By Mel Greenberg

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Greetings from the land of the Vols where apparently the sun still comes up in spite of how the season ended for Pat Summitt and her charges in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Guru actually made the drive for the first time in history down here for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in a few hours. All the highlights will be here at some point in the ensuing hours.

Catching up will also done off the Dawn Staley Foundation black tie gala back in Philadelphia and a visit to Summitt's camp several days which was being attended by young Iraqi women.

Those who have visited here in the past will be pleased to note that the city of Knoxville and state of Tennessee honored the Guru upon his return to the scene of his own induction two years ago by finally re-opening the I-40 interchange near the Marriott Hotel and the Hall.

The Guru has already done Litton's for hamubrgers and Calhoun's for ribs.

Quick tidbits off Friday's interview session, Jennifer Azzi, the former Stanford and Olympic star, found it coincidental that her table was near a wall featuring American Basketball League memorabilia, especially the logo for the San Jose team she played for before moving on to the WNBA.

Former Louisiana Tech coach Sonja Hogg had a bunch of stories at the evening session. Many former Techsters are here including current coach and former star Teresa Weatherspoon who arrived a short time ago.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke had a few entertaining things, including crediting current Ohio State coach Jim Foster with helping her with her foul shooting when he was an assistant on the 1992 squad coached by Theresa Grentz.

There was also a tale of how Cooper-Dyke once convinced communist soldiers to let her try shooting a machine gun during a visit to Vietnam.

 In lobby conversations, it was learned Delaware newcomer Elena Delle Donne's name will now resume on a USA basketball watch list off her return to the sport, which has no long-range implications at this time. They just like to keep track of all potential talent for the future.

That's it for now.

                                                     Another Newspaper Victim

    The Guru would just like to note that the ongoing downsizing of newspapers claimed another Assoicated Press voter and women's beat writer earlier in the week when the Bergen Record let go Aditi Kinkhabwala, the Rutgers overall beat writer, on three days notice given Wednesday because of a deal to share content with the Newark Star-Ledger.

   Though Aditi may be gone from that publication, the Guru has added her name to a special, but unfortunately growing, list of refugees on the sidelines for a project or two in the near future of which they will be helpful.

   But for now, she'll be missed in the postgame media room for our part of coverage of coach C. Vivian Stringer's team.

  -- later

   Mel

(Guru's Note: Following coverage early last week of Elena Delle Donne's decision to return to basketball, the Guru spent a few days in Avalon, N.J., at the ECAC-SIDA convention, Then it was on to family lockdown for niece Allison Swartz's wedding Saturday night to Aaron Greenfield. Thus, no WNBA advances for the start of the season opener. However, with all decks cleared, the ball is picked up and the Guru took a quick trip up to Gothan for the Liberty opening game.)

By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK - Using the advice of that old song from yesteryear the Connecticut Sun took Manhattan Sunday in several ways.

   A few hours earlier before being part of the New York Liberty's season opener in Madison Square Garden, some of the contingent from casinoland took a tour of the revamped Times Square scene.

   Mike Thibault's group then dominated the third quarter, 19-6, on the way to a 66-57 victory over the Liberty that quickly helped erase the Sun's 82-70 opening loss to the Washington Mystics on Saturday back home in Uncasville.

  "The biggest thing is you don't have to sit and think about it for a week," veteran All-Star Lindsay Whalen said about the prospect of being 0-2 and then taking a long break before the Sun play their next game. "Now you're 1-1 and it's a win, it's something to build on, it's a positive thing to take into practice.

 "Wins like this are great when you don't shoot the ball well, you think like you didn't play great, but those are the kind of wins you can put into your back pocket and have later on down the road."

 Whalen had a double double with game highs of 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Erin Phillips had 13 points, Tamika Whitmore scored 11, and Asjha Jones had 10 points.

 New York's Shameka Christon had 13 points, while Janel McCarville scored 10.

   As for newcomers, former Duke star Chante Black was scoreless for the Sun, while former Rutgers star Kia Vaughn, making her pro and hiometown debut, was also scoreless, although she did grabbed three rebounds in 14 minutes, 11 seconds of playing time.

   Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie was in the house -- "My one chance to see her."

   Connecticut won despite shooting 35.7 percent for the game, although New York was worse at 32.1 percent.

   The Sun thrived on the backboards with a 47-33 rebounding advantage.

