took us to an NBA game while we were there, the Chicago Bulls vs. the Utah Jazz. Coach Auriemma had four tickets down low, and the rest were upstairs.

To be fair he chose three names out of a bag to see who would get the seats close to the Jazz bench. Right when I heard the method of selection my hopes dropped and then the first name was pulled, it was Tiffany Hayes.

I'm thinking, "that's OK, there's still two tickets left." The second name pulled out the bag was Maya Moore. Now I'm starting to get worried and thinking of how I'm going to sneak down and get a good seat even if my name isn't chosen.

The last name was pulled, and I felt like I was on a reality show because of how long coach paused before he said the name.

The last ticket went to ... yep, you guessed it, Me! I started singing and dancing, not just to rub it into my teammates, but because "I had the golden ticket." That's Willy Wonka for those of you who didn't pick up on it.

Well the game was great, the Bulls won by one point on a last-second shot by Larry Hughes. I must admit, life is good.

Until next time ...

Renee Montgomery
-

Cal's Lauren Greif

(Written Wednesday)

BERKELEY, Calif. - Hello again from Lauren Greif (aka LG) and the California Golden Bears.

The colder weather of November has rolled in and teams across the country are now well into "game mode" - and this consists of scouting opponents, shorter practices and establishing game-day routines.

Game-day traditions are important because some of us - and this includes me - believe that winning and losing games can depend as much on how game-day rituals go as it does on how we play on the court. You know ... how can I be expected to focus on the game if I don't have my designated game-day spandex on?

Okay, maybe that's a little extreme, but I do eat the same meal before each game (peanut butter and jelly), listen to Rascal Flatts, and always make a 3-pointer before I go to the bench before the game starts and before the second half.

As a team, we have a certain taping order with Ann, our trainer; Lex (Alexis Gray-Lawson) and Ash (Ashley Walker) have a special hand shake/salute they do when their names are announced as starters; Tasha (Vital) gets out on the court first before the game and shoots for 10 minutes with her headphones on, and of course we have an on-the-court warmup schedule.

I would tell you more of our team's little idiosyncrasies, but then I would worry that somebody would try to sabotage us ... got to protect the team and not embarrass ourselves too much!!!

As we get ready for our first road trip to the Virgin Islands (nice!), we also get a chance to work on our road routines. Trust me, you don't know who and what your teammates are about until you spend 72 straight hours with them (normal road trip time).

That means eating, sleeping, waiting in airports, choosing TV stations, dealing with wins and especially losses, and singing on the bus together - and it can make you either love your teammates or wish you had spent more time checking them out before signing! No joke!

Fortunately for me, I love my teammates and we really have a good time together. I trust them ... we are always laughing ... and I really respect each of them and the roads they've traveled (often different than mine) to get to Cal.

My coaches can be great fun too and I totally enjoy all the crazy things we come up with to keep busy on the road. And if all else fails, we can always get into a game of "Catch Phase" - and we are good!

So, yes, this is a direct challenge to any team out there - "catch phrase" or b-ball?

Either way, we are ready.

Happy Holidays and catch you later.

P.S. I have to send a shout out to all the great Bear fans who are filling Haas Pavilion and helping us win big games!!

Thanks ... and keep the love coming.

(Guru's note: Elena DelleDonne has made it to the NCAA tournament months ahead of schedule for herself and a certain former destination school a few hours South -- but not that NCAA tournament. The Blue Hens in an upset repeated as Colonial Athletic Association champs Monday night against top-seeded Northeastern. To give everyone their due besides the magnetic attraction one name draws here (she had 15 kills BTW), the following is the complete Delaware web site account. -- Mel

BOSTON, Mass. - Behind an incredibly gutsy performance and a never-say-die attitude, the University of Delaware volleyball team pulled off a thrilling 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 28-30, 25-11, 15-13) victory over Northeastern in the Colonial Athletic Association title bout at Solomon Court.

Sophomore setter Jess Chason (at right) earned Most Outstanding Performer accolades after piecing together an amazing performance that guided Delaware (19-15) to the win. She led the Blue Hens with a career-high 59 assists and added 16 digs, three kills, and an ace to round out a phenomenal night.

Katie Dennehy and Steph Barry also provided outstanding performances, both making the All-Championship team. Dennehy set a season-high with 21 kills, while Barry added a match-high 25 digs and an ace.

With the victory, the Blue Hens advance to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. Delaware is the first squad to repeat as CAA champions since George Mason won in 2002 and 2003.

“I’ve never been more proud of a team,” said head coach Bonnie Kenny. “Every bit of this, they deserved. They could have folded the tent a long time ago, but they just believed and kept training hard and knew they weren’t far off. This says a lot about the type of kids in our program.”

In such a close match, it seemed perfectly fitting that the contest went to a fifth frame. In the final set, the teams found themselves dead-locked at six before Delaware slowly pulled away. A kill and ace by Kim Stewart on back-to-back plays helped the Hens separate from the Huskies, before a four-point run buoyed by kills from Dennehy, Chason, and Elena DelleDonne, allowed the team to grab a 12-7 advantage.

Three points away from defeat, Northeastern (19-11) battled hard. A late five-point run, capped by two kills from Lauren DeTurk, pulled the Huskies within one at 13-12. DelleDonne answered the rally, blasting a shot to give the Hens set-point at 14-12. Although Northeastern held the team off for one rally, Stewart came through again. The freshman phenom fired one of her patented lasers into the Husky defense that clinched the victory and sent the Delaware side into a full-out frenzy.

Stewart was one of four Hens to notch at least 10 kills, finishing with 16 to go along with 17 digs and three aces. DelleDonne also blasted 15 and added three blocks, while Paige Erickson had 11.

“We really work hard together and give each other confidence on the court,” said Chason. “This whole entire time, we had this feeling and this energy, and we kept it rolling from Towson until now. We just ran with it.”

Early on, the match was just as tight as the end. Following a 4-4 draw at the outset of the match, Delaware took off on a four-point streak, capped by three straight kills from Erickson, Stewart, and Meghan Bonk. Despite its deficit, Northeastern refused to allow the Hens to pull away any further, winning seven of the next 11 rallies to pull within one at 12-11.

Bonk and DelleDonne responded with back-to-back kills, and following a Northeastern point, the two freshmen teamed up to stuff a Husky attack. Two kills by Erickson extended the Hens’ lead to four at 17-13. The team held that advantage until 22-18 when the hosts grabbed two straight leading to a Delaware timeout.

The Hens responded with their own two-point streak, highlighted by a block from DelleDonne and Stewart, to grab set-point at 24-20. Although the Huskies held the team off for one rally, Delaware got a clutch kill from Erickson to grab the opening-set victory at 25-21.

The second set looked promising early for the Hens as the team pulled out to a 4-1 lead following two kills by Dennehy and an ace from Chason. Although Northeastern knotted the set after orchestrating a three-point streak, Delaware pieced together a response.

In the middle of the set, the Hens won eight of the next 13 rallies. Two kills by Erickson and a block from Chason and DelleDonne gave Delaware a three-point edge at 12-9. Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived as the Husky attack went on an overwhelming run, led by four kills and an ace from CAA Player of the Year Lauren DeTurk. Eventually, Northeastern found itself up by six at 20-14.

Facing a considerable deficit, Delaware showed its steadfast resolve and refused to break. Two kills by Stewart and an ace from Greta Gibboney helped the Hens pull within three, and following a kill and block by Erickson, Delaware chipped its deficit down to two at 22-20. Despite the late resurgence, however, the Hens could not quite complete the comeback as Northeastern won the final three rallies to even the match with a 25-20 victory in the second frame.

As they had all night, the Hens got off to a quick start after the mid-match break. Chason opened the third set in fine fashion, setting the tone early by battling above the net for a free ball. Eventually, the sophomore setter out-muscled the Northeastern defender, winning the fight and driving both the ball and Husky to the floor.

Eventually, the team pulled out to an 8-4 lead after an ace by Barry and kills by Stewart, DelleDonne, and Erickson. As they continued to do, the Huskies answered, pulling even at 10 before jumping ahead by three at 16-13 following a trio of DeTurk kills.

Delaware responded in kind, winning three straight capped by a Stewart ace to retie the set at 16. The back-and-forth battle continued as Northeastern took a 22-20 advantage before the Hens knotted it two rallies later. The Huskies eventually earned their first set-point at 24-23, but Delaware continued to stymie the Northeastern attack.

Still holding their own, the Hens eventually won two straight rallies on a Husky error and Stewart blast to earn their own set-point at 28-27. Unfortunately, Northeastern wrote the final chapter of the set, using a block, kill, and DeTurk ace to clinch a 30-28 victory.

With no margin for error facing a two-sets-to-one deficit, Delaware saw the closely-contested match carry right over into the fourth frame with the teams battling to four early ties with the final one coming at six. At that point, Delaware took off. Kills by Erickson, Stewart, and Dennehy kicked off a five-point run that was later capped by a sizzling ace from Greta Gibboney.

Although a Sarah Stein kill snapped the streak, the momentum remained on the Blue Hen side. Delaware quickly put together another five-point roll, aided by three Dennehy kills and a Stewart service ace to grab a 16-7 advantage. With the imposing lead, the squad never let up. Dennehy came back with three more blasts, while Bonk added two others to help the team earn set-point at 24-11.

With the set on the line, the Hens turned to Stewart, and the freshman came through. Taking a beautiful pass from Chason, she fired a blast into the Northeastern defense to seal the 25-11 victory and send the game to the thrilling finish.

For Northeastern, Lauren DeTurk set a career-high with 28 kills in her final bout, while Britney Brown had a triple-double after recording 31 assists, 11 digs, and 10 kills. Brianna Seitz also had 12 digs and 10 kills for the Huskies.

The Blue Hens will find out their NCAA opponent next Sunday when the national bracket will be revealed on ESPNU with the show tentatively beginning at 10 p.m.

(Guru's Note: For those who think the Guru lost track, here is the top of the report from the Delaware web site)

BOSTON, Mass. – Katie Dennehy fired 19 kills while Elena DelleDonne tied a career-high with eight blocks to lead the University of Delaware volleyball team to a berth in the Colonial Athletic Association finals with a 3-1 (15-25, 25-16, 25-22, 25-16) victory over Virginia Commonwealth at Northeastern’s Solomon Court on Sunday night.

In the finals scheduled for tomorrow at 7 p.m., the Blue Hens will square off with host and No. 1 seed Northeastern. The Huskies advanced to the championship match following a 3-0 victory over Hofstra in the earlier semifinal contest. It will be the third CAA finals appearance for Delaware after winning the title last season following a loss to Towson in 2004.

