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By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK -- New York Liberty All-Star Cappie Pondexter says the time has come to start spreading the news about 6-foot-4 center Kia Vaughn, her former Rutgers teammate who she has reunited with here this season in the WNBA.

"If you didn't know Kia Vaughn before you know her now," Pondexter said with a big smile about Vaughn's performance off the bench Tuesday night.

Vaughn had 13 points and seven rebound, helping the the second-seeded Liberty (22-12) to a 77-74 victory over the third-seeded Indiana Fever (21-13) and a spot in the Eastern Conference finals against the fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream (19-15). The best-of-three competition will begin here Sunday night in Madison Square Garden.

The Western best-of-three finals begin Thursday night in Seattle where the No. 1 seeded Storm (28-6) will meet the defending WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury, who finished second with a 15-19 losing record.

Vaughn, a second-year pro who was picked in the first round last year, became the latest version of those shows on nearby Broadway where the understudy is inserted on short notice and quickly becomes a box office attraction.

The local girl from Bronx, who had seen limited action this season, got extended time to make good because starting center Janelle McCarville sprained her left ankle at the morning shootaround.

"I'm so happy for her," New York coach Anne Donovan said after the Liberty took the decisive Game 3 of the conference semifinal series and shortened Indiana's reign over the East to one season. "There is nobody that has worked harder this year and not really see the results.

"Last game, i thought she had good minutes at Indiana which fortunately gave her confidence coming into the game tonight and with Janel out we had to have her in the rotation. I think she surprised herself with how well she played and I know she surprised Indiana."

Vaughn admitted that she had been disappointed with her own work during the season and was unaware how much she might be needed Wednesday night.

"No one told me but I'm happy because I did something good," Vaughn said.

New York, which finished the regular season in a tie for first with the Washington Mystics, got the No. 2 seed and other home-court advantage in the East.

The Liberty, who retain the home court advantage for the Eastern finals as the highest-surviving seed, grabbed the opener against the Fever 85-73 here last Thursday and then lost at Indiana 75-67 on Sunday.

As has been characteristic of New York on the back half of the season highlighted by a franchise-record 10-game win streak, the Liberty rallied near the finish Wednesday night just when it looked like the Fever might win a playoff series for the first time as a lower seed.

New York, which trailed 47-46 at the half, fell behind by as many as seven points in the third quarter before moving closer to Indiana at 66-63 at the end of the period.

Then, with Vaughn continuing to be a defensive force, the Liberty excited the energized crowd of over 16,000 by moving into contention in the closing minutes.

Pondexter, who finished with 30 points, wowed the home folks with a shot from behind the basket as she ran out of bounds for a 76-74 lead with 27.9 seconds remaining in regulation.

"All-Star players step up .., this is their time of year," Donovan said. "Marquee players and MVP players ... this is their spotlight time and Cappie did that again tonight."

Fever coach Lin Dunn was incredulous over Pondexter's shot.

"I don't know how she made that shot," Dunn said. "I did not think it was going to go in."

Fever All-Star Tamika Catchings, who will now head to training with the USA Basketball women's national team for this month's World Championships, then missed a layup.

New York gained possession but then lost the ball on a five-seconds inbounding violation with 22.5 seconds left.

Catchings, who had 21 points, missed another layup that would have tied the game. Essence Carson, another former Rutgers star, blocked the shot on the play and Vaughn grabbed the rebound.

Carson has stepped up as three-point shooting ace Leilani Mitchell, voted by the media the WNBA's most improved player, has struggled with back problems during the playoffs.

Vaughn was fouled by Katie Douglas and then made one of two free throws before Indiana's Briann January missed a long shot with 2.8 seconds remaining and Carson grabbed the rebound.

Carson, who is from nearby Newark, N.J., across the Hudson River, scored 11 points while veteran Taj McWilliams-Franklin, a free-agent signee in the offseason, had 11 rebounds.

Katie Douglas had 24 points for Indiana and Ebony Hoffman scored 11.

Indiana's Dunn took issue with the officiating and expressed disappointment that the Liberty were not assessed fouls on either attempt by Catchings.

"I really thought she was fouled both times," Dunn complained. "It's unfortunate that the players did not get to finish the game on their own."

Catchings tried to avoid controversy saying she should have made both layup attempts. She also said the Fever made too many mistakes during the season in defense of their Eastern title, which cost them gaining one of the home courts in the conference semifinals.

Indiana entered the final week of the regular season with a chance to gain a second straight No. 1 seed but went on a three-game losing streak that began here with a rout by the Liberty. The Fever finished a game behind Washington and New York.

Vaughn will be needed in the East finals to help contend against the ahtletic Dream who finished fourth after holding first place in the front part of the season.

"Kia came back from the dead tonight," Rutgers Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer beamed outside the dressing room areas after the game about her former center who helped lead the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA title game in 2007.

Tammy Sutton-Brown, a former Rutgers center, plays for Indiana but was limited in her contributions against New York in the final game.

Besides the Rutgers alums who played, more WNBA players with Scarlet Knights DNA were in the house to cheer their teammates from college such as the Washington Mystics' Matee Ajavon and the Chicago Sky's Epiphanny Prince who was named to the All-Rookie team Tuesday that was selected by the league's coaches.

"Look at them all," Stringer said with the air of a proud parent. "Take all of them and (former Uconn star) Tina Charles (rookie of the year) over there and how many championships would we win."

Well, Pondexter has already won two with Phoenix in the last three seasons after being picked No. 2 overall in the 2006 draft. She came to the Liberty in the offseason via mega three-team deal that saw former Temple star Candice Dupree move from the Chicago Sky to the Arizona desert.

"The common thing among those teams and this one is team work," Pondexter said.

New York's win means the Liberty will get at least two more chances to be home, if the series with Atlanta goes the distance, before moving to the Prudential Center in Newark the next three summers while the Garden undergoes rennovations.

Donovan is also departing as the new coach of Seton Hall once New York finishes its performance.

But as colleges get under way for the Fall semester this week, Donovan said right now her mind is simply focused on New York.

