Wednesday, April 28, 2010

By Mel Greenberg

Hello everyone. The Guru may be back here at some future date.

But for now, he has moved back to the original address http://womhoops.blogspot.com

and has a brief note, ok, moderately brief note, to get you all situated and organized to re-adjust your links.

Maintain your links to here, but rename them to avoid confusion, for Guru Inquirer archival purposes in the same way you find stories on the previous platform that existed prior to this one.

The Guru's email Inquirer link has been re-established for a brief period, to give time to shave the 15,000 housed there and catch those coming through the next several weeks.

That's it for now. See you all over on the other side.

Jonathan will keep you up to date at Philly.com as only he knows how whenever he sees some women's hoops newsworthy item.

Looking long range, the Guru is already thinking how to host those of you heading to Philly at the end of next season when Temple hosts and aspires to play in an NCAA regional that will send the winner on to Indianapolis and the Women's Final Four.

  -- Mel

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 12:51 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Saturday, April 24, 2010

(Guru's note: A story on the Guru's Inquirer departure written by Frank Fitzpatrick that is in Saturday's print section appears elsewhere in Philly.com. Because it held a few days for mere things such as the Phillies and Flyers games and the NFL draft, comments from a certain coach who grew up in Norristown and has led his team to two straight unbeaten NCAA women's titles were able to insert into the story despite his busting the original deadline. That ought to make papers in a state north of New York think twice before giving him any assignments in Nutmeg country.)

By Mel Greenberg

So Mel, what was the final full-time hour like on Friday night in the Sports Dept. before slipping into the past tense and the three-week extended fadeout to take care of adminstrative and archival matters?

Technically, the transition began a little while ago and it is unclear whether the identity badge will open the gates of the garage out back allowing me to leave. In fact, they may have calculated that as a way of keeping me around without pay or to increase the value of the place at Tuesday's auction of the paper.

But as bad luck would have it since it was a normally scheduled desk shift, the Guru went down to the last file slug, last game element in the slug, just-before the final deadline.

It reminded him of the time Tim Kelly, a former sports editor in the early 1970s now publisher of the paper in Lexington, Ky., approached his last day here and went through the process as if nothing was about to change.

One of the Guru's duties Friday night was writing blurbs for the baseball minor-league roundup, consisting of the Phillies' affiliates in Reading (Pa.), Lakewood (N.J.), Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Pa.), and the Yankees' affiliate in Trenton, N.J., 30 miles north of here.

Three games were over quickly, but Lakewood went into extra innings stretching between the final major deadline and what we call the quick lift, which happens 30 minutes later. Then Hagerstown went ahead in the top of the 12th with a run but Lehigh Valley tied it.

"I'm never going to wrap it up," the Guru thought. Finally, a lead-off homer in the bottom of the 14th just before the absolute deadline approached gave Lakewood the win, the Guru an easy blurb, and life as he has known it for the past 40 plus years was moments away from going into transition.

Piece of cake.

For you stats freaks, by the way, the Guru calculated that give-or-take vacation time (what's that?), 10 extra days added for leap years, the math shows that he has been involved with the Inquirer for some 14,400 days.

Farewell Poem

Here is a poem assistant/deputy (titles change twice a month) sports editor Gary Miles read in a Night-Before-Christmas motif at Thursday's farewelll salute to the Guru that got the proceedings under way.

Incidentally, the Guru has been told that video will be available sometime next week.

Twas a minute till deadline and all through the desk,there was chaos and panic. The slot was a mess.
The news had just broken. Cohen’s head was still swimmin’. The NBA had confirmed it. They were changin’ to women!

Other papers and Web sites were out of the loop. They scrambled for someone to get them the scoop.

But Cohen and Quinn and I felt very well, when in through the door walked our top expert, Mel.

His eyes, how they twinkled, his dimples how merry. And he chuckled and cackled as he tapped his Blackberry.

“Chill out,” he said. “I blogged that last week. Just cut it and paste it and give it a tweak.”

And we beat the whole nation, were the toast of the day. Then Mel retired to our great dismay.

But we heard him exclaim as he left our white tower, “If you need me, just call me. Hundred dollars per hour!”

Show and Tell

So what will the first day off the payroll books be like.

If the Guru wakes up in time, he may attend the clinic being held in South Philadelphia Saturday morning by the Big Five women's coaches and Drexel coach Denise Dillon.

However, several months ago, the Guru had originally declared this an off-day prior to rush of events because on Saturday night in center city he will be attending the 45th reunion of the 123 graduating class of Northeast High.

I guess the Guru has a some souvenirs from the past few days to bring along in case his former classmates ask what the Guru has been up to since the parting of ways as the last mid-year graduating class back there in January, 1965.

Voice From the Past

So early Friday night the Guru left his desk to check on an artifact or two that may or may not have to be moved elsewhere and when he returned he noticed a red light on his office phone indicating a message had been left.

The Guru won't give you the name per se but you can guess the identity because the person was a longtime coach of a nationally prominent university located in the middle of the Guru's state of Pennsylvania.

It was a shock at first because the Guru had not spoken with this person since weeks before the individual left the profession three seasons ago.

A return number was not left but since the coach had local ties to the Guru and had just heard the news, the person wanted to convey thanks and appreciation for the person's words, though again the Guru notes, it's not the basketball era that's ending here.

But since that person would always proclaim "It's official," when the Guru would appear at a media day or game involving that team, I guess because of the message and looking at the clock on the way in an empty newsroom, the Guru can say, "It's official."

Also, the Guru appreciates the emails received and stories he's seen to date in the past several days.

-- Mel

 

 

,

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 2:40 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Thursday, April 22, 2010

(Guru's note: Since enough requests have come, here is the text, with some explanations in parentheses, of the farewell speech given Thursday afternoon by the Guru to Inquirer colleagues past and present at a newsroom reception for his "retirement" effective after Friday night's shift. The email address and access will continue for three more weeks after going off the payroll.