Along with her 19 kills, Dennehy (at right) hit a team-best .349 and chipped in with three aces, including two during a crucial run in the fourth set. Kim Stewart and Paige Erickson also had nine kills apiece, while Jess Chason continued her strong season with another double-double after posting 40 assists and 12 digs.

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - Perhaps the other upsets in the Top 10 may save Tennessee from Top 10 neighbohood eviction when the new poll Associated Press women's poll is released early Monday afternoon.

But if the Vols are ousted, it ends an interesting run.

As of now the current top 10 streaks are -- believe it or not -- only four teams went wire to wire last season -- beginning with second place North Carolina in the streak ranking order.

North Carolina 66 straight top 10s beginning january fifth 05
Connecticut 60 beginning final poll of 04-05.
Stanford 27

Tennessee has been ranked 208 straight times in the Top 10 dating to final poll of 96-97

The week before the Vols were 11th,

That ended a streak of 178 beginning with the preseason poll of 86-78 making an overall stretch of 386/387 weeks dating to the preseason poll of 1986-87.

The biggest scare was a No. 10 on Dec. 10 1990.

In the 1985-86 season, Tennessee was was ninth in preseason and then not in top 10 rest of way.

The prevous season is when the Vols missed most of their overall 14 absences since the beginning of poll in 1976-77.

Meanwhile, the Guru travelled to Maryland Sunday to witness the wipeout of UCLA. Durng the game came the announcement of another NCAA field hockey title for the Terps, giving them back-to-back titles.

Temple travelled and in a battle of former longtime assistant coaches -- Jolette Law, Rutgers; Tonya Cardoza, Connecticut -- Cardoza's Owls picked up a 66-47 win over Illinois in Champagne.

That creates some mild interest next Monday when Rutgers visits Temple trying to bounce back from a West Coast set of thrashings by California and Stanford.

If California gets into the top five -- yes in our liftime -- it will be coach Joanne Boyle's first association with the penthouse neighborhood since here days as an assistant at Duke.

-- Mel

(Guru's notes: Print space limited the original roundup. Here's the enhanced version)

By Mel Greenberg
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

PHILADELPHIA _ In a game of high emotions and low scoring between cross-town rivals, La Salle 48, Drexel 46 — Margaret Elderton hit two foul shots with seven seconds remaining to give the Explorers (3-1) the win over the Dragons (1-2) La Salle a 48-46 victory Saturday afternoon at the Explorers’ Tom Gola Arena.

“It’s a little nerve racking, but it’s an opportunity you look forward to,” Elderton said of her role as the heroine.

Gabriela Marginean had a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds for Drexel (1-2), but she only scored five points in the second half. Morgan Robertson scored 13 points for La Salle (3-1).

Many players from both teams have gone against each other either in high school or in summer league competition in Northeast Philadelphia.

“It’s definitely emotional,” Elderton said of the rivalry. “And coming off a rough loss to Delaware we wanted to bounce back.”

Robertson, who is from Amarillo, Texas, has been one of the offensive leaders in the early part of La Salle's season.

"Morgan's a special player and a great player," Elderton said. "She's a workhorse and she's taking advantage of the opportunity she's getting to take control and so what she can.."

Robertson has had to help fill the void with the graduation of center Carlene Hightower.

"I worked really hard over the summer and with Carlene leaving, it's an opportunity step up. We're really focused on team unity."

So how does someone from deep in the hear of Texas land at La Salle.

"I just wanted an experience to live in a different part of the country and not everyone gets that," said Robertson, who added coach Tom Lochner's staff first saw her at an AAU tournament in Orlando, Fla.

"I get my education paid for and I live somewhere else."

Lochner spoke of the emotions involved between two local teams.

"It's a city game and neither of us got out in transition," he said. "We had to do everything in the half court. We did a good job of being aggressive and getting to the foul line and I thought we did a good job on holding Marginean down in the second half. We wanted to make the supporting cast step up and beat us. I just didn't think it would be in the 40s."

The Explorers were 17-for-24 from the foul line while Drexel was 3-for-5.

"The players know each other. We've played Drexel a number of years and it's like a Big Five game. It's important to both teams. Today we were fortunate enough to win," Lochner said.

"I've been happy with the effort the kids have given."

As for the Drexel's viewpoints, coach Denise Dillon said, "I told our players, we need hustle plays throughout the game. "They decided to play the last two minutes of the game. La Salle took advantage of the tempo of the game and on the foul line.

"I thought we took ourselves out of the game," she added. "We stopped executing and we stopped playing team basketball. And once we did that, we weren't a factor. We weren't on the same page and La Salle did a nice job, defensively, taking us out of that.

"It's always an emotional game. It's never a pretty game. You just do enough so you hope you can come up with a win."

xxx

Duquesne 78, Penn 45 — The Dukes (4-0) had 52 points in the second half to remain unbeaten. Carrie Biemer had 18 points for the Quakers (0-3) in Pittsburgh.

xxx

Buffalo 63, Delaware 45 — Tesia Harris had 19 points for the Blue Hens (2-1) in a loss to the Bulls (2-2) in Buffalo, N.Y. The Bulls, who lost to Holy Family at home in a preseason exhibittion game are coached by Linda Hill MacDonald who coached Temple in the1980s.

(Guru's Note: First Duke gets winded in Chicago. Now Rutgers gets overcome by fog indoors by the shores of the San Francisco Bay. Commentary to come after the weeked. But here's the Associated Press report from Northern California on all the gory details, unless one is a fan of the Bears.)

ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERKELEY, Calif. — Alexis Gray-Lawson and Co. kept piling on the
points and telling themselves the score was 0-0 to make sure they
pushed even harder. That way California could withstand a Rutgers
run, even though it never came.

For a team focused on finishing this season — finishing out big
games, that is — the Golden Bears did just that.

Gray-Lawson hustled all over the court on the way to 25 points,
nine rebounds and four assists and No. 7 Cal pulled off the biggest
home victory of fourth-year coach Joanne Boyle’s tenure with a 66-52
upset of third-ranked Rutgers on Friday night.

The Bears beat their highest-ranked opponent since a 74-65 win
over then-No. 2 Stanford in Berkeley on Jan. 10, 1992.

“Just a great game,” Boyle said. “I’m so proud of the kids. ...
We’ve talked, this year in particular, about finishing, finishing big
games. That was the theme. I was telling them how proud I am of them
and thinking ahead, ’Where could we be in March?”’

Ashley Walker added 16 points and 10 rebounds as Cal (3-0) won
its 32nd straight non-conference game in Haas Pavilion, pushing the
tempo for the entire 40 minutes against the sluggish Scarlet Knights
(2-1).

This was the program’s most notable victory since winning at
rival and then-eighth-ranked Stanford 72-57 on Feb. 4, 2007.

Once the final buzzer sounded, Cal’s players gathered at midcourt
for a group embrace.

This Bears team was short-handed, too. Cal had said it would make
game-time decisions on the status of injured centers Devanei Hampton
— the 2007 Pac-10 Player of the Year — and Rama N’diaye as both
recover from right knee surgery. Neither even dressed.

“It’s great to see this team work the way we work without Dev and
Rama,” Walker said. “Nobody would expect us to do what we do. We said
we’re going to fight and we’re going to sacrifice what we have to
sacrifice. We told each other we all had to bring a little bit more
to this game until we get our bigs back and I think we did that.”

Of Rutgers’ highly touted freshman class, April Sykes was the
only one who did much, scoring 16 of her 18 points in the second half
for cold-shooting Rutgers. Epiphanny Prince, who led the team in
scoring in the first two games as the Scarlet Knights averaged 84.5
points, was held to 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting and limited
because of foul trouble.

Trailing 30-20, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer subbed all five
of her starters only about 2 1/2 minutes into the second half and Cal
answered with a 9-2 spurt to go ahead by 18, 40-22.

Kia Vaughn approached Stringer to go back into the game and the
intense coach then said something to the starters and sent them back
in with 15:24 remaining — but Cal’s run to start the half still wound
up at 22-2 for a 50-22 lead.

“The problem is the group we put in, they don’t have a clue,”
Stringer said.

The 28-point deficit was Rutgers’ biggest since it trailed by 41
in an 85-45 loss to Duke on Dec. 4, 2006.

Stringer held a long meeting with her team after the game.

“We’re a work in progress, believe me,” Stringer said. “If this
game serves to wake everybody up, it’s worth it. I’d lose by 50
points. ... Some of our freshmen thought this was going to be a piece
of cake. We got our heads handed to us. I’m not surprised.”

Vaughn began the game guarding Walker, who was coming off a
27-point, 17-rebound performance against Nevada on Sunday. Walker
still found ways to stay involved in the offense and didn’t force
things when swarmed by defenders.

Gray-Lawson, who has been working to contribute more with her
rebounding, hit the offensive glass at every opportunity to set the
tone early for the Bears. She sat down for good with 1:16 to play and
received a roaring ovation. Cal held a 36-28 rebounding advantage.

“I have been ready for this game for a really long time,” a
grinning Gray-Lawson said. “I’m at a loss for words. As soon as we
got that first stop, I said, ’Let’s go!’ I was so excited after that,
I was like, ’Let’s freakin’ do this!”’

Rutgers went scoreless for a 6-minute, 10-second stretch midway
through the first half and trailed 28-20 at the break. The Scarlet
Knights then went nearly five minutes without scoring in the second
half.

Cal came out mixing its defense between a 3-2 zone and a
man-to-man in an effort to force Rutgers to beat the Bears from the
perimeter. The Scarlet Knights began the game 4-for-14, committed
nine quick fouls and were outrebounded 12-5 in the opening 11 minutes
after holding a 17.5-rebounding edge over their opponents in the
first two games.

And this Bay Area weekend doesn’t get any easier: Rutgers plays
at No. 8 Stanford on Sunday. The Scarlet Knights began the 2002-03
season on the road at Cal and Stanford, losing 64-60 to the Cardinal
at Maples Pavilion on Nov. 22, 2002, despite a 22-3 run to start the
second half.

“We’ve got to really play or they’ll take our heads off,”
Stringer said. “We’ve got to play for respect.”

Rutgers’ players were eager to hit the practice floor Saturday.

“Sunday is coming very soon,” Vaughn said. “I told my teammates
that today, we need to learn from it. We can’t let it pull us down
and we can’t look back and dwell on it.”

Rutgers had won the three previous meetings against Cal,
including a 56-51 victory at home last Dec. 10.

Boyle still isn’t sure when Hampton or N’diaye will return.

