Hoops:
Cardinal lose JJ Hones to ACL injury  - Stanford junior point guard JJ Hones suffered a knee injury Sunday during the Cardinal win against Rutgers and will miss the rest of the season. It’s her second ligament tear in two years. Does this preclude Stanford from reaching the Final Four?

Tennis:
Maria Sharapova expects to be back on the tennis tour at the start of 2009 - According to her agent, Masha is planning to defend her Australian Open title after being sidelined since July with an injured right shoulder.

Mauresmo not ready to retire - Former world No.1 Amelie Mauresmo has committed herself to at least another year on the WTA circuit in a bid to end her career on a positive note.  The 29-year-old Frenchwoman struggled for form throughout this year and saw her world ranking plummet outside the top 20 as she failed to win a single tournament.

Olympics:  
Modern Pentathlon cut from five events to four - Modern pentathlon has been cut from five events to four in a bid to boost the sport’s popularity and keep it on the Olympic program. The International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) voted to combine pistol shooting and running into one discipline to create a shorter and more dynamic event.  Women have competed in the pentathlon since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Volleyball:
U.S. women’s volleyball coach Ping steps down - Jenny Lang Ping, 47, the former star of China’s Olympic champion volleyball team who guided the U.S. women’s volleyball team to the silver medal in the Beijing Olympics, will step down as coach of the US women’s national squad. Known as the “Iron Hammer” in her playing days, Ping was the only woman coach among those guiding the world’s 20 top-ranked national teams. Ping, who has a 16-year-old daughter, cited family reasons for her decision.

November 25, 2008

As UConn embarks on their first road trip of the season, coach Geno Auriemma reminisces about the way the team used to travel. Before they flew on chartered flights and ate in fine restaurants, the team traveled by bus and pooled their money for dinner. A road trip in the old days most certainly meant you missed a class or two; now private planes that depart immediately after a game assure players they’re back in time for morning classes.

To get a sense of just how much the Huskies now travel, the New Haven Register reports that when UConn plays tonight at Brigham Young in Utah, it will be the 34th state in which the team has played since coach Geno Auriemma’s arrival in 1985.

Next month, UConn will play three games in Cancun, Mexico, and in the last three seasons,  the Huskies have also enjoyed a trip to Italy and took part in a tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It’s a long way from Auriemma’s first season, when 25 of the 27 games where either in New England or the tri-state area. In the last four seasons, UConn either has played, or will play, games in 22 states.

Yes, it’s good to be a Husky - as long as you like to travel.

November 23, 2008

 California pulls off huge upset of No. 3 Rutgers - Alexis Gray-Lawson hustled all over the court on the way to 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists and No. 7 California pulled off the biggest home victory of fourth-year coach Joanne Boyle’s tenure with a 66-52 upset of third-ranked Rutgers on Friday night.

Paris notches 100th double-double as No. 4 Oklahoma drops Ariz. State -Courtney Paris had 20 rebounds and 19 points for the 100th double-double of her career and set Oklahoma’s scoring record in the No. 4 Sooners’ 70-57 win over No. 17 Arizona State in the semifinals of the Women’s Preseason NIT.

Hartford stuns fifth-ranked Duke 53-51 - Hartford took advantage of 26 turnovers and handed No. 6 Duke a surprising 53-51 loss in the first game of the DePaul Invitational on Friday night.

Terps: Toliver, big run lead Terps past James Madison - The Terrapin women’s basketball team and James Madison went back and forth for the majority of Thursday night’s game but the No. 11 Terps used a 14-0 run over 3:54 just past the midway point of the second half to outlast the Dukes for a 90-76 win.

Toliver, with career 1,500 points, helps Maryland cruise past UCLA -  Kristi Toliver scored 26 points and passed another career milestone to lead No. 11 Maryland to an easy 88-65 win over UCLA on Sunday.

No. 1 UConn routs San Diego St, 99-55 - Maya Moore led UConn with 21 points, 17 in the first half. The sophomore also had nine rebounds and six assists while playing just 25 minutes. Tina Charles added 17 points for the Huskies, who now have won 26 consecutive home games and 89 straight games over unranked opponents.

No. 1 UConn extends home win streak with rout of Rhode Island - As if Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore weren’t enough, for the third consecutive game, at least five players scored in double figures to help the Huskies rout Rhode Island 91-43 on Saturday.

Bard’s Latiqua Williams records rare Quadruple Double - Bard College Sophomore, Latiqua Williams recorded a rare Quadruple-Double in a 75-28 win over The College of New Rochelle on Sunday, November 16th. Williams scored 21 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, had 11 steals and 10 assists in the victory.

Tennessee nearly upset by Chatanooga - Lady Vol’s Vicki Baugh made a tiebreaking free throw with 53.7 seconds remaining and Tennessee beat Chattanooga 66-63 on Friday night to avoid a major upset.

For great daily coverage, there are a number of bloggers who live and breath women’s hoops so be sure to catch their updates:

Girls Basketball Recuit - Girls basketball news and recruiting information covers D1 - D3 as well as community college and high school ball.
Women’s Hoops Blog - Great commentary on all aspects of the women’s game.

And of course you can always get your women’s basketball news from more traditional media outlets like:

ESPN Women’s Basketball
NCAA Women’s Basketball
USA Today Women’s College Basketball News
Yahoo! Sports - NCAA Women’s Hoops News

November 14, 2008

New Orleans will become the first city to play host to three Women’s Final Fours.  It previously hosted the event in 1991 and 2004. The 2013 event will be played at the New Orleans Arena.

Hopefully by then New Orleans - one of the best places on earth - will once again be the shining City of the South. 

The NCAA has also picked Denver, Nashville, Tampa and Indianapolis to host women’s basketball Final Fours.