The speech is focused more on the 40-plus years of  Inquirer life because as the Guru has said, the blog will continue either here or at another address -- stay tuned -- and his chronicling of women's basketball will also move forward. A story on the basketball life, which was suppose to appear in Friday's sports section, apparently is on a brief hold due to the crush of sports news involving live coverage of the Flyers, Phillies and the NFL draft. Jonathan or yours truly will advise when it appears.).

THE GURU INQUIRER GOODBYE SPEECH TRANSCRIPT

To begin, short of just mentioning my self-appointed mentor and patron Ron Patel, and our former late night city editor Michael Comerford, aka the Commodore who was the leader of the group known as the whack jobs, of which I guess I was one, I’d like us to pause and take 10 seconds or so to remember the people who have been here over the last four decades who are no longer with us on the planet and also to keep in our thoughts the well wishes to those who can’t be here because of health issues and other matters.

Let us bow our heads.

(PAUSE)

Now to get down to the entertainment portion of the program, having led a multiple life in this piece of real estate for over four decades, to arrive at this particular time is very tricky in trying to really emphasize The Inquirer side of things.

I’d like first to congratulate all of you on the employment roster who in a matter of days will each move up at least one slot on the seniority lists – actually two slots since my sports colleague Jack Ewing is crowding the door in front of me.

The bottom line is: I was here before any of you came, and it now appears I will no longer be here after any of you leave.

Incredibly, this is the third time the paper has thrown a party on my behalf, beginning in 2000 which helped launch the NCAA Women’s Final Four here.

What a year that was when I got to run the newsroom for eight months using executive editor Bob Rosenthal as my front man.

Then in 2007, there was the party downstairs for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Induction.

As for this event, well in the last two weeks I have never seen so many people around here jump through hoops just to satisfy (sports editor) Jim Cohen’s Corned Beef fetish.

You know my Boswells here writing my public bio – Mike Vitez in the past and Frank Fitzpatrick in tomorrow’s (Friday’s) paper, have focused on the women’s basketball angle which produced the notoriety in my case. But it is the journalistic life in this building that enabled the basketball experience involving myself to become a reality.

Here’s a secret for most of you. My real start in women’s athletics was driving Temple cheerleaders to men’s basketball games at the request of Al Shrier, then the sports information director.

It was the greatest thing that ever happened to Joe Juliano, then a young Temple News student sports editor who reunited with me in sports some years later.

On one particular long trip to Boston, four of them squeezed into the back seat with Joe. When we hit Beantown, Joe told me not to stop but keep driving to New Hampshire.

In the past when people have said I’m the history, it has been all about the chronicling of women’s basketball. But at this moment, in the context of the next Inquirer payroll sheet, I actually am history.

So, then where do we dive into the retrospective?

To kill the myth, I never knew Benjamin Franklin though I think I’ve used every transmission device here since his time.

When I came to the Inquirer I went out and bought a little portable Olivetti typewriter back in the day when Italy could produce a publishing system that functioned much better than Hermes (the system now used in the Inquirer newsroom).

(Thursday) night, when I was at the Women’s Big Five dinner,. I recorded a few quotes on this little digital device and then sat in the car, put on a headset, transcribed the remarks into a blackberry and, then transmitted them to the sports desk.

In between over the past four decades, from typewriters we went to telerams – if you don’t recall, don’t ask – then PSI devices, then the Radio Shack Trash 80s, and finally on to the evolution with PCs.

Remember Al Hasbrouck’s memo back in the early days? 20 megabites will be all you ever need.

Today, that’s just the amount of email I get every 30 minutes.

As I move through this, I’m trying to stay off of names, except when needed, to avoid omissions. Besides, as we go through this short narrative everyone will know the who and when of each era.

A special thanks to friendships developed downstairs from the folks throughout the Daily News.

I would like to salute all those in the room who grew together with me out of the Editorial Assistant ranks into our various achievements.

One former fellow EA here is Bryan Meehan who I found in the wire room at 3 a.m. three days after both of us were hired here on 9-9-69.

Of course a short time later, he dated some young woman in Action Line -- no that wasn’t a dating service – She eventually became Maureen Meehan without whom this party wouldn’t be possible. So as always give her a hand.

Dan DeDeluca, the pop music writer in features, shared the notoriety with me of becoming bargaining chips when the contract negotiation in the early 1990s put us into the reporter category.

To many of you off of one of my many jobs, I unwittingly became your agent, so to speak, in giving you national exposure as the liaison between the newsroom and filing your stories to the Knight-Ridder wire in Washington for other papers to use.

In fact, those folks in D.C. became part of my extended family.

Of course, the nice thing about that perk in running the wire feed was being able to file my own stories at longer lengths than the Inquirer ran them. Don McKee in sports will tell the famous story when Jay Searcy was the sports editor and handed me a newspaper with a full page blowout, but no byline, and scribbled the note, “This is what we should be doing.”

McKee immediately recognized my copy and called out behind Jay’s back – “It is what we’re doing.”

I got to know (former Inquirer executive editor) Gene Roberts before most because I was given chauffeur duties in the early days. Years later, after his retirement, I had to take him back to his house outside Washington and stay over.

After we went inside, I paused for a moment and suddenly Gene grabbed my stuff and had me follow him up the steps to show me my bedroom. It was at that moment I thought to myself, “They ought to see this scene. Who says Gene can’t carry my bags?”

In fact I think I scared him back into active duty because when he realized something was wrong with that picture, a week later he was named editor of the New York Times.

My tour of duty in features produced the great perk of former restaurant critic Elaine Tait taking me as “the other” to lunch and teaching such culinary delights as the joy of sushi.