N’diaye, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament in Cal’s
first-round NCAA game against San Diego in March, wasn’t expected
back until later this month or even early December.

Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz, good friends with Cal
coach Joanne Boyle, sat in the first row above the Bears’ bench and
gave Boyle a good luck high-five before tipoff.

(Guru's note: Here's the Associated Press report)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO — Lisa Etienne thinks she and Hartford caught No. 6 Duke
napping. They definitely caught the Blue Devils on an off night.

Etienne scored 15 points to help Hartford upset the sloppy Devils
53-51 in the first game of the DePaul Invitational on Friday night.

“I think they underestimated us because we’re Hartford,” Etienne
said. “I hope that people realize that they should take Hartford
seriously and we got more recognition that we are a serious
basketball team.”

Diana Delva had 12 and MaryLynne Schaefer added 10 for the Hawks
(3-0), who beat a ranked team for the fourth straight season.

Duke (2-1) had 26 turnovers and made only 17 of 64 shots. Chante
Black had 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Jasmine Thomas scored 12.

“We completely outplayed them in the last five minutes but didn’t
do anything in the first 35 minutes,” Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie
said. “It’s a great lesson for us. Either decide to show up and play
for 40 minutes or anything is possible. Certainly this game proved
that.”

Hartford has won 25 games or more and taken the American East
regular-season title the last three years.

Schaefer split a pair of free throws with 6.5 seconds left before
Black missed a layup at the buzzer.

“It’s definitely a big confidence booster for us,” Schaefer said.
“We knew that for us to take strides as a program, this game was a
great opportunity for us. So we just really came out with a mentality
that we deserve to be on this floor with them and we deserve to win.”

Schaefer hit two free throws with 24.8 seconds left to give
Hartford a 52-48 lead. After Etienne missed a pair of free throws,
Abby Waner hit a 3-pointer to cut the Hawks’ lead to 52-51 with 17.6
seconds remaining.

Erica Beverly found Schaefer on a back-door layup to give
Hartford a 50-46 lead with 1:04 remaining. Waner answered with a
jumper to get Duke within two with 46.6 seconds remaining.

Duke used a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 48-46 with 2:06 left.

Hartford led the entire first half as Duke struggled on offense.
The Blue Devils made just 6 of 24 shots while losing the ball 18
times in the first half.

Hartford led 22-17 at halftime after jumping out to a 16-6 lead.
The Blue Devils scored nine straight points but Hartford responded
with a 6-0 run.

(Guru's note: Here's another AP blog in the continuing season series. The AP will release them on Tuesday and Thursday and if the Guru forgets to look, he is certain to get a nice electronic nudge from his good friend in the home office.)

By Angel McCoughtry

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Today, I wanted to tell you about my wonderful family. Because without their love and support I could not do all the things that I do today.

They are the best support system anyone could have!

My dad is a pastor in Baltimore, which means my mom is a first lady. Baltimore is really a tough city so my dad goes to preach in the jail systems. He works with a lot of ministries, helping the community. My parents have been married for 23 years.

Now, many people might think it was my dad that got me involved in basketball but I actually owe that to my mom. She is the one who signed me up to play in a local league. After the first day I wanted to quit but she encouraged me to go back and try it again. The next day I had a lot of fun and the rest is history!

I am the oldest of three daughters. I have two sisters, Kristina and Joi. Kristina is 17 and is into fashion. She also loves to do hair as well. Joi is 12 and everyone says she is a mini me. We look alike and she also plays basketball. She wants to be like me so she said she is already committed to Louisville. I told her she is a little too young to be making commitments right now (LOL).

My family keeps me grounded and I love spending time with them. They try to come to a lot of games and I love seeing them in the stands.

My grandma Qunis Taylor had surgery on her knee a month ago because she wanted to make sure she was better in time to travel to the games. That meant so much to me that she cares so much.

I am very fortunate to be in a position that I am an inspiration to others. I like reaching out to the community and helping those that are less fortunate. When I have some time I want to go to the children's hospital and visit them. I also help out with a program in Louisville which helps battered women and their children.

Well I guess it's time to go.

The season is just beginning and I will have plenty of stories for you about my second family in the upcoming months.

Take care and God bless

- Louisville senior Angel McCoughtry

(Guru's Notes: Stephen K. Lee, who handled Rutgers on-site converage for the blog when the Guru was away from the scene, has graduated and is now on in internship at the Mobile Press-Register in Alabama. He filed this email to Guru central about a game he covered Thursday night between South Alabama and Southern Mississippi. Here's his commentary and then the story which we copied.)

It turned out to be a great game that came down to a tipped inbounds pass and free throws with 4.5 seconds left.

It was nice to get to cover a D-I women's game. It brought back some fond memories too.

Drumming up flashbacks of the many styles of play that I observed while covering Rutgers the previous two years, this game was like watching Villanova-type squad vs. LSU from a year ago.

South Alabama (similar to Nova) relied heavily on perimeter shooting with virtually no attempts at dribble penetration while Southern Miss (LSU-like) had decent guard play and kept going inside to its unstoppable 6-4 center. Strange that finesse beat inside aggression this time around. Not used to that.

- Stephen

South Alabama women's basketball edges Southern Miss
Friday, November 21, 2008

By STEPHEN K. LEE
Sports Reporter

Shakira Nettles hit two free throws with 4.5 seconds left to lift South Alabama to a hard-fought 66-64 win over Southern Miss Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.

"Basically, I had been missing all night pretty much," said Nettles, who had 6 points in the game's final 47 seconds and was 4 of 7 at the line. "I wasn't shooting well (5 of 16 from the field). I knew it came down to the line. I had to just stay focused, forget about the ones I missed and put them in."

The Jaguars (3-0) battled back from a 57-47 deficit in the game's final eight minutes to defeat the Golden Eagles (2-1).

"I think down 10 that they believed they had it in the bag at that point," USA coach Rick Pietri said of Southern Miss. "We just had to have some more fight. They were out-fighting us but the game wasn't over yet.

"We found some reserves inside of ourselves to fight back and made some big-time plays."
After Jessica Starling hit a runner down the lane with 8.2 seconds remaining to tie it 64-64,

Shaniece Brunner deflected the Golden Eagles' inbound pass and Nettles recovered the loose ball.

"Shaniece did a great job of getting her hands on the tip," said Nettles, who finished with 16 points. "I saw it and I reached for it and I knew I had a few seconds to do what I can. I pump-faked and (USM's Stephanie Helgeson) came down on me."

Starling carried the Jags for the majority of the game, scoring 10 of her game-high 24 points in the first half and swiping four steals to go with 10-of-19 shooting from the field.

"We had a lot of energy plays," Starling said. "We knew when we were down that, eventually, if we stick together, we're going to come back."

Southern Miss' 6-4 junior center Helgeson scored eight of the Golden Eagles' final 10 points of the first half, which ended with USA ahead 36-32.

In the second half, Helgeson, who led Southern Miss with 18 points and 10 boards, scored five points during an 18-4 run that gave the Golden Eagles the 10-point lead.

South Alabama hosts Mercer Monday at 7:05 p.m.

By Mel Greenberg

Here are signings announced Thursday by St. Joseph's and Temple, which in the Owls' situation represents the first two recruits in the Tonya Cardoza era. Also, the local print previews that ran in Friday's paper are now at Philly.com

St. Joseph's signings

Saint Joseph's women's basketball announced that Ashley Prim (Bridgeport, Conn./Kolbe Cathedral), Ashley Robinson (Warminster, Pa./Archbishop Wood) and Shelby Smith (Waterloo, Iowa/Waterloo West) have signed National Letters of Intent during the early signing period to attend Saint Joseph's University next year.

"We are very excited about the talented class coming to Saint Joseph's next season," said Saint Joseph's head coach Cindy Griffin. "All three of these student-athletes have competed at the highest levels of both high school and AAU competition and will bring scoring, athleticism and a high basketball IQ to Hawk Hill next year."

A 5-foot-8 guard, Smith transferred to Waterloo West High School after spending the previous three years at Des Moines East High School. A 2009 Sporting News Preseason Honorable Mention All-American, Smith set both the career and single-season assist records at Des Moines East. A First Team All-Conference and All-District player last season, she averaged 12 points, four assists and two steals per game as a junior. She enters her senior year ranked 52nd nationally among guards according to ESPN's HoopGurlz rankings.

"Shelby is a hard-nosed point guard who can stretch the floor," Griffin said. "She is a great decision maker and very good at attacking the basket and scoring."

Adding size and athleticism to the post position will be the 6-foot-2 forward Robinson. As a junior, she earned First Team All-State, First Team All-Southeastern Pennsylvania and First Team All-Catholic after averaging 13.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game at Archbishop Wood High School. Both a 2009 McDonald's and Sporting News Preseason Honorable Mention All-American, Robinson currently ranks 32nd among power forwards according to Dan Olson's Collegiate Girls Scouting Report.

"Ashley Robinson is an athletically gifted player that gives us depth at forward and we expect her to make an immediate impact next season," Griffin said.

Helping Kolbe Cathedral High School to three straight Connecticut State Championships, Prim enters her final season with 1,139 career points to go along with 351 rebounds, 341 assists and 258 steals. A versatile player who can play both guard positions, Prim is a two-time Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American and has helped Kolbe Cathedral to a 4-7-5 mark over the past two seasons. As a junior, Prim averaged 13.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.0 steals per game on the season en route to First Team Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State, All-South West Conference, and First Team New Haven Register and Hartford Courant accolades. A two-time MVP of the state championship game, she currently ranks 45th nationally among guards according to Dan Olson's Collegiate Girls Scouting Report.

"Ashley Prim is someone we see playing both guard positions," said Griffin. "She is a proven scorer and has a great feel for the game."

Saint Joseph's (1-2) will lose seniors Jenna Loschiavo and Mary Kate McDade to graduation in May 2009.

Temple Signingss

Temple’s first year head women’s basketball coach Tonya Cardoza has announced that Tiffany Davis (Hampton, Va./Hampton) and Victoria Macauley (Staten Island, N.Y./Curtis) have signed National Letters of Intent as members of the class of 2013.

“I’m really excited to welcome Tiffany and Victoria to the Temple family,” commented Cardoza. “Both are athletic and talented players that can score and defend well and I expect them to make an immediate impact on our team.”

