Virginia’s Ryan gets 700th win

It was a struggle, but Virginia coach Debbie Ryan’s team kicked off the season by making her the seventh active NCAA Division I women’s coach to win 700 games in Friday’s season opener.

A little stressful in Seattle

Washington athletics director Scott Woodward is clarifying comments he made in September about the future of Tia Jackson. The embattled Huskies coach, entering her third season, doesn’t have a team that is likely to do much in the Pac 10, but at least needs to show some improvement. Woodward yesterday: “I’ve told everyone that we’re [...]

All eyes on the Ogwumike sisters

At Stanford, they’re watching sophomore forward Nneka Ogwumike reach above the rim. Says Tara VanDerveer: “I’ve never seen anyone in a Stanford uniform do that. I told her she might get a goal-tending call.” And Tara’s one of three college coaches keeping tabs on the current travels on Nneka’s baby sister Chiney, the nation’s No. [...]

Guess Who wants to play hoops with Obama?

None other than women’s basketball’s own Lady Chutzpah. This is quite a bit over the top, even for her. And when you’re done laughing at that, check out how the right is cracking up over the feminist crack-up about Obama’s sexually segregated hardcourts. Folks, it doesn’t get much better than this. But if it does, [...]

What brought all this about?

I thought this was a bogus story when I first heard about it, and can’t believe The New York Times made such a big deal about it over the weekend: President Obama’s all-guys hoops games, and what that might say about the true influence and “place” for women in his administration: “Women are Obama’s base, [...]

Starting a new season on a somber note

My latest post at Blue Star Basketball examines four women’s college programs that have been touched already by tragedy — the death of a fellow college athlete and two near-death experiences and a potentially fatal diagnosis for three of the top players in the sport. As I busily write season previews, assess the national landscape and [...]

Tennessee reports secondary violations over recruit

A picture of Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt taken with Cibolo, Texas prospect Meighan Simmons on a recent recruiting trip has prompted Tennessee to report a secondary recruiting violation after the photo appeared in a San Antonio newspaper. Summitt tells Dan Fleser she wasn’t aware a news photographer was taking any snaps as she and [...]

Get your West Coast fix here!

Shortly after covering Stanford’s run to the Final Four, Michelle Smith joined the ranks of newspaper refugees by taking a buyout from the San Francisco Chronicle. But she’s been busy refashioning her old beat on the Web by starting her own site, the aptly-named Left Coast Hoops. But listen up: She’s making it a paid [...]

Preaching patience at Kansas

In the Big 12, rebuilding usually comes quickly, or the coach brought on to get the job done loses it. At Kansas, Lew Perkins backed up the truck to pry Bonnie Henrickson from Virginia Tech five years ago, but the results have been slow in coming. With the Jayhawks coming off a season in which [...]

UConn’s Elliott gets cracking at Cincinnati

Just two days after being named the new head coach at Cincinnati, former UConn assistant Jamelle Elliott has begun filling out her staff. She’s hired ex-Toledo coach Mark Ehlen to help her get started. He’s coming back to Cincinnati, but for the crosstown rivals he once faced as Melanie Balcomb’s predecessor at Xavier. He’s spent [...]