Women's Hoops Guru

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

Hi everyone,

As Mel has alluded to a few times recently, we're moving this blog to a new platform. From now on, you'll find us at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/womhoops.

There's also a new RSS feed URL that you'll find at the new blog for those of you who read us via Google Reader or other such programs. The short link http://go.philly.com/womhoops still exists, but has been changed to direct you to the new blog.

This version of the blog will stay alive for a little while longer for archival purposes, but there will be no new posts on it.

So come join us at the new site.

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - Several decades down the road the ultimate worth of the newest edition of USA Women's Hoops olympics will be revealed.

By then, almost all of the participamts in Beijing, who added to the USA collection, will have been voted spots in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Some already have their ticket punched from the contingent of 12 players and coaches.

Anne Donovan was already an inductee when she was named to head the squad. An AIAW national title and an NCAA Final Four appearance along with a gold medal as a player helped pave the way for her honor.

Nobody mentioned it, but Donovan became the first to win gold trinkets as a player and coach. Tennessee's Pat Summitt played on the first USA squad, which did not get gold in 1976, and then won as a coach in 1984.

USA assistant Dawn Staley has her Hall of Fame ticket punched off three golds, three Final Fours at Virginia, and an All-Star career in both the WNBA and former American Basketball League.

A strong clue whether Staley is on track to head the team in London in 2012 will be if USA Basketball announces a change of the current requirement that the Olympic coach named must be a current WNBA coach at the time of selection.

As for the WNBA pool under the current setup, it's quite small. USA assistant Mike Thibauldt and San Antonio's Dan Hughes could be considered frontrunners, today, with the idea that Detroit's Bill Laimbeer probably won't be in the league at that point of time. Neither will Los Angeles' Michael Cooper, but if he departs and assistant Marianne Stanley were promoted, she would jump into the WNBA mix off past USA experience.

Indiana's Lin Dunn is another USA veteran from the system, but will she be in the league four years from now? The same question goes to Seattle's Brian Agler and New York's Pat Coyle, but the coaching expertise is certainly present.

However, let's return to the premise we began this initial item, the Hall of Fame track and in this discussion remember players also have to be retired five years out.

Here's the tickets punched group based based on current highlights:

Lisa Leslie -- Nothing more needs to be said off Four solid golds and two WNBA titles.
Tina Thompson - Two golds and four WNBA titles.
Diana Taurasi - Three NCAA titles, Two golds, and a WNBA title.
Sue Bird -- Ditto Taurasi's numbers.
Katie Smith- -- Three golds, Two ABL titles, One WNBA title, One Final Four.
Tamika Catchings -- Two golds, Two NCAA titles, All-Star WNBA career

Tickets being printed:

Candace Parker -- Of course it will happen but youth precludes a ticket stamped designation, although at her tender age -- Two NCAA titles, an Olympic gold, with a shot right now at a WNBA title as a rookie.
Sylvia Fowles -- Again, projecting off of youth, the best is still ahead. For now, a gold and Four Final Fours.
Seimone Augustus -- One gold and Two Final Fours.
Cappie Pondexter -- One gold, One WNBA title and an All-America career at Rutgers
Kara Lawson -- One gold, One WNBA title, Two Final Fours
DeLisha Milton-Jones -- Two golds, Two WNBA titles.

Becky Hammon Thought

Didn't see this mentioned anywhere during the controversy involving Becky Hammon playing for the Russian Olympic team, but prior to last year's trade to San Antonio, she once played for a squad known as the New York Liberty.

Val Ackerman Honor

Although the Guru was ahead with the story of USA Basketball Val Ackerman winning the Naismith's Hall of Fame's prestigious John Bunn Lifetime Achievement award, here is the statement from the official release made last Thursday. She was also the founding president of the WNBA.

"Val’s contributions to the growth and development of the game of basketball on all levels embodies the true spirit of this lifetime achievement award. Her service and visionary work span her career, from early roles within the NBA legal department to her groundbreaking work in launching the WNBA to her appointment as the first female President of USA Basketball”, stated John L. Doleva, Hall of Fame President & CEO. “Val is held with the highest regard among her peers as an attorney, sports executive and former player. Her forward thinking approach gives confidence to the basketball community that the game’s potential will continue to grow and evolve.

“This is a tremendous and very unexpected honor, and I'm deeply grateful to the Hall of Fame for the recognition”, said Ackerman upon receiving the news. “It has been a privilege for me to work in basketball and to witness many of the exciting developments in our game over the past 20 years, especially in women's basketball, which I know will only continue to grow in popularity in the years to come.”