A 5-5 point guard, Davis averaged 16.4 ppg last season and helped Hampton High School to a runner-up finish in the Peninsula District. She was named the Peninsula District’s Girls Basketball Co-Player of the Year and garnered First Team All-Virginian Pilot honors last season. The Crabbers’ leading scorer for the last three seasons, Davis had 18.3 ppg, 4.5 apg, 6 rpg and 4 spg as a sophomore to guide Hampton to a Group AAA Virginia State title. She was voted First Team All-State that season as well. Davis hails from the same area that produced former Temple point guard Cynthia Jordan (’05) and current assistant coach Waynetta Veney.

Macaulay, a 6-4 center, averaged 17.1 ppg and 10.6 rpg in leading Curtis to a PSAL A League Championship. The 22-8 Warriors lost in the New York State Federation Class A Tournament semifinals to perennial powerhouse Christ the King. Macauley led Staten Island in scoring and field goals made (180) and was second in rebounding. A First Team All-Staten Island pick by the New York Daily News, Macaulay also plays for the AAU team NYC Gauchos.

(Guru's notes: The Guru was on the scene for print at The Palestra for the narrow Villanova win over Penn. A general roundup is at Philly.com. Kathleen covered Drexel's win over St. Joseph's that will post at this site when she files and the guru has his laptop running.
Below is the latest in the ongoing series of player blogs for the Associated Press, which was written by Courtney Paris before Oklahoma beat Middle Tennessee.)

By Courtney Paris
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Hey guys, it's me again, Courtney Paris. Promised I would check in again so here I am.

I was supposed to blog about the start of the season but I have been so preoccupied - well, kind of.

So here is the thing. I am addicted to my BlackBerry. Not to e-mails, not text messaging, not phone calls about nothingness. I'm addicted to Brick Breaker. Oh my gosh that game, I tell ya, is the owner of any free time my thumbs might have.

TK (assistant coach Chad Thrailkill), one of our assistants, had a BlackBerry two summers ago and bragged about how he had gotten 300,000 points and had 90 lives left. No way. I could not believe it and I did not have to because his phone miraculously broke before he could save it.

However, I'm competitive, so naturally every time I go on there I think, "Beat TK, get to 300,000." Crazy thing is, even if I got there and surpassed Coach Thrailkill, I will still be 7,251,110 points behind Umang Kanoria, who is currently at the top of the Brick Breaker leader board.

I am coming for you Kanoria!

Another thing about my phone though and is I get updates about women's basketball news and, man, there have been some strange things happening around the country with powerhouses going down.

I think personally it's a good thing for women's basketball. A little parity never hurts; in fact it shows how much our sport is growing (or how much Candice Wiggins and Candace Parker are missed).

We play Middle Tennessee next, and it should be a challenge not to be the next top team to fall. But right now all I can focus on is making sure my team is getting better every day, so that when the time comes to really do something special, we'll be prepared.

Now back to my game.

(Guru's note: On Wednesday, yours truly will be at Villanova-Penn and Kathleen will be at St. Joe-Drexel. Pennsylvania editions in print Thursday are getting a page of local previews of the Big Five, Drexel, and a DII-DIII roundup)

By Mel Greenberg

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – To give some perspective of No. 3 Rutgers’ 83-35 victory over nearby New Jersey rival Princeton Tuesday night at the Louis A. Brown Athletic Center, one might say the Tigers were held to a scoring pace that represented a point for every minute it took to travel north to get here.

The scoring distribution reading down the Rutgers side of the box score is not indicative of the rout that began from the opening tip.

Epiphanny Prince had a game-high 15 points, Wilmington’s Khadijah Rush, recovered from last season’s knee injury, added 11 points, and Kia Vaughn scored 10. The Scarlet Knights (2-0) dominated the boards, however, 47-28.

Princeton (1-1) got 10 points from Whitney Downs and seven rebounds from Cheryl Stevens.

The win was the final of a two-game early tuneup heading into this week’s trip to Northern California in which Rutgers will visit No. 7 California, Friday, and No. 8 (formerly No. 2) Stanford on Sunday.

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was pleased with more things than displeased, putting here ahead of the pace she normally operates this early in the season.

Plenty of praise came from the other bench in Princeton coach Courtney Baghart, who is in her second season.

“Rutgers is a very good basketball team,” Banghart said. “They are as good on court as they are on paper. They have a very good blend of experienced kids who have all gotten better under coach Stringer as well as five highly touted and talented all-Americans.

“I think they are one of the best teams in college basketball,” she added while later noting the contract is signed for a 10 year series between the two.

Asked to compare this year’s brand with the Rutgers group a year ago that Princeton extended at home until late in the game, Banghart responded,”I think they are deeper. Their rookies add a ton of athleticism at more positions, and Kia Vaughn is better than she was. She spent a lot of time in the off season getting her body in shape. That’s definitely a better team than the one we played last year.

“You wouldn’t know it, though, but we’re better, too.”

Banghart still expected her team to give Rutgers some difficulty.

“I think we had stars in our eyes,” the former Dartmouth star said. “I thought we would be better competitors than that. We played today like we had stars in our eyes and wanted Rutgers’ autograph.

“I need to do a better job instilling poise and competiveness that champions take. And we’re not there yet.”

Rutgers now looks to play on a bigger stage in terms of the national spotlight the next two games and Stringer expects by the time her team returns here for practice Tuesday her players will have some idea about their identity.

Prince said this group of McDonalds freshman all-Americans: Nikki Speed, April Sykes, Brooklyn Pope, and Jasmine Dixon, is doing much better getting acclimated to Stringer’s system than when her group arrived and suffered through November and December two years ago before reversing gears and bolting straight to the NCAA title game.

“The freshman that came in now, they’re thinking different than when we did,” Prince explained.

“Before, we couldn’t get the concept so we would get frustrated with it, my freshman class, and we wouldn’t try to do what coach Stringer was teaching us. We would try to outscore everyone.

“But the freshmen this year, they actually want to get it, and if they don’t know, they’re asking questions and that’s the difference.”

--Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Let's see, what were the odds a week ago that Stanford, Tennessee, and Maryland would each have a loss before Rutgers?

Thanks to Virginia's stunner at Tennessee Monday nigtht, that's exactly the situation with all three major national cross-sectional opponents on the Scarlet Knights' schedule.

The result of the defeats of Stanford and Maryland over the weekend paired with Rutgers' lopsided opening win over St. Joseph's propelled the Scarlet Knights from No. 5 to No. 3 in the latest Associated Press rankings Monday.

A win over St. Joseph's was not unexpected, but the relative ease over a veteran team that gave the Scarlet Knights a few fits in Philadelphia last season means that maybe youth won't be a handicap in the early going.

Another such test over a team that caused Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer to pop a few headache pills last season awaits Tuesday night when Princeton visits for an in-state matchup between two schools located a half-hour apart (when traffic is light) in New Jrersey.

True, in both instances a year ago, Stringer was busy making the B team the A team and vice versa against the first two opponents on this year's schedule.

But although Stringer doesn't look too far ahead, fans do, and something tantalizing lies just over the horizon.

After Tuesday night Rutgers heads to the San Francisco Bay area this weekend to visit California and Stanford.

The latter of the two offers a trip down memory lane to last season's opener when Rutgers lost in the last seconds on a tough foul call in Piscataway.

While Stringer focuses on just what's in front of her, she has excellent long-range vision when looking into the rear view mirror at things past.

And so it was earlier this month in Princeton that Stringer noted the Stanford loss as a contfributor to the Rutgers' pairing problems in last season's NCAA tournament.

She said how her team must take care of business right from the outset, even when many of us are allowing some bumps so the newcomers can adjust to her system.

Now should the Scarlet Knights do an imitation of the Democratic sweep of California, here's the dividend.

The wins could be impressive enough to lift Rutgers to No. 2. But even if the bounce doesn't occur, help is on the way from a Big East sister. Oklahoma, which moved to the runnerup spot, has a visit soon to Connecticut.

And, should Rutgers return back East in a good frame of mind, the door is open to a winning run straight to a visit from Tennessee when the New Year arrives.

And memories certainly do exist from the meeting between the two in Knoxville in February.

In fact, 1.3 seconds worth of memories.

So in what now looks like a major logjam in terms of early identification of Final Four contenders, statement time is the hands of Rutgers' kiddie corp, ready or not.

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

Looks like the upset bug hopped on a plane from Waco to Knoxville -- and this time, it struck the home team. Here's the AP report...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Monica Wright scored 35 points and Britnee Milner made a free throw with 6.4 seconds left to help No. 16 Virginia upset No. 5 Tennessee 83-82 on Monday night.

Trailing 80-75 with 1:44 left, Virginia (2-0) rallied. Wright made a 3-pointer and Whitny Edwards converted a steal to tie the game at 80.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

(Guru's note: Score one for the Guru who decided to stay at State College for the South Carolina game by driving here Sunday and landing in a preferred hotel that dropped from $250 the previous evening for football down to $72 under the "campus visitor" rate. There is a print account of the game at Philly.com. And now on to some tongue and cheek fun.)

By Mel Greenberg

Nothing like a few teams in the high rent district going over the ledge in week one to shake things up.

In fact, some participants in the recent Red-Blue national election game still looking for a fix anonymously forwarded the Guru their reactions to the results that saw both No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Maryland get upset.

Some of the Guru's sports information friends think there's a Ciccone connection as in Natalie Ciccone who left Maryland for the Pac-10, the home conference of Stanford.

Meanwhile, a gentleman from Arizona offered: "They should suspend the season immediately to find a way to bail out Stanford before Rutgers visits next week."

And a woman from Alaska noted: "I'm through cooking moose stew. I'm going to start making turtle soup, actually, for now, that's mock turtle soup."

A gentleman from Wilmington who has worked in the Senate lauded Delaware's opening win after the Blue Hens suffered their worst record under Tina Martin a year ago in the wake of a number of graduated players.

"I've followed Elena DelleDonne ever since she was in grade school and knew she had the makings of turning the program around.

"What's that? She what? Oh, never mind. Sorry. I was a little busy running around the country since she said was switching to volleyball."

Was Barack Obama really the player to be named later to the nation's capital in the deal that brought Joe McKeown to the shores of Lake Michigan.Apparently the new Northwestern coach also wants to help the little guy How else does one explain the debut-ruining 76-69 loss to Chicago State. Talk about trickle-down, wait till that score echoes around RPI readouts.

Meanwhile, someone trying to find some words to cheer up a member of Dawn Staley's new staff after Penn State beat South Carolina in the season opener, offered, "Just write it down as a bad year for red states, especially when you come up here and try to beat a blue state."

