April 18, 2008 - Former University of Tennessee star (and soon-to-be Los Angeles Sparks player) Candace Parker has been voted the 2008 Honda Sports Award winner for the second year in a row as the nation’s top collegiate female basketball player.
The honor, announced Thursday, was based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 32nd year.
Parker was the No. 1 overall pick at the recent WNBA draft. She led Tennessee this year to its second consecutive NCAA championship and was recognized for the second time as Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four, only the fourth player ever to do so.
April 9, 2008 - Injured or not, a bum left shoulder wasn’t enough to stop Candace Parker from hoisting that championship trophy one last time.
Parker scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help Tennessee capture its eighth championship with a 64-48 victory over Stanford on Tuesday night. The Lady Vols also became the first repeat champs since Connecticut won three straight from 2002-04.
The AP player of the year will leave the Lady Vols (36-2) with a year of eligibility remaining, but has accomplished one of her goals by winning multiple national titles.
Parker also became the fourth player to win back-to-back Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four honors. She joined Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi (2003-04), Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw (1997-98), and Southern Cal’s Cheryl Miller (1983-84).
Stanford’s loss ended Candice Wiggins’ remarkable run through the NCAA tournament. She scored 14 points and finished with 151 over the six games _ the fourth-best total in tournament history. Sheryl Swoopes holds the record with 177 points, when she led Texas Tech to the championship in 1993. Wiggins is the first player to have two 40-point games in the tournament.
Wiggins took the Cardinal (35-4) further than they’d been since 1992, when the program won it all. Stanford hadn’t reached the Final Four since 1997 or advanced to the championship game since the ‘92 team.
The Ace vs. Ice battle may be over on a collegiate level, but we’re bound to see both of these Pretty Tough players again and again.
April 8, 2008 - Candace Parker and Candice Wiggins made memorable first impressions on each other when they met on a basketball court as 13-year-olds at an AAU tournament.
Tonight, as 21-year-old women, Candace and Candice will end their distinguished collegiate careers on the same floor, when Parker’s Tennessee team plays Wiggins’ Stanford squad for the NCAA title. Both hope the final snapshot from their stellar college careers will include a national championship.
University of Tennessee All-America Forward Candace Parker was recently named winner of the 2008 Naismith Trophy. Parker led the Lady Vols in scoring (20.6 points) and rebounds (8.8) this season. She is a two-time Kodak All-American, a three-time first-team All-SEC unanimous selection, the 2006 SEC Freshman of the Year and 2007 SEC Player of the Year.
Stanford senior guard Candice Wiggins added to her list of prestigious honors received over her illustrious career this week, as she was named the State Farm Wade Trophy Player of the Year and was also selected to the State Farm Coaches’ All-America Team for a school record-breaking fourth time. Wiggins was named Pac-10 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, after averaging 21.7 ppg in three contests while making 14-25 three-pointers overall.
April 7, 2008 -Alexis Hornbuckle’s only basket of the game was enough to get Tennessee back in the championship game.Hornbuckle’s putback with seven-tenths of a second left lifted the Lady Vols to a 47-46 victory over LSU in Sunday night’s national semifinal. It was the lowest scoring game in Final Four history.
AP Player of the Year Candace Parker, recovering from a dislocated shoulder, scored 13 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead the Lady Vols.
Tennessee (35-2) moved within a win of its eighth national championship. To do it, the Lady Vols will have to beat Stanford, which stunned Connecticut 82-73 in the other semifinal.
Cardinal star Candice Wiggins, the first player to have two 40-point performances in the same NCAA tournament, finished five assists shy of the first triple-double in women’s Final Four history.
The Lady Vols are looking to become the first repeat champions since the Huskies won three straight titles from 2002-04.
Hoops: Who will win the NCAA Women’s National Championship?
April 6, 2008 - Tennessee, LSU, Connecticut, Stanford - The women’s NCAA basketball tournament will dwindle to two teams after tonight’s Final Four. Contending for the two spots in the national championship are perennial contenders Tennessee and Connecticut, LSU — which is looking for its first NCAA crown — and Stanford, looking to extend its 22-game winning streak.
Will coaches Pat Summitt (Tenn.) and Geno Auriemma (UConn) meet in a championship showdown? Will Candace Parker’s shoulder — which she dislocated in regional final — hold up? Will Cardinal star Candice Wiggins, the Pac-10’s all-time leader in scoring (2,590 points) and 3-point field goals (290), end her collegiate career with a national championship?