Dunn noted the other two additions the Liberty picked up in former Stanford star Nicole Powell from the dispersal of the former Sacramenton Monarchs, and Plenette Pierson via trade early in the season with the Tulsa Shock.

Pierson and McWilliams-Franklin won WNBA rings playing for the Shock prior to its move from Detroit last winter. Powell won a title with Sacramento in 2005.

"I'd certainly like to play New York without those four," Dunn said.

-- Mel

(Guru's note. There is a post above this one with some college tidbits)

By Mel Greenberg

UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- There must be something about being 39-0 that is rather attractive to Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles.

Her last two seasons of collegiate ball at the powerful University of Connecticut program resulted in two NCAA titles with each obtained via perfect 39-0 records.

On Tuesday the native New Yorker was declared perfect again.

Charles, the overall No. 1 pick of last April's draft, was an unanimous 39-0 choice by the media for the WNBA rookie of the year honor that had no suspense involved considering she won every rookie of the month award. She set a slew of rebounding records for the league and franchise with one of the most notable being her accumulation of 22 double doubles through points and rebounds.

Yet there was one place Charles was not perfect -- the Sun finished 17-17 in fifth place missing the playoffs for the second straight season.

Had Connecticut still been alive, the presentation would have been done at a Sun playoff home game instead of Tuesday's stand-alone event that included WNBA president Donna Orender at a theater inside the Mohegan Sun casino-entertainment complex.

Charles was emphatic in her acceptance remarks that if there is a rebound to really chase after, it is next season to ensure the Sun will still be alive at this point in time contending for conference and WNBA titles.

"It was definitely a lot of fun this year," Charles said. "But if anybody knows me they know I don't like these kind of things (individual ceremonies) so hopefully next year we will be playing in the playoffs."

Besides Charles, Kelsey Griffin, another Sun newcomer and former Nebraska star, was named to the all-rookie team along with former Rutgers star Epiphanny Prince of the Chicago Sky, former Virginia star Monica Wright of the Minnesota Lynx, and Kalana Greene, another former UConn star who is with the New York Liberty.

League coaches selected the rookie squad -- none were allowed to vote for their own players. Charles and Wright each received 11 votes, while Greene, Griffin, and Prince each got 10.

Prince made news a year ago when she announced she was bypassing her senior season at Rutgers to go overseas in Euorpe to better prepare herself for a career in the WNBA. The Sky, which finished last this season, selected her in the first round.

The Sun was able to take Charles following an offseason deal with Minnesota, sending the Lynx All-Star Lindsay Whalen, a native of the Twin Cities, and the second overall pick for former UConn star Renee Montgomery, a second-year pro, and the No. 1 pick.

Minnesota took Wright with that No. 2 overall pick. The Lynx then drafted Griffin with the third overall pick and then did business with the Sun again by dealing Griffin to Connecticut for the Sun's first-round pick in 2011.

At the time no one ever thought the Sun wouldn't be a playoff team, considering its acquistions that included former Olympian Kara Lawson, who starred at Tennessee.

"It is the ultimate compliment to a player when she is more about winning than anything else," Sun coach Mike Thibault said Tuesday. "When we made the decision we did (the trade), we knew first and foremost irregardless of statistics and anything else that we were getting a winner.

"She is the cornerstone of what we are going to do over the next how many years to have a consistent winner here in Connecticut," Thibault said. "You can see how she is an unselfish player and she has the tenancity -- you don't get the number of rebounds that she has (WNBA record 398) without having a will about you.

"I know, as she said, over the next few years the kind of press conferences we are looking forward to are the ones where we are celebrating playoff victories. And she will be a huge leader in that area.

"I am so proud of what she did. I know it's frustrating with us not meeting some of our expectations but watching her stand up in front of you and accept this award, she's the beacon in going ahead for all the right expectations that we do have."

Charles is enjoying a brief rest before reuniting with her college coach -- Geno Auriemma -- to train with the USA Basketball national team that will compete later this month for the FIBA World Championship in the Czech Republic.

She will also play in Russia in the offseason.

The effect of the Sun's fifth-place finish with a record better than any team in the Western Conference except regular season champion Seattle (28-6) is that Minnesota, which did not make the playoffs, now has an extra chance to land next season's No. 1 pick, likely to be another UConn star -- highly coveted senior Maya Moore.

While thanks were offered across the board besides those from Charles -- "When I'm playing I'm playing for everyone who has ever been associated with my life and career" -- none went to Minnesota for agreeing to the deal, not that any should be expected.

But then again, when the ping pong balls go in play this winter to determine the draft order at the top, it is Connecticut which could be on the receiving end of thanks from Minnesota.

A Touch of Orange Remains

When Kara Lawson played for the former Sacramento Monarchs, she got a share of boos from the highly partisan crowd at Sun games because of their love for the collegiate Huskies and her past affiliation with the Volunteers who helped create the No. 1 rivalry in the women's game until Hall of Fame coach Pst Summitt cancelled the series in the spring of 2007.

After Lawson signed as a free agent with the WNBA Connecticut team in the offseason, she immediately won the hearts of the Sun faithful.

Lawson also broadcasts women's collegiate games for ESPN in the winter.

Apparently past loyalties still exist, however.

Asked who she likes between the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty in Wednesday night's decisive Game 3 in Madison Square Garden Wednesday night to determine the other Eastern Conference finalist to play Atlanta, Lawson begged off initially as a tough one to call.

But then she had added, "If anything, i have to go with Tamika."

That reference was to Fever post player Tamika Catchings, a frontrunning MVP csndidate who is one of Tennessee's all-time stars.

Upon Further Review

Several weeks ago following the conclusion of the key Washington Mystics-New York Liberty game in the nation's capital won by Washington to go on and take the East No. 1 seed, there appeared to be some commotion between the two teams on the floor.

Media on press row seated near the socialities thought, but couldn't be sure, a punch might have been attempted by someone, which if attempted would mean an immediate one game suspension. New York star Cappie Pondexter was observed to be pulled twice from the fray by her teammates.

