EVENTS
 Sportsman of the Year
 Heisman Trophy
 Swimsuit 2001

CENTERS
 Fantasy Central
 Inside Game
 Video Plus
 Statitudes
 Your Turn
 Message Boards
 Email Newsletters
 Golf Guide
 Cities
 

CNNSI.com GROUP
 Sports Illustrated
 Life of Reilly
 SI Women
 SI for Kids
 Press Room
 TBS/TNT Sports
 CNN Languages

COMMERCE
 SI Customer Service
 SI Media Kits
 Get into College
 Sports Memorabilia
 TeamStore

Break Up the Huskies

Would reduced scholarship limits stop perennial powers like No. 1 pick (again) Connecticut from stockpiling talent?

By Chris Ballard

Over the last decade, women's basketball season previews have become as repetitive as those airport P.A. announcements reminding travelers that the white zone is for loading and unloading only. Front-runner status is for Connecticut and Tennessee only. Year after year the two powerhouses, which between them have won six of the last 11 national titles, are installed as favorites, making the ride to the Final Four seem like a two-team carpool. The Huskies and the Lady Volunteers are so deep that even in a purported off-year, such as last season, when UConn lost stars Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova to injuries, the Huskies finished 32-3 and nearly knocked off eventual champion Notre Dame in an NCAA tournament semifinal.

"UConn is definitely the team to beat again this year," says Duke coach Gail Goestenkors, sounding much like a prerecorded announcement herself. "Of course, there's always Tennessee, too."

Given this perennial dominance by the Big Two, how can the NCAA increase parity? One solution would be to reduce the number of scholarships from 15 per team to 13, as men's basketball did in the early '90s. This would keep teams such as Connecticut and Tennessee from collecting high school All-Americas like so many baseball cards, some of them to be kept in mint condition but rarely used.

Although most coaches in the SI Top 10 were lukewarm about the idea, citing the need to keep the sport growing and to safeguard against injuries, the idea had one surprising supporter, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma. "It's so stupid when you think about it," Auriemma says of the resistance to cutting back scholarships. "Changing the rule isn't going to affect a coach's ability to win, only the ability to stockpile players. If I have 15 girls on scholarship, some of them won't play until they're juniors and some won't play at all. If they went elsewhere, they'd probably play right away and make another team better."

Of course, it's easy for Auriemma to be magnanimous, considering how loaded Connecticut is again this season. Abrosimova and Ralph graduated, but the Huskies have four seniors back, including the preseason Big East player of the year, point guard Sue Bird, and 6'2" jumping-jack forwards Swin Cash and Asjha Jones. Sophomore Diana Taurasi, who blossomed into one of the best guards in the country last season before fizzling in the loss to Notre Dame, will start at the other guard spot, and 6'2" senior Tamika Williams will patrol the lane. Put the pieces together, and the Huskies have good reason to feel cocky. "We're coming back with a fire," says Bird, who led UConn with 5.0 assists per game last season, "and we're ready to prove something."

The same can be said of Tennessee, which went 31-3 last season but suffered a stunning 80-65 loss to Xavier in a regional semifinal. "This team did not deserve anything other than the outcome it got," an angry coach Pat Summitt said after the game. Much of Summitt's ire was directed at 6'5" center Michelle Snow, who last year showed the world that while she was capable of dunking, she was often incapable of playing interior defense. If Snow, a junior, can stiffen her resolve, she will team with junior forward Gwen Jackson (injured but due back within six weeks) and sophomore center Ashley Robinson (who should recover from a torn ACL in time to pitch in during the second half of the season) to form one of the nation's top frontcourts. A freshman from California, Loree Moore, should add needed quickness to the backcourt.

The key for Vanderbilt will be the play of 6'6" junior center Chantelle Anderson, who's hoping to lower her field goal percentage from the 72.3% she shot last season. After scoring 21.2 points per game in 2000-01 but rarely venturing out of the paint, Anderson spent the summer working out with Snow, whom she knew from the USA Jones Cup team, and honing her midrange jump shot. "Coach [Jim Foster] actually told me that for me to become a better player, my percentage has to go down," says Anderson. "I need to step out on the floor and become more versatile." In addition to Anderson, the Commodores retain all of their other 2000-01 starters -- including 6'2" senior Zuzi Klimesova, who averaged 8.1 rebounds and shot 56.5% from the field -- as well as a crop of blue-chip freshmen. "I consider us an inside-outside team, and there aren't many of those," says Foster. "We've got a very good team back. Now we need to blend in our new players."