Tune in to find out the answers to these questions, and more!
7:00 PM EST: Stanford (4) vs. Connecticut (1) 9:15 EST: LSU (6) vs. Tennessee (3)
April 1, 2008 - The Terrapins fell in their Elite Eight game to Stanford, and a particularly hot-shooting Candice Wiggins who had 41 points. The Terrapins got behind after about five or six minutes and despite shooting better than 60 percent in the first half, trailed by 10 at intermission.
It was a way different story from Maryland’s comeback win to beat Duke in the national championship game two years ago. All five Terps starters scored in double figures, marking the first time this season that Maryland lost when five of its players scored 10 or more. Junior Kristi Toliver had a career-high and NCAA tournament school-record 35 points for Maryland (33-4), including 11 straight in one second-half push as the Terps tried to erase a 17-point Cardinal lead.
Stanford and LSU, a winner over North Carolina, are in the Final Four along with the winners of tonight’s games — Texas A&M-Tennessee and Rutgers Connecticut.
March 31, 2008 - Freshman phenom Maya Moore had 25 points and 11 rebounds in her second straight 20-point postseason performance to lead top-seeded UConn past Old Dominion 78-63 in a Regional semifinal Sunday.
Next up for coach Geno Auriemma’s powerhouse program: Big East foe Rutgers with a spot in the Final Four on the line.
In the Oklahoma City Regional semifinal, Candace Parker matched her career best with 34 points and hauled in 12 rebounds, pushing the top-seeded Lady Vols to the regional finals for the eighth straight year with a 74-64 win against Notre Dame on Sunday night.
Tennessee moves on to play Texas A&M.
Rounding out the Elite Eight are Maryland and Stanford along with UNC and LSU who both battle for their Final Four appearance tonight.
March 26, 2008 - The second-round blowout over Purdue not only sent top-seeded Tennessee to its annual regional semifinal appearance, but also made Pat Summitt the first coach in Division I basketball history — men’s or women’s — to record 100 wins in the tournament.
Two days after Summitt publicly challenged her team to play harder, the Lady Vols responded with a dominant defensive effort, a crisper offense and a 78-52 rout of host Purdue. The team rolls into the Sweet Sixteen with a 42-0 all-time record in NCAA first and second round games.
March 23, 2008 - We’ve been Candace Parker fans for years. As Angelenos, we’re hoping she finds her way to the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks as a first round draft pick. She has been, and will always be, a Pretty Tough player.
According to a recent USA Today article, Parker has been the Next Big Thing since eighth grade. That’s when she was featured in a Chicago Sun-Times spread about a youth sensation expected to take the high school scene by storm.
It was the same when she was ending her career at Naperville (Ill.) High School with two state titles and two USA TODAY Player of the Year awards. The anticipation turned to her collegiate influence at Tennessee. After all, she was the girl who beat the boys in a high school dunk contest.
Now, of course, Candace’s hoping to finish her Tennessee run with a second consecutive NCAA title. The All-American forward (and redshirt junior) will graduate at the end of this season to participate in the summer Olympics and pursue a professional career.
The No. 1 seed Lady Volunteers open today against No. 16 Oral Roberts in West Lafayette, Ind. This is the first meeting between the schools, with the winner advancing to play eighth-seeded Utah or ninth-seeded Purdue on Tuesday. Be sure to catch Candace on the court as she wraps up her collegiate career.
March 22, 2008 - The 64-team field competing for the 2008 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship begins play today at regional comps around the country. If you like basketball, don’t miss the match-ups between some of the best college teams, coaches and players.
The women’s tournament, like the men’s, is staged in a single elimination format, and is part of the media and public frenzy known as “March Madness”. It is one of the most followed sporting events in the United States.
More than 500 players will play their final game of the season at some point in the next four days. Roughly another 150 will exit the stage the following week. That’s a lot of sweat and tears.
Earning No. 1 seeds are the University of Connecticut (32-1), University of North Carolina (30-2); University of Tennessee (30-2); and University of Maryland (30-3). During nine of the last 14 NCAA Tournaments (since 1994), the UConn Huskies have either won the national championship or have lost to the eventual national champion.
All games of the 2008 Championship will be televised live on ESPN and ESPN2.
April 18, 2008 - Former University of Tennessee star (and soon-to-be Los Angeles Sparks player) Candace Parker has been voted the 2008 Honda Sports Award winner for the second year in a row as the nation’s top collegiate female basketball player.
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