Some confusion occurred later because the media was unable to send a pool reporter to get some reaction from the officials who worked the game.

In a conversation with a WNBA source this week, it was indicated that officials are not allowed to commment after a game. A pool reporter can visit only in a situation involving how a rules interpretation might have been applied to a situation.

Furthermore if the officials grabbed their jackets and left once the game was over they can no longer get involved because they would not have seen it.

The league could still issue a punishment if video is available showing someone throwing a punch.

It was also noted that Phoenix's Diana Taurasi got suspended once because she made an inappropriate remark to an official when both were walking off the floor.

Thriller In the Garden

After defending Eastern Conference champion Indiana evened the semifinals series with New York at 1-1 Sunday in Indianapolis, Fever coach Lin Dunn referred to Wednesday's matchup with the Liberty in Madison Square Garden in Manhattan to determine who advances as "World War III."

The game at 7:30 p.m. will be intriguing considering that both Fever star Tamika Catchings and Liberty star Cappie Pondexter along with Seattle's Lauren Jackson are considered the top threats to win the WNBA's MVP award.

A date to name the winner has yet to be set. The deadline for the votes from the media panel was Monday a week ago.

As previously mentioned, if New York loses Wednesday night, the Liberty will say adieu to the Garden as a home court the next three summers because of renovations and will play across the Hudson River at the Prudential Center, aka The Rock, in Newark, N.J.

The Liberty hasn't made an official announcement but the New York Daily News reported the move several weeks ago citing a reliable source outside Liberty and other WNBA circles.

Also, a New York loss means Liberty coach Anne Donovan will be on her way, as previously announced before the season, to take full charge of Seton Hall's women's program, also across the Hudson in South Orange near Newark.

That's it until Wednesday night in New York.

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: A separate WNBA set of notes and news is below this post.)

By Mel Greenberg

Despite the presence of freshman sensation Elena Delle Donne, voted the top rookie and also the MVP of the Colonial Athletic Association, when attention was last paid to the University of Delaware the Blue Hens were routed 67-49 in the WNIT by Atlantic 10 member Richmond.

The size and physicality of the Spiders were considered the major factor why the Blue Hens were ousted, finishing still with an improved 21-12 record.

Apparently, Delle Donne is about to get help in the post from an unexpected place just as the former nation's top prospect out of Wilmington's Ursuline Academy had been an unexpected roster addition a year ago.

Delaware announced some new arrivals Tuesday and one is 6-foot-3 Sarah Acker, who was the Big Five's rookie of the year at St. Joseph's in 2007-08.

She played one game the following season before suffering a hip injury and then eventually left the team for personal reasons.

Prior to her arrival on Hawk Hill, Acker, who comes from Nanticoke, Pa., upstate, was one of the better players that summer in the Philadelphia Dept. of Recreation's women's league.

If Acker returns to her freshman season form when she was with the Hawks -- she became the first true rookie to lead St. Joseph's in scoring (11.9) and rebounding (8.7) -- her addition will be beneficial to Delaware's navigation through an upgraded non-conference slate that includes a visit to Penn State and a tournament at Virginia Tech.

Coach Tina Martin can't comment of transferring players until the first day of class which is Wednesday.

Acker must meet certain academic requirements but is expected to be eligible just before the Penn State game on Dec. 19. Ironically, St. Joseph's has been added to Delaware's slate beginning with a game at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del., on Dec. 22.

Delaware, which meets Drexel home-and-home later in the year in CAA competition, will host Villanova Dec. 16. The Wildcats were one of Delle Donne's four finalists when she originallhy picked Connecticut at the front end of her senior high school season in Sept. 2007.

The Blue Hens will also visit La Salle.

Delle Donne may not yet be a magnetic force to attract future talent but Acker's addition, achieved because of a suggestion from her boyfriend according to the Wilmington News Journal, is definitely forward progress, no pun intended.

Acker also made an inquiry to Temple according to people familiar with her deliberations.

Another newcomer is 6-3 freshman forward/cventer Kelsey Buchanan,

Additionally, two transfers, who won't be eligible until next season, are a pair of guards -- Akeema Richards from West Virginia and Trumae Lucas from Florida.

Delle Donne, of course, was the key in the return to happier times, though the Blue Hens lost a bunch of games in the final minute to the upper teams in the CAA standings.

She had originally committed to two-time NCAA champion Connecticut in the front part of her senior high school year (2007-08) but only last less than 48 hours, leaving after signing in for summer school in June 2008.

Delle Donne eventually identified the problem has homesickness. But two yeara ago this week she announced she was giving UConn back the scholarship -- the Huskies went on to two straight NCAA titles unbeaten in both -- and was going to enroll at Delaware but to play volleyball.

By winter she realized how much she missed the sport and eventually gravitated back telling Martin she was ready to lead the Blue Hens out of their two-year downfall.

Hawk Ghosts Emerging

The news of Acker's return to activity, playing for Delaware, isn't the only ex-Hawk emigre to suddenly re-appear.

Not that she actually disappeared but Hilary Klimowicz, the A-10 freshman of the year in 2006 who then went to Division III College of New Jersey and became the D-III player of the year as a senior, is authoring a blog from overseas where she is playing in Switzerland. The blogsite is at http://thrillsoverseas.blogspot.com.

Besides losing those two players, St. Joseph's had to cope without freshman Ashley Robinson from Archbishop Wood last season because of an injury in the summer league.

The Hawks will be much healthier this time and if Katie Kuester plays as she did in helping her summer league team in the Dept. of Rec. win the title, coach Cindy Griffin may celebrate her 10th anniversary at her alma mater with a long-sought NCAA appearance.

Griffin is second only to Villanova's Harry Perretta in Big Five women's coaching senior -- Temple's Tonya Cardoza and Penn's Mike McLaughlin are relatively newcmers while La Salle's Jeff Williams will be in his first season.

UConn Influence At Temple Continues

When Temple's Tonya Cardoza became coach of the Owls three seasons ago after a 14-year stint at UConn as an assistant to Geno Auriemma, she promised her staff would be expected to have Huskies seasoning.

