#8 and other news

Let the Countdown Continue:
#8
Jake-Baylor
Jenn-Baylor

I agree with Jake on this one. While there could be argument that Maryland might fit here, it's hard for me to put Maryland on this list because they did not start to get consistently good until 2005. They are certainly the team to reckon with in the next decade but even with their 2006 win, they just haven't had the mustard all decade long. Baylor, on the other hand, has.

Baylor finished in the Top 10 in 4 seasons, Top 15 six season, they took advantage of their 1 Final Four and won the Championship in 2005, they made it to 1 NCAA Quarterfinal and only had 1 year of not qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. They also had 2 All-Americans (Sophia Young and Sheila Lambert).

Brief brilliance is the motto for Baylor, however, they have been consistent enough to bring in some of the top young talent our nation has to offer. Look for Baylor to be in the mix in 2 years.


In Other News

-Okay, so I know this is probably old news to a lot of people but it's something I've really had to think about. The Hartford Courant reported on August 8th that UCONN had 17 self-reported violations of NCAA rules. The women's basketball team had 7 of them. The University of Connecticut Athletic Department has kept a file of the violations and has reported each one. So I commend them for making the effort to do the right thing while also filing letters of admonishment into coaches folders. However, we all felt that Pat Summitt was to blame for the breaking up of UCONN/Tennessee rivalry (alleged recruiting violations when UCONN had Maya Moore up for her visit)...however that does not seem to be the case. It seems that UCONN did violate NCAA recruiting rules by scheduling a tour with ESPN studios when she came for her scheduled recruit visit. Okay, seems minor, right? It is minor but it's the principle of the fact that UCONN lied about it in the beginning. Eventually the truth came out that someone scheduled the tour.

Maybe Tennessee was over-reacting a bit but if UCONN went ahead and did that for Maya Moore, who's to say they didn't do something else? You can read the article here: UCONN Violations. I guess what leaves me to ponder is that it's great that UCONN self-reported rather then the NCAA finding out about the violations. On the other hand, is the NCAA being a bit to strict? I understand the importance of "silent periods" and "no contact" times when recruiting a player, the women's game has become a big business. Every time I hear about the NCAA penalizing a University because a player played 1 minute of professional basketball with a team in her native country (aka: Fresno State) it makes me wonder if the NCAA violations committee is a bunch of bitter adults who didn't quite make the varsity team as a Senior in High School. Come on, it's a tour of ESPN...what sports nut wouldn't want that?

WNBA

Indiana Fever extended their Eastern Conference lead to 5.5 games with the win over the San Antonio Silver Stars. Detroit Shock are being a spoilers and beat Atlanta Dream but with Connecticut Sun losing to Seattle Storm the standings for 2 & 3 remain the same. With the win, Detroit has sole possession of 4th place in the East. Phoenix Mercury knocked off LA Sparks so that moves the Storm a little further from the Sparks (3 games between them now).

Tonight:


Sacramento Monarchs @ Minnesota Lynx (8:oo pm)
New York Liberty @ Chicago Sky (8:30 pm, NBA TV)

Minnesota wins to make it a 1 game lead over San Antonio for 4th place and the Liberty beat the Sky to knock the Sky to 6th place in the East.