Guru Report: Delle Donne's Victim Revealed
By Mel Greenberg
Well, the Guru got some interpretations from reliable sources on Monday on how much more he could tell you about Delaware's "private" scrimmage Sunday in town here at which red-shirt freshman Elena Delle Donne scored 50 points, hitting 20 of 25 shots, with some errant three-point attempts among the few missed connections.
The scrimmage was against St. Joseph's in the Hawks' new Michael J. Hagan Arena in which each team won a half, according to an eyewitness report.
Under NCAA rules, spectators and media were banned from the scrimmage, which could not be mentioned ahead of time.
Formal statistics were not kept, although someone was obviously counting. The previous post pretty much covers everything that can be said now that you know the site.
"No question, Elena makes them an entirely different team," St. Joseph's coach Cindy Griffin said.
The Guru was told by several persons Monday that after-the-fact comments from an eyewitness can be made, though to play it safe, one quote says it all for now, although the Guru just noticed that the traffic at this site surged overnight with word of the Monday report.
New Media Initatives
The Guru's good friend and colleague Doug Feinberg, the Associated Press national women's basketball writer, will be conducting a twitter chat Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Though the Guru continues to avoid the twitter world as much as possible, he is impressed by the notables following Doug.
If the Guru has figured it out, the internet connection is at twitter.com/dougfeinberg. If you have problems, get over to the Rutgers message board because a link is posted at the Scarlet Knights' fan site.
Meanwhile, Vicki Friedman of the Virginia Pilot in Norfolk, where she had been a longtime beat reporter covering the Old Dominion women until shifted to news side at the end of last season, is contributing to blog site ladyswish.blogspot.com that extensively covers Colonial Athletic Association women's hoops, featuring ODU, and other women's news out of Virginia such as the Cavaliers.
Michelle Smith, who took a buyout after last season and a longtime stint covering Stanford, is now writing for AOL Fanhouse.com.
Closing a Decade
With thoughts potentially toward all-decade awards at the end of this season, here is some data off the rescued AP poll history charts in terms of most Top 5 and Top 10 appearances since the arrival of 2000 in the 1999-2000 season.
The Guru's data guy here created that report and a decision will have to be made whether to move the yardsticks back to the 1999 half or to close out the decade in the last vote before 2010 arrives in terms of producing final category rankings.
Top 5 Appearances
Top 10 Appearances
OK, The Guru has to run and write his local preview to appear sometime this week in print.
-- Mel