Although sports is where I wrote most of my stories, I would like to thank all the copy and backfield and desk editors, yes especially in sports, who produced fancy displays, wrote great headlines and saved me from myself.

Of course, to save me, they actually had to learn about women’s basketball to spot any errors.

There have been wild stunts over the years, such as the time that I was to be in Los Angeles while the newsroom high command was attending a Knight-Ridder confab.

They wanted me to show up and surprise Roberts.

They hadn’t come back from dinner when I arrived at the hotel so I went to the suite and then got introduced to a well-dressed gentleman named Tony Ridder, the head of the chain.

Well, you can imagine the look of their faces when they finally arrived and there I was answering questions from Tony Ridder about Cheryl Miller and others in the women’s game.

Upon my return the next five weeks, they were my calmest in the newsroom . Everyone was treating me with kid gloves because I was now being called “Tony’s pal.”

The trips delivering the Pulitzer Prizes at the last minute because of Roberts’ reluctance to send them on their way without his seal of approval evoked a few stories – the near-attempt to put me in a helicopter and swing into Columbia University on a day with 50 mile an hour winds until I said, “Gene, playing King Kong and dying for the company doesn’t come with the job.”

Because of the experiences, I can tell you every shortcut and back alley on the West Side between the GW Bridge and upper Broadway where the Columbia journalism building is located.

Some of you are familiar about my trip taking the Duke – the cheap velvet John Wayne painting -- to France for the late Steve Lovelady’s 50th birthday to surprise him and his wife Ann Kolson. She actually worked with me in features at the time.

The plotters had a young woman from Australia meet me in Paris to keep me out of trouble and when I returned stateside Ashley Halsey – the national editor – said, “What did Helen look like?”

I responded, “I went through the green area at Orly airport like you said, I heard a woman’s voice call my name – and at that moment, I knew this was no dream that Max King, who was Roberts’ successor, and the rest of them had truly sent me abroad.”

To wrap up before Maureen hits me with the hook, no matter where this place is headed, the friendships over the years – four decades in my case – can never be erased. This has been a home with character and characters, which I guess I’m one.

You have been there in times of family illnesses and passing.

People over the years have said to me that I never see you get told when you’ve done a good job on a particular story and the like.

But that’s not what’s really important because if there were problems, I wouldn’t have been able to live this life for so long.

What matters most, however, what really is important, is the readership – the numbers on the blog and twitter – as well as people reacting to print and online coverage from all over country. They have looked to this institution as providing what they consider something special.

And because of that they have dropped notes – parents, players, former players, coaches, relatives – to simply say – thank you.

And in turn I now look at all of you in this room and say in kind – Thank You.
 

-- Mel

 

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 11:39 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

By Mel Greenberg

  This is not going to be too long in that the Guru has been busy with the countdown and out this week.

 But in noticing the news over the weekend of the passing of former Delaware coach Joyce Perry, the Guru would like to say she was a class act.

 Joyce, who became Delaware's coach in 1978 two years after the Guru launched what became the Associated Press women's poll, was brought aboard as one of the voting board. Even though the Blue Hens were not high threshhold, but still competitive during her era, she was one of our group who consistently was on hand every Sunday to cast her ballot.

 Her Delaware teams, as Tina Martin's now, always had a strong mix of scheduling against the Big Five and Joyce was usually a part of the Philly social group at Final Fours during her time.

She preserved the work of Mary Ann Campbell (Hitchens) and moved Delaware forward, setting the stage for Tina Martin to lead the Blue Hens through new threshholds.

The Guru sends his condolences to the entire Delaware family on her passing.

Nolan's Lafayette Hire Evokes Memory Lane

The news that Yale assistant Dianne Nolan will become the new coach of Lafayette evokes memories of a long-tme association back to the days of when she was a high school student, the Guru was a basketball manager at Temple, and her older brother Drew played for the Owls.

 The Guru, who had the comp tickets at a time when NCAA regulations, usually found a way to take care of her friends and invite them to the parties afterwards.

  Some time after Temple won the NIT when it was fashionable to win the NIT and the Guru moved on to his next life at The Inquirer and eventually launched the poll, he got a letter (no email back then folk) from the coach's office at St. Francis, N.Y., which began -- "You may not remember me. . ."

  Nolan went on to a long stint at Fairfield and of course the Guru made her a voter also.

Speaking of voters, former Maryland coach Chris Weller who will be an inductee in June at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville was one of the Guru's original charter group.

  Just mentioning it, though as the Guru continues to note, his own era will continue in a form to be determined shortly.

 It's just the print relationship that will change though as a certain former High School turned-volleyball player said at a press conference in a neighboring state below here in the fall of 2008 -- the home of the vice president for the geographically challenged -- "Can't say never because that's a long time. In her case, implied "never" lasted around 12 months.

  More from the ship while still on board in the next 24 or 48.

   -- Mel

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 1:29 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

By Mel Greenberg

 Senior Tina Charles of the still unbeaten defending NCAA champion Connecticut Huskies was unable to the be in Los Angeles Saturday night at the annual ritzy presentation of the John R. Wooden Award that is awarded through the Los Angeles Athletic Club to the top collegiate men's and women's players.

Scheduling conflicts had the native of Brooklyn in Secaucus, N.J., Thurday, for the WNBA draft and then off to the UConn campus in Storrs by Sunday for the USA Basketball Senior Women's National Team workouts under Huskies coach Geno Auriemma.

So in a first-ever move, with Charles unable to come to the Wooden ceremony, officials will be in Storrs Thursday to make the presentation off site.

Because of the addition of the USA Select Team under Virginia coach Debbie Ryan and her former player South Carolina coach Dawn Staley on site, all five Wooden All-Americans will be on hand at the ceremony.

