Musings: Another Round of Guru Catch-Up
By Mel Greenberg
PHILADELPHIA - And now some looking behind and ahead to give you all a reason to visit here
The summer is a bit slower by comparison to a year ago when a collegiate coaching shuffle moved along between May and early July.
Meanwhile, virtually all the media was caught by surprise over the recent coaches-only NCAA mock bracket sessions at headquarters in Indianapolis. It's not that we needed to be there, but we were unaware of the event until a few of the sports information directors sent releases out noting the participation of their respective coachees.
Upon seeing the list of attendees, the Guru's first reaction was that Connecticut's Geno Auriemma and his former player, Hartford's Jen Rizzotti, would be partnered up.
Sure enough, in going to the NCAA web site, the first picture to pop up was -- you guessed it -- the two of them looking at the data in one of the NCAA computers.
Upon reading the NCAA's live blog report (after the fact), it does appear the experiences were somewhat different than the media-dominated sessions the past two years in early February.
We worked with live data at the moment of the two-day session, with the only alteration was we had to make believe the regular season was over and skip a month ahead to selection weekend.
Thus, many of us were tuned into the season as it existed. Two years ago, the competitive dynamic virtually settled in early January so much of what we did came close to what resulted from the committee. Last year because of all the upsets, it was apparent that whatever we produced, short of UConn as the top seed, was going to implode within a week and it did.
The coaches, however, worked with past-tense data and had to go back and re-create the scene at the end of last season. Greg Johnson, the NCAA's blogger who once was an AP voter in Boulder, Colo., noted the result may not be the same as what the committee produced. Also, each coach played the role of a real committee member.
Thus Auriemma was technically not himself -- what else is new? -- at the session and didn't have to leave the room when anything related to Connecticut was discussed. On the other hand, in the virtual setup, he was allowed to talk about himself, saying he was No. 1.
Time out. -- Off the official USA Basketball announcement on Tuesday, it's nice to see many of Geno's friends in the NBA and men's collegiate side will be his Olympic counterparts at the 2012 Games in London.
But back to the mock bracket, the way the session was was run, it killed one of the Guru's initial muses when made aware of the event. By the NCAA not producing data projecting ahead, which would be impossible in terms of having to make up an RPI, devious minds didn't have to declare Delaware the CAA champion, which meant so much for placing Blue Hens rookie Elena Delle Donne on a path to an early collision with the Huskies.
Old Dominion's Wendy Larry was a participant meaning she had to live again with Drexel as the CAA champion after the Dragons killed the Monarchs' run of perfection in the conference tournament.
Summer League Action
Speaking of Drexel, senior Gabriella Marginean had another 30-point game last week in the Department of Recreation Women's NCAA Summer League at Northeast High. Although the Guru got retiring commssioner Dave Kessler's weekly newsletter, he'll wait to update action after attending Wednesday's (tonight) games in the neighborhood.
The playoffs begin a week from tonight and it looks like a four-team race for the seventh and eighth playoff spots, while the top of the standings are still unsettled.
Women's Hall of Fame Announcement Time
The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame will announce the next class during halftime of the WNBA All-Star game at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Saturday. The only clues provided for the moment are that the next six inductees consist of three former players, two coaches and one contributor.
It would not be surprising for one of those players to be former UConn star Rebecca Lobo since she already reached eligibility for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., last time around.
The Guru will be on the scene late Thursday afternoon or early evening in case any of you are around who want to dine. You have the Guru's email address.
Will Twitter Meet It's Match?
A recent release out of Rutgers announced that coach C. Vivian Stringer has joined the twitter world.
Now this should be interesting, considering twitter's 140-character limit. Enlisting the Scarlet Knights' legend is like offering a hummer a parking spot in a space reserved for compact cars.
On the other hand, Stringer's addition could be useful if twitter doesn't crash in the process.
Since the folks in Springfield told her she had five-six minutes for her acceptance speech when she's inducted in September, that will seem like an eternity of time compared to twitter rules. On the other hand, her good friend John Chaney, the former Temple men's coach, busted his limited by 20 minutes, but it was entertaining.
In the past, inductees generally have gone in alphabetical order. But considering Michael Jordan is in the class, Stringer will probably go sooner rather than later in the evening, which will help everyone's deadlines who are on hand to specifically cover her latest honor.
That Was Then, This Is What It Is
A recent news event out of the WNBA caused the Guru to reach into the archive system and in a major upset find a quote from five years ago from a certain individual.