McCoughtry, Erika, Iziane are The Stars at The Sun

The final rosters have been named for the USA Basketball vs. WNBA game that will take place on Saturday July 10 and which will be televised by ESPN at 3:30 pm ET.

Three Atlanta Dream players have made the various rosters.

Playing on the WNBA Team:

Jayne Appel San Antonio Silver Stars
Rebekkah Brunson Minnesota Lynx
Becky Hammon San Antonio Silver Stars
Iziane Castro Marques Atlanta Dream
Katie Douglas Indiana Fever
Lauren Jackson Seattle Storm
Crystal Langhorne Washington Mystics
Sancho Lyttle Atlanta Dream
Michelle Snow San Antonio Silver Stars
Penny Taylor Phoenix Mercury
Sophia Young San Antonio Silver Stars

Playing on the USA Team:

Sue Bird Seattle Storm
Swin Cash Seattle Storm
Tamika Catchings Indiana Fever
Tina Charles Connecticut Sun
Candice Dupree Phoenix Mercury
Sylvia Fowles Chicago Sky
Angel McCoughtry Atlanta Dream
Maya Moore University of Connecticut
Renee Montgomery Connecticut Sun
Cappie Pondexter New York Liberty
Diana Taurasi Phoenix Mercury

Marynell Meadors will also be serving as an assistant coach of the USA Team. I would have liked to see Erika somewhere on the team, but McCoughtry, Sancho Lyttle, and Iziane represent the Atlanta Dream just fine. I'll definitely be watching on Saturday.

Marynell Meadors to be Assistant Coach at WNBA vs. USA Game

On July 10th, the usual WNBA All-Star Game format will change to "WNBA vs. USA Basketball" at an event called "The Stars at the Sun" which takes place in Connecticut. The purpose of the game is to give the USA Basketball team a really good team to warm up against.

The USA Basketball Team - in case you forgot - is coached by University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma. His assistant coaches will be Meadors and Jennifer Gillom, the head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks.

The WNBA All-Star Team will be coached by Seattle's Brian Agler. Nancy Darsch, his assistant with the Storm, will be his assistant with the WNBA Team.

The game takes place on July 10th on Saturday at 3:30 pm ET and will be televised by ESPN.

Dream Lose 94-91 on Road in Indianapolis

Now we know what the "#20" on her jersey stands for.

Actually, it could have been worse. We only lost by three points, and the home field advantage in the WNBA is around 3.5 points, so on a neutral court we would have had a shot at winning this.

Sancho Lyttle had 20 points and 20 rebounds. This is only the eighth time in WNBA history that someone had 20 points and 20 rebounds, and the first time it's been done in almost four years. The complete list from P. D. Swanson:

20+ Points & 20+ Rebounds, Game
22 / 20 -- Natalie Williams, Utah at Sacramento, June 22, 2002
29 / 21 -- Chamique Holdsclaw, Washington at Sacramento, June 25, 2002 (2OT)
24 / 21 -- Lisa Leslie, Los Angeles vs. Orlando, July 22, 2002
22 / 24 -- Chamique Holdsclaw, Washington at Charlotte, May 23, 2003
23 / 20 -- Lauren Jackson, Seattle vs. Charlotte, July 31, 2003
21 / 22 -- Cheryl Ford, Detroit at San Antonio, May 22, 2004
21 / 23 -- Michelle Snow, Houston at Minnesota, August 4, 2006 (OT)
20 / 20 -- Sancho Lyttle, Atlanta at Indiana, June 19, 2010

You can find the box score here at the WNBA.com site.

Justin Albers reports for the Examiner.com.

Ted Schultz of the Indianapolis Star has his writeup.

The Associated Press reports here. They also have a gallery of photos.

So did I watch this one? No. I've officially given up on WNBA Live Access this year, so I went instead to the Atlanta Beat game, the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) game here in Atlanta. The Beat got their first franchise victory, beating the Chicago Red Stars 1-0. I'm one of the few people who was physically present during the Dream's first win and the Beat's first win.

Game thread from Swish Appeal is here.

I'll write more about this game later, very busy weekend for me.

Interesting: Sam James of Fever Week reported this juicy tidbit of gossip:

Someone on press row heard Dream coach yell Angel McCoughtry on the bench

Apparently, Angel did or has given up on the game. The coach was yelling at her:

“Get this through your head, we are never out of a game! We never quit!”

Ah, the placid calmness of the Atlanta Dream. Particularly, Atlanta Dream fandom where such issues are handled with a spirit of patience and tranquility.

Interview with Marynell Meadors at

Rose Scott interviews Marynell Meadors at WABE about Meadors's basketball life and her approach to coaching.

According to Meadors in the interview, this might be the final stop in Marynell Meadors's career. She'll stay as long as Kathy Betty wants her and as long as she still enjoys the job.

So where will she go after leaving basketball? She'll spend time on her twin interests...golf and interior decorating.

Great interview. Give it a listen.