The Guru, as a member of the women's advisory board, was invited, but is doubtful at this time whether he can attend.

The other four All-Americans are Virginia's Monica Wright, who is on the Select Team, UConn junior Maya Moore, who won the Wooden a year ago and is on the national roster, Nebraska senior Kelsey Griffin, also on the Select Team, and Stanford's Jayne Appel, a senior who is on the national roster, and her Cardinal teammate Nneka Oguwmike, a sophomore.

A week ago Charles went first overall to the Connecticut Sun as expected in the WNBA draft and Griffin also landed with the Sun after being picked third overall by the Minnesota Lynx and then dealt shortly afterwards to the Sun. Wright as the second overall pick was picked by Minnesota.

Moore likely will be the overall WNBA top pick next season and Ogwumike is heading for a high first round pick in the future based on her play with Stanford the first two years that included a runnerup finish earlier this month to Connecticut in the title game in San Antonio, Texas.

Colorado's Lappe Gets Congrats From a Former Teammate

 When Linda Lappe was named the new coach of Colorado, her alma mater, Monday in succeeding Kathy McConnell-Miller, the Guru got a note from her former Buffs teammate Kate Fagan, who was a senior the same season in 2003 when they finished their collegiate careers in a loss to Villanova in the Sweet 16 in Knoxville, Tenn.

Fagan was hired by The Inquirer sports department last year and for better or worse will be finishing her second season Wednesday night as the beat writer covering the 76ers.

"I'm so excited for Linda, she's going to rock it," Fagan said in a text message upon hearing the news.

Big Five Women's Awards

The Big Five women's awards annual reception will be next Wednesday in Pennsauken or Cinnaminson -- it's on the border and the Guru forgets which -- across the Delaware River in New Jersey.

 The Guru had a vote along with the coaches and his picks were as follows:

Player of the Year: Kristen McCarthy of Temple

Rookie of the Year: Laura Sweeney of Villanova

Most Improved Player: Jasmine Stone of Temple (was a tough call over Ashley Logue of St. Joseph's).

And Coach of the Year: Tonya Cardoza.

There's also a sportsmanship award, but since that is a dart toss with all five nominees worthy, the Guru declines to reveal his choice.

As for the First Team, the Guru went with McCarthy, Maria Getty of Villanova, Qwedia Wallace and Stone of Temple, and Brittany Ford of St. Joseph's.

His second team on the ballot consisted of: Villanova's Sweeney, La Salle's Morgan Robertson, St. Joseph's Logue and Ashley Prim, and Temple's LaKeisha Eaddy.

   Summer League Action

 The Philadelphia Dept. of Recreation NCAA Women's Summer League is moving from Northeast High to the Renegades AAU Gym in Hatboro on Tuesday and Thursday nights beginning June 15.

 The Guru will provide the exact address in an ensuing post once the teams are formed.

Despite lavish farewells for David Kessler's retirement from the department at the end of last summer, he will again be back as the commissioner where has done an outstanding job running the league.

 And no, even though a week from Friday marks the end of the Guru's 40-plus year run at The Inquirer, he is not holding an offer this time from Kessler to be the commisiner's assistant.

  Besides, there will be nights that conflict with WNBA games along the seaboard in Connecticut, New York and Washington that will preclude the Guru's attendance. However, the league will continued to be chronicled in the Guru's blog at a site still to be determined -- all options, including here, open at this time -- and you all will be informed once plans are complete.

          -- Mel

 

 

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 4:03 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Monday, April 12, 2010

By Mel Greenberg

New Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was not on the scene in her home area this winter to see much of Drexel senior Gabriela Marginean.

One reason was she was busy making a career move after the former WNBA champion Detroit Shock, of which she had been assistant coach and general manager, moved to Tulsa under a new organization.

That resulted in her joining the Lynx, where her former boss Bill Laimbeer is an assistant on the NBA Timberwolves side as an assistant coach.

Still, the South Jersey native had made enough trips in previous years scouting talent and seeing some Drexel games as Marginean worked her way to eventually become the all-time career women's collegiate scorer in the Philadelphia area with 2,581 points.

"We are looking forward to seeing what Gabby can do after such a stellar career at Drexel," Reeve, a former La Salle star in the late 1980s, sent the Guru in a text message after the draft Thursday that arrived too late to use in the print story for Friday editions. "We believe she has a skill set that differs from the existing group of Lynx post players.

Of course, prior to Marginean being taken in the third round, Reeve was involved in part of the trigger for several blockbuster transactions.

Renee Montgomery and the No. 1 overall pick, which became Tina Charles, were dealt near their UConn roots to the Connecticut Sun in ezchange for Minnesota home girl and WNBA All-Star Lindsay Whalen and the No. 2 overall pick, which became Virginia star Monica Wright.

The Lynx had the third overall pick also on Thursday and chose Nebraska star Kelsey Griffin, who was dealt later to the Sun in another transaction.

Marginean is the latest in a group of persons from the area who have landed in the women's pro league.

The most prominent in the past decade is former Temple sensation Cadice Dupree, who was picked sixth overall by the Chicago Sky and has become a perennial All-Star.

She was involved in the recent mega three-way deal that was highlighted by fiormer Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter landing with the New York Liberty and Dupree being sent to the WNBA defending champion Phoenix Mercury.

On Sunday Dupree was invited to join the spring training of the U.S. Senior Women's National team in training in Storrs, Conn., under NCAA champion coach Geno Auriemma, who will guide the Olympians in London in 2012.

A year after Dupree was picked, Temple's Kamesha Hairston went in the bottom of the first round to the Connecticut Sun, where she played a few seasons.