    "Our rebounding was huge," said Thibault, who last summer was an Olympic assistant to New York assistant Anne Donovan on the gold medal-winning USA Basketball team in Beijing, China.

    "We made their three-point shooters have to rush," he said about New York's paltry 4-for-24 effort from beyond the arc. "We tried to speed them up from their rhythm of the game."

   One bomber who did penetrate the Sun defense was Leilani Mitchell who connected with a spectacular 55-foot trey as time expired to send the Liberty into the lockerroom at the break with a 32-30 lead before being smothered by Connecticut in the next quarter.

  "I was surprised if you saw my face," the former Utah star said about her guided missile. "I just threw it and I didn't think it would go in."

  New York coach Pat Coyle also addressed the long-range deficiency in her postgame remarks as well as the rebounding situation.

  "We were three-point shot happy," Coyle said. "We have to do something differently.

  "I am disappointed in the rebounding effort," she continued. "We have to put a body on somebody and there's no ifs ands or buts about it. Today we got outereboundedf by 14. That's can happen," Coyle said.

  "If you look at the game, Connecticut came off a loss so they played with a sense of urgency. That's what leaders do. They step up and don't allow their team to lose."

  Coyle spoke of letting one get away at home.

  "The league is better," she said. "Every team in this league became better. The parity is unbelievable. You have to win at home. That is the bottom line."

    Jump shots: Could Tulsa, Oklahoma, be somewhere in the WNBA's future. League president Donna Orender was seen after the game guiding a group aroumd, several of which were once part of the previous ownership group of the Seattle Storm which Donovan coached to the 2004 WNBA title.

   For all the talk about the new deals that have advertising on the jerseys of the Phoenix Mercury and the Los Angeles Sparks -- considered a first under a new team-level marketing initiative by the WNBA -- it must be noted that the Sun name so stemmed from the Mohegan Sun Casino ownership group when the Mohegan Tribe became the first non-NBA organization to become involved with a WNBA franchise.

  -- Mel 

(Guru’s analysis)

By Mel Greenberg

The presence of former Delaware United States senator Joe Biden as the nation’s vice president wasn’t enough to prevent the Wilmington area from losing an auto plant on Monday in the wake of General Motors’ filing for bankruptcy.

But when it comes to being a stimulus for the state’s major university women’s basketball program, the role is now in the hands of a home-grown heroine.

The University of Delaware announced Tuesday that Elena Delle Donne was joining the Blue Hens and veteran coach Tina Martin, a move that could dramatically revive the fortunes of a program that had struggled the past two seasons after almost a decade of success.

The decision was first reported in the Wilmington News Journal in Tuesday’s editions, although Martin was on Hilton Head Island, S.C., at the time attending the Colonial Athletic Association’s annual spring meetings.

It was a year ago this week that Delle Donne, the pride of Ursuline Academy who was the 2008 national high school player of the year, skipped graduation ceremonies to arrive in time for summer sessions in the land of Oz, otherwise known as the University of Connecticut.

Delle Donne’s stay was quite short, however, less than 48 hours before a seemingly lifetime fear became a reality.

 As a result, the 6-foot-4 versatile basketball sensation clicked her heels three times in one of the Huskies’ dorms, chanted “there’s no place like home,” and soon reappeared back on her Delaware doorstep at 7 o’clock the following morning.

For the next two months, the citizens of Oz speculated whether the Huskies’ prized recruit was lost forever. Delle Donne’s status had become the new conversation piece after the menace of the South out of the state of Tennessee had become less a threat to the populace’s general welfare.

Finally, in a series of rapid announcements at the end of August, Oz’s wizard – one coach Geno Auriemma – began a flurry of Delle Donne news sending word from his summer retreat on the Jersey shore that she had returned her scholarship.

Soon thereafter, Delle Donne announced in a statement she was enrolling at Delaware to be close to home.

A few days later, the athletic department held a press conference to introduce Delle Donne as a walk-on performer on the Blue Hens volleyball team, taking up a sport she did not begin to play until her senior year at high school.

She was suffering from “burnout,” she said at the time, alluding to years of pressure as a super talent that began at the age of 12 when she led Fencor AAU in the Philadelphia suburbs to a national title.

Delle Donne seemed to have found new happiness in helping the Blue Hens repeat as Colonial Athletic Association champions last fall as she made the conference’s all-rookie team.

She did not have a scholarship because of NCAA eligibility rules but she will have one in basketball, effective Sept. 1.