You know change has occurred when UConn coach Geno Auriemma's picture appears twice in the first 21 pages of the Temple women's media guide and Staley's picture, with appropriate props, appears once in the history section back on page 64. For that matter, an unidentified Guru also outnumbers Staley 2-1 from a picture taken during the interview session last July when former UConn assistant Tonya Cardoza was introduced as Staley's successor.

As for the South Carolina guide, that's what the Temple guide used to look like.

Back in the day, Staley spent time working out on Hawk Hill when Stephanie Gaitley coached St. Joseph's.

Gaitley also switched jobs after last season, moving from Long Island to Monmouth. And in the wake of both moves, former Blackbirds star player Valerie Nainima of Fiji is now at South Carolina.

When Penn State plays in the Magie Dixon Classic in New York, the Nittany Lions may not last long against Connecticut but after the Guru got a tour of the renovation inside the Bryce Jordan Center, the Blue and White can claim a victory over the Huskies when it comes to comparing offices, if not salaries, between the two coaching staffs.

The last time a Van Chancellor-coached team fell out of the rankings, he ended up with a successful career moving over to the WNBA and the Houston Comets.

He'll stay put this time, but LSU may be history by the time the new AP poll is released on Monday afternoon.

The Tigers through the preseason poll had the sixth longest current ranking streak. Here's a look at the 11 teams who went wire to wire the previous two seasons and made it into the preseason vote.

Tennessee 416 over 25 seasons dating to the Feb. 4, 1985 poll.
Connecticut 278 over 16 seasons dating to the preseason 1994-95 poll.
Duke 168 over 10 seasons dating to the fourth poll of 199-00. Overall, with two misses, the Blue Devils have appeared in 250 of the last 252 polls prior to Monday.
North Carolina and Stanford (tied) 133, eight seasons, dating to the preseason poll of 2001-02.
LSU 117 over eight seasons dating to March 4, 2002.
Oklahoma 98 over six seasons dating to the preseason poll of 2003-04.
Baylor 88 over six seasons dating to the Jan. 5 poll of 2004.
Ohio State 79 over six seasons dating to the Feb. 23 poll of 2004.
Maryland 58 over four seasons dating to the preseason poll of 2005-06 when the Terrapins won the title.
Texas A&M 46 over four seasons dating to Feb. 06.

And with the idea that Rutgers could be No. 3 in this week's poll, there's no truth that coach C. Vivian Stringer will ask for a recount so her team can still be called an underdog when the Scarlet Knights travel to Palo Alto, Calif., ths weekend to play Stanford.

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

Sorry I'm late with this, but here is Mel's schedule of all the games on his calendar this season.

It includes the Big 5 schools - La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Temple, Penn and Villanova - as well as Delaware, Rutgers, Penn State, and Drexel's men and women. As many of you know, Mel covers the Drexel men for the Inquirer as well as the women's game.

There are also assorted big national games for teams like Connecticut and Maryland that he might get to this season.

And if it's a blog post about Delaware and Connecticut, then I have to put the name Elena Delle Donne in there somewhere to get that spike in traffic.

Enjoy the new season, everyone. It looks like we've already had one quasi-upset, as AP No. 19-ranked Baylor knocked off No. 2 Stanford in Waco, Texas this afternoon.

(Guru's print story is at philly.com. Kathleen will be at St. Joe's Sunday, the Guru will be at Penn State, hotel prtofiteers on football weekend permitting)

PHILADELPHIA - Friday night, the Temple Owls won their home opener for the 2008-09 season against Bowling Green, 70-55 at the Liacouras Center.

It felt like a home opener: a rainy fall night in November, more turnovers than wanted, new roles for coaches and players, and most importantly, an updated play list for both the sound system and the roster.

“I didn’t sleep at all last night,” said Tonya Cardoza, the new head coach for Temple’s women’s basketball program. Cardoza was an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut for the past fourteen years and clinched five National Championships.

Now it’s her turn.

“I told the girls that they are crazy not to be nervous,” said Cardoza.

Cardoza comes to Temple with a very talented roster, despite graduating two top scorers last year, Ashley Morris and Lady Comfort.

LaKeisha Eaddy, ’10, is now the starting point guard, a position she is not used to playing but asked to fill-in after the graduation of Morris. Eaddy is quick and has a tremendous amount of energy. Within the first two minutes of the game, Eaddy had a block, two steals, and the first layup of the game. All of this followed by a three point basket, making the score 5-0.

With two fouls by Eaddy and the Owl’s lead expanding, Eaddy subbed out for the middle of the half. She finished the first half with ten points and three steals.

Eaddy quieted down more so in the second half, but still finished the night with sixteen points and three rebounds. Eaddy is a strong, physically fit player, but allowed turnovers to creep up towards the end.

Shenita Landry, ’08, had the complete opposite start to Eaddy. There were missed shots in the paint and at the post, unwanted turnovers, and just frustration overall. Nerves will do that. It’s senior year, and she is an exceptional player but more eyes follow her now.

Cardoza saw that frustration and kept her in. That is probably the best way to fix nerves, just play over them. Landry played the most minutes on the team and in turn, had a purposeful second half.

Landry was consistently strong with her boards, but in the second half her shots started to fall. She made three field goals, three-out-of-four free throws, 10 more rebounds, and two more blocks.

“I focus on going to the glass and working hard everyday,” said Landry. “I need to make the easy baskets and focus on getting better everyday.”

Landry wouldn’t be where she is today if she didn’t already have that kind of work ethic built in.

She had one turnover in the second half. Nerves tend to go away when baskets fall.

With a tough conference and challenging road schedule, Eaddy and Landry need to stay consistent with one another help with the season’s record.

Shanea Cotton, ’08, definitely has the same amount of presence on the court as does Eaddy and Landry. Cotton’s elbow may even need a jersey and number.

Tall, arms that reach to the ceiling of the Liacouras Center, and a powerful stance inside, Cotton finished the game with 12 points, three rebounds, and two very impressive blocks against Bowling Green’s offense.

One of the highlights of Cotton’s game was her attempting three’s, long jump shots, and forcing more turnovers. Cotton didn’t play long because of early foul trouble (it’s her elbow) and then later fouling out with four minutes left in the game, but for 21 minutes she played excellent basketball.

Cotton’s foul trouble could hurt Temple, but Cotton is making every effort to change her mobility and add strengths to her game.

Adding strength is the only concept the Temple bench understands and executes. Bench performance for the Owl’s was exceptional last night. The tempo did not change, the lead kept expanding, and onlookers learned some new names.

“We have so many good players, but we need that bench power,” said Cardoza. “They have to be explosive in their own play.”

A standout was Shaqwedia Wallace. Wallace doesn’t even have her name on her playing jersey. If she keeps playing as well as she did last night, she won’t need it.

Wallace is just a fun player to watch. In 21 minutes, she went four-for-eight from the field, three-for-four in three-point shots, completed both free throw attempts, totaled seven rebounds, and finished the night with 13 points.

Wallace presence off the bench is key for Temple to stay above 40 percent in field goals and continue Temple’s fast pace offense.

When asked if Coach Cardoza will sleep some tonight, she answered, “No, probably not.”

Temple travels to Alabama to play Auburn on Monday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

By Mel Greenberg

Dawn Staley officially goes into the won-loss record book Sunday as the new coach of South Carolina when the former Temple mentor’s Gamecocks face Penn State in a season opener for both teams at the Nittany Lions’ Bryce Jordan Center.

“We’re going in with a young basketball team trying to find our identity and it will be a good environment to be in for me as a coach with our first game. What better way to do it than on the road,” Staley said in a phone call from Columbia, S.C., on Thursday.

Sunday’s affair will be a bit of a WNBA reunion.

Staley and Penn State’s Coquesne Washington crossed paths back in the day as rival point guards.

“I think we are students of the game,” Staley said. “We both played point guards. We did good jobs running our basketball teams. It’s a great story because we both love the game, we want to be around the game and it’s the best way to for us to continue our competitiveness that we have.”

Washington, who would like to see Penn State end a nasty little 12-game losing streak from the close of last season, is in her second year after serving as an associate head coach at Notre Dame.

Although Staley did not go against Penn State during her time at Temple, she has a history of a past rivalry with the Nittany Lions back in her days as an all-American at Virginia when both teams were battling for No. 1 in the weekly rankings in the early 1990s.

Staley made national news last spring, leaving Temple after an eight-year run to take a $150,000 pay hike to $650,000 and try to revive South Carolina’s worth in the Southeastern Conference.

“I think I’m in a tougher spot than I was with our Temple team back in 2000,” recalled Staley in stepping into the coaching profession after turning down the Owls when she was first approached by school officials.

“We will take it game by game, and that’s the way we did it at Temple,” Staley continued. “We want to play in the postseason. We still want to win our conference. It would be an incredible feat to do that. And we’ll slowly but surely work our way toward that.”

Staley’s new team was picked 10th in the SEC preseason poll.

“For now, we’re playing an underdog role,” she added.”It’s a tough league to play in but that’s one of the reasons I came here to take on a challenge of coaching in a league like this.”

Ironically, South Carolina is the 17th game on Tennessee’s schedule, a number circled because Vols Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt needs 17 career wins to reach 1,000.

However, with national player of the year Candice Parker and four other starters from last season’s NCAA champions departed, Tennessee is not likely to be 16-0 prior to its game with the Gamecocks.

Staley seems to have everybody on board with her vision down South.

Soon after practice opened last month, football coach Steve Spurrier’s wife Jerri(CQ) led the players and coaching staff through a rugged 30-minute ab workout.

“Although they won’t admit it, I think it was their favorite part of the preseason,” Staley wrote in her blog of her players’ reaction to the drill.

Staley has also turned heads in Columbia by getting doors opened on recruiting visits by such highly prized high school sensations as Kelsey Bone, a 6-foot-3 post player out of Stafford, Texas.

“We’re recruiting some of the same people we were at Temple,” Staley related. “Certainly we’ve gotten inside some doors. But it doesn’t mean we’ve gotten (recruiting targets) yet to pull the trigger. But in due time. When we get an entire year of people knowing where South Carolina is and what we have to offer, we’ll be catching up to where we need to be.”

Freshman Miranda Tate, out of Chicago, got released from her Temple commitment to follow Staley to South Carolina.

Staley feels if any business was left unfinished at Temple, it was the inability to get the Owls to the next level into the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

Prior to her arrival in 2000, Temple had not enjoyed winning records in a decade.

The graduate of Dobbins Tech High expressed confidence that Tonya Cardoza, her good friend and former Virginia teammate, will succeed in moving Temple forward.

Cardoza had previously been a longtime assistant at Connecticut.