Assistant Willnett Crockett is a former player at Connecticut.

On Tuesday Cardoza announced the elevation of Stacey Nasser to director of basketball operations.

When Cardoza was hired to succeed Dawn Staley she brought Nasser, who had been a manager with the Huskies, to Temple as a graduate assistant.

Nasser's duties, according to Temple's announcement, will be to coordinate team travel -- interesting because traveling was a major issue for Temple last season but not the kind that involves airplanes or bus trips. She was also coordinate practice operations and asssist with summer camps.

She recently earned her masters degree at Temple in sport administration.

-- Mel

(Guru's note: Updating blog originally posted early Sunday to reflect and adjust effects of New York-Indiana result from Sunday night)

By Mel Greenberg

WNBA Western finalists Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury, the defending WNBA champion, along with one Eastern finalist -- the Atlanta Dream -- will be well rested for the next round which won't be played until this weekend.

All three teams produced 2-0 sweeps in their respective conference best-of-three sermifinals series participation.

Second-seeded Phoenix, with former Temple star Candice Dupree playing spectacular in her playoff debut, and former UConn sensation Diana Taurasi, made quick work of the third-seeded San Antonio Silver Stars. Seattle, with the best overall record at 28-6, dispatched the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Sparks, gaining revenge for ousters by L.A. the last two seasons.

Seattle also snapped a five-year drought of being ejected in first-round West play since winning its only WNBA title in 2004 by topping the Connecticut Sun.

However, the defending Eastern Conference champion Indiana Fever allowed one storyline to keep from becoming dormant Sunday night by knotting its semifinals series with the New York Liberty with a 75-67 victory in Indianapolis.

The 1-1 deadlock will be broken Wednesday night when the teams return to New York's Madison Square Garden.

New York tied for first with the eliminated Washington Mystics but got the second seed while Indiana, which finished a game behind the leaders got the third seed.

Tamika Catchings, the former Tennessee All-American and a frontrunning MVP candidate, had 17 and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which had lost four straight games and also had lost three straight to New York.

The Rutgers alums had another stellar performance for the Liberty, though no one else was in double figures. Essence Carson, who had a monster game in Thursday's opening win in New York followed with 24 points, while Cappie Pondexter, another top MVP candidate, added 20.

This time New York was unable to recover from a wretched start as the Liberty had done many times during their recent 10-game win streak. They shot 5-for-15 from the outset and trailed 21-8 before getting someewhat untracked.

The Indiana contingent quickly pointed out afterwards how a year ago the Fever fell behind the former Detroit Shock 0-1 but stayed alive to ultimately extend the Phoenix Mercury to the final minutes in the fifth and deciding game of the best-of-five WNBA championship series in Arizona.

This will be trickier for Indiana because a year ago the conference rounds opened with the higher seeded team in each series on the road and then the Fever enjoyed the comforts of Conseco Fieldhouse to draw energy from their fans the next two games against the Shock.

But now the league finally listened to its coaches and the format was changed to 1-1-1 meaning if Indiana is to return to the Eastern finals, which will be against the fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream, it will have to win in New York.

Of course, should Indiana prevail, it will open the finals at home, otherwise the honor will go to New York.

Had the Liberty won Sunday night, it would have become quickly quiet for a spell in terms of playoff coverage because the other three series wrapped up Friday night and Saturday with 2-0 sweeps in each situation.

The one result which might be considered an upset in terms of seedings was No. 4 seeded Atlanta in the Dream's third year of existence routing the No. 1 seeded Mystics in both games.

The Guru is loathe to tell you exactly what day conference finals begin, probably Friday or Saturday, because when the conference semifinals schedule was released on the final night of the regular season some of the dates were quite different from what had been given to the Associated Press several days earlier.

One reason for the gap is, of course, allowances if any of the series went the entire three-game distance, which has now happened in the Indiana-New York series.

Indiana's win means from a positive note that its series with the Liberty will provide continuity the next two days and right afterwards, especially if New York wins considering for good or bad the team is located in the media capital of America, also the area home of Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants. Did someone also say Rutgers football?

New York again will be trying to extend a pair of farewells in Madison Square Garden, though one for now will be temporary.

Liberty coach Anne Donovan is heading for the college ranks to become the new coach of Seton Hall, a Big East rival of Villanova, Rutgers and two-time defending NCAA chasmpion Connecticut, located across the Hudson River in South Orange, N.J.

The Liberty are also heading in that direction because, though not officially announced, New York will use the Prudential Center, also known as The Rock, in Newark as a temporary home the next three summers while the Garden undergoes renovations.

Meanwhile, the Guru discovered when he was done writing that this blog became rather long, which will give you a way to kill time until the weekend action gets under way.

Along the way, it is almost guaranteed ESPN.com's Michelle Voepel will be up around the clock working on features to fill space, even if it means career histories of every referee who works in the WNBA -- which might or might not be entertaining.

But to set up the next round, there are plenty of storylines among the two teams to explore.

Back in the Pacific Northwest Jayda Evans at the Seattle Times, as the Storm and Phoenix Mercury wait to play, will give you lots of color and perhaps cooking recipes and favorite menu items and restaurants of every individual from both Western semifinalists.

That reminds, thanks for the recent tweet from Jayda on how the Guru and Jayda recently turned D.C. Cab into a new meaning after a post-game meal when she was in the nation's capital for the Storm-Mystics game.

So with that said, it is time for some Guru creativy and musings below. And to you college folks out there, especially the local D-1 crowd, now would be good time to be shipping schedule, even partials or tentatives (not for publication), to the Guru for planning purposes in his post-Inquirer life.

To those beyond the local fringe, Guru would say for now maybe the highlights games at your schools, even if that includes a multitude in the mega-conferences, would be appropriate considering there's more time available this winter for the Guru to attend those contests.