“After playing volleyball for a season, I realized again how much I enjoyed being a college athlete,” she said Tuesday.

But once volleyball ended, she began to sense she had not identified the true source of her unhappiness over her former sport.

In a series of phone calls to several news organizations from her Delaware home on Tuesday Delle Donne revealed that it wasn’t burnout after all that drove her from a chance to be part of Connecticut’s unbeaten NCAA champions.

“I know I said it was burnout and I blamed it all on basketball and that I hated basketball. But in reality, I was really homesick,” said Delle Donne, who is part of a close-knit family.

She said the fear of being away developed at an early age when she knew her skill levels could eventually result in her moving far from the Diamond State.

“Ever since (North Carolina coach) Sylvia Hatchell first offered me a scholarship when I was in the seventh grade, I knew that one day I would have to leave home,” Delle Donne said.

Going away also would mean leaving her older sister Elizabeth, who has suffered a series of afflictions since birth.

“Being away, I couldn’t communicate with Lizzie that much,” Delle Donne said. “I wouldn’t be able to talk to her on the phone and I couldn’t e-mail her.”

She said she didn’t make a final decision to return to basketball until two weeks ago.

Delle Donne has been working out with her longtime personal trainer John Noonan, who was promoted to Ursuline’s head coach after she graduated.

“As I watched the college basketball season play out last year, I also knew I was missing the sport,” she said.

“I picked up a basketball to see what it felt like again, and the feeling was a good one,” she continued. “I said to myself, ‘This is what I was meant to do.’”

In September 2007, Delle Donne announced her choice of Connecticut, choosing the Huskies from among a group of finalists that included Tennessee, Villanova, and Middle Tennessee, where her brother Gene plays football.

“Looking back on the recruiting process, I never did have being away high on the list of considerations,” Delle Donne said of her deliberations at the time.

“If I had been able to address the home sickness issue, I might have made a different decision to stay local.

“I think if UConn was located 10 minutes from my house, I might have done OK there,” she said. “They have a tremendous coach and really great players.

“But Coach Martin is terrific, and I’ve already met most of my new teammates and I really like them.”

When Delle Donne left Connecticut, there had been reports that she had been scolded by a prominent teammate in a pickup game.

But Temple coach Tonya Cardoza, who was still a Huskies assistant at the time, later hinted homesickness could be the problem.

“We talked to everyone and nothing happened to suddenly make you want to leave UConn if you didn’t want to leave UConn when you got there,” she said.

After Delle Donne returned home for the rest of the summer, there was speculation she might want to transfer to Villanova, but that wouldn’t be permissible under Big East rules.

A conference rule bans transfers between conference schools once a letter of intent is signed at the original school.

Delaware fans will have to wait for Delle Donne’s first home appearance, which won’t be until Dec. 11 against Navy at the Bob Carpenter Center.

The Blue Hens will open the 2009-10 season with seven road games, beginning at St. Francis (Pa.) on Nov. 17.

“The games will be close enough that fans will be able to travel easily on the road to see her play,” Martin said.

Delle Donne said she won’t play in the Dept. of Recreations’s NCAA women’s summer league in Northeast Philadelphia, which in the past has had Delaware players on the various rosters.

Delaware will play Drexel here at a date to be determined as part of the CAA schedule.

La Salle has a nonconference visit to Newark.
 

-- Mel

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

Hey folks,

Mel just called me with the breaking news that former star Connecticut recruit Elena Delle Donne, now at Delaware, will announce today that she will join the Blue Hens' women's basketball team for this coming season.

This news was reported earlier this morning by the Wilmington News-Journal, but Mel has confirmed this independently.

There have been rumors about this for some time, but today marks the first official confirmation that it is going to happen.

Delle Donne transferred to Delaware, whose campus in Newark is a short drive from her home town of Wilmington, Del., after not quite fitting in with the Huskies for a variety of reasons. She played varsity volleyball this past academic year.

Mel is rushing around to get more details of this as fast as he can and you should expect more details soon.

UPDATE: Mel just got off the phone with Delle Donne herself, and she admitted that it was actually "homesickness," not burnout, that drove her from the sport of her passion a year ago and from Connecticut to Delaware.

"In the recuritng process I didn't make homesickness a high priority," Delle Donne said. "Homesickness wasn't even a thought at that time."

Then Delle Donne added, "If I had to do it again, I would" have prioritized differently.

Mel told me as well that Delle Donne will receive a basketball scholarship beginning in September and will have four full years of eligibility in basketball.