“Tonya’s going to have some great days,” Staley said. “Her kids are going to play hard for her. But she’s going to have some days in which she’ll see why she’s there. It is not going to happen overnight.

“She brings a different kind of experience with the national championships at UConn, so hopefully she’s the one who can get the program where I envisioned it,” Staley said.

South Carolina will see No. 2 Stanford and No. 1 Connecticut in December, games that were already on the schedule.

The Staley coaching staff consists of longtime associates Lisa Boyer followed her from Temple, while Carla McGhee, who also served a year at Temple, and Nikki McCray, are Tennessee alumns who were teammates on past Olympic squads.

“Maybe we’ll learn a few secrets to beating Tennessee by having them with us,” Staley jested.
Cynthia Jordan, Staley’s first Temple recruit, is also involved, while basketball operations director Angie O’Neal was a manager when Staley was at Virginia.

Staley spent last summer as an assistant to Anne Donovan with the gold-medal winning United States squad in the Olympics. Having previously earned three Olympic gold medals as a player in a long association with USA Basketball competition, many feel Staley is the favorite to become the next head coach for the London Games in 2012.

But first, the criteria must be altered from the current requirements that the position be filled from the WNBA head coaching ranks.

There’s no rush because the United States will not be involved in qualifying competition next summer.

A USA spokeswoman said that first the new members of the governing body must take office before changes occur.

She also noted that she had seen requirements change in every four-year span since she joined the organization in the mid-1990s, so it would not be unusual for another revision to occur to make Staley eligible.

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - Judging by the early listings on which teams did well on signing day Wednesday, the first dividends have arrived on investments a year ago when former Notre Dame associate head coach Coquese Washington was hired at Penn State and former Rutgers associate head coach Jolette Law was hired at Illinois.

Both schools struggled last season, but the heartbreak of narrow losses, especially at Penn State, which finished with a 12-game losing streak, has now been tempered by some joy.

Illinois was listed fifth at Blue Star's site, and Penn State seventh, while the Illini were tabbed third in the early ranking at HoopGurlz at the espn.com site.

This means the proverbial light is ahead at the end of the tunnel at places where a new generation of head coaches replaced two legends and former Immaculata teammates in Penn State's Rene Portland and Illinois' Theresa Grentz.

Adding to the new generation approach, that contract extension given to Joanne Boyle at California resulted in the Golden Bears getting the No. 1 nod at Blue Star.

Don't cry for Rutgers, Tennessee, and Connecticut not being near the top. They are still getting their nuggets. But with huge harvests a year ago, there were not a lot of roster spots to offer the next time around, giving other programs, such as Texas A&M, to cash in on their recent successes.

Another Contract Extension for St. Joseph's Cindy Griffin

The official announcement is being made Thursday but Guru Central learned that St. Joseph's has given former Hawk guard Cindy Griffin a three-year extension through the 2011-12 season.

Financial terms were not disclosed and the Guru will not guess at dollar values except to believe Griffin, who was hired at her alma mater in 2001, is among the upper third in Atlantic 10 salaries.

The Hawks open at No. 5 Rutgers Friday night at 5 p.m. in a game that is lopsided in blue chip talent in favor of the Scarlet Knights. But St. Joseph's scrappy style has given fits to the former Atlantic 10 rival over the years, especially last season in a game that Griffin's team extended into the final minutes.

The fact that St. Joseph's is more veteran could cause some concern to Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer considering she is still trying to harness her freshmen into the system.

Griffin is entering his eighth year as Saint Joseph's head coach in 2008-09 and owns a 176-125 career record, and a 128-92 mark at Hawk Hill. During her first seven seasons at SJU, Griffin has led the Hawks to five postseason berths, four in-season tournament titles and four victories over nationally ranked teams.

Later this month, Griffin will go down memory lane when the Hawks travel to Vanderbilt where she once served as an assistant to her former Hawks coach Jim Foster, now at Ohio State.

New Big East Commissioner

John Marinatto will succeed Mike Tranghese as commissioner of the powerful Big East, being elevated from his current role as senior associate commissioner.

The new commissioner, who will take over in June after Tranghese's departure, has always been on the scene at major conference women's competition and member participation in postseason tournaments in case anyone was wonder whether some cracks might appear in the women's empire that developed in the Big East in recent seasons.

Making the Rounds

The Guru was at Temple practice Wednesday to advance the Owls' Friday night home opener under new coach Tonya Cardoza for Friday print editions. Former coach Dawn Staley will be checking in Thursday for a story to run print-side Sunday when South Carolina opens at Penn State.

Traffic permitting, the Guru will first head to Villanova Friday for a 4 p.m. season and Big Five opener between the Wildcats and La Salle.

The Guru has also completed his annual planning schedule, which will be sent to Jonathan to post here. It is a combination of our local D-1 majors plus other games the Guru has interest but needs to see where conflicts appear.

More to come

-- Mel

(Guru's note: Off the success of players blogging during last season's NCAA tournament, the Associated Press will continue the exercise through this season. Having been alerted by Doug Feinberg, here's the starting group -- Mel)

Players perspectives around women's basketball

STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- Hello everyone! We had our first game the other day, and it felt so good to get out there and play again. Preseason was great this year. Our UConn team was split into four teams of 4, the team names were Salt and Peppa, Gazelles, 2%, and Bomb Squad. I'm sure you are wondering where these names came from but maybe I will explain that another day. The four seniors picked the teams - playground style.

Every Friday these four teams competed in a challenge. The challenges were things such as flipping big tires, urging (if you don't know what this is, consider yourself lucky), running through obstacle courses, tug of war, etc. At the end of six weeks, which is the length of a preseason, the team with the highest point total won. The winners of the preseason competition were Salt and Peppa, and the members of this team were Matt Gade, our head manager, Tina Charles, Meghan Gardler, and yours truly. Our coaches presented us with a framed collage of pictures, and I'm not going to lie, I felt like I had won a real championship.

Now that I've told the lighter side of preseason, I guess I should mention that we didn't just have challenges for six weeks. During the week we would condition by running Cemetery Hill (the name alone should let you know something about its level of difficulty), stadiums, sprints, and anything else Amanda Kimball, our wonderful strength and conditioning coach, could think of. Well that wraps up my preseason, it was great, but now that the games are starting the real fun begins. Thanks for listening.

- Connecticut senior Renee Montgomery

NORMAN, Okla. - Hey "y'all," I'm Courtney Paris and, in case you don't know, I play for the University of Oklahoma, which is where I've picked up my new dialogue.

I'm a senior in journalism and I am excited about finishing my last year of college with my twin sister, Ashley. Time has flown and then dragged. I feel like I've been here forever, yet I can't believe it's almost over.

I've done a lot in my college experience - milked a cow, had my first job, bought a home, paid bills, broken records, been challenged on and off the court and met some pretty incredible people.

There's only two things left for me do as a Sooner and those are complete my degree and help lead my team to a national title.

I feel like I have a good chance at getting both.

I'm probably most known to for my double-double streak and while I don't want it to end, one streak I want over is going to the Final Four by myself. This year I want to be in St. Louis with my team. And playing!

- Oklahoma senior Courtney Paris

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hello, my name is Angel McCoughtry and I am a senior forward at the University of Louisville. I am from Baltimore, Md., and enjoy spending time with my family. My team is my second family and we have a great time together!

When I was first recruited by the University of Louisville I had no idea where it was located. Once I got there I loved the campus and people and I ended up choosing Louisville because I wanted to help make them a national power in women's basketball. Last year Coach Walz came to Louisville and helped us to reach our goals with our first Sweet 16 appearance but we aren't done yet.

Expectations are high this season and I can't wait to get started because we have a great team returning and added a lot of talent this year.

- Louisville senior Angel McCoughtry.

BERKELEY, Calif. - Hey, all you basketball fans. This is Lauren Greif from the Cal women's basketball team and I am excited to be letting you in on some of the behind the scenes action and drama of college athletics and my Cal team throughout the season.

I would like to start by thanking November for finally showing up because, as every college basketball athlete or fan will tell you, the games are exceedingly more fun than the hours and hours of practice. There is no way around it sorry, coach! Our team, as well as the teams from nearly 1,300 Division I, Division II, Division III, and NAIA programs, have been beating up on our own teammates for months. Now, we can finally take out our frustrations with the tedium of practice and put our coaches' yelling to good use, playing other teams. And, if all goes according to plan for us here at Cal, we will be playing others well into March and April!

- California junior Lauren Greif

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It's that time of the year again! Yes, the most wonderful time of the year!

No, I don't mean Christmas, but college basketball season!

The time of the year when whistles are a basketball fan's equivalent to jingle bells and the squeaking of shoes on the court are way better than any holiday song. Preseason has come and gone (thank goodness) and practice so far has consisted of, "missed block out! on the line!", "middle drive! on the line!" and "no communication! on the line!"

You know, the typical scene for any team's initial weeks of practice.

The anticipation for this season has been like no other for me. As a senior, there is a newfound sense of urgency and determination. It is going to be a great season for the Terps and Terps fans, so get ready! You are in for a show!

So, I am going to need your help. Like many things do, this blog has become a friendly or not-so-friendly competition between my best friend Abby (Waner) and I. (We did not speak for more than two weeks this summer because of a little comment I made about beating her Duke team in the 2006 National Championship game, so you be the judge whether this is a friendly competition or not).

From what I hear she set the standard pretty high with her blogs last year. I am pretty confident that I will give her a "run for her money."

Well, at least I think so.

My "Turtle IQ" could be clouding my judgment. This is where your assistance comes in. All e-mails, letters, phone calls letting me know my blogs are better will be greatly appreciated.

I cannot leave without mentioning the historic election that just passed. Wow! This was my first time being able to vote and what better an election than this one to be a first timer.

I woke up at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, as I wanted to be one of the first in line and have the full voter experience. It was so obvious that I was a rookie voter. I brought every form of identification I had as well as my voter registration verification. This was even after my Dad ensured me that I did not need everything I was bringing.

Hey, I did not want to risk not being able to vote in this historic election!

After I cast my ballot I checked it probably about 50 times to make sure I did not hit a wrong button or read something wrong. I walked away like a little kid with a huge smile on my face, finally realizing what it means to be a part of something bigger than me.

Regardless of whom anyone voted for, we made history and that is something to be proud of!

— Maryland senior Marissa Coleman

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — With the 2008 presidential election coming to a close, 'change' seems to be a key word.

Not only is change happening for America, but change is happening for the Purdue women's basketball team. The style and tempo of our game will be changing this season due to a change in personnel.

I am a fifth-year senior, back from an ACL injury. We have four starters returning, plus Jodi Howell returns from a shoulder injury and a top-10 freshman class.