Delle Donne Conspiracy Theory

Connecticut fans may not have noticed this, but when Elena Delle Donne takes the volleyball court at Delaware after foregoing a collegiate basketball career with the NCAA-favored Huskies, she'll be playing for coach Bonnie Kenny, a 1984 graduate of -- Tennessee.

Delle Donne will be speaking at the Newark, Del., campus on her reversal decision to stay near home at a half-hour press conference Monday afternoon.

The Guru will be on the scene, and the Guru knows of at least one prominent Horde beat writer making the trip down from Hartford who will also be on hand.

While Delle Donne dominated the news out of Wilmington last week, on Monday she'll have to share local newspaper space with Delaware's United States senator Joe Biden, the designated Democratic vice presidential candidate that Barack Obama named as his running mate on Saturday.

Incidentally, Delle Donne is not the first prized package to not make it to the first day of class at Connecticut, which ironically happens to also be Monday in Storrs.

Several years ago, one Gillian Goring, who played briefly at Germantown Academy in Philadelphia, was considered in the same basketball talent class as Delle Donne, though maybe not as high.

She stated her intentions to head to the Huskies until NCAA rules involving academics became an immediate obstacle.

By the time she worked her way into good graces through the junior college system, she eventually landed at North Carolina State where she helped the Wolfpack make their dramatic stretch run under coach Kay Yow in 2007 until the Cinderella NCAA effort was stopped by -- UConn in the Sweet 16.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - We didn't get there, but to avoid this news being buried by the size of the next post, former La Salle stars Crista Ricketts scored 23 points and Davineia Payne added 13, while recently-graduated West Chester star Dana Weems scored 18 to give Columbia Bue a 75-68 win over White in the first of the best-of-three Dept. of Recreation NCAA Women's Summer League finals Wednesday night at Torresdale Boys Club in Northeast Philadelphia.

St. Joseph's in-coming junior Brittany Ford scored 21 for White, which forced a playoff for the top seed at the end of the regular season Cheyney's Angel Henderson added 13 points, and La Salle's Ashley Gale scored 12 points.

The teams will resume Monday night at the same site, Linden & Jackson Sts., near the I-95 Academy Road exit. A third, if necessary game, will be played on Wednesday.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA - The best-of-three finals of the Philadelphia Dept, of Recreation NCAA Women's Summer League Gets Under Way atr 7 p.m. Wednesday night at Torresdale Boys Club, Linden and Jackson Sts., also the home of the Jacobs playground located within a few blocks of the I-95 Academy Road exit.

In a rarity of recent seasons, the top two teams prevailed with the Columbia Blue beating the Red team, 70-54, as former West Chester star Dana Weems scored 20 points, while Red was led by Kisha Thompson's 18 points on Monday night in one of the semifinals.

The White team defeated the Teal team, 72-68, in overtime, as Andrea Jones scored 18 for White and La Salle's Ashley Gale added 16 points.

The second game will be Monday night with a third, if necessary contest, to be played on next Wednesday, same time and place as this week's action.

We'll be bacl in the evening after the game, as well as inserting any new AP files from the Olympics depending what we see.

Saluting Fallen Colleagues

The Guru was sadden to learn that our outstanding colleague Milton Kent took a buyout at the Baltimore Sun, although the Guru is glad Milton has found a way to continue a presence.

You all should know that Wendy Parker has done likewise at the Atlanta Journal Constitution where she has actually been involved in the paper's web site the last several years.

Also, if any of you haven't noticed, Oscar Dixon, who had been the principal NBA and WNBA writer at USA Today, left in March to head up the sports area of the AP first in a new series of regional operations, this one out of Atlanta.

Needless to say, all these departures will have an effect in coverage at the pro and colleagiate levels.

Looking Ahead

August 25th is looming as a key news event day on several fronts.

At that moment, the Olympics will have ended in Beijing, China; the Democratic Convention will be getting under way, and, ahem, the 25th is also the first day of class at the University of Connecticut for the fall semester.

By then, if not sooner, the world will know whether Wilmington sensation Elene Delle Donne, the nation's top prospect, will be returning to Storrs after abruptly leaving summer school in early June two days after her arrival.

And just to clarify to those who have been speculating on a potential transfer to Villanova, one of the finalists in the sweepstakes last summer for Delle Donne's gifted talents, Big East rules, which were changed several years ago, do not allow a student to transfer within the conference to play once a letter of intent has been signed.