In 2008, two graduating Maryland stars, Willingboro's Crystal Langhorne and Cheltenham High's Laura Harper, were first-round picks with Langhorne playing at the nearby Washington Mystics and Harper with the former Sacramento Monarchs.

Former Delaware star Tyresa Smith saw time in Detroit with the Shock, while St. Joseph's assistant coach Sue Moran, an all-time Hawk star, spent time earlier in the last decade with the Liberty in Madison Square Garden.

Of course two of the all-time notables are Dawn Staley, the former Temple coach and Dobbins High graduate, who played for the former Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets before her retirement, while former St. Joseph's star Debbie Black played for the former Miami Sol and then with the Connecticut Sun.

Black is now an assistant to her former Hawks coach Jim Foster at Ohio State but told the Guru at the Women's Final Four in San Antonio that she is ready to make her next coaching career move.

Down the road, two area persons who will be talked about as WNBA prospects are UConn sophomore Caroline Doty, a graduate of Germantown Academy, and Delaware freshman Elena Delle Donne.

Meanwhile, beyond the immediate region, Penn State senior Tyra Grant was taken by Phoenix, which recently sent former Nittany Lion all-time scoring star Kelly Mazzante to New York in the Pondexter deal.

Former Penn State stars Suzie McConnell-Serio, now coaching Duquesne, and Helen Darling, have played in the league.

Chicago with the fourth pick took former Rutgers star Epiphanny Prince, who bypassed her senior season to play in Europe. Pondexter is New York will reunite wth former Scarlet Knights stars Kia Vaughn and Essence Carson. Another of their former teammates -- Matee Ajavon -- plays for Washington, while Tammy Sutton-Brown, one of the Rutgers stars of the 2000 Final Four squad in Philadelphia, is on the defending Easterrn champion Indiana Fever.

Pndexter, who was taken in 2006 as the second overall pick, teammed with former UConn star Diana Taurasi to bring the Mercury two WNBA titles in the past three years.

Rashidat Juaid, a former Inquirer player of the year at Camden Catholic who just finished at Rutgers, went in the third round to the Los Angeles Sparks.

         -- Mel

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 12:48 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Thursday, April 8, 2010

By Mel Greenberg

  In some cases, the WNBA draft coming less than 48 hours after the NCAA women's title game will keep the highs going.

That would be in Connecticut where UConn star Tina Charles will go as quickly as Sun coach Mike Thibauldt wants to tease the masses when his organization takes the first turn on the clock. The big suspense is now over whether he will also add Huskies star Kalana Greene, whose stock continued to rise as her team bulldozed its way down the stretch to an unprecedented second straight unbeaten season.

The Sun are in position to grab Greene after gaining the seventh overall pick in a trade with the Tulsa -- formerly Detroit -- Shock.

Meanwhile, back on the West Coast, Stanford was still hurting after throwing away a chance to stop the Huskies' record streak, now at 78.

  It was revealed that star center Jayne Appel also had a stress fracture besides the right ankle sprain that helped limit her along with the UConn defense to 0 points.

  However, Appel will go quickly behind Charles depending on needs and she will be all smiles when she learns the next stop in a prolific basketball career.

  Two years ago, the Guru asked Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer in Tampa whether it was a good thing for the draft to come so quickly on the heels of the collegiate championship, which back then was the next day.

  The Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, whose team had just lost to Tennessee after giving UConn its last loss in the semifinals.

  VanDerveer liked the idea that seniors could quickly move on to the next phase of their careers without dwelling over what just had occurred.

     Biden Got The Memo

  There was some speculation that Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill were anxious to see Connecticut in the title game so he can resume ties with Elena Delle Donne from the days when she was making shots as a high school phenom in Delaware and he was still the United States senator from that state.

  No truth to that so apparently he got the word that Delle Donne's UConn experience two years ago was less than 48 hours before she headed home with a severe case of home sickness that ulitmately resulted in her playing the sport near her home this season with the Blue Hens.

   Incidentally, with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in the house to cheer for Stanford where she once drew a paycheck, it would have been a nice motif in San Antonio for a notable with the last name of Beans to in the Alamodome also so it could be mentioned that Rice and Beans were among the crowd of about 22,000 spectators.

   Local Draft Hopefuls

  Names that may or may not be taken Thursday from Division I schools of interest here include Drexel's Gabriela Marginean and Penn State's Tyra Grant. Of course, former Rutgers star Epiphanny Prince is expected to go high after foregoing her senior season to play in Europe.

   Former Villanova star Laura Kurz recently signed a training camp contract with the Seattle Storm and coach Brian Agler said he like the Wildcats leader who helped restore the team to prominence after she transferred from Duke.

  Since the Guru plans to be on the scene at NBA Entertainment Studios off the Jersey Turnpike, he is going to sign off now.

    -- Mel

   

Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 4:20 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, April 7, 2010

(Guru's note: The main game story is below this post.)

By Kayla Goldman
 
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The 53-47 win by Connecticut over Stanford in the Astrodome Tuesday night   brought a second-straight unbeaten national title that was a special achievement.
 
Notable as it was, the triumph also meant the close of collegiate careers for five of the 11 Huskies who as seniors finished with a 146-6 overall record to go with the two trophies.
 