Last April, Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale met with star guard Stacey Dales and told her how she would defend against Dales if they were matched up in a game. "I told her I would play the penetration and let her shoot," says Coale, who was a scrappy guard at Oklahoma Christian in the mid-1980s. The 6-foot Dales, who averaged 16.0 points and 7.3 assists last season, got the hint and spent the off-season working on her pull-up jump shot. She also hit the weights so she can play some in the post, where the Sooners will need more help than ever: Oklahoma was undersized before senior center Jen Cunningham tore her right ACL for a fourth time in October, ending her career. Without an interior presence Coale will rely on her smaller stars -- Dales, senior guard LaNeishea Caufield and junior forward Caton Hill -- to use their quickness to beat other teams. "I'd love to have a big, strong center, but I don't," says Coale. "What I do have is guards, and they're pretty darn good."

The Texas Tech women haven't lacked for support. Last season the Lady Raiders averaged 12,660 fans, second only to Tennessee, and for years, coach Marsha Sharp says, the program has brought in more money than it has spent, a rare feat in women's college basketball. Even so, Sharp has welcomed the publicity that accompanied the arrival of her famously hot-tempered new colleague, men's coach Bob Knight. "He's been terrific," says Sharp in her Texas twang. "I've already learned a lot from him." Maybe Knight should be the student, considering Sharp's career record of 459-142 and Tech's berth in the Sweet 16 last spring. Either way, behind junior forward Plenette Pierson and sophomore guard Jia Perkins, who combined to average 28.3 points last year, the Lady Raiders should end their season on the brink -- of a national championship.

After nine straight titles in the relatively soft Sun Belt Conference, Louisiana Tech has moved to the Western Athletic Conference, in which the Lady Techsters should face tougher foes than they did last season, when they ran up a 16-0 league record. Add road games against Tennessee and Connecticut, and Tech coach Leon Barmore, who retired for all of 17 days in 2000 before the university and its surrounding community persuaded him to return to the bench, will have plenty of opportunity to measure Louisiana Tech's progress. The best benchmarks: shot-swatting senior center Ayana Walker (2.4 blocks per game), senior guard Brooke Lassiter (10.2 points, 91% from the line) and star sophomore forward Catrina Frierson, who missed the entire 2000-01 season with a knee injury.

At Duke, guard Alana Beard may be only a sophomore, but she has the confidence of a senior. When asked which opponents worry her, she doesn't hesitate: "I'm not really scared of anything." Such talk could be dismissed as youthful hubris if Beard's game weren't frighteningly good. Last season she averaged 17.0 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 steals while leading the Blue Devils to a 30-4 record and the Sweet 16, where they lost to Southwest Missouri State, another team with a fearless guard, Jackie Stiles. With the departure of last season's ACC player of the year, Georgia Schweitzer, Beard will be asked to do even more. "Her natural position is the wing, but I'll start her at the point and play her some in the post, too," says Goestenkors. Junior guard Sheana Mosch and sophomore forward Iciss Tillis will provide help, as will sophomore guard Rometra Craig, the daughter of former San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig.

Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly has an intricate game plan. It's called, in his words, "Get the ball to Angie as much as possible." The triangle offense it's not, but if the Cyclones' 27-6 record last season is any indication, the strategy is nearly as effective. Angie Welle, the 6'4" center, averaged 18.3 points and 10.0 rebounds in 2000-01 while making 65.5% of her shots. When the opposition collapses on her, she'll kick it out to Iowa State's zone-busting guards, led by junior Lindsey Wilson, who knocked down 42.0% of her treys, and senior Tracy Gahan, who shot 45.6% from behind the arc last season and is ready for a breakout campaign. "I think Tracy could be one of the best players in the country," says Fennelly. "Now she only needs to go out and prove it."

Last season North Carolina State lost both starting point guard Terah James and starting center Kaayla Chones (daughter of former NBA center Jim Chones) to injuries but still reached the Sweet 16 behind the play of dynamic forward Carisse Moody, now a junior. This year, with James and Chones back for their sophomore seasons, the Wolfpack will sneak up on teams. "People outside the ACC don't understand how good they're going to be," warns Goestenkors. "They've got those two starters back, and they're hosting a regional [in the NCAA tournament]."

There was a time, from the late 1980s to the mid-'90s, when Stanford was mentioned in the same breath with Tennessee. After a few seasons below the national radar, the Cardinal is back, and this time coach Tara VanDerveer shouldn't have to play sophomore power forward Nicole Powell at the point, as she did in last season's tournament after injuries felled her starting backcourt. With a healthy roster that includes sharpshooting senior forward Lindsey Yamasaki, who won a gold medal with the U.S. team at the World University Games in Beijing this summer, and the fourth-ranked recruiting class in the country, Stanford should not only repeat as Pac-10 champ but also prove that its season motto -- "It's no secret" -- applies to its talent.

It's even less of a secret that, as redundant as it sounds, Connecticut should win its third national championship. Not that Auriemma cares whether people are sick of seeing his team in the title game. "I'm not going to apologize for having a lot of good players," he says. "You can't mandate parity, and until it happens, there will always be a gap between one level of schools and the next."

Left unspoken is how sweet it is to be on the top side of that divide.

Issue date: November 19, 2001