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.
 

(Guru's note -- with some editing for local reference -- back later with commentary)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Michael Cooper will leave the Los Angeles Sparks after this season to coach Southern California’s women’s basketball team, athletic director Mike Garrett said Friday.

Newly hired assistant Ervin Monier, one of Dawn Staley's first assistants at Temple before moving to Rhode Island in a similar capacity, will oversee USC’s program until Cooper arrives. The Sparks begin play on June 6 and could play until Oct. 9 if they make the WNBA finals.

He replaces Mark Trakh, who resigned last month after five seasons.

Cooper becomes the second coach with WNBA ties to be hired to run a Pacific 10 women's program, following the recent hire of Paul Westhead to coach Oregon.

Westhead, a former St. Joseph's men's assistant and La Salle men's head coach in Philadelphia, as well as a former NBA Lakers coach, guided the Phoenix Mercury to the 2007 WNBA title.

“I’m looking forward to working in a collegiate atmosphere and all that comes with it,” Cooper said in a statement.
“But for the next few months, it’s important to understand that my focus and commitment will be with the Los Angeles Sparks and winning a championship. I’m excited about the Sparks’ upcoming season and I am totally devoted to them right now. After that, I’ll switch gears and be equally excited about USC.”

Cooper is entering his eighth season as the Sparks’ coach after starring with the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers during the team’s “Showtime” era of the 1980s.

The 53-year-old coach has a 183-85 record with the Sparks, including WNBA championships in 2001 and 2002. He was the league’s coach of the year in 2000, his first season.

Cooper spent three seasons as a special assistant to then-Lakers general manager Jerry West from 1994-97. He spent 2005 as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, including a stint as interim coach.

He then coached the NBA Development League’s Albuquerque Thunderbirds from 2006-07, winning the league title in 2006.

Cooper played 12 years in the NBA with the Lakers and won five NBA championships. He was the league’s defensive player of the year in 1987.

He’ll be taking over a USC women’s program that went 17-15 last season and reached the Pac-10 Conference tournament final for the first time.

The program’s history includes NCAA championships in 1983 and ’84 and standout players Lisa Leslie, Cheryl Miller, Tina Thompson and Cynthia Cooper.