Women's College Basketball – Page 2

Louisiana Gov. says athletes should ‘risk their athletic scholarship’ if absent for national anthem after LSU-Iowa

5Apr

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Louisiana Gov. says athletes should ‘risk their athletic scholarship’ if absent for national anthem after LSU-Iowa

The 2023 championship rematch between Iowa and LSU in this year’s Elite Eight was a scintillating production that stockpiled praise from celebrities, athletes and fans alike, while shattering the record for the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever.But Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was unimpressed before a basketball even bounced Monday after LSU was not present for the national anthem, calling for a policy to be put in place that risks a student-athlete’s scholarship if the player is absent during “The Star-Spangled Banner.”“My mother coached women’s high school basketball during the height of desegregation, no one has a greater respect for the sport and for Coach Mulkey,” Gov. Landry wrote on X on Tuesday. “However, above respect for that game is a deeper respect for those that...

Israeli sisters find strength, support and safe place in college basketball

29Dec

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Israeli sisters find strength, support and safe place in college basketball

In the days after Oct. 7, in which Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, Yarden Garzon struggled to eat and sleep. The outbreak of war in Israel and the Gaza Strip was all-consuming to her, as she watched the news from Bloomington, Ind., where she’s a sophomore guard. Yarden, who was born and raised in Israel, worried about her friends, her family, her country. “I think I was more nervous than my mom,” Garzon said. “It was really scary the first week.”Garzon’s parents have been half a world away from her, staying put in their home in Ra’anana, Israel, an affluent suburb north of Tel Aviv about 50 miles from the war’s epicenter. Still, over the last two months as the death toll has risen, her family has spent time in the house’s bomb shelter. Sirens warning of air strikes pierced the...

Data dive: Caitlin Clark vs. Steph Curry and other top shooters

21Dec

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Data dive: Caitlin Clark vs. Steph Curry and other top shooters

In a nearly empty arena in late November 2020, Caitlin Clark shot her first college 3-pointer. Time was ticking down in the first quarter of the Hawkeyes’ matchup against Northern Iowa. Clark forced a steal at midcourt and weaved her way to the right wing. With two defenders around her, she rose up. Her attempt was blocked.That didn’t discourage her.Now a senior, Clark is perhaps the biggest star across both men’s and women’s college basketball. She’s made more than 400 3-pointers throughout her college career and re-written the record book — at Iowa and nationally. “We see it every single day in practice, she hits one (shot) that amazes you or makes one pass that makes your jaw kind of drop,” Iowa assistant Abby Stamp says.Clark passes with pin-point accuracy. Teammates and coaches alike...

How Celeste Taylor found the perfect fit at Ohio State

19Dec

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How Celeste Taylor found the perfect fit at Ohio State

Celeste Taylor did everything she could at Duke. The 2023 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Taylor was a big reason why Duke reached its first NCAA Tournament since 2018. From the moment she arrived in 2021, she was the player coach Kara Lawson leaned on to help establish the culture she wanted.Among finding her voice as a leader, helping younger players with film and Xs and Os, there wasn’t much Taylor didn’t have a hand in at Duke. When the Blue Devils faced Colorado in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, her on-court impact was on full display as well. She finished with eight points, 10 rebounds, 10 steals and eight assists, but Duke lost 61-53 in overtime. She wished she shot better than 21 percent in the loss, but it was hard to watch that game and see more that Taylor could do....

WNBA 2024 mock draft: Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink headline

12Dec

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WNBA 2024 mock draft: Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink headline

The 2024 WNBA Draft order is set. Indiana won the draft lottery Sunday, giving the Fever the first pick in what could be one of the deepest drafts in league history. Could is the operative word, as every draft-eligible senior in this class has the opportunity to return to college for a fifth season due to the COVID-19 bonus year given to every player who suited up in 2020-21.Indiana is the fourth team in the last decade to earn consecutive No. 1 picks after Seattle had the top selections in 2015 and 2016, Las Vegas had a three-year stretch of picking first from 2017-2019, and New York won the lottery in 2020 and 2021. The Storm won two titles with the duo of Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart, and the Aces have done the same with the trio of Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young. The Fev...