That was not the case several years ago when Kia Wright made a quick exit to St. John's near her home, and Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma also granted a release that allowed her immediate eligibility.

Hard to believe that a year ago at this time the topic of conversation dominating the news had been the breakup of the Tennessee-Connecticut series, a discussion which has finally abated.

Obviously, more to come.

-- Mel

(Guru's note: The headline was dedicated to the increasing traffic coming from the link at the Blue Star site.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA – Ok, the Guru knows many of you are thinking why doesn’t the dateline read Washington, technically, Roslyn (Va.)? In that regard, why wasn’t the Guru hanging out at the Marriott Key Bridge Tuesday night, the socially operational headquarters for a slew of coaches across America who are attending what the Guru nicknames the annual Flynnfest AAU extravaganza?

The Guru figures that question exists, judging by a spike in web traffic from the nation’s capital, which can’t be because people are thinking he is running instant classic rerun coverage of the Joe McKeown is leaving George Washington for Northwestern story.

The real answer is the Guru was temporarily sidelined dealing with museum issues known as the house he grew up in and still resides. But if all goes well, he may make it to the Mohegan Sun for Thursday night’s WNBA game between the host Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks as the pro league nears its hiatus for the Olympics.

Before going further, the Guru would like to mention that Kathleen Radebaugh, the St. Joe grad and Guru team member, has checked in with some more commentary, which can be found below this if the Guru posted in the right sequence or above it if the Guru screwed up technology.

If so, that makes him .500 on the week, as the next several paragraphs will explain.

In non-basketball news, since facebook never allows more than a sentence or two on status reports, the Guru is pleased to announce that Saturday night he conquered the ITunes7.7 upgrade difficulty for those whose computers are running (&*^&) Vista. Those parentheses would be longer had not the Guru adjusted along the way after purchasing the laptop that has allowed him to go quasi-HD because of the blue ray drive that comes with the system.

What happened was after the Guru did the automatic “sure” to the upgrade question, the computer started running beserk with a “Applemobiledevicehelper stopped working” message that started acting like rabbits in proliferation anytime ITunes was engaged.

Unable to find any discussion, initially, at the Apple site, the Guru took a shot at using the phrase on Google and, presto, not only did the Guru find the topic, he also learned thousands were going through the same torment.

But a solution was mentioned and while it took a bit tooling inside the Vista operating system, he fixed the problem and all is well.

Click here to jump to the rest of the commentary.

By Kathleen Radebaugh

PHILADELPHIA - In sunset light of backyard grilling and spending not enough time watching home runs and historic derbies, we savor those moments when we recall sport’s excellence in the various disciplines over the previous 12 months.

And soon to follow are more moments of drama and achievement when the Olympic Games get under way in Beijing, China, hopefully offering a renewal of sportsmanship and pure athleticism honored for so long.

In that regard, the ESPYs arrived at the right time on Sunday.

ESPN’s annual televised sports version of the Oscars that also benefits the V Foundation did its best attempting to break away from criticism and opinions about a great football player and instead focusing on something that defined him for so long.

Too many times, it is easier to remember the upsets and the disappointments, especially when dominoes keep falling with steroid use, assault charges, and inhuman treatment against animals.

Still, it’s the recap of the best moments and the best finishes that attract human fireflies to the television set this time of year.

Given the national scope and with some partially to what is normally conversed in this space, it was surprising not to see this season’s Rutgers’ controversial and tough 59-58 loss to eventual NCAA repeat champion Tennessee in Knoxville not on the ESPY’s Best Game list.

Given the Rutgers’ comeback from an 11-point halftime deficit, the key plays on both sides, and the “frozen” clock in the final seconds that deprived the Scarlet Knights of becoming the first Division I women’s team to beat No. 1 ranked teams back-to-back, there were a myriad of categories the event could have gained nominations, let alone award winners.

Once Rutgers got its act going in the second half, the Scarlet Knights’ stringent defense proved why it usually is among the top of the NCAA statistics list.

Several future WNBA impact rookies were on display, highlighted by Tennessee’s Candace Parker, the overall top pick of the draft after bypassing her senior season, and Rutgers’ Essence Carson, the central New Jersey native who months later realized a dream in being selected by the nearby New York Liberty.

It was an exceptional game that not only showed the best of women’s basketball offensively with crisp ball movement, but also how women’s basketball is using zone defense, especially enhancing its effectiveness within the post.

The whole thought surrounding that contest is that any game is only as good as the players who play it.

But talented players also face difficulties when they decided to switch one set of uniform jerseys for another during their collegiate careers.