What Meadors is Holding

See the picture in the post below, and visit this link:


10 LC 94 2410
House Resolution 1594
By: Representatives Drenner of the 86th, Abrams of the 84th, Benfield of the 85th, and Henson of the 87th

A RESOLUTION


Recognizing and commending Coach Marynell Meadors on being named the 2009 WNBA Coach of the Year and inviting her to be recognized by the House of Representatives; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, Coach Marynell Meadors has long been recognized for her amazing ability to bring out the best performances from her players and her commitment to promoting the work of female athletes; and

WHEREAS, she has diligently and conscientiously devoted her time, talents, and energy for the past 35 years to challenging athletes as a coach and currently serves as general manager and head coach of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream; and

WHEREAS, Coach Meadors earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Middle Tennessee State University and began her prestigious coaching career at Tennessee Tech University as the first head coach of the women's basketball program; and

WHEREAS, she dedicated 20 years to the Golden Eagles, posting a school record winning percentage of .723, earning two Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year awards and a Metro Conference Coach of the Year award, and steering her team to four conference championships and two Metro Conference titles; and

WHEREAS, Coach Meadors also served as head coach at Florida State University, where she transformed the Seminoles into a winning program and led them to a Metro Conference Championship and the second round of the NCAA Tournament; and

WHEREAS, this year, Coach Meadors enters her second season with the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, her fourth with the WNBA family, and was recently honored as the 2009 WNBA Coach of the Year; and

WHEREAS, during her tenure in the WNBA, Coach Meadors has inspired fans and players of the Atlanta Dream, the Charlotte Sting, the Miami Sol, and the Washington Mystics, helping lead the Stings and Mystics to playoff appearances; and

WHEREAS, in recognition of her contributions to the field of sports and her excellent basketball coaching abilities, it is abundantly fitting and proper for this body to honor the extraordinary commitment and accomplishments of this outstanding individual.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that the members of this body commend Coach Marynell Meadors on her impressive coaching career, congratulate her on being honored as the 2009 WNBA Coach of the Year, and invite her to be recognized by the House of Representatives at a date and time to be designated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to Coach Marynell Meadors.

Digest 01-2010

* Thinking about Training Camp
* The Meadors Hire: A Geno Conspiracy?
* Tony Wyman and the Gwinnett Post
* Dream Home Games Covered by Fox Sports
* Dream Players Overseas

I can't believe it. Tax Day has come and gone and we are now in mid-April. As I write this we're exactly a month away from the opening game of the 2010 Atlanta Dream season.

Training camp starts on April 25th, and it looks like everyone will be there - with a few exceptions. The first of these exceptions is in Sancho Lyttle and Erika de Souza. Each of those players is still in Spain, and undoubtedly will be dealing with the post-season playoffs. (Their teams are #2 and #1 in the Spanish League, respectively, and both teams went deep into Euroleague play.) The other exception is in Kelly Miller, who might still be finishing up with Spartak Moscow in Russia.

There are a couple of other players still theoretically attached to their European teams, but I don't know how strong that attachment is. Yelena Leuchanka is still on the Galatasaray roster in Turkey, and I don't know if the Dream, or Galatasaray expect her to remain in Turkey when there's a training camp going on. It took the Dream three years to finally get Leuchanka signed, a signing that was always real soon now. It looks like it has finally happened, but as I wrote before, I'll not believe it until I see Leuchanka wearing powder blue.

The other case is that of Demetress Adams, who is playing for Burgos in Spain. Burgos is a top team, but it's a top team in the FirstTop League at the end of the year, and Burgos is the #1 team in LFB2. How bad do they need Demetress Adams....

...and how bad do we need her? If Adams were really good, she'd be in the first league - the best players in LFB2 are usually college players who couldn't make a WNBA roster and are just looking to play basketball for some amount of money, somewhere. Adams should be dominating play in LFB2 if she were pro caliber - can you imagine what a Diana Taurasi would do against the warm bodies of LFB2 competition? - but she has struggled. The hiring of Adams has perplexed me, and the only conclusion I can come up with is that Adams is a warm body - until de Souza and Lyttle show up.

A final question is about Jennifer Lacy. The last I heard, Lacy was still (technically) an unsigned free agent. Can you appear in training camp if you're not signed to a contract?

Other training camp arrivees haven't clocked a single pro game over the past seven or so months. I don't believe that Coco Miller was signed anywhere in the off-season, and if she was, she was probably playing somewhere like Nicaragua where I never heard of it. Armintie Price and Shalee Lehning were busy brushing up on a potential future coaching career - Price at Ole Miss and Lehning at Kansas State.

Lehning had other distractions as well. First, she had to finish her degree. We can proudly say that Lehning graduated K-State in December. Second, she spent the first part of the off-season recovering from a horrible shoulder separation. It was one of the worst separations the doctor treating her had ever seen, and such injuries cast rational doubts about Lehning's power to recover. From my brief interactions with Lehning, she strikes me as a woman with a lot of willpower. If Lehning can recover, she will recover. The problem for both Lehning and Price will be in recovering and shaking off the rust at the same time.

Every other player on the roster (save for the newest acquisitions) spent some time overseas. Erica White was in Israel. The three draft picks spent time on a college roster somewhere. However, not all pro experiences are equal.