“This win means everything,” said Kaili McLaren, one of the departing players. “To get through everything and pull out strong means the world. There’s so much history that came before me and now we got to make a little history. This is a family atmosphere. I’m going to miss my team mates so much and I’m going to miss the coaches so much. The coaches helped us get through everything and win.” 
Shea Ralph, a Connecticut assistant coach who played for the Huskies from 1996-2001, knows the hard work and dedication it takes to capture a championship with one of the nation’s most elite programs.
She was named Most Outstanding Player in the 2000 championship, in which the Huskies defeated Tennessee 70-61 in Philadelphia.
Ralph, who had been an assistant at Pittsburgh, returned to Connecticut at the beginning of the 2009 season filling the shoes of Tonya Cardoza, the longtime aide to Geno Auriemma who took the Temple head coaching job..
“I’m a lot more nervous coaching than I was playing. It was easier playing – I had control over stuff. You feel like you have control over the outcome,” Ralph said.  “You try to do the best to prepare your players as a coach, and you really want them to end their career the right way.”
She spoke of the senior class and their contributions.
 “These seniors are just a great group. There are five of them. That’s almost half of our team. We are going to miss them so much on the bus, in the locker room, everywhere. We are going to miss them a lot. They are a huge part of our personality. I am happy they can leave with this win,” Ralph said.
Meghan Gardler, a native of Springfield, couldn’t be happier for the team and the win.
 “These girls are my family,” the former Cardinal O’Hara star said.. “They are my best friends. I am going to miss them so much. I had three surrogate moms in the coaching staff and these girls are all my sisters. Geno (Auriemma) was like my father,” Gardler said.
The loss of senior Tina Charles, who will be taken by the Connecticut Sun Thursday as the number one pick in the 2010 WNBA draft, will be of an incredible magnitude.
 “More than anything elseTina brings, we will miss Tina’s presence the most,” Ralph said.
“Her leadership, in the ways she’s the glue of our team more than anything. We will miss her contributions on the court and off the court. But just having her inside in the paint, doesn’t matter what she’s doing, it’s just that presence.”
Charles finishes atop the record books for Connecticut in both points and rebounds: 2,345 and 1,367, respectively.
“I’m sitting here trying to fight back tears because I’m going to miss this team and miss ’Coach. I’m grateful for everything he’s done for me. I’m going to miss everything about this program,” Charles said.
 Fellow senior, Jacquie Fernandes, understands Charles’ sentiment: “It’s more than playing for Connecticut. It’s about being a part of a family, a sisterhood. I’m never going to forget it. Once you’re a husky, you’re always a husky. Whether you play four minutes or forty minutes, you’ve made your contributions.”
Kalana Greene, also expected to be in the WNBA draft, is the other senior.
While the Connecticut seniors reflect on the history and the bonds made, the underclassmen are excited for the promise of the future.
 Tiffany Hayes, a sophomore guard who hasn’t lost in her Connecticut career, said, “It’s a surreal feeling not losing a single game. Coming out of high school, you think, alright, you’ll lose one or two at least, but Caroline (Doty of Germantown Academy), Kelly (Fairs), Heather (Buck), I, we haven’t lost. We are all still excited. We are aiming for four titles, and we don’t want to know what it feels like to lose. Caroline and I are looking forward to doing it. We’re going to try.”
Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 2:02 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, April 7, 2010

(Guru's note: A sidebar is posted above this)

By Mel Greenberg

 SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Connecticut overcame a rarely performed imperfect half to rally to another perfect finish and second straight unbeaten NCAA women’s basketball title, beating Stanford, 53-47, Tuesday night in the Alamodome.
 
It’s the first time back-to-back unbeaten seasons have been achieved in the women’s game and first in the NCAA among combined genders since UCLA performed a similar achievement in 1972 and 1973.
 
Ironically, the Huskies (39-0) also finished as an unbeaten champion here in 2002 with an identical record. The crowd of 22,936 Tuesday night included vice president Joe Biden and his wife Jill.
 
 The Huskies extended their NCAA women’s record win streak record to 78, though it was the first time in the run that their outcome was not decided by double digits.
 
The outcome was the closest since Maryland’s 78-75 overtime triumph over Atlantic Coast rival Duke in 2006 in Boston. It was the 10th overall title game to be decided by six points or fewer.
 
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, is now 7-0 in the championship game. The Huskies are topped only by archrival Tennessee, which has won eight titles under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.
 
Next up for Connecticut in the history books is a shot next season at the overall 88 straight wins achieved by UCLA and Hall of Fame men’s coach John Wooden.
 
“There is no company,” Auriemma, also a Hall of Famer, said of being mentioned in the same breath as the Wizard of Westwood. “He has no company.
 
“He’s a pretty special coach and special guy,” Auriemma continued. “I’m just thankful for this group of kids because I know how hard they’ve worked and how much they’ve put into this. I think for the first time this year, they felt a little bit of pressure tonight. I’m just happy to be their coach.”
 
Auriemma, on Monday, said that the team with the best player is usually the one that wins when it comes to playing in the NCAA championship contest.
 
That was true again Tuesday night with junior Maya Moore, who was named the most outstanding player, carrying the Huskies back from a 20-12 deficit that existed at the half.
 
Moore, the consensus top player of last season, finished with 23 points, including 18 points in the second half, and 11 rebounds.
 
“We didn’t run a single play we had practiced since day one,” Moore said of her team’s play in the first half. “Our offense was completely out of whack and Stanford did a great job getting us out of our rhythm.
 
“We responded in the second half and knew what we had to do,” Moore continued. “We knew a run was coming and we settled down and hit some big shots. Tina (Charles) hit some big shots and I stepped up and hit some big shots. Now we are champions.”
 
Moore won the Wade Award as the top player of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association on Saturday while Charles, who had nine points and 11 rebounds, has won all the other individual player awards to date, including the Naismith Award on Monday.
 
Germantown Academy’s Caroline Doty, who had nine points, hit two three-pointers down the stretch to help Connecticut stay unbeaten.
 
"For Caroline to make those shots she made, that's just an incredible toughness on that kid's part, because she hasn't made a shot since Biden was a senator (from Delaware), Auriemma said.
 
"That's why he came to say hi to us. He said, `I remember you making a shot when I was senator."
 
Kayla Pedersen, who was named to the All-Tournament team at the Women’s Final Four, had 15 points and 17 rebounds for Stanford /(36-2).
 
