Pickin' Splinters » WNBA

Who am I ? A-10 WBB | 1/31/12

Smitty — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:00:28 +0000

Courtesy of A10 Women's Basketball

By Aaron M Smith

**** Welcome to the Pickin’ Splinter’s Who am I for A-10 women’s basketball. Each week we will highlight an A-10 player or coach past or present. Your mission should you choose to accept will be to take the set of clues and figure out who the player/coach is. Now let’s lay the ground rules for this exercise. First and foremost try this without research. Release your inner James Joyce and show us your stream of consciousness as you decipher the answer. Add to that the teachings of Myagi: patience. If you don’t get the answer right away, give your brain a chance to work if for no other reason than to stay in the discussion. You may not have THE answer, but you might prompt another reader by asking the right question. Good luck !

If we had been comic book heroes during our college careers we would have been the dynamic duo – Batman and Robin. I was more in the background of my teammate, so I will gladly take on the role of Robin. After all it is was Robin who did all the little things that didn’t always get noticed and in a way best exemplifies my college career. In my freshman year I was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of Year. I was a member of the Atlantic 10 All-Defensive team for three consecutive seasons. Twice I was named Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year and also took home the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year one time. I left my alma mater as the all-time rebounder with 1,552 boards. I was on the Wooden Award Final Ballot three consecutive years. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t too bad on the offensive end either. Over my college career, I racked up 1,895 points, good for 14.5 points per game over my 4 years. In 2011 I realized my dream when was drafted 8th overall in the WNBA draft, just 4 spots behind “Batman.” Playing at my college also had its family perks. My brother is the second baseman for the MLB baseball team in the city where my school is located.

Who am I?

Bonus: Who is my brother?

Who am I? A-10 WBB | 1/10/12

Smitty — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:09 +0000

Courtesy A-10 Conference

By Aaron M Smith

It is not quite time for pitchers and catchers to report to spring training, but to steal a baseball term: here is a change-up. I never played in the Atlantic 10, but I am a coach in the Atlantic 10. I won’t say if it is current or past tense as that would be too easy. I played my college basketball in the Atlantic 10, set a NCAA record with 1,307 career assists, but my alma mater moved to the Big 10 conference. I was on the United States Olympic team and had the good fortune to win both a gold and bronze medal. I did go on to play in the WNBA for a couple of years before I became a coach. I started coaching in the high school ranks and accumulated a 321-86 record while I was there. Not many coaches jump straight from the high school ranks to the WNBA, but I did it. I was the WNBA coach of the year in 2004 and helped our team reach its first playoff berth ever. But there is no place like home and in 2007, I decided to do go back home to continue my coaching career. I had the good fortune to return to my roots and coach college basketball. In just 5 years , we have 91 wins, including a school record 24 wins in 2011. Not enough? Well, here is one more clue: if you know me, then you know my nephew!

Who am I?

Bonus: Who is my nephew?

Who am I? A-10 WBB | 12/13/11

Smitty — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:00:41 +0000

By Aaron M Smith

To guess who I am, you should start by watching the Wizard of Oz and repeating after me, “There is no place like home, there is no place like home.” No my name is not Dorothy, and I am definitely not wearing ruby slippers. For me to play college ball, I had to travel just 153 miles down Route 74 to play at my university. No looking at a map!! Now if you cheat and try to find me in the A-10 all-time record books – you aren’t going to find me. Don’t get me wrong, my numbers are pretty impressive. I finished 4th on my school’s all-time scoring list with 1,525 points for my career. I also played in a school record 130 games during my career. I finished in the Top 10 of just about every category at my school. I was named to the All A-10 team 3 times and won the A-10 sixth player of the year award in my sophomore year. Toss in an A-10 All-Defensive Team in there as well, and the hardware gets pretty impressive. Recently I realized my “dream” and signed on with a WNBA team. And before I forget, during my junior year playing college basketball became a family affair.

Who am I ?

Be sure to check in tomorrow for O’ Caption my Caption! where we provide the photo, and you, the reader provide the creativity.

NBA Splinters | July 26, 2009

Rey — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:00:57 +0000

by Rey

>Much Ado About Dunking

I was at a conference all last week. I briefly caught ESPN one day in my hotel room and noticed that a video of the infamous LeBron-James-getting-dunked-on-at-his-own-camp surfaced. In case this hasn’t been stuffed down your throat yet, here it is:

As we all expected, right? This was no big deal. Of course, many have over-analyzed this thing and want to explain why “it was weak” and so on. The major lessons all fans, especially young ones, are these:

1) A dunk is still worth two points or in the case of a pickup game, one.

2) EVERYONE gets dunked on at some point. It’s like an average hitter taking a great pitcher deep for about 460 feet. It happens, and it happens to the greats. I still remember a very young Allen Iverson crossing Michael Jordan over and Kevin Johnson dunking over Hakeem Olajuwon.