Denver (2012) and Nashville (2014) will be hosting the event for the first time.

Tampa will host in 2015 and Indianapolis, the home of the NCAA headquarters, in 2016.  So women’s basketball fans - start saving those frequent flyer miles and get started on your future travel plans!

For those more interested in the now, today is opening day of the NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball season!  Who will make it to St. Louis for the 2009 Women’s Final Four?  UConn gets the nod in preseason rankings but who will join them?

Know the rules before YOU sign.

Some early signings include:
Missoula Big Sky center Joslyn Tinkle has committed to play basketball at Stanford as has Beavercreek’s Mikaela Ruef.

Faith Dupree, Taber Spani and Kamiko Williams are heading to Tennessee to play hoops for Pat Summitt.

The Baylor Lady Bears have added #1 ranked high school basketball player Brittney Griner along with Mariah Chandler, Jordan Madden, Shanay Washington and Kimetria Hayden.

Guard Erica Wheeler and post player Christine Huber also signed letters of intent today. They will be at Rutgers for the 2009-10 school year.

OSU women sign six -  Cowgirls coach Kurt Budke says Keuna Flax, Heather Howard, Desiree Jeffries, Lindsey Keller, LaSharra Riley and Toni Young signed with the program.

For more on women’s basketball signings, the Girls Basketball Recuit blog has compiled all the latest info.

November 11, 2008 - It may not be the cover of Rolling Stone but it’s close.

University of Oklahoma basketball players Courtney Paris and Blake Griffin are on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine’s basketball preview with the headline “Double Team” (see above).

Both players are preseason All-Americans.  Paris is a senior on the women’s team and Griffin is a sophomore on the men’s team.  Both teams were voted by league coaches as the preseason choice to win the Big 12 Conference title.

Griffin and Paris are 1 of 6 male and female pairs being featured on regional covers of the magazine’s college basketball preview issue that goes on sale Wednesday.

The five other player duos featured on the SI covers are Briann January and James Harden of Arizona State, Rashanda McCants and Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina, Ashley Barlow and Kyle McAlarney of Notre Dame, Shavonte Zellous and DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh and Maya Moore and Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut.

Nice to see the girls getting some props.

November 4, 2008

Now, the Sooner senior has joined an elite group as only the sixth unanimous choice in the 15-year history of the squad.

Joining Paris on the team announced Tuesday were Connecticut’s Maya Moore, Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry, Maryland’s Kristi Toliver, and Oklahoma State’s Andrea Riley.

For the first time, Paris was on every ballot of the 45-member national media panel. Previous unanimous selections were Chamique Holdsclaw, Diana Taurasi, Alana Beard, Seimone Augustus and Candace Parker. Nice club.

Preseason Women’s All America List

TV Exposure: For fans of women’s college hoops, it looks like the upcoming season will be a good one as far as television exposure is concerned.

According to ESPN.com, Tennessee will host Stanford on Dec. 21 in a rematch of last season’s national championship, one of 148 women’s college basketball games that will air on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN360.com this season. That’s 148 reasons to tune in and support women’s ball.

November 1 2008

UConn received 44 of the 45 first-place votes Saturday from a national media panel and compiled 1,124 points. No. 2 Stanford was 106 points behind and drew the other first-place ballot.

UConn lost to Stanford in the Final Four last season. Huskies coach Geno Auriemma returns three starters, including soph sensation Maya Moore.

The top five teams in the AP poll:
1. UConn
2. Stanford
3. Maryland
4. Oklahoma
5. Rutgers

See who is in the TOP 25 of the preseason poll

October 29, 2008

Purdue’s Lauren Mioton isn’t just a Boilermaker guard; she’s also the Homecoming queen. 

Yesterday, Mioton became the school’s first female athlete to be coronated. The Louisiana native,  a Rhodes Scholar nominee, stepped out of her comfort zone to pursue the honor and her teammates stepped up to help her campaign.   Her coach, Sharon Versyp, believes Mioton is the perfect representative for the university. We think she’s the Pretty Tough girl of the week!

And this link: Gators get out dancing shoes

When fans got their first glimpse of the 2008-09 Florida women’s basketball team, they got  to see how the team performs - at dancing. The women’s team joined the men’s in Shooting with the Stars, a program that lets fans find out a little about the players before the season begins. UF staked its claim in TV’s version of Dancing with the Stars when former Gator running back Emmitt Smith was named the winner of the show in 2006.  Now, the men’s team gets to dance with the Dazzlers while the female player  showcase their abilities by dancing with the male cheerleaders. What fun!

WHB also points out an article about the soon to be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, Ora Mae Washington :

Her name had a certain buoyant lilt to it.
Ora.
Ora Mae.
Ora Mae Washington.
The finest athlete you never heard of.
In the opinion of those who were there to see her and to those to whom tales of her deeds were passed on, she was, and remains, the greatest black female athlete ever.

Thanks for all the great info!

“I feel really honored,” said Anosike by phone from Israel, where she is playing basketball during the WNBA offseason. “I’m only the second basketball player to win it. It makes it special that it is an all-around award, not just for basketball, not just for academics.”

Rebecca Lobo of Connecticut was the first basketball player chosen for the award in 1995.

Anosike, who is currently a center for the Minnesota Lynx, grew up in a New York City housing project with her single mother and seven siblings. Basketball enabled her to escape the projects through a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. She made the most of her chance, in the classroom and on the court.

Graduating from Tennessee in May with honors and majors in legal studies, political science and sociology, Anosike hopes to be a lawyer someday.As a senior in the 2007-08 season, Anosike was the captain of a Lady Vols team that won its second NCAA title in a row. She also worked with community organizations that distributed turkeys and toys to needy families in the Nashville area.

Anosike’s mother and Tennessee coach Pat Summit accepted the Woman of the Year Award in her honor.