Take the case of Chamique Holdsclaw. The Claw started out with Good Angels Kosice in the fall, played a couple of games with them, and was unceremoniously dumped. My understanding is that the Good Angels felt that they had gotten a broken player, basically - that Holdsclaw's knee injuries were worse than what they were led to believe. The Claw returned to the United States for a few months, and then took off again to play for K. V. Imperial in Cyprus.

I hope I'm not insulting Cypriot basketball when I say that...well, it's not top caliber. K. V. Imperial is sorta top caliber - they did well in Eurocup, after all - but I don't think it's the kind of a team that leaves a Perfumerias or an Ekaterinburg or a Brno with night sweats and horrible dreams.

For the rest of the players, however, it has been a really good year overseas. Sancho Lyttle, Erika de Souza, Kelly Miller and Iziane Castro Marques all played for teams that went deep in Euroleague, one of the premier events in European basketball. Each of those players went into the postseason with their respective clubs in the various national basketball leagues. Most national leagues play a game a week; those players played two or more a week as they juggled the obligations of their national leagues with Euroleague. Playing the best top-ranked competition can only make you a better player; playing in the post-season teaches you what it takes to go deep.

A concern for anyone following how well players do overseas is fatigue. NBA players get a few months off where they don't have to play any basketball if they don't want to. Not so for the women: women's pro basketball pays poorly and it's a necessity to go overseas if you want to make a living. One would expect these players to be exhausted come the WNBA.

I believe that Marynell Meadors, on the other hand, might come to an opposite conclusion than the fans would come to. The Dream players are ready. Many played for clubs still in contention, so they're not dealing with an enforced four to eight week layoff caused by their European clubs not making the post-season. Their basketball reflexes are still fresh.

I know that Meadors has definitely been keeping up with the successes and failures of her various players. I also expect very little to surprise her. However, you never know what's going to happen until the 2010 WNBA season starts - let's hope that the 2010 Atlanta Dream training camp is a positive experience for the fans, for the players, and for everyone.

(* * *)

One of the most joyful/frustrating things about following women's basketball is the tendency of its fandom to attribute the worst possible motives to every single action that anyone could possibly undertake. Given the struggles of the game, I can understand why - betting on the worst, cheapest, most petty motive is usually the winning bet. (*) However, when taken to extremes the paranoia and hostility exhibited can be very very frustrating.

Take the case of Dream coach Marynell Meadors. Meadors was given the honor of being named to the coaching staff of the USA Women's Basketball Team, whose head coach is currently Geno Auriemma. Women's BB fans immediately began attempting to fit the hire into their existing world-view. The take: this hire had nothing to do with talent, and was merely the end result of the need for Auriemma to be in absolute control of his surroundings - since Meadors was such a bad coach (so the story goes) she would be a mere cipher on the coaching staff compared to the manaical brilliance that was Geno.

However, there are many other good reasons for Auriemma to have hired Meadors, none of which have to do with control fantasies. Let's look at some plausable theories:

As honorarium: As I've written before, Meadors is the oldest coach in the WNBA. She's contributed to the sport for decades. Last year, she was named the WNBA's Coach of the Year - I don't think she deserved the vote, but one could argue that she deserved to win on the basis of the team's turnaround from bottom-basement dweller from the previous year to playoff team in 2009.

If Auriemma really doesn't "need" a new coach - so the conspiracy goes - then why not Meadors? Of course, Meadors could be coaching into the 2020s but she might also decide at some point to hang up the clipboard. Maybe USA Basketball decided to add to Meadors's resume as a reward.

Management: You have to remember that Angel McCoughtry is currently on both the Atlanta Dream and the USA Women's Basketball Team. If there's anyone who knows Angel McCoughtry besides the women who have played against her, it's Marynell Meadors. Having Meadors on the team might give Auriemma some extra insight into McCoughtry's noggin. (Or he could just call Jeff Walz.)

Actual coaching: If you don't know Meadors's background, there are two things you should know. First, she has served as an assistant coach before. Meadors's career hasn't gone in a straight line of "first assistant coach, then coach." In her pro career, she's gone back and forth between head coach and assistant coach. Meadors knows what the role of assistant is. A person who had been head coach for the last twenty years might have find sliding into the assistant role more difficult.

Evaluation and building: The Atlanta Dream is not the first team that Meadors has built from the ground up. The other team was the Charlotte Sting, so Meadors knows what its like to build a cohesive team out of...well...nothing.

Furthermore, Meadors seems to have a good eye for evaluating talent. Some might claim that Meadors's acquisitions were either no-brainers (McCoughtry) or from luck (Lyttle, Holdsclaw) but I think that the proof for such claims lies on the one making the claim - choices such as Erika de Souza panned out when no one thought they were, and Shalee Lehning did a fairly decent job of running the point guard spot for a rookie.

In short, I suspect the complaints are more an attempt to insult both Meadors and Auriemma than they are attempts to explain the hire. One thing I know about Auriemma - he loves winning and he is the kind of man who would "run through Hell in a gasoline suit" to win a ball game. (**) If he signed Meadors to his coaching staff, there is only one logical conclusion: he thought she would help guarantee his team a FIBA medal. But of course, even