From this viewpoint, Laura Kurz, forward for Villanova women’s basketball, is the choice for best breakout athlete. ESPYs host Justin Timberlake didn’t do his research.

On leaving Duke, Kurz, a high school star from Germantown Academy, was anxious to start her career last fall as a Wildcat. In her debut, she realized that nerves took longer to settle than halves allowed.

It took a while for Kurz to come into her game.

But by the time her first Villanova season had concluded, Kurz led the Wildcats in scoring, rebounding, shooting percentage, and three point shooting.

Her best game was Villanova’s 53-52 win at home over American U., allowing the 53-52 to advance to the second-round of the WNIT at Wisconsin.

Kurz snatched the offensive rebound after a missed jumper by teammate Stacie Witman and was able to tap it in for the game winner. She was the only Wildcat to score in the double figures and finish with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Back in November after the season-opening victory at La Salle, Wildcats coach Harry Perretta said that all Kurz needed was time. It was a while since she saw as much playing time as she did that night and was especially nervous putting on a new jersey.

But time allowed her to be one of the best breakthrough athletes for this year.

Without a doubt, the St. Joseph’s women’s basketball family has a rookie of the year, but not a female, with the recent arrival of Curtis John Griffin Jr. A very strong point guard like his mother, the brand new Hawk weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and a very tall 21 ½ inches.

Rumors are already spreading about the kid’s jumper and if he will be able to survive finding a prom date and his two older sisters, Kaylie and Hannah, Saint Joseph's Head Coach Cindy Griffin and her husband Curtis Griffin.

In reality, and it is a good thing, there are too many of those best games, best players, and rookies of the year for the ESPYs to honor all of them.

That is what makes those summer nights at the ballpark, playing pickup under the lights, or watching trials and derbies with friends so important. Each one of us can notice moments of excellence.

By Mel Greenberg

Crossing Paths – I: The selection of Maryland senior Crystal Langhorne of Willingboro, N.J., by the WNBA Washington Mystics in last week’s draft reunites for the moment two former prominent Philadelphia Belles AAU stars.

Gillian Goring was drafted a year ago out of North Carolina State after a sort of gypsy career caused in part by academics.

She was originally headed for Connecticut but didn’t meet NCAA eligibility standards and gravitated to a junior college from which she ultimately moved on to be productive for Kay Yow with the Wolfpack.

Langhorne, who has been cited for her academic success besides her work on the court that made her the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, had also been recruited by Connecticut but joined Belles teammate Laura Harper of Cheltenham High in signing with the Terrapins. The duo, of course, gave Maryland an NCAA title in 2006.

Crossing Paths – II: During the Villanova golden season of 2003 that featured the Wildcats reaching the NCAA Elite Eight and ending Connecticut’s record 70-game win streak in the Big East championship, Harry Perretta’s group recorded two upset wins of Colorado, including one in the Sweet 16 by a score of 53-51.

The Buffs, as the sixth seed, upset No. 3 North Carolina to advance to the Sweet 16.

The Guru covered that ‘Nova-Colorado contest in Knoxville and one of the Colorado stars was a three-point shooting guard out Warwick, R.I. who had nine points and six rebounds in the NCAA contest.

Kate Fagan went on to play a season with the winter pro-league Colorado Chill but then moved on to journalism.

Most recently, she has been at Glens Falls, N.Y. and also reviewed Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer’s new memoir for the Inquirer Book Section.

On Wednesday, Kate became a Sports Department hire primarily covering South Jersey high schools, making her, unlike the Guru, someone who actually played the sport.

It also means that this is the last we’ll comment on her career to avoid conflict of interest issues now that she is a colleague. But we will add she was also an academic star in the Big 12 and with that we’ll leave it up to the Guru's colleagues in the Big 12 to write any further reference as needed.

Remembering Randy: The Guru was shocked by the news Monday of the sudden death of Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer sports editor and columnist Randy Smith.

Our paths first crossed in 1995 as the Connecticut women rose to prominence and won their first NCAA title. Although he covered all sports in the Nutmeg State, he was a women’s hoops fan and was a delight to be around – especially when he had differences of opinions with UConn coach Geno Auriemma.

Just recently he asked the Guru if he thought that Renee Montgomery was better than Sue Bird when she played for the Huskies.

The Guru asked where did that observation come from.

Randy simply nodded in Auriemma’s direction and smiled without further comment.

Other Notes: Temple’s Lady Comfort did not get drafted but on Wednesday she signed a free-agent rookie contract with the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks.