More coming.

By Mel Greenberg

 NEW YORK - In what at times seemed like a retrospective of NCAA tournament stars of the current decade, the New York Liberty grabbed a 77-71 preseason victory over the Washington Mystics Thursday morning-afternoon in Madison Square Garden.

  The Liberty then jumped on the bus -- Washington appeared to go home on the train based on who was spotted in Penn Station -- to head up to casinoland to help the Connecticut Sun get their preseason schedule under way.

If one needs a sign over how young is the WNBA getting, consider this: former Connecticut star Kelly Schumacher, with eight years of action that now includes a spot on the Mystics roster, was the most veteran player on the combined training camp roster of both teams.

Perhaps Washington will retain the former Huskies shot-blocker as a good luck charm -- she has played on the last two WNBA champions being the Detroit Shock in 2008 and Phoenix Mercury in 2007.

Next came Washington's Alana Beard, who sat out the game with a slight injury, and New York's Shameka Christon, who each had five years of experience.

 Missing from the sidelines was the Liberty's top draft pick Kia Vaughn -- "We didn't cut her, she's graduating Rutgers today," joked Liberty coach Patty Coyle, who herself is a Rutgers graduate.

Also missing were the media group who cover the Scarlet Knights, mildly surprising considering that second-year pros Essence Carson for the Liberty, and Washington newcomer Matee Ajavon were in the house.

"Hey, I was there at media day," emailed one colleague who pointed out the other beats they have to handle at the moment. The Guru, given his own home office situation, can certainly understand.

  An announced crowd of 15,958 for the event billed as school day gave the arena a mid-season ambience.

 Considering a current disease that has penetrated the area, the Guru was glad the youngsters didn't fnd the WNBA anything to sneeze at.

  New York jumped to a 19-7 lead after the first period, causing the Guru to suggest the Mystics dispatched a tape off to the White House in search of a stimulus. Incidentally, the Guru suspects the current resident may stop by the Verizon Center this summer when he isn't flooding the Inquirer email system, among others, with the day's activity.

 As it turned out, a stimulus came in the second quarter when Willingboro's second-year pro Crystal Langhorne got hot and Washinton was able to get back into contention.

  Langhorne seems a bit more confidence now that her former Maryland post-play pal Marissa Coleman, the Mystics' top draft pick, is on the roster.

  "Coleman looks like she's going to do ok in tis league," Coyle said afterwards.

  During the action, an All-Star game of ACC players broke out, not difficult considering six former conference stars are on the Washington roster.

 At one moment, Liberty No. 2 draft pick Abby Wander out of Duke, knocked down a three-pointer from the corner over Coleman and Langhorne.

  The move prompted the Guru to fire off a quick text to Blue Devils women's SID Lindy Brown -- "Duke just scored over Maryland."

  Actually, a little later there actually was sone Duke-on-Duke action with Lindsey Harding defending Waner.

 "I thought Abby held her own a did quite well considering we've been in camp five days and this was her first game in the Garden," Coyle said.

  She also added that she is thrilled with the later start to WNBA training camp.

  "This is a thousand times better," Coyle said. "I would much rather have the whole team in camp, even though it will be a shorter time frame until we start the regular season."

  Coyle is also thrilled with the addtion of new assistant coach Anne Donovan, a former WNBA head coach who won a championship with Seattle in 2004 and guided the United Statres to a gold medal last summer in Beijing.

  "So far, she's been phenomenal," Coyle said.

   She noted there wasn't much to take from a game started just five days after camp opened, but she was delighted the Liberty only committed 11 turnovers.

  Christon scored 10 points for New Yotk, while former Utah star Leilani Mitchell and former Texas star Tiffany Jackson each scored 10 points.

 Nakia Sanford had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Mystics, while Lanhorne contributed 15 points and six rebounds. Former Duke star Monique Curre had 12 points, and her former Blue Devils teammate 11. Coleman had seven points, seven rebounds and blocked two shots.

  The two teams will meet again for a Thursday morning encounter next week at the Verizon Center.

                Noteworthy

    The Guru received the following email on Tuesday from John Molina, up in Connecticut::

"Just wanted to pass along that the owner and Coach of the All American
Red Heads, Owell Moore, passed away last night.

He started coaching the All American Red Heads in 1948 before buying the
team in 1955. He had as many as 3 teams on the road at the same time,
playing over 600 games combined in a single season (all on the road)
plus running a girls basketball camp at the same time."