3) Hype breeds ignorant, hateful critics. There are many out there who want to see guys like LeBron James and Dwayne Wade fail for no reason. They’ll take any miniscule detail and use that as some viable evidence.

Thank goodness the tape came out and it’s now over.

>NBA Players not on the move

2009 Free Agency has been a whirlwind since it started this offseason. Many have changed teams, most recently point guard Andre Miller leaving the Sixers to go play with Brandon Roy in Portland for three years and $22 million. But there have been some names not moving as quickly as expected.

Sticking with point guards, who wants Raymond Felton? The Blazers went with the thirty-three old Miller, and who can blame them. But Felton’s numbers are not much different than Miller’s, and his salary last season with the Charlotte Bobcats was $4.1 million. Felton, however, is only twenty-six.

The Bobcats have another young point guard in D.J. Augustin who’s only twenty-one and made under $2.5 million last season. I’m surprised that the Bobcats and Felton have yet to reach a deal and that there doesn’t appear to be too many offers coming in from other NBA teams. The point guard position seems to be much less of a worry in the pros than it is in the college ranks.

Lamar Odom remains on the market. He and the Lakers have resumed negotiations after the Lakers rescinded their first offer. The Miami Heat have also shown Odom some options and Dwayne Wade has openly expressed his desire to bring the Rhode Island product to South Beach.

David Lee continues to search for suitors. The New York Knick met in Vegas recently with Portland but no formal offers have been announced. I thought Lee drew a lot of attention during this past season and he would sign quickly elsewhere. Knick teammate Nate Robinson also remains on the market.

I heard news of the Memphis Grizzlies possibly not re-signing Syracuse product Hakim Warrick in order to possibly sign Allen Iverson.

The Atlanta Hawks’ Marvin Williams is still classified as a restricted free agent. The latest update on his negotiations with the Hawks was on July 12. Hoops World says that the demands of Williams ($40 mil) and the amount the Hawks are willing to offer ($37.5 mil.) make it very likely that he’ll re-sign with Atlanta.

Sekou Smith, a writer at Hawks Blog, finds the title of HoopsWorld article to be a bit of a misnomer and cites some evidence that the projected offer/deal was simply not true. Smith goes on to provide his take on several different scenarios for the former UNC standout.

>If the WNBA has news, does it make a sound?

As of 3:44 PM on Saturday, ESPN.com’s lead article was the WNBA all-star game. I enjoy taking in a game once in a while. But for some reason, the games rarely make the news, which is why I was pleased to see the San Antonio Stars’ Becky Hammon and the Indiana Fever’s Tamika Catchings gracing the front page of ESPN’s web site.

Since the start of this WNBA season, I’ve heard the following news stories while giving the TV a cursory examination:

1) The Phoenix Mercury sold their jersey rights to LifeLock. Now the sponsor, not the team’s name, stretches in large font across the Mercury jerseys.

2) Candice Parker returned to the Los Angeles Sparks a couple months after giving birth to her first child.

3) Diana Taurasi was recently arrested for DUI.

That’s literally it; all the details are from memory. Anything else I know about the WNBA I looked up, and I watch ESPN and other sports stations much more than usual over the summer time.

Back to ESPN’s article. They pointed out the various strategies the WNBA had for promoting some interest in the all-star game. Among them were some of the players and analysts blogging and using twitter during the game.

When I went back to ESPN to view the box score, I couldn’t find a link to the game anywhere. And this was less than an hour after its conclusion. I had to go to the WNBA’s own page on ESPN.com.

David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images

The game, which was played in Connecticut, looks as though it was a huge success. The West beat the East 130-118. MVP Swin Cash (pictured) of the Seattle Storm led all scorers with 22. I wanted to know the attendance but it wasn’t listed in the box score at ESPN or even on the WNBA’s own website and box score for the event.

The Chicago Sky’s Sylvia Fowles dunked and pretty convincingly. Only thing is that the rest of players cleared out of the way so she could have a clear path to do so.

Many think the financial folding of the WNBA is inevitable now more than ever. It’s a shame to think that another women’s sports league will see its demise, after women’s professional soccer has made its return this year.

The WNBA conjures up so many negative connotations from “Joe Sports Fan” that it’s hard to imagine it ever being mainstream in America. Unfortunately, many of these “sports fans” have probably never seen a DI girls basketball game or professional game up close and in person.

On a personal note, congratulations to Temple-alum Candice Dupree. The fans voted Candice a starter for the first time in her WNBA career and she scored 12 points. She currently plays for the Chicago Sky and averages 15 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2 assists a game this season.

Got any NBA news or comments? Take a seat on the bench and let your ‘pickins’ be heard.