Staley Few Degrees of Separation From Playoffs Action

Though former Temple coach Dawn Staley, now at South Carolina, is four seasons removed from WNBA active status, meaning Hall of Fame eligibility in both Knoxville, Tenn., and Springfield, Mass., is not far away, the former All-Star and Olympic gold medalist has direct ties in some way to each of the five times still alive at the moment in the postseason.

The most direct is at Phoenix where her all-time recruit at Temple, Candice Dupree, is lighting up the scoreboard for the WNBA defending champion Mercury.

Dupree, who came from the Chicago Sky last winter in the mega three-team deal that sent former Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter to New York, set a playoffs debut record with 32 points, tying her career record set earlier in the summer, in the Game 1 win over the third-seeded San Antonio Silver Stars in Phoenix.

The Florida native followed up with 19 points in Saturday's win in Texas that sent the Mercury into the conference finals against Seattle.

When Dupree was picked by the Sky at No. 6 overall in 2006 by the Chicago, Staley predicted a great pro career for her Owl center, noting Dupree would not see a bunch of the suffocating defense she faced in college, especially against Atlantic 10 rivals.

Dupree still managed to become associated with a slew of individual and team records at Temple.

Staley in terms of Phoenix ties, also played with Taurasi, the reigning WNBA MVP, on the 2004 gold-medal winning Olympic team at the Athens games in Greece. The former star of Virginia and Philadelphia's Dobbins Tech was on the coaching staff over Taurasi in the gold medal triumph in Beijing, China, in 2008.

There's another Philly tie as well in Phoenix.

Coach Corey Gaines, who guided the Mercury to last season's title, played for the NBA 76ers and also played at Loyola Marymount for Paul Westhead, the previous Mercury head coach who is a graduate of St. Joseph's and coached at La Salle before designing his high-octane scoring system on the West Coast.

Westhead returned to the women's game and the college ranks last season at Oregon afte having been back to the NBA as an assistant following the Mercury's first title in 2007.

Gaines was on Westhead's Mercury staff before being elevated to head coach.

Staley's New York Connection: Moving on to Staley's New York ties, she was with Liberty coach Anne Donovan for a long time in the USA Basketball system, assisting her in 2008 and playing for her with the former Charlotte Sting, especially in 2001 when the Sting went from 1-10 to the playoff finals against Los Angeles.

And being on the 2008 staff also means she had Cappie Pondexter as one of the players on the Beijing squad.

Meanwhile, veteran Taj McWilliams-Franklin was a teammate of Staley's two seasons in the former American Basketball League, first in Richmond, Va., and then when the team moved to Philadelphia.

She would have been with Donovan for the start of 1998-99 season that died in December when the ABL collapsed in bankruptcy, but Staley decided the previous September to jump ship ahead of time and bolt to the WNBA.

Staley's Atlanta Connection: Yep, there's a strong tie here. Dream coach and general manager Marynell Meadors held both titles with the former Charlotte Sting when she chose Staley in the 1999 draft that included the former ABL players.

Staley's Indiana Connection: Well, a former teammate in Charlotte, who arrived on the Sting as a rookie, was fomer Rutgers center Tammy Sutton-Brown, one of the Fever post players.

Fever coach Lin Dunn had to contend with coaching against Staley when Dunn was coaching the Seattle Storm and earlier when Dunn was the coach of the Portland Power in the ABL.

It is possible, though records couldn't be checked at the late hour of this writing, that if Purdue played Virginia in the early '1990s then Dunn would have been on the Boilermakers bench going against Staley and the Cavaliers.

As for another strong Fever tie, Tamika Catchings was an Olympic teammate of Staley's in 2004 in Athens and of course the two were together again, but in an assistant coach-player relationship on the USA gold medalists in 2008 in China.

Staley's Seattle Connection:: First is the Olympic association here with Sue Bird, another former UConn star, playing as the backup point guard to Staley in 2004. Storm All-Star Lauren Jackson, a center, was on the opposing Australian team during Staley's international farewell as a player in 2004. All the associations, as mentioned above, were also in play here in the 2008 games in Beijing with Staley having become an assistant off her successful Temple coach experience.

Meanwhile Seattle coach Brian Agler guided the Columbus Quest in Ohio over Staley's Richmond Rage squad in the championship series in the first season of the ABL in 1996-97.

A Guru memory comes a year later -- Richmond was now in Philadelphia, which opened the 1997-98 season in Columbus. Staley went wire-to-wire on the last play of the game to beat the Quest.

Unfortunately, unknown to the Guru, who typed away furiously to make deadline, there was a malfunction in the press room back in Philadelphia and the last edition of the Inquirer with details of the win never made it to print.

This was in a time before Philly.com ramped it up but the Guru had previously made the website famous back in 1996 when a way was figured to carry the ABL draft, giving the site its first major threshhold of traffic.

For you Rutgers fans, incidentally, before Agler took over the Quest, he was Scarlet Knights' associate coach Carlene Mitchell's coach when she played at Mo.-Kansas City or UMKC or whatever it is called these days.

Duke Gtaduate WNBA Tales

A great season for the Washington Mystics came to a quick end with two routs by the Atlanta Dream in the Eastern Conference semifinals though anybody calling it a big upset because of the 4th-seed beating 1-seed is off the mark.

The four Eastern playoff teams were close together down the stretch and could have dropped into the playoff deck in almost any order. Not far behind, by the way, was the Connecticut Sun.

Which brings this Duke University thought: Mystics guard Lindsey Harding, a former Duke star, is stuck in Blue Devils history with that moment when she missed both foul shots with an eyelash of time left on the clock, causing the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament to be upset by Rutgers in the 2007 regional semifinals in Greensboro, N.C.. That upset propelled the Scarlet Knights to advance all the way to the national title game a week later in Cleveland.

Well, in hindsight, perhaps Washington might still be alive in round one were it not for a field goal Harding did make at the finish in the final weekend of the regular season.

It was a little over a week ago that Harding hit that shot with 13 seconds left that enabled the Mystics to stop New York's 10-game win streak and move into a three-way tie for first and go on to take the No. 1 seed.

