By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK - Drexel senior Nicole Hester did not win the Honda Collegiate Women's Sports Award for basketball that went to former Connecticut star Renee Montgomery, who is now a rookie with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx.

But unlike the all-American guard for the NCAA champion Huskies, Hester received something from the Honda folks and collegiate administrators that Montomery did not -- a special dinner in her honor here Sunday night.

The occasion was the Honda Inspiration Award that is the latest tribute to the Maryland native for fighting her way back from missing a season after contracting Hodgkins Lymphoma.

The overall winner of the sport award -- the Honda Cup -- went to Georgia gymnast Courtney Kupets on Monday, while former Lock Haven softball star Kristin Erb, now with the Philadelphia Force, was the Division II athlete winner.

Track champion Ashley Huston of Hardin-Simmons was the Division III honoree.

The honor Sunday night was a sweet topping to the conclusion of Hester's career that went with the Dragons gaining a program-record 24 wins, taking a first-ever Colonial Athletic Association title by personally busting the long monopoly held on the crown by Old Dominion, and then playing in the NCAA tournament.

Hester missed what would have been her natural junior season two years ago after being diagnosed with the disease just before the start of play.

She fought her way back, returning to action a year ago and then working her way back to top form this past season.

 Hester has already been honored by the V foundation and in January won the prestigious Philadelphia Sportswriters Association's most courageous athlete award.

 A sizeable Drexel contingent made the trip to Manhattan, including Heser's mom Kim, coach Denise Dillon and associate head coach Amy Mallon, athletic director Eric Zillmer, associate athletic director Laura White, Kathy O'Brien (who helps oversee academics involving Dragon athletes), Drexel Triangle sports editor Mike Mazzeo, and associate sports information director Britt Faulstick, who hands media matters for the women's basketball team, among other sports duties.

 The Guru transcribed the speech, so additionally, some other references are to James Tucker, vice president for student life, Tony Caneris, who held Tucker's job before retiring in May 2007, and Rebecca Weidensaul, who heads the academic-related area.

  That said, here is what Hester had to say. The Guru's personal touch should be in the post above this one to give some color to the event and other items. But that is not written yet (but will be the time most of you are reading this) since he has to do this backwards to make the chronology appear in the right order.

  So here are Nicole's remarks:

By Mel Greenberg

  PHILADELPHIA _ In many situations, the reach of women's basketball stretches far beyond the court strategies, the summer WNBA competition, and the winter race for the NCAA championships.

  The Guru attended four separate events to date this month and all had roots in basketball but note was taken of how much the sport and life beyond the hardwood interact.

  On June 9 the Guru attended the eighth annual Dawn Staley Foundation Black Tie Sneaker Gala, which will be the focus of this post in a bit. Then it was on to Knoxville, Tenn., for the 11th annual Women's Basketball Hall of Fame induction celebration. While on the scene, the Guru dropped in on Tennessee coach Pat Summitt's camp, which at the time had a bunch of young Iraqi women who were thrilled to get a chance to come overseas and participate under the Hall of Famer and her staff.

   You can find coverage of the event elsewhere but the Guru mentions the Tennessee camp in that here was another illustration how people-to-people programs put a much friendler face on a situation that dominates the headlines in terms of the fighting in the Mideast.

  Because of that conflict, State Department officials said the last names of the participants were not given for security reasons. But being unable to know who these young students  were by full identity was not important. What was key was how eager they were to mix with Americans and learn to how to improve their game, which is only in its infancy compared to the sport in the rest of the world.

  Meanwhile, over at the Hall of Fame, 2009 inductee Jennifer Azzi, a former Stanford-Olympic-WNBA-ABL star noted in her remarks how she is about moving forward and not looking back. However, having grown up in nearby Oak Ridge -- yes, that Oak Ridge that's the home of the atom bomb -- Azzi said her return to her roots made her realize how connected everything is and how important the game is to international understanding.