Our team is expected to do great things this season and only three weeks into practice, I feel as though we are on the right path. We are bonding well on and off the court. Coach Versyp is a big believer in team-building exercises, so we've already navigated a corn maze (this is Indiana after all) and played 'Would You Rather.'

We will be put to the test on Dec. 9 when we have our first exhibition game. You'll have to check back with me later to see if we're living up to expectations.

— Purdue senior Lindsay Wysdom-Hilton

EL PASO, Texas — I'm Jareica Hughes, the 5-foot-4 point guard and 2007-08 Conference USA player of the year from UTEP. I'm really excited about starting the year and appreciate all of the looks and attention both myself and UTEP is receiving.

We don't have too much free time right now, with handling practices and dealing with classes, but it's still going pretty well. We've done a lot of conditioning, trying to get into shape. We start our season Friday against Kansas State, which is one of the best teams in the country right now.

We're really excited to play them.

After getting more recognition last year with going 16-0 in C-USA, 2008-09 is going to be a brand new challenge for us. We want to play real hard and do the best that we can do.

Seeing my name mentioned by different people across the country is such a blessing. I'm very honored to have that. I've put in a lot of work, and it is starting to pay off.

I look forward to keep working hard and having a great season.

— UTEP junior Jareica Hughes

(Guru's Note: - As we move toward the start of Friday's openers, here's the first in a series of AP poll performance through last week's preseason poll -- Mel)

By Mel Greenberg
The Philadelphia InquirerQuick hits on AP poll (week 1 for coaches’ appearances week No. 1)

(This is 557th poll after week 1). (Records on pages through Preseason, 11/01/08)

Coaches With Three Ranked Teams

C. Vivian Stringer (Cheyney-85), (Iowa-155), (Rutgers-137), 377
Jim Foster (St. Joe-35), (Vanderbilt-164), (Ohio St.-96), 295
Gary Blair (Stephen F. Austin-79), (Arkansas-67), (Texas A&M-45), 191
Marianne Stanley (Old Dominion-141), (Southern Cal-24), (Stanford*-18), 183
Lin Dunn (Miami-2), (Mississippi-1), (Purdue-130), 133
Don Perrelli (Northwestern-52), (S. Conn.-20), (St. John’s-1), 73
Sharon Fanning (Kentucky-4), (Miss. St.-46), (Tenn.-Chattannoga-4), 54
Tom Collen (Colorado St.-34), (Louisville-17), (Arkansas-2), 53
Debbie Yow (Florida-2), (Kentucky-21), (Oral Roberts-1), 24

Co-Coaches

Kittie Blakemore, Scott Harrelson – West Virginia 8
Sonja Hogg, Leon Barmore – Louisiana Tech 51
Jill Hutchison, Linda Fischer – Illinois St. 3
Jim Jarrett, Joyce Patterson – Georgia St. 1
Marianne Stanley, Amy Tucker – Stanford 18
Jim Bolla, Sheila Strike – UNLV 18

Coaches All Time Ranking Appearances

1. Pat Summitt, Tennessee – 543 (missed just 14 polls in entire AP history)
2. Andy Landers, Georgia – 431
3. **-Jody Conradt, Texas – 395
4. C. Vivian Stringer (3 schools – Cheyney, Iowa, Rutgers) – 377
5. Tara VanDerveer (2 schools – Ohio St., Stanford) – 351
6. **-Rene Portland (2 schools – St. Joseph, Penn St.) – 336
7. Kay Yow, North Caro. St. – 326
8. **-Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech (51-shared with Sonja Hogg) – 325
9. Geno Auriemma, Connecticut – 311
10. Debbie Ryan, Virginia – 296
11. Jim Foster (3 schools – St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, Ohio St.) – 295
12.**-Joe Ciampi, Auburn – 290
13. **-Sue Gunter (2 schools – Stephen F. Austin, LSU) – 270
14. **-Joan Bonvicini (2 schools – Long Beach, Arizona) - 267
15 **-Marsha Sharp, Texas Tech – 264
16. Sylvia Hatchell, North Carolina – 261
17. Van Chancellor (2 schools – Mississippi, LSU) – 242
17. Gail Goestenkors (2 schools – Duke, Texas) – 242
19. **-Chris Weller, Maryland - 227
20. **-Theresa Grentz (2 schools – Rutgers, Illinois) – 225
21. Gary Blair, (3 schools – Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas, Texas A&M) – 191
22. **-Marianne Stanley (3 schools – Old Dominion, Southern Cal, Stanford*) – 183
23. **-Paul Sanderford (2 schools – W. Kentucky, Nebraska) – 182
24. **-Marian Washington, Kansas – 176
25. Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame - 160
**-Not in college or not in as a head coach

Active Coaches-All Time AP Ranking Appearances

1. Pat Summitt, Tennessee – 543 (missed just 14 polls in entire AP history)
2. Andy Landers, Georgia – 431
3. C. Vivian Stringer (3 schools – Cheyney, Iowa, Rutgers) – 377
4. Tara VanDerveer (2 schools – Ohio St., Stanford) – 351
5. Kay Yow, North Caro. St. – 326
6. Geno Auriemma, Connecticut – 311
7. Debbie Ryan, Virginia – 296
8. Jim Foster (3 schools – St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, Ohio St.) – 295
9. Sylvia Hatchell, North Carolina – 261
10. Van Chancellor (2 schools – Mississippi, LSU) – 242
10. Gail Goestenkors, (2 schools – Duke, Texas) – 242
12. Gary Blair, (3 schools – Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas, Texas A&M) – 191
13. Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame – 160
14.Wendy Larry, Old Dominion – 144
15. Sherri Coale, Oklahoma – 137
16. Kristy Curry (2 schools – Purdue, Texas Tech) – 124
17.%%- Joe McKeown (2 schools – New Mexico St., George Washington) – 116
18. Kim Mulkey, Baylor – 113
19. Melanie Balcomb (2 schools – Xavier, Vanderbilt) – 112
20. )))-Chris Gobrecht (Washington) - 104
21. Doug Bruno, DePaul – 99
22. Bill Fennelly, (2 schools – Toledo, Iowa St.) – 96
23. Joanne P. McCallie (2 schools - Michigan St., Duke) – 91
24. Brenda Frese (2 schools, Minnesota, Maryland) – 83
25. Debbie Patterson, Kansas St. – 77
26. &&-Jim Bolla, UNLV* – 75
26. Pam Borton, Minnesota – 75
28. Kurt Budke (2 schools -Louisiana Tech., Oklahoma St.) – 59
29. Charli Turner Thorne, Arizona St. – 55
30. Sharon Fanning (3 schools – Tenn.-Chattanooga, Kentucky, Miss. St.) – 54
31. Tom Collen, (3 schools, Colorado St., Louisville, Arkansas) – 53
32. Elaine Elliott, Utah – 52
32. ***-Kathy Olivier, UCLA 52
34. Harry Perretta, Villanova – 44
35. Joanne Boyle, California – 37
36. ++-Bonnie Henrickson, Virginia Tech – 36
37. Lisa Stockton, Tulane – 34
38. $$$- June Daugherty (2 schools – Boise St.,Washington) – 32
39. Don Flanagan, New Mexico – 26
39. () - Dawn Staley (Temple) – 26
&&-Active at Hawaii (Shared 18 with Sheila Strike); ++-Active at Kansas; )))-Active at Yale; $$$-Active at Washington State.; %%-active at Northwestern; ***-active at UNLV; Active at South Carolina

(Guru's Note: The print section offer in the Inquirer in Philly.com has two stories by your Guru off the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday in which Rutgers' women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer addressed the group as part of the buildup for the NCAA Trenton Regional in March.

Since print space considerations limited the full answer, the Guru now brings that to you in its entirety. Meanwhile, the Guru after this posting must go home for some quick sleep and determine his wardrobe for his acting debut in a pilot being shot for a TV show involving the sports department. You can't make up some of the stuff that goes on around here. -- Mel Greenberg

Remarks by Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer on Barack Obama's election.

Guru: What were you feeling at the moment that TV declared Barack Obama president elect.

Stringer:

"Wow, I have to tell you (pause quiver)

"I cried a lot (she says in a teary voice) because I didn’t even realize -- I’ve seen so much, I’ve been hurt, like a lot of people, and I couldn’t figure out why I was nervous all day (Tuesday, voice steadies a bit)

"I was nervous, I couldn’t understand, why was I anxious and then, you know, and then I wasn’t satisfied until I got home.

"And then, ah, when I heard he was president, it was something I thought that I would never see, I didn’t realize that I had so much emotion, so much hurt, but I was so proud of him, how proud of America, proud of all people, cause I think he was able to touch, ah, he was able to touch, ah, the hearts and minds of everyone.

"And it was good to see the person was judged by the content of the character than the color of their skin. I think it is hard to imagine this.

"I cried with Colin Powell. I cried with Jessie Jackson, you know, I saw all of that (history).

"It’s been going on way too long. And so when I just cried and cried so hard, and I was telling my mom that I grew up in Pennsylvania.

"And as I expressed initially in my book, I didn’t even think a president -- because we weren’t allowed to talk about it. And there were very few minorites there so I didn’t even known that was existing.

"But my eyes were opened the longer I lived, when I went to college, and then got a job, and started teaching and coaching at Cheyney University -- I saw it all.

"So quite honestly, it was just the biggest cry, and the greatest relief, and the best sense of, We’re going to be OK as a nation.

"Because I’m seeing grown men -- black and white -- cry. I’ve never seen young people and old people in all colors come together as one, and it confirms — I was saying to coach Chaney when I talked to him in the hospital before I came here -- this man (Chaney) has been doing what Obama has been doing, but he’s been doing it on the basketball court, because he’s talked about and given respect to everyone from the manager -- the manager is just as important as the star basketball player and you guys know that.

"And I think what Barack was able to do was to touch the very essence of what we all are as human beings.

"We just want to have respect. You just want to have love. You just want to have opportunity.

"This man (Obama) got beyond the elitism that has been a part of this country and he began to talk about what --

"No one wants to receive anything. Everyone wants to feel that they are worthy. And he respected every living body.

"I listened to him -- he exemplified the Christian principles of when things got rough and he was called names, he turned his head and he offered nothing but love.

"But what was important about that is there are far more better good people in this world than there are evil people.

"And I was so encouraged by that.

"And I thought, ‘My goodness.’ My sons will now see a man and there’s no reason why they can’t believe they can become president.

"See most of you in this room might not have even thought about that.

"But how do you talk about soomething that has never been.