That’s the same team that made Tennessee junior Candace Parker the overall No. 1 draft pick last week.

Last winter after the Phoenix Mercury won the WNBA title, general manager Ann Meyers Drysdale , anticipating grabbing a post player in the draft, had quietly hoped Tennessee’s Nicky Anosike would be around since she didn’t think she would have a chance at the bottom of the first round to grab North Carolina’s Erlana Larkins.

As it evolved, both were still up for pickings, but Phoenix went instead for another Tar Heel – LaToya Pringle, whose stock began to rise substantially soon after that conversation had occurred.

The Guru will cut it short by noting for those who inquirered that he will celebrate his decades-ago arrival on the planet Wednesday by going to the St. Joseph’s postseason dinner.

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: Now that I got your attention, this is not a basketball story. However, we do ocassional dabble in other sports and since this one came in too late to make most of the print editions, here is the Associated Press report of the NCAA Division I women's championship match,

Speaking of PSU, however, the basketball 64-55 victory at Bucknell Saturday night in nearby Lewisburg brought the season record to 9-3 and makes it the first time in five seasons the program has nine nonconference victories).

By The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Penn State played near-perfect volleyball in an amazing NCAA run, winning its second national title while dropping only two games in six tournament matches.

The scrappy Nittany Lions even found a way to stun top-seeded Stanford on Saturday night, getting 26 kills from Megan Hodge and 19 from Nicole Fawcett against the very same school they beat for their first title in 1999.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet that we won,” Hodge said. “It’s surreal. I’m on a high.”

A day before her 21st birthday, Fawcett served on match point and Penn State capped its 26th straight victory on another powerful kill by MVP Hodge, winning 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8 exactly three months to the day after losing a five-game thriller to the Cardinal — the last defeat for the Nittany Lions.

“We just talked coming in about how we were going to win,” Fawcett said. “So, we just had to go back to how we were playing in the first two games. There was no way we were going to lose it.”

It was a classic for volleyball fans considering each side had three first-team All-Americans. Trailing 4-3 in the decisive game, Penn State (34-2) scored six straight points and got two kills each from Christa Harmotto and Alisha Glass for a 10-4 lead and Stanford called timeout.

National and Pac-10 player of the year Foluke Akinradewo and Pac-10 freshman of the year Alix Klineman each had 18 kills for the Cardinal (32-3), who tried to become the first team since UCLA in 1991 to rally from a two-game deficit to win.

“This is why we take the court every day and work hard in practice, so we can win a national championship,” Akinradewo said. “It’s worth taking the risk.”

Stanford fell short for the second straight season, missing a chance to give senior starters Bryn Kehoe and Franci Gerard another title after winning when they were freshmen in 2004.

Penn State coach Russ Rose had no intention of shutting down Stanford’s stars. What his team did was keep points alive by chasing down tough loose balls and hitting the floor for athletic digs to end Stanford’s 12-game winning streak and deny the Pac-10 its sixth title in seven years.

“Anything can happen in a short game, but I was confident if we got to Game 5 and had enough offense we could do some things,” Rose said.

Stanford, which barely advanced out of the semifinals after a 3-2 win over Southern California on Thursday night, was seeking its seventh title in 16 seasons. Now, after five straight championships by the Pac-10, 2006 winner Nebraska and Penn State are bringing more parity to the college game.

The Cornhuskers were the only other team to beat Penn State this season. The Nittany Lions are 31-0 when they win the first game of a match and this was only the fifth time they had to go the distance to win — and fresh legs could have been a factor in this one. Penn State breezed past California 3-0 on Thursday.

Fawcett had served into the net on game point in Game 3, but made up for it later.

This marked the third time these teams met in the championship, with Stanford winning in 1997 and Penn State two years later. These are the only two teams to make all 27 NCAA tournament fields since its inception in 1981.

Stanford freshman libero Gabi Ailes extended her own single-season digs record to 533 with 10 digs Saturday.

In the opening game, the teams combined for five service errors among the first 14 points. Fawcett’s kill made it 26-23, then she had a key block for her team’s 29th point and the game-winning kill.

Kate Price, Penn State’s senior outside hitter, chased down several tough saves along the right sideline.

Rose, in his 29th season at the school, was national coach of the year and Saturday’s triumph was his 925th career victory.

The championship drew 13,631 for a total of 26,679, the second-highest attendance mark in NCAA volleyball history behind Omaha, Neb., last year (34,060).