  The Guru will have more of that weekend in a few days. On Sunday, the Guru attended the Honda Inspiration Awards dinner in New York where Drexel's Nicole Hester was honored for winning fight against Hodgkins Lymphoma. Posts above this one should have more detail on those activities.

  That brings us to the Staley foundation event, which is always a highlight. The fact that it was held again here demonstrates that her work continues in her home city even though she is now a year removed from Temple having completed her first season at South Carolina.

   Staley's work with the foundation, which she established after winning her first Olympic gold medal in 1996, has resulted in the WNBA naming an award after her for similart efforts, which recently went to former Connecticut Sun star Tamika Raymond, who was a member of several NCAA champions at UConn.

  Although Staley has been lauded over the years for her playing career at Dobbins Tech, the University of Virginia, in the Olympics and in the pros, it is her work with youngsters at-risk who have come to the foundation's after-school program that gives her the most passion.

  In past years, the black tie gala honored persons in the community from different business and entertainment fields for their work in the community.

  This time, the foundation turned to its own and it was impressive in citing five products of the program who came off the city streets and by all accounts are on their way to successful careers.

  The printed program gave profiles of five winners under the title: Women Who Beat the Odds.

  Alexis Felder, who was a participant from 1999-2005 is a graduate of Germantown High who will be a senior at Saint Augustine College in Raleigh, N.C., majoring in sports management. After graduation, she plans to attend Georgia State Law School, seeking to become an agent. But she also would like to create a program that helps young girls in Pennsylvania and gives them a safe residential haven.

 Avis Wilson joined the Navy in 2008 and is one of six females in the nationally recognized ceremonial guard. She is currently enrolled at the American Military Institute for legal studies. She would like to become a criminal defense attorney.

 Christina Johnson graduated this year from Chowan University in North Carolina with a degree in biology with a track in environmental studies. She has been on the dean's list for five semesters.

 Karin Wallace is a 2005 graduate of Simon Gratz high and is now majoring in public health at Temple. She hopes to begin her own program, focused on adolescents. she is a mother, a student, and an Emergency Medical Technication.

 Shaquita Grier graduated from Edward Bok in 2008 and just finished her first year at Chestnut Hill College with grade-point-average of 3.4. She is majoring in forensic science. She has been a summer intern in the engineering department of PECO, working on projects to identify faulty wiring in electrical stations throughout Pennsylvania.

  Although the Guru condensed the biographies here due to the late hour of the night this is being written, here is something not shortened.

  Angie Nelson, who is the hands-on day-to-day head of the foundaton, graciously provided the Guru with a copy of the acceptance speech, which Alexis Felder made on behalf of all of the winners. It speaks for itself, and thus, the Guru will sign off this post, leaving you to read the speech in its entirety:

By Mel Greenberg

Detroit Shock coach Bill Laimbeer, coach of the WNBA defending champions, is leaving the team after leading the bunch from the Motor City to three league titles, and will be replaced by assistant Rick Mahorn, according to a source familiar with the move.

The team will make the announcement early Monday afternoon.

The Detroit Free Press also reported Laimbeer's impending departure in Monday's editions.

Assistant coach Cheryl Reeve, a former La Salle star in Philadelphia in the late 1980s and a native of South Jersey, will be elevated to the top assistant spot and will also be named general manager.

Although Laimbeer, who coached Detroit for 6 1/2 years, has had aspirations to head an NBA squad, he is heading off to the golf course for now, the source said, requesting to remain anonymous because they were not yet authorized to speak on behalf of the team.

Mahorn is a former 76er and is also a former member of the NBA Detroit "Bad Boys" championship era as was Laimbeer.

When Laimbeer took over the squad early in the 2002 season, the Shock had a deep losing record and were considered on the road to disolvement.

But he convinced the Pistons ownership to retain the team and the following year produced a worst-to-first turnaround as Detroit dethroned the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Sparks in an exciting best-of-three series that began with the Shock being routed in Los Angeles in the opening game.

 -- Mel

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.