"How do I tell my young men, my sons, they can become president. They’ve never seen it. You know?

"And so when I say and I see that I thought the nation needed to give Barack to these young people because they need to be unified.

"We have too many problems in this country. They need to have hope and they need to have love and they needed to believe.

"All the predjudices from before -- and see I don’t like the idea they come up with age groupings, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think you need to be -- you have to know where your mind is and where your heart is.

"And so I get beyond that. If I was 90 years old, I know who I would be.

"And if I fit into the category of those young people who are free and independent thinking, then that’s who I would be. So I’m not one to be categorized.

"But all of us have been touched.

"And I say to my mother the next day, because her religion doesn’t allow her, she won’t vote, I said to her, ‘Ma. Do you realize that Obama was elected?’

"And she was, ‘I followed this with everything I could. And I was so excited about it. You know you once told me when I was a little girl, you sat in a movie and some policemen took you out of the movie and made you sit up in the balcony.

"And I never told you this before, but it hurt me. I was hurt. And she wasn’t respected and she should have been.

"She said ‘You never said anything about -- ‘ And I said I know. I was hurt but I couldn’t do anything about it.

"I said, ‘But you know? That’s all over. It’s OK. ‘

"I think that whether you’re Indian or Mexican or whatever, everybody knows they are worthy.
And more than anything else than I can think of, I’ve never seen one issue that the people understood. ‘Yes we can.’ Together.

"Because I think so many things have been happening in this country that we felt -- we just passed it by. We said, ‘Look. That’s what they do in politics.’

"And that’s the time when you stand up.

"And I had an opportunity to speak to Oprah Winfrey. And she said to me, ‘But he’s the one. It doesn’t matter if I lose my ratings or anything else, it just doesn’t matter.

‘Because there comes a time in everyone’s life when you must stand up for the things you know to be right.’

"And so, as I said to my mom, I’m so happy because I know that my sons and their wives and their loves ones -- they’re going to make the world a better place.
I
"’m just happy to be an American because not only because he is a black man but because he happens to be black. And he’s a brilliant man. A passionate man. And he tends to reason just on the side of common sense.

"And he’s allowed us to be good human beings again. He said it’s OK. And I think that the embrace that I’ve seen, and the young people that I’ve seen join together - they’ve said the times before are past.

"And unless we as a people join hands to deal with it -- it’s not a political thing, whether energy or the issues we’re having, the wars that we’re having.

"We have to make sacrifices. This man is not going to be able to do it himself. And so I know he’s going to give his best.

"And I know that I will do anything and everything, if I have to knock on doors or make whatever sacrifices --

"I have a bad habit of leaving lights on, I guess I’ll turn those off. (laughter).

"I’ll do whatever I can. But I thank God I was able to see it. I thank God I was able to see that.

"And I didn’t even know how much that meant to me until I just cried and cried and cried.

"And so many other grown adults called me, really not just cheering hysterically, but really crying.

"And that’s what it meant. And I just didn’t know. So I’m just grateful. It’s been something else for me."

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Having waited out for the nation to determine the new resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in the nation's capital, the WNBA's Washington Mystics will complete their revamped governing structure with the announcement of a head coach Thursday afternoon.

According to a WNBA source familiar with the hunt, that person is likely to be Julie Plank, a veteran assistant coach at the professional and collegiate levels currently on the staff of the Minnesota Lynx.

The move will bring a quick reunion between Plank and recently appointed Mystics general manager Angela Taylor, who had been in the front office of the Lynx and previously worked at WNBA headquaters in New York involving player personnel.

Taylor and Plank both also have Stanford roots with Plank having served as an assistant to Tara VanDerveer for 10 seasons from 1986-95 before moving on as an assistant for several seasons at Vanderbilt under former coach Jim Foster.

Plank is a native of Columbus, Ohio, having starred for the Buckeyes in the 1980s.

Detroit Shock assistant Cheryl Reeve, a former La Salle star, is believed to have been one of the finalists, while Rick Manhorn, another Shock assistant, who has Washington ties, was involved in the initial set of interviews prior to Taylor's appointment. The Washington Post reported that Olympic head coach Anne Donovan, who previously coached the Seattle Storm, was also interviewed.

Prior to this past season, Plank was an assistant with the Indiana Fever since their inception.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

For those of you who haven't seen the Associated Press preseason women's poll released Saturday, here it is, though we are cutting and pasting this so hopefully the tabular drops line up ok.

BC-BKW--T25-Women's Top 25,0310
The Women's Top Twenty Five
By The Associated Press
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' preseason women's
college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses,
2007-08 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place
vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last year's final
ranking:
Record Pts Pvs
1. Connecticut (44) 36-2 1,124 1
2. Stanford (1) 35-4 1,018 4
3. Maryland 33-4 1,005 5
4. Oklahoma 22-9 946 14
5. Rutgers 27-7 914 7
6. North Carolina 33-3 892 2
7. Tennessee 36-2 857 3
8. Duke 25-10 815 9
9. California 27-7 769 10
10. Louisville 26-10 726 19
11. Texas A&M 29-8 624 8
12. Vanderbilt 25-9 546 21
13. Texas 22-13 501 –
14. Oklahoma St. 27-8 442 13
15. Virginia 24-10 437 24
16. Notre Dame 25-9 374 15
17. Arizona St. 22-11 364 –
18. Ohio St. 22-9 359 25
19. Baylor 25-7 353 12
20. Auburn 20-12 239 –
21. Florida St. 19-14 204 –
22. Xavier 24-9 170 –
23. Purdue 19-15 148 –
24. LSU 31-6 133 6
25. Old Dominion 31-5 124 11
Others receiving votes: Pittsburgh 116, Michigan St. 67, Iowa
St. 66, Marist 58, Marquette 56, Utah 50, Georgia 37, Kansas St.
25, Syracuse 20, DePaul 8, George Washington 7, Illinois St. 7,
Southern Cal 5, West Virginia 5, Arkansas 3, Georgia Tech 2,
Montana 2, UTEP 2, Gonzaga 1, Iowa 1, Liberty 1, S. Dakota St. 1,
SMU 1.

So how did the Guru spend his extra hour after working the desk in the office Saturday night?

He went mining in the data base during the time change to find those little nuggets that won't necessarily be noticed in other reports.

We begin to saying schools in "Red States" are as endangered as what some other polls, so to speak, are saying about the election.

Let's take Georgia, for example. For the first time in 28 seasons dating back to the preseason poll of 1981-82, the Lady Bulldogs are a distant also-ran in the voting.

The graduation of five starters at Tennessee, including the departure of Candace Parker, has ramifications for both coach Pat Summitt s team and the entire Southeastern Conference.

The Vols are ranked seventh, the lowest preseason vote since a No. 6 nod at the starting gate in 1995-96 when Tennessee shook it off and won the NCAA title. Prior low votes before then were a No. 9 in 1985-86 and No. 14 in 1984-85.

As the recently dispensed phrase that used to exist here in Philadelphia until a certain World Series achievement last week, those were the drought years where most of the scant missing-in-action weeks can be found in Tennessee's storied poll history.

The Vols and Summitt have now been ranked 543 times, missing just 14 times, as we turn the history page to Season 33 and week No. 557. In that span 145 teams have been ranked 12,913 times.

Meanwhile, it's the first time since the original preseason poll of 1976-77 that no Southeastern Conference affiliated school has made the preseason Top Five. Back then, AIAW terminology was used and Tennessee was not ranked in the very first poll.

Since then, however, the Vols have appeared in all ensuing 32 preseason votes.

Incidentally, Saturday's release with a Nov. 1 stamp is the earliest-ever rollout, although the next vote will be taken Nov. 16.

Beyond Connecticut, the overall favorite, with 444 of 45 first-place votes, it should be quite the wild ride into March Madness this season, although many of the top eight in Saturday's vote could find themselves among the higher seeds when the NCAA field is announced.

Connecticut has been ranked 18 straight times in preseason polls dating back to a No. 14 in 1995-96 after the Huskies had won their first NCAA title.

Auburn's preseason appearance is the Tigers' first since 2003-04, while Old Dominion is on the first list for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

No. 2 Stanford is making it's 21st appearance, while Rutgers has made the preseason approval ratings 23 times. Scarlet Knights' coach C. Vivian Stringer has made 23 preseason appearances, but she has done it with three different teams -- four times with Cheyney, 10 with Iowa, and nine with Rutgers.

The only other coaches with three different teams in preseason polls are Jim Foster (St. Joseph's, Vanderbilt, and Ohio State), and Gary Blair (Stephe F. Austin, Arkansas, and Texas A&M).

Xavier, which has appeared during seasonal voting, is making its first appearance in the preseason vote it is also the first listing for Musketeers coach Kevin McGuff.

Meanwhile, the media panel itself has undergone some shuffling and, like the newspaper industry, is a bit downsized from last year. The overall total of voters has shrunk from to 45, involving 16 detractions overall and 10 additions.

Those of you at schools out there who found your own way to obtain email addresses -- you can erase the following members who either chose not to stay, moved to other beats, or got involved in layoffs or moved to other locations.

The 16 emigrees are Tommy Deas of the Tuscaloosa News, Ramona Shelburn of the Los Angeles Daily News, Buddy Davis, the veteran La. Tech writer of the Ruston Leader; William Weathers of the Baton Rouge Advocate, Danny P. Smith of the Columbus Commercial Appeal in Misssissippi; Steve Tabaka of the Omaha World-Hearld; Rachel Carter of the Raleigh News & Observer; JoAnne Harrop of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; John Frierson of the Chattanooga Times; Brian Davis of the Dallas Morning News; Jerry Hill of the Waco Tribune-Herald; Don Bowman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Vic Dorr of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, altough he is still there; Dick Rockne of the Seattle Post-Inteligencer; Eric Herter of the Dominion Post in West Virginia; and Tom Ziemer of the Wisconsin State Journal.

Some of the newcomers arrive from the same papers represented by previous voters.

The rookies, with one exception, are Debbie Antonelli of Westwood One; Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News; Robert Cessna of the Bryant-College Station Eagle; Brice Cherry of the Waco Tribune; Stacey Dales of ESPN, Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Marcus Henry of Newsday; Adam Minichino of the Columbus Commercial Dispatch, who had been a previous voter in Athens, Ga., several years ago; Patrick Ochs of the Oxford Eagle;and Edward Robinson III of the Raleigh News & Observer.

Additionally, Mechelle Voepel remains at ESPN.com but is no longer at the Kansas City Star.

We'll be back with more trivia to kill a little time prior to tipoff.

-- Mel