  Until next time

 -- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

 PHILADELPHIA - Since the traffic report of the Guru site the last few days or so resembles the direction of the nation's economy, the graph line illustration was enough to jolt the Guru back into doing hitting the keyboard.

Maybe a stimulus will soon be provided from Vice President Biden's residential state just to the south of us. (See next item). He was born in Pennsylvania, incidentally.

In the interim, the Guru has been busy commuting back and forth from the office to Drexel in West Philadelphia where the Dragons continue to shine in the aftermath of their most successful season that culminated with a first-ever Colonial Athletic Association title that translated into an NCAA tournament debut.

Several weeks ago, the school celebrated with a new approach to the annual men's and women's awards dinner.

Rather than use a hall on campus for the formal sit-down event of past years, the Dragons used their very own court at the Daskalakis Athletic Center for a night of fancy appetizers with the main meal being the presentations. Noteworthy was the unveiling of two banners for the women to mark their postseason season success.

With the Drexel men finishing far above their predicted last-place finish in the CAA, both coach Bruiser Flint and Denise Dillon earned conference coach of the year titles, a rarity of sorts in many leagues with the trophies in both genders being given to the same school.

During Dillon's remarks she cited Amy Mallon, her associate head coach who is a former St. Joseph's star, as well as the rest of the staff and team.

  Mallon was one of the finalists in the recent Penn search before she withdrew ahead of the Quakers' decision.

 "Drexel seemed to be a better place for me right now," Mallon told the Guru.

Dillon also alluded to a bit of some financial reward from Drexel to Mallon for her help in the Dragons' success.

 In the middle of the Dragons' celebration last March when the Guru suggested to a high Drexel school official that Dillon could become a hot property, the response came that the Dragons have resources to retain individuals they wish to stay in West Philadelphia.

Then a week ago, the Guru was back at another campus site to attend a late-afternoon academic-athletic awards reception for all members of the Drexel sports community.

Athletic director Eric Zillmer mentioned how both the men's and women's basketball teams had received certifications from the NCAA for finising in the top 10 percent of academic performance as measured by the national sports collegiate governing body.

 That, too, made Drexel in an elite situation.

Most of the honors had already been announced involving women's basketball achievements. However, the surprise presentation went to Dillon, who received the school's first Constantine Papadakis Leadership Award that goes to an athlete or coach in the athletic department.

 The award is named for the former Drexel president, who died in early April after battling cancer.

  Papadakis was a major fan of the Dragons athletes and was also involved in many other activities that helped raise Drexel's profile in the nation.

 "He's going to be missed, greatly," Rebecca Weidensaul, the school's associate athletic director for academics, noted to the Guru during the postseason basketball banquet. "He gave this place an identity."

 And finally, for now, another honor came Drexel's way on Monday with the news that senior Nicole Hester has won the Honda Inspiration Award, given each year to a female college athlete who has overcome adversity to excel in her sport.

In Hester's situation, it was her fight back to active duty a year ago after being sidelined for the 2006-07 season to battle Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

 In 2008, she earned an award from the V Foundation for her achievement.

"This award means so much to me," Hester said Monday in an email to the Guru. "After winning the championship, this is just icing on the cake. I don't think that this year could have gone any better for me."

In a statement that came with the release announcing Hester's latest honr, she noted how she learned after researching the disease on the internet the seriousness of its nature.

 "Still, I never had a doubt in my mind I'd be able to beat it," Hester said.

         Will Delaware Gamble on Delle Donne?

    No, the Guru is not talking about the Blue Hens and coach Tina Martin making the move to welcome former Ursuline Academy star Elena Delle Donne, the nation's top high school recruit in 2008, if she decides to play for Delaware, where she has been enrolled for the past year.

  But, first, the journalistically-obligated background.

  In August, the Wilmington-area superstar gave up her scholarship offer to powerful Connecticut, which then went unbeaten for a sixth NCAA title.

Citing burnout, she left the sport of her acclaim and joined the Delaware volleyball team as a walk-on after enrolling too late to earn a scholarship. She played the sport her senior year at Ursuline.

 After the fall season in which the Blue Hens repeated their CAA title, Delle Donne then left the squad and has since been contemplating a return to hoops where her presence could cause a dramatic reversal to a program that has struggled the past two seasons with youth. Delaware had previously averaged 23 wins across eight seasons under Martin.