If Harding misses, New York wins, gets the overall No. 1 seed in the East, and then matches with Atlanta. Ergo, Washington, with what would have been the No. 2 seed, still has home court advantage, but plays No. 3 Indiana, which might have been a better matchup even though the Mystics won the season series over both the Fever and the Dream.

There's still a Dookie to cheer for in Atlanta's Allison Bales, who has earned praise for her work in the sweep of the Mystics.

Dunn's Duos

Told you all the Guru has too much time on his hands this weekend not being on the road. No Old Ebbitts Grill Sunday night in D.C. thanks to Atlanta.

But the Guru digresses.

If Indiana repeats as Eastern Conference champion and plays against Seattle in the WNBA best-of-five championship series, Fever coach Lin Dunn will be going against the powerful 1-2 punch of Australian Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, the players she took overall No. 1 in the successive 2001 and 2002 WNBA drafts when Dunn held both the coach and general manager titles.

It will not be the first time that kind of storyline about Dunn's past drew attention.

In 1999 Dunn, who had coached Portland in the ABL, drew a crowd of reporters at the Women's Final Four semifinals in San Jose, Calif., after Duke and Purdue advanced to the NCAA title game.

The Blue Devils, incidentally, were in their first Final Four, courtesy of a regional final upset in Greensboro, N.C., when Duke shocked Tennessee, the overall No. 1 seed, short-circuiting the last collegiate days of senior star Chamique Holdsclaw.

Several seasons before in 1996 Dunn was fired by Purdue, causing a mass player exodus but two freshmen -- Stephanie White-McCarty and Ukari Figgs -- remained. The Fever's Katie Douglas, who was recruited later, was also on the 1999 Boilermakrs.

Two other Dunn recruits, Michele Van Gorp and Nicole Erickson, transferred to Duke.

Naturally, everyone wanted to know who Dunn was going to cheer for in the title game. She just gave that famous grin and professed neutrality.

The coach of the winning Boilermakers was Carolyn Peck, who had announced well ahead of time that the 1999 season would be her last and she was heading to coach the Orlando Miracle in the WNBA, which several seasons later moved to casino-land as the Connecticut Sun.

Peck was already gone as coach and is now an analyst for ESPN on WNBA and NCAA women's basketball coverage.

WNBA.com's Web Site Fine Print Entry Door

Ok, first the Guru knows why things have to be done the way they are from a marketing perspective this time of year when it involves gateways to playoff teams from the league's main WNBA.com website.

But did you ever see those puzzle magazines in which you are asked to find hidden things in a picture or drawing.

Well, you can find the same game at each playoff team's sub-website when it comes to cnecking spellings, doing research, etc.

Unlike the regular season, when you click a link to the playoff team's page, you are hit with a mega marketing advertisement, especially selling tickets to the team's home games.

As for the entry link to get to the normal site with all the rosters, etc., here's the deal to save you hunting time. At the very bottom or in a bottom corner, you will find in fine print, as opposed to outstanding print, a little "enter blahblah.com" or something similar and you will find that which you seek, unless, of course, you are actually buying tickets and won't need to go further.

This public service item has been brought to you by the Guru foundation, in business for over 40 years trying to make life better for media colleagues.

Told you this was long but one more item to go.

If you had an iPad, reading would go quicker, which is a bit of advice upaid by Apple.


Curse of the No. 1 Draft Pick

Those of you who are veteran Guru followers at this blog might remember back in the days of one of the Disney Pirates of Caribbean movies several years ago that the Guru tongue-in-cheek noted how whichever WNBA coach had the opportunity to select a No. 1 overall pick of the draft, the coach making the selection didn't last much longer -- another season at best and most times not even in the same season the pick was made.

Indiana's Dunn, mentioned above, was one of those victims as it has already been noted following the successive picks of Jackson and Bird before Anne Donovan came along to cash in on the choices to guide Seattle to the 2004 championship.

Well, it now appears the curse has been broken for the moment -- though not entirely in the case of the Connecticut Sun.

Off a disastrous franchise debut from 2008, Atlanta general manager Marynell Mwadors had the honors -- incidentally, she's one of UConn's Geno Auriemma's assistants on next month's USA Basketball World Championship team along with DePaul's Doug Bruno and the Los Angeles Sparks' Jennifer Gillom, who avoided a conflict with the start of USA training camp in Washington courtesy of the Seattle Storm.

Anyhow, Meadors picked Angel McCoughtry fresh off the Louisville squad that had advanced to the NCAA title game losing to Big East rival UConn in the first of the two back-to-back unbeaten seasons by the Huskies.

That turned out rather well a year ago with Atlanta reversing direction in a forward thrust to the playoffs as Meadors was named coach of the year.

Progress continued this season with Atlanta holding first place through most of the way and now advancing to the Eastern finals as of now.

Meanwhile, as for the Connecticut Sun, which didn't win it but did obtain the No. 1 pick in last April's draft -- maybe good enough for coach Mike Tibault to have gotten an extension in his contract and executive support. Still, in that dynamic, the Sun are on the playoff sidelines for the second straight season.

As for that selection obtained by Connecticut, it was as surprising as a WNBA major announcement -- details unspecified in the media invite -- to made Tuesday at the Mohegan Sun -- think former UConn star Tina Charles in both situations.

The only other thing the announcement might provide is that because Connecticut, as a fifth place finisher in the East had a better record than the West second team, next season the Sun is going to be moved to the Western Conference to provide competitive balance. That's because every team except Seattle west of the Mississippi, or, in the case of the Minnesota Lynx, on top of the Mississippi, had a losing record.

The good news in that suspected move is that for the third straight summer, All-Star activity will continue at Mohegan, but the West won't be able to gripe anymore that recently they keep getting shut out of the All-Star action.

The Guru wouldn't be upset if the event actually went back to Orlando, Fla., we already noted that Sun tie earlier. Why? The shirmp feed at the NBA Store at Universal is still one of the all-time gormet events. Mohegan feeds are no longer eligible in media food discussions because of the unfair advangtage.

Speaking of killing time, the Guru might just go up to Mohegan using the announcement to take advantage of the one place he missed on the meal rounds after games in the casino.