-- Mel

(Welcome to those linking from the original blog,since that continues to be an initial point of entry for many of you who click by for a visit).

By Mel Greenberg

If former Northwestern star Anucha Brown Sanders' successful sexual harrassment suit against the New York Knicks ultimately results in the $11.6 million judgement awarded her by a jury in the Big Apple on Tuesday, she will be receiving a value nearly equivalent to a large chunk of the current overall payroll in the WNBA.

For many of you who had yet to reach the planet when Brown joined the Wildcats north of Chicago, Brown was a freshman for the 1982-83 season when the NCAA celebrated its first birthday in charge of women's sports championships.

Brown Sanders went on to be named the Big Ten Conference's player of the year twice and all-Big Ten three times. In 1985, she led the nation in scoring with a 30.5 average.

If Madison Square Garden, the corporation which owns the Knicks, the WNBA's New York Liberty, and several other teams in Gotham, wants to recoup most of the payout to Brown Sanders, executives could conside offering her a chance to own the Liberty, since she'll have more than enough for the required $10 million asking price the WNBA ordains for buying into a franchise.

Curse of the No. 1 Pick

You might remember a year ago during the WNBA season, we noted how every coach in the women's pro league, except former Houston mentor Van Chancellor, was gone within two years of making the overall No. 1 pick at the draft.

When Phoenix acquired the top choice for last April's selections, we jested our good friend Ann Meyers Drysdale, who had become the Mercury's new general manager, it might be a smart idea to swap the pick and dodge the curse.

As it evolved, the Mercury did execute such a move when Duke's Lindsey Harding was sent to the Minnesota Lynx for Tangela Smith.

On one hand, Phoenix's transaction helped land the Mercury's first crown. On the other, by executing the deal after making the pick, Phoenix became a victim of the sorry tradition last week when Paul Westhead left the club after a two-year stay for the NBA's Seattle franchise as an assistant coach.

A Visit to Beantown

So on Saturday, while the Phillies spent a day stalling on their winning march to the National League Eastern Division title in baseball, we took a round-tripper on Amtrak to spend the time in Boston, whose Red Sox had already wrapped up the American League Eastern crown.

The real goal of the journey was to soda & dine Erin (she doesn't turn 21 until early this winter) for all her fine work, especially her recent performance at the WNBA finals in Phoenix.

Upon our arrival, under gorgeous clear blue skies, Erin launched a walking tour through the North End, the old hangout of Paul Revere. Ethnic sector that it is, we lunched at a fine Italian restaurant. Then it was off to the harbor, where we sat and enjoyed the breeze across from the USS Consitution.

After enjoying that rest, it was time to stop for lunch dessert at Mike's, an establishment known for cannollis and capuccino.

Next came a quick trip on the "T" to the Copley Mall, where the Guru was used as an in-store fashion critic as Erin shopped for several items. Yeah, by the Guru's estimate, he was the oldest person on the premises.

Then it was on to dinner in Back Bay at a fine Spanish restaurant, followed by a stop at an ice cream parlor, and also followed by a walk to sit alongside the Charles River, the home water course for Erin, who rows for Northeastern.

The visit ended as Erin went home to feed her cats and the Guru grabbed the late train South, slumbering on the rails to a 75-song playlist on his I-pod.

Speaking of the baseball playoffs, the guru's niece Allison, who has been mentioned and appeared previously at the site for various reasons, will be sitting at Game 1 Wednesday afternoon in a special box seat section at Citizens Bank Park, courtesy of her new friend.

Social Set II

Villanova's Harry Perretta may have been coaching the Wildcats for more than two decades, but it's still possible to introduce him to new culinary delights -- such as Chinatown in center city.

That's what occurred Tuesday afternoon, with our party also including longtime Villanova athletic spokesman Dan Kenefick, and Drexel coach Denise Dillon, who once played for Perretta.

OK, so he was a runnerup for top-prospect Elena Delle Donne to Big East rival Connecticut, but Perretta found the spare ribs Tuesday as a nice consolation prize.

End of an Era

If a report we heard in the newsroom Tuesday is true, longtime Archbishop Carroll coach Barry Kirch is heading for retirement.

Kirch's teams were one of the longtime powerhouses in the Catholic League.

Fame and Marriage

The two went hand-and-hand during the University of the Sciences' annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday in the city's Southwest sector.

As former women's star Chauntrelle Clayton listened to the induction acceptance speech of her longtime boyfriend Shannon Overton, she found herself suddenly surprised when Overton offered a proposal of marriage right in the middle of his remarks.

-- Mel