The Blue Hens coach has been willing to give Delle Donne space, telling inquistors all winter that the door is open for conversation, but she will not be making any overtures in DelleDonne's direction.

That, said, the Guru's headline refers to the state and its citizens.

In the past week, sports betting in Delaware has been legalized, although the NCAA and NFL have been protesting the action.

But say wagering ultimately stays in place.

Delle Donne is enormously popular in her home state and when the Blue Hens were having their best years, attendance was plentiful at the Bob Carpenter Center. The venue also had sellouts when Ursuline played in state tournament action.

And so, the Guru simply muses, if Delle Donne ultimately decides to seek a spot on Martin's team, might we see wagering occur on women's basketball in Delaware?

Such activity is not legal in Connecticut, but the Guru recalls an amusing moment during the parade in 1995 in Hartford after the Huskies and coach Geno Auriemma won their first NCAA title.

As the cars carrying the victors slowly snaked their way through the downtown streets on the way to the state capitol, one gentleman could be heard yelling loudly in Auriemma's direction, "Hey Geno, we love you because you always cover."

 Incidentally, a month ago before betting was enacted in the nation's first state to join the union, Delle Donne in converation among the collegiate coaching crowd was listed as a 2-1 favorite during the NCAA Women's Final Four as likely to be in uniform this fall.

                            Jump Shots

  First, because many of you in the Midwest know him, the Guru wishes a speedy and complete recovery from surgery to our colleague Steve Tucker, who is a veteran sportswriter covering high school and college women's hoops at the Chicago Sun Times.

     DePaul coach Doug Bruno, who is out of town attending the Big East meetings until Wednesday, is keeping the Guru informed Tucker's progress.

Secondly, Temple fans will want to know that Kamesha Hairston, who spent a season with the WNBA Connecticut Sun before being cut last summer, has signed a contract to participate in training camp with the Minnesota Lynx.

In another Temple-related item, Ervin Monier, who is now an assistant and Southern Cal babysitter for Michael Cooper until the Los Angeles Sparks coach finishes the summer, was on Dawn Staley's first staff.

As for recriting prowess, he discovered one Candice Dupree, who went on to become one of the Owls' all-time top two players -- the other being Marilyn Stephens. Dupree became a first-round pick of the Chicago Sky in 2006 and has gained all-star status as one of the league's top players.

 The Guru will be at the New York Liberty's exhibition opener Thursday morning in New York when the Liberty goes against Washington in a Madison Square Garden event that will have a heavy presence of recent stars from Rutgers (Kia Vaughn, Essence Carson, Matee Ajavon), Maryland (Crystal Langhorne, Marissa Coleman), and Duke (Alana Beard, Monique Currie, Lindsey Harding). New York coach Patty Coyle is also a Rutgers graduate.

Until next time

             -- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA – In the end, new Cincinnati women’s basketball coach Jamelle Elliott had life work out pretty neat for herself considering the disappointments of almost a year ago when she was a finalist for both the Northwestern job and George Washington.

Elliott, a longtime Connecticut assistant and a native of the nation’s capital, first lost out when Joe McKeown was attracted to the Windy City and left the Colonials. And then she missed out a second time when his former assistant Mike Bozeman was elevated at GW.

Elliott, who played on the Huskies’ first NCAA champion in 1995, took the setback philosophically.

After all, being relegated to UConn for another season was more than a consolation prize considering what all thought would be in store for the Huskies in the months ahead.

And who knows what openings might occur next time around.

Well, the Huskies’ unbeaten run at 39-0 is now in the record books and another chapter went into her resume working for her former coach Geno Auriemma.

Then several weeks ago, Cincinnati called about its vacancy.

Despite the Bearcats’ finish as the cellar dweller in the powerful Big East, which plays UConn every year, there were some enticements that intrigued Elliott.

“You get to build your own program, and in a conference as strong as ours, getting to the top half of the Big East might be enough to get to the tournament,” Elliott said, already having a familiarity of the campus in the Queen City from past visits. “And they have great facilities.

“The question is how much of a commitment do they want to make?”

Well, the Cincinnati administration said enough to make Elliott satisfied and now her dream of becoming a head coach has come true.

It was suggested that maybe UConn could have a flip-flop two-night doubleheader involving Auriemma’s coaching offspring with Hartford (Jen Rizzotti), Temple (Tonya Cardoza), and Cincinnati, which is already on the Huskies’ slate courtesy of the conference.

“That’s a fun idea,” Elliott said Thursday night.