Meet me at Margaritaville.

-- Mel

Hai. Surprize. Iz me, da visitin WBI cuzin.

Why iz you heer agin? Dem hoomans moved. Iz our dominun nao.

Yu go nao.

No wurry. We can haz our cheezburger. We haz tew bagg ob chipz. We haz teh cabel and we watchz da womenz bazketbal.

It's Over

The Mystics' 2010 season -- the best regular season in franchise history -- came to an abrupt and very disappointing end tonight in Atlanta, as Washington lost to the Dream, 101-77, and was eliminated from the playoffs, 0-2.

Although Washington led by 4 points at the end of the 1st quarter, 21-17, another meltdown in the 2d quarter did them in, as they failed to score for the first 7:15 in the period (yes, not a single point in more than 7 minutes), while the Dream were tearing it up on the offensive end. By halftime, Atlanta was ahead, 50-28, having outscored the Mystics 33-7 in the second period. It was a very painful ten minutes to watch, particularly knowing that, barring a miraculous comeback, it meant the end of the season for the Mystics and their fans. Alas, there were no miracles tonight. By the end of the 3d quarter, the Dream had extended their lead, 75-45. All that was left was for the fat lady to sing. It seemed a very long 10 minutes until she did.

And then it was finally over. As we stated, this was the best regular season in Mystics history. The team broke the 20-win barrier for the first time ever, they set a franchise record with 22 wins, they beat every team in the league at least once, they finished first in the East, and they did it all without Alana Beard. These are no small accomplishments. There was much good in this season, and much good to be taken away from it. For now, though, we are just too sad, especially for the players, to be reflective about it. That will have to come later.

For now, we will simply congratulate the Atlanta Dream, which was the far better team in this playoff series, and wish them good luck as they advance to the Conference finals. We are particularly happy for Mystics alums Marynell Meadors (who got quite a birthday present today) and Coco Miller.

And, most important, we thank the Mystics for this great season. It was exciting, it was fun, it was historic. We won't forget any of that.

Go Mystics!

* * * * * *

Saturday morning update . . . It was not our intention to start looking ahead yet, but we would be remiss if we did not link to Kathy Orton's post-game interview, here, with Katie Smith about whether she will be back next season. The BCs would be very unhappy to see Katie retire (although we could certainly understand why, at the age of 36, she might), and even more unhappy to see her sign with another team, both possibilities she says she's considering.

(Guru's note: Updating with quotes from the Phoenix game which is in this post under the New York game. The next on the scene game is either Sunday in Wash if a third game is necessary and/or New York on Wednesday if likewise occurs.)

By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK - The New York Liberty's Version of Jersey Girls has become as much a winner as the hit TV series, epsecially Thursday night in an 85-73 win over the Indiana Fever in the other opener of the best-of-three WNBA's Eastern Conference semifinals series at Madison Square Garden.

As much as can be said of the exploits of MVP frontrunning candidate Cappie Pondexter this season, it was another former member of the Scarlet Knights who was the essence of making sure the Liberty held on to their home court advantage against the defending conference champions in front of a crowd of 14,624.

That would be Essence Carson, the sewventh overall pick of the 2008 draft who grew up across the Hudson River in Newark spending her summers watching the Liberty play in Madison Square Garden.

Carson, relegated more to a substitute's role this season, came off bench scoring nine of her 17 points in the fourth quarter to help the Liberty pull away from the Fever decisively for the second time here in a little over a week.

But her 7-of-10 performance on the offensive end was only part of what Carson did.

Having the job of defending Indiana's Tamika Catchings, another frontrunning MVP candidate, Carson was able to contest the Olympic gold medalist to shooting 5-for-15 from the field, even though the former Tennessee All-American finished with 18 points.

"Offensively, that kind of lift is a wonderful thing to get that from anybody off the bench," said Liberty coach Anne Donovan, whose Hall of Fame career began in high school playing for Bergen Catholic High in northern New Jersey.

"It could not have happened to a more professional player than Essence," Donovan said. "I've watched her role change dramatically over the last 12 months and she has just remained focusd, composed and confident. When her number was called she just stepped right in and did the job for us at both ends."

Carson gave a little grin when asked whether she had been inspired watching former Rutgers teammate Matee Ajavon play well for the top-seeded Washington Mystics Wednesday night in their opening loss at home to the fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream.

The Mystics will try to avoid elimination Friday night in the other Eastern semifinal series when Washington plays in Atlanta.

"Actually, I didn't (watch the game)," Carson said. "I just tried to rest my body and stay focused and continue to believe in myself and the entire team and what we're doing right now."

New York, which tied for first with Washington but got the second seed, will try to close out the third-seeded Fever in Indianapolis Sunday. A third game, if necessary, will be played back here next Wednesday.

Pondexter, a native of Chicago who became one of Rutgers all-time players as an adopted Jersey woman, praised Carson's performance after scoring 28 points herself and incredibly holding Indiana's Katie Douglas scoreless.

"She was spectacular tonight," Pondexter said. "In the fourth quarter she came up huge. I think our bodies kind of wore down -- the starters -- we couldn't make shots. But Essence Carson saved us today. And that is what it is all about. That is what team is all about. I'm so happy for her right now."

For a while, New York seemed ready to suffer the same fate as Washington did in the Mystics' opener against Atlanta.

The Liberty, trailing by a point at the end of the first quarter, than fell 10 points behind the Fever but were able to fight back and take a 48-47 lead at the half.

Then the momentum began to shift, especially on the play of Carson in the fourth quarter when the Liberty went from a single-digit lead to as many as 20 near the end of the game.

"When we went into halftime, I knew we could play better," said Donovan, who has made similar remarks since the All-Star break when the Liberty bolted from a last-place team to a 15-3 finish and the first-place tie. "We just needed to get re-focused defensively and I thought that we did that in the second half. In the first half, they really got out in front of us too much."