Both Cardinal losses were to the Huskies, including one in Hartford back in December.
 
Stanford was ranked second in the preseason behind Connecticut and the two national powers ran the first-ever 1-2 tandem in the weekly Associated Press women’s poll. The national media panel made the Huskies an ongoing unanimous No. 1 choice in the vote, which got under way in late October.
 
Sophomore Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who led Stanford to a semifinal win over Oklahoma on Sunday, had 11 points and 13 rebounds and received all-tournament honors along with Charles and Oklahoma’s Danielle Robinson to round out the team.
 
Jeanette Pohlen also was in double figures with 11 points for Stanford. However, 6-foot-4 center Jayne Appel, likely to go high in Thursday’s WNBA draft behind Charles, struggled on her nagging ankle injury with an 0-for-12 effort from the field.
 
The Connecticut Sun already announced they will take Charles, a native of Brooklyn, No. 1
 
The combined inept offense by both teams made the 100 total points the lowest ever in the championship, topping the 105 collected in Tennessee’s 59-46 win over Rutgers in 2007.
 
The combined 32 points in the half was also a new low.
 
Despite all that, Stanford seemed headed for a shocking upset as Connecticut shot a miserable 5-for-29 from the field in the first 20 minutes. That included a pair of field goals at the outset that gave the Huskies a brief 5-0 lead.
 
The 12 points by UConn were the lowest ever in a half at the Final Four. The total also matched the Huskies’ worst-ever output in a half that was set in 2006 in a Big East game at Rutgers.
 
“It was one of the few times I was speechless,” Auriemma said of his thoughts in the locker room. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and all my years at Connecticut.
 
“We were so out of it and we just talked about slowing everything down, getting a little better movement, get some better screening, being a little more patient and then Maya just made some huge shots.
 
“It’s unbelievable. This is just unbelievable.”
 
Auriemma was relieved that the differential was not wider at the break.
 
“As bad as we played, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” he said. “And there was hope. There was hope for us. I didn’t know what kind of hope. But there was hope.”
 
That hope was found in Connecticut’s defense, which helped the Huskies take off on an overpowering 26-7 run from the outset of the second half to regain control.
 
 “We kept fighting, but things weren’t falling,” Pendersen said of the Huskies’ surge against the Cardinals. “We got a little bit extended on defense more so than we should have. They started rebounding a little bit better. And, I don’t know, we needed to make our own run, and we didn’t really do that.”
 
Moore’s three-pointer with 14:27 left in the game gave Connecticut its first lead since the 5-0 advantage at 23-22 and the Huskies stayed ahead the rest of the way.
 
“That was a big momentum pusher,” Moore said. “There was a defender right in my face, running to contest it. And I just didn’t think about it; I just rose up and shot it and it went in and everybody had a little bounce to them.
“That's why we’re champions. We rise to the occasion. And we love big-time shots.”
 
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer spoke of her team’s inability to mount a huge lead in the first half when Connecticut seemed rattled.
 
“We wasted a lot of opportunities in both halves,” said VandDerveer, whose team handed UConn its last loss in the 2008 national semifinals. “I thought people were rushing shots.
 
 “Nneka coming off 38 points (in the semifinals win over Oklahoma), this was – it was very physical. And you know, Nneka just – is going to have to learn from this. We needed to have some kind of go-to-playing. And we didn’t have that.”
 
VanderDerveer had noted going into the game Connecticut needed to be off for her team to have a chance for an historic upset.
 
Though she got her wish, the Cardinal couldn’t capitalize when it came to the ultimate outcome.
 
“It’s very disappointing. And it’s very disappointing,” VanDerveer said. “I think what’s hardest is Jayne having such a great career at Stanford and I just – I’m really sad for her to go out with this kind of game when last year, even though we lost, last year she had 25.”
 
Connecticut beat Stanford in last year’s national semifinals and also beat the Cardinal in the semifinals of 1995 when the Huskies claimed their first unbeaten season and NCAA title at 35-0.
 
They now have four of the six perfect seasons in NCAA Division I since the tournament began in 1982. The other two were achieved by Texas (34-0, 1986) and Tennessee (39-0, 1998).
Auriemma did not want to talk much about going after the 88 game win streak of the UCLA men.
 
But he did allow to look ahead at a potential three straight titles for Moore, who will finish her career and probably depart college as the next No. 1 draft pick out of UConn in the WNBA.
 
“Maya’s greatest challenge next year is going to be that for the first time in her college career she will be the older leader and not have a lot of help, and that’s really going to take a toll on Maya next year,” Auriemma said. “I’ve told her that. We’ve talked about it. And that’s my job to get her ready for that.
 
“But you know, people are going to expect us to win a national championship because we’ve got Maya Moore. And I would say: Good. So do I.”
 
--Mel
 
 
Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 1:23 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Monday, April 5, 2010

(Guru's note: Kayla Goldman, a student from Orlando, Fla., riding shotgun with the Guru down here in Dixie has a sidebar feature on Germantown Academy's Caroline Doty of UConn under this post. -- Mel)

By Mel Greenberg

 SAN ANTONIO  -  For people focused on the Donovan McNabb trade and Phillies opening day coverage, a glance at Connecticut’s 70-50 victory over Baylor Sunday night in the second game of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament semifinals in the Alamodome will seem like business as usual.
 
The Huskies (38-0) extended their extended their NCAA record win streak to 77. The differential, as in the 76 prior results, once again reached double figures.
 
   But there actually was some suspense in the second half before UConn completed the 1-2 matchup that’s now set for Tuesday night against Stanford (36-1).
 
 The Cardinal had to withstand a late rally by Oklahoma (27-11) before advancing with a 73-66 win built on the powerful performance from Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who had 38 points and 16 rebounds.
 