Connecticut and Hartford already play, while Cardoza and Auriemma have been discussing a future arrangement. And Elliott said that she could envision playing Temple and her good friend Cardoza, who succeeded Dawn Staley over the Owls last season.

“Hey, but first I have to get me some players,” Elliott said.

Knowing her recruiting prowess at UConn, that shouldn’t be a major challenge, although she will now be in the wars in the Buckeye State contending with Auriemma’s longtime friend Jim Foster at Ohio State.

With the ink on her new deal not yet dry, Elliott is already relishing attending next week's Big East spring meetings where she'll sit as an equal to Auriemma in terms of the coaches' confab, although we know some conference teams are more equal than others.

Two days removed from an emotional-laden transitional moment at her introductory press conference where she said goodbye to Auriemma, Elliott is quickly looking ahead to her new life.

When the Guru made a remark about her and Connecticut in the current tense, Elliott quickly corrected the comment with an interruption and a laugh, “Hey, I’m no longer part of `them.’”

Of course, we all know the Italian code of Auriemma: One never leaves the family entirely.”

Staley Returns Home (For At Least a Night)

Even though it is almost a year since Dawn Staley left Temple for South Carolina and the battles in the Southeastern Conference, the work of the Dawn Staley Foundation that she launched after the ’96 Olympics to aid inner city school children, continues.

Staley will be back in town for the foundation’s eighth annual “Black Tie and Sneakers” Gala on Tuesday night, June, 9, at the Cescaphe Ballroom on 923 North 2nd Street in Northern Liberties, just beyond center city.

This year’s theme, “Young at Heart,” will celebrate the more than 650 young ladies who have gone through the program and have experienced success at some of the top universities in the country.

For details, including corporate sponsorships, contact Angelia D. Nelson, Ph.D, the executive director of the foundation, at 215-457-1270 or at her email address, anelson168@aol.com.

WNBA Coaches in Waiting?

New York Liberty coach Patty Coyle, the former Rutgers star who grew with her twin sister Mary in Southwest Philadelphia, must require Old Dominion DNA to serve on her staff.

Several seasons ago former Monarchs head coach Marianne Stanley was an aide to Coyle before serving a stint at Rutgers and then returning as an assistant with the Los Angeles Sparks.

Now former Olympic coach Anne Donovan, who guided the U.S. to gold in Beijing last summer and was part of the famous twin towers duo with Inge Nissen at ODU, is heading to the Big Apple.

Donovan had been looking to get back into the college ranks but few jobs were available this time around, in part because schools under the current economic climate, weren’t going to get into buyouts and have to pay two salaries caused by a desire for change.
If things had been handled differently at North Carolina State in the search for the late Kay Yow’s successor, according to one person familiar with the hunt, Donovan might have landed with the Wolfpack. But she wasn’t going to get involved as long as veteran assistant Stephanie Glance was considered a candidate for a job that went to former Western Carolina coach Kellie Harper.

Right after Beijing, Donovan, who coached Seattle to the 2004 title, was thinking about a spot in the WNBA, and landing in the Big Apple is a terrific move, especially with first-round draft pick Kia Vaughn, out of Rutgers, joining her former teammate Essence Carson.

Donovan’s presence also makes things easy for Liberty chief Carol Blazejowski, if some college next season gets its hooks into Coyle to fill a vacancy.

Coyle is near the end of her contract and while she has no plans to leave New York, her name is consistently at the top of search lists at schools that categorize potential coaching targets in the WNBA.

In recent seasons, Coyle politely pointed to her WNBA deal when schools made inquiries.

But if events change, the move to replace her would seem to be as quick as the move that elevated Coyle when Richie Adubato was dismissed.

Meanwhile, with Michael Cooper departing for Southern Cal after the summer, Stanley figures to be on the top of the list to replace him after also having head coaching experience with the Washington Mystics.

However, if the Sparks management doesn’t go in that direction, another strong candidate could be Detroit assistant Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star, who has been a finalist for WNBA head coaching jobs elsewhere in recent seasons. Of course, if Bill Laimbeer left Dodge, a pseudonym for the Motor City, Reeve becomes a top candidate for the Shock as a replacement.

State of the Newspaper Industry: Women's Writers Casualties List Continues to Grow

Bill Smith, who has been a longtime PR head of the women’s program at Arkansas and also teaches at the SEC school, is currently conducting a national survey to see how many print beat writers involving women’s basketball have gone by the wayside due to economic conditions.