Grieving her father’s death and battling lung cancer, Southern Miss’ coach pulled off a defining upset

9Dec

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Grieving her father’s death and battling lung cancer, Southern Miss’ coach pulled off a defining upset

In 2017, Joye Lee-McNelis began writing her obituary.Where she was born. In the southern Mississippi community of Leetown.Preceded in death by. Then a blank space, not knowing if she would die before her parents.A note of thanks to her family, to the players she had coached, to the staffs she had worked with and the administrations she had worked for.McNelis had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. While thinking about her death, she focused on how her life would be remembered. Her husband, Dennis, thought she was crazy. She reassured him she wasn’t concerned about the act of dying. “I just want to plan it all out,” she told him. “There’s no need having you and our children worrying about it.” She wanted it to feel like a celebration.McNelis is now 61 and in her 20th season as Souther...

For UConn to thrive, Paige Bueckers needs to be more like Caitlin Clark

8Dec

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For UConn to thrive, Paige Bueckers needs to be more like Caitlin Clark

Since high school, Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark’s basketball stories have been intertwined.The two top guards in the 2020 recruiting class — Bueckers the No. 1 overall player, Clark the No. 4 — both hailed from the Midwest, playing on rival EYBL teams and then together in Team USA’s youth program. Both were excellent 3-point shooters, lethal from the wings and left baseline, with the ability to hit the free-throw pullups and finish at the hoop. But they also had their unique flairs — for Clark, it was her range; for Bueckers, it was off-balance runners perfectly kissed off the glass.For college, they chose alternate paths. Clark opted to stay home and play for Iowa, a program that had been to the Elite Eight four times in program history, but just once in Clark’s lifetime. Bueckers, a...

Women’s college basketball power rankings: South Carolina returns to a familiar spot

22Nov

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Women’s college basketball power rankings: South Carolina returns to a familiar spot

If the hope was that two weeks of basketball would have given a clearer picture of the hierarchy in women’s college basketball this season, that has not been the case. In fact, most of my conversations since Nov. 6 have featured some variation of, “Wait, is Team X good?”Aside from South Carolina at the top — stop me if you’ve heard that before — every other projected contender has taken its lumps. While the Gamecocks roll through their opposition, most teams around the country need some time to figure out new rosters and systems. Growing pains were expected, like LSU and Virginia Tech integrating new transfers, or Maryland and Indiana dealing with the graduations of WNBA first-round picks.Nevertheless, on the whole, the quality of play around the country has been better than expected. But...

‘We’re scientists right now’: Wisconsin volleyball’s unconventional path to success

21Nov

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‘We’re scientists right now’: Wisconsin volleyball’s unconventional path to success

WAUNAKEE, Wis. – A few hours after practice begins with players juggling tennis balls and Def Leppard rattling through the gym, a little while after serving groups are divided into Packers fans and non-Packers fans, Kelly Sheffield sits in a wine bar and describes his first office as a college volleyball head coach. This was at Albany. He shared space with rakes, shovels and snowmobiles belonging to the grounds crew. He assumes his computer was the first one ever made. For the first home match, he scrubbed net poles wearing his suit. Thirteen people showed up.This audience, on this Tuesday night, is into it. It should be. We’re a short drive north of Wisconsin’s campus. Also it’s $100 a head to get in.“B.S. and Bourbon” is the event, with part of the proceeds redirected to volleyball NIL ...

Women’s college basketball is having a moment. The NCAA needs to seize it

17Nov

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Women’s college basketball is having a moment. The NCAA needs to seize it

Shortly after the women’s NCAA Tournament set viewership and attendance records last year as LSU took down Iowa for the championship, the Charlotte Sports Foundation began making calls to see about hosting a major women’s basketball game to kick off the 2023-24 season.The first call? Iowa. If it could get Caitlin Clark into the building in Charlotte, it knew tickets would sell. But the group also wanted a second Final Four team, preferably a more local one, where fans could drive to the event. So the next call was made to Virginia Tech.Done. Coach Kenny Brooks and his Hokies would happily mark the start of the season with a high-caliber matchup.Danny Morrison, the foundation’s executive director, was excited how quickly two Final Four teams jumped at the chance to play a competitive early...