    Connecticut, meanwhile, saw a 15-point lead at the outset of the second half get shriveled all the way down to a mere 41-38 advantage by the Bears (27-10) with 14 minutes, 55 seconds left in the game.
 
 Not to worry even though Germantown Academy’s CarolineDoty and backcourt mate Tiffany Hayes combined for a 1-for-14 shooting effort and each struggled with four personal fouls.
 
 It’s helpful to have two post presences with national player honors the same year as senior Tina Charles (AP, United States Basketball Writers) and junior Maya Moore (Wade Award selected by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association).
 
 The duo powered the Huskies on a 29-12 run the rest of the way as Moore finished with 34 points and 12 rebounds, while Charles had 21 points and 13 rebounds.
 
   “I thought there were several things that were different in the game,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, a former Louisiana Tech star who won an NCAA title as a player and guided the Bears to the 2005 title. “First of all, their two all-Americans scored all but 15 of their points.
 
“That’s a junior and a senior for Connecticut that we had freshman guarding,” Mulkey said. “(Brittney) Griner was guarding Tina Charles all night and Shanay Washington and Nae-Nae Hayden and Jordan Madden took their shots at Maya Moore.”
 
 Griner, the shot-blocking freshman sensation, finished with 13 points for Baylor and Morghan Medlock had a team-high 14 points.
 
 Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, praised the work of two of his superstars who compensated for the offensive shutdown elsewhere in the lineup.
 
“The one scenario I didn’t conjure up (going into the game) was our two starting guards going 1-for-14. I didn’t plan on that.
 “And in spite of that, these two players up here were just absolutely amazing because they had to do it all by themselves pretty much. And I can’t say enough about them and especially in the second half what they did when Baylor cut it to whatever they cut it to.”
 
 Moore spoke of her play as well as that of her teammate from Brooklyn, who on Thursday will be taken No. 1 overall by the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA draft.
 
 “I felt I had a mismatch most of the game,” Moore said. “I was just trying to be aggressive. And once I listened to my teammates and set up my screens and used them, we got even more opened up.
 
“And Tina just does a great job of coming in, a confident leader who is going to attack anybody that she’s matched up with. She made some big buckets for us – gave us a lot of momentum and blocked some shots and came through for us on the boards.”
 
   Charles creditedAuriemma for contributing to UConn’s success by simulating situations such as what occurred Sunday night.
 
 “Coach puts us in situations like that during practice,” she said. “When we go to practice, even though we have this streak going on and we’re winning games, he still puts us in game situations that could happen.
 
   “And that happened tonight, and we all just came together and we’re like we’re not going to lose. We want to go on Tuesday.”
 
 Stanford’s one loss came against Connecticut back in Hartford in December.
 
The Cardinal were part of a first-ever 1-2 tandem in the weekly Associated Press women’s rankings this season riding shotgun wire-to-wire behind the Huskies, who were an unanimous No. 1 choice weekly by the national media panel.
 
 Stanford, who handed Connecticut its last loss in the national semifinals in 2008 in Tampa, led Oklahoma all the way Sunday night, building an 18-point advantage with 6:47 left in the game.
 
But the Sooners rallied and moved within three points at 69-66 with 16 seconds left before Ogwumike hit two foul shots to seal Stanford’s win.
 
All-American Jayne Appel had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Cardinal, while Kayla Pedersen had 12 points to go with Ogwumike’s effort.
 
 Danielle Robinson scored 23 points for Oklahoma.
 
 “We did not have an answer for `Nneka’ all night long,” Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. “And it just took us too long to get going.”
 
 Ogwumike’s 38 points are now second only to the 47 points by former Texas Tech star Sheryl Swoopes in the 1993 title game in terms of individual scoring in a Final Four game.
 
 Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer spoke of the second matchup this season with Connecticut in terms of what her team will bring into Tuesday night’s game.
 
“I think our team will bring confidence, know that we’ve improved a lot, and I think our team will be excited,” she said, recalling the 80-68 setback to the Huskies.
 
“We know we need to play better and shoot the ball better, but I think tonight against some very athletic players and an aggressive team we took care of the ball well. We got the ball to a hot player on the court.”
 
Auriemma knows his team will need more than Charles and Moore to finish another season unbeaten.
 
“If we shoot the way we shot tonight we’ll be in trouble on Tuesday night, because Stanford is a little bit different offensively than Baylor,” he said. “They just have a lot of offense.
 
 “They may be the hardest team to play against in America. For us, anyway because of all the offensive players they have.”
 
Told that Stanford only shot 39 percent in their win over the Sooners, Auriemma responded: “Maybe the first team to 50 wins.”
 
-- Mel 
Posted by Mel Greenberg @ 2:34 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Mel Greenberg
Mel Greenberg covers college and pro women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he has worked for 38 years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather. He was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.



Click here for Mel's list of All-Decade players from Philadelphia-area schools.

Other contributors

Jonathan Tannenwald is a producer with Philly.com. In addition to covering the local college scene, he spent two years as the Washington Mystics beat writer for Women's Hoops Guru. He also writes his own blog, Soft Pretzel Logic, which covers men's college basketball, football, and other sports.

Kathleen Radebaugh is a recent graduate of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. She covered women's basketball for the school's newspaper, The Hawk, and served as sports editor her sophomore year. She was also a four-year member of the varsity crew team.

Erin Semagin Damio covers the University of Connecticut and the WNBA's Connecticut Sun for the blog, and contributes other features. The Storrs, Conn., native also attends Northeastern University, where she is a coxswain on the varsity crew team.

Acacia O'Connor is based in Washington, D.C., where she reports on the Mystics and the college basketball scene in the nation's capital. A graduate of Vassar college, she played on the varsity women's basketball team and was editor of the student newspaper.

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