“In two days, the returns are already gruesome,” Smith said, not telling the Guru anything he was not aware of considering his own a micro-survey of the credential list and seating chart at the Women’s Final Four in St. Louis.

But that is a discussion for another day even though it has been a daily discussion as the list of layoff, buyouts, retirements, etc., continues to build.

The “hit” list in terms of past print beat writers not tied to competing teams as well as major markets that were no longer represented was quite revealing.

-- Mel

By Mel Greenberg

Longtime Connecticut assistant Jamelle Elliott will be named Tuesday as the new women's coach at Cincinnati, a source familiar with the negotiations said Monday night.

The source asked to remain unidentified because the announcement is not yet official.

The former Huskies star becomes the second member of Geno Auriemma's staff to move to a head coaching in less than a year, following Temple's hire of Tonya Cardoza last July to succeed Dawn Staley.

Elliott, a native of Washington was a finalist a year ago at both Northwestern and George Washington She played on Connecticut's first NCAA champion in 1995 and was again part of another unbeaten team this past season on the sidelines when the Huskies went 39-0 to beat Big East rival Louisville in St. Louis.

The appointment means Auriemma will face two of his former players next season, going against Cincinnati in the Big East and against Hartford coach Jen Rizzotti.

-- More later.

  -- Mel 

(Guru's Note: From the AP on Sunday Afternoon)

ASSOCIATED PRESS
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Pat Summitt’s stone-cold, intense stare was
talked about often, but noticeably absent from her face on a day when
she was honored.

Smiles and occasional moments of blushing were the expressions of
the day Sunday for college basketball’s all-time winningest coach.
The University of Tennessee hosted “Pat Summitt’s Day of 1,000
Stories” at the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville.

For more than two hours, Summitt found herself surrounded by past
and present players, along with family and friends, to relive some of
her 1,005 career victories at Tennessee.

“It’s all about family, friends and us coming together toward a
common cause,” Summitt said. “To do something very good to make a
difference in this world for young women. It’s huge.”

It also was another chance for the 56-year-old icon of women’s
basketball to reiterate she’s far from finished.

If anything, the frustration of a 22-11 record in 2008-2009 —
including an unprecedented first-round exit for the Lady Vols from the
NCAA Tournament — has fueled Summitt’s passion.

“I’ve been on a mission and I’m going to stay on that mission,”
she said. “I’m going to continue to recruit, inspire and teach at the
highest level.”

To the outside world, Summitt has nothing more to prove.

She has powered Tennessee to eight national championships and a
career record of 1,005-193 in her 35-year tenure with the Lady Vols.
Summitt reached 1,000 victories with a 73-43 romp past Georgia on
Feb. 5 on the Thompson-Boling Arena floor that now bears her name “The
Summitt.”

It was then that Tennessee women’s athletic director Joan Cronan
began planning Sunday’s celebration.

“Today’s a special day because we’re not only honoring someone who
has made great accomplishments,” Cronan said, “but we’re honoring
someone who has made a difference in all of our lives.”

Summitt’s first victory came when she was barely older than some
of her players, a 1975 win against Middle Tennessee State University.
Since then, Tennessee has made 28 NCAA Tournament appearances and
won a combined 27 SEC Tournament and regular-season titles.

Assistant coach Holly Warlick and former assistant Nikki Caldwell
— now head coach at UCLA — acted as the early emcees.
Caldwell pretended she was Summitt getting a call from President
Barack Obama and being put on hold.

“This man better hurry up,” Caldwell said. “I’ve got things to
do.”

Past players didn’t talk nearly as much about championships as
they did the fear they had when Summitt’s well-documented temper was
aimed in their direction.

Apparently, 3 a.m. practice sessions after particularly ugly
losses were the norm back in the days prior to NCAA restrictions on
practice time per week.

After one particular loss to Vanderbilt, Summitt told her players
they were not to talk the entire three-hour ride home. There also
wouldn’t be any post-game dinner that night.

“She told us we weren’t allowed to eat because we might choke on
it,” former guard Shelley Sexton-Collier said. “We got back to
Knoxville, watched film of the game we’d just lost, and Pat said we
had two minutes to get our uniforms back on and get out on the
practice floor.

“We finally finished up about 4:30 that morning and it was made
clear to us we would all be at our 7:50 a.m. classes.”

Player after player related similar stories. Player after player
each finished their times with the microphone thanking Summitt for
their life lessons learned.