Taj McWilliams-Franklin, a major free-agent signing in the offseason who had played on two of the three WNBA championships of the former Detroit Shock, had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Nicole Powell, a former Stanford star, scored 12 points for New York and connected on 3-of-6 three-point attempts while Pondexter's long range efficiency produced 5-of-10 attempted treys.

Kia Vaughn, another former Rutgers star who went in the first round a year ago to the Liberty, played briefly less than two minutes.

Carson's offensive explosion helped offset the play of Leilani Mitchell, the WNBA's top three-point shooter who was named the WNBA's Most Improved Player earlier Thursday but was scoreless against the Fever.

Indiana's Tammy Sutton-Brown, yet another former Rutgers center as is Vaughn, had 10 points and Ebony Hoffman scored 10.

The Fever, who had a chance to gain the No. 1 seed in the East going into the last week of the season, lost their last three games. However, prior to Thursday night, coach Lin Dunn had discounted the streak would affect Indiana's performance in the playoffs.

But by the fourth quarter there was New York defending tough and placing the Fever in quarantine.

"I thought there was a period when we missed a layup and another layup and another and they came up and answered," Dunn said. "That gave them an enormous amount of confidence. I also thought their offensive rebounds finally broke their backs."

Pondexter, who came from the defending WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury in a mega three-team deal in the offseason, once again lived up to her leadership promise, especially prior to Thursday's tipoff.

"Some of the guys were tight today," Pondexter said. "I said to them, `It's a regular game. The stakes are a little higher and, yes, there's something special if you win, but it's a regular game. You play this every day. Don't put added pressure on yourself."

Pondexter knows the Fever will still be tough, especially having gone against them last year in a thrilling five-game final won by Phoenix in the closing minutes at home.

"I know Indiana. They're not going to go away. They're going to make some adjustments. Coach Dunn is going to tell them about their effort.

"It would be easy to lose focus and say, `Yeah, we got this.'

"But it's not like that. I know coach Donovan with her experience, me, myself, "Taj, Nicole, we're going to make sure everybody's focused."

Former Temple Star Candice Dupree In Playoff Record Debut

Cappie Pondexter may no longer be on the Phoenix Mercury, but the star who replaced her on the roster in last season's mega three-way deal led the WNBA defending champions to an opening 106-93 win against the San Antonio Silver Stars in Phoenix Thursday night.

Candice Dupree, who went sixth overall to the Chicago Sky in the same 2006 draft in which Pondexter was the overall No. 2 pick with Phoenix, matched a career high of earlier this season with 32 points in the best-of-three Western Conference semifinals opener.

The second-seeded Mercury will try to close out the third-seeded Silver Stars in the best-of-three series Saturday when the teams move to San Antonio, Texas.

If a third game is necessary, the series will return to Phoenix Monday,

In Saturday's other Western semifinals series, the Seattle Storm, who rolled to the top of the conference as the No. 1 seed with a 28-6 record, will try to eliminate the No. 4 Sparks at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

A third game, if necessary, would return to Seattle on Tuesday.

Seattle won the title in 2003 but has since been eliminated in five straight conference semifinals series -- the last two by Los Angeles.

In Thursday's game Dupree, a former Temple star under former coach Dawn Staley, fell a field goal short of the WNBA playoff record for a half when she scored 18 points. The Florida native had been in Chicago four seasons and Thursday was Dupree's first postseason action.

Her performance set a WNBA record for a player making their debut in postseason play.

"She was doing something all over the court, rebounding, running the lane, she was posting up in early transition," Phoenix coach Corey Gaines said afterwards. "We called a couple of plays which we don't usually do for her, coming across the lane, but she had a good look tonight so we rode her back."

Back in the preseason discussing the loss of Pondexter and the addition of Dupree, Gaines said the Mercury high-octane scoring system designed under former coach Paul Westhead was actually designed more for a player such as Dupree.

Penny Taylor added 20 points, while Diana Tarausi, the reigning MVP, had 14 points and dealt 10 assists for the Mercury.

San Antonio's Becky Hammon had 19 points and Sophia Young scored 16.

The two teams split their season series 2-2 and Phoenix beat San Antonio 2-0 in last season's opening round.

Dupree talked about her playoff debut.

"It was a great experience, obviously my first playoff game," she said. "The intensity was high, everybody was extremely motivated, and our main goal is trying to win this series in two. I just tried to come out as motivated as possible.

"Like you said, I was getting up and down the floor. I tried to do that early to get us going."

Taurasi, using humor that might come from her former college coach -- UConn's Geno Auriemma, deadpanned that Dupree's game wasn't that great because she missed five shots.

She then said of her Mercury teammate who is in the USA Senior Women's Team pool with Taurasi for next month's world championship coached by Auriemma: "She played amazing today. That is what we're going to need if we are going to make any type of run -- people stepping up and playing big," Taurasi noted.

"Dupree had a great game today but DeWanna Bonner came off the bench and gave us incredible energy. Penny carried us for a stretch. This is when we are at our best, when we have a lot of people doing a lot of things."

San Antonio's Young talked about how tough it was defending Dupree, who was an unknown force when former Temple assistant Ervin Monier discovered her. He is now asslociate head coach to new La Salle coach Jeff Williams.

"I thought Candice Dupree had a big game and her teammates did a great job of getting her the ball tonight. She was able to get to the basket, she shot a lot of layups. She shot 12-for-17, obviously she shot a high percentage because she was shooting layups. I thought her teammates did a really great job of playing with her and taking advantage of her size inside."

The Mercury in Game 2 will be returning to the scene of a last-second loss Sunday in the final regular season game that gave the Silver Stars the third seed.

""It will be tough," Dupree said of Saturday's next contest. "Their fans are pretty intense there. We just have to come out and hopefully recreate what we did tonight and if not, play harder. It's a desperate situation for them, so we know they are going to come out fighting, and we have to do the same thing."

Earlier in the day the Mercury's Bonner, a second-year pro out of Auburn, was named the WNBA's sixth player winner in the second of the first two postseason honors announced by the league and voted by the media.

Ballots, including the All-League first and second team picks along with MVP selections, were due Monday.

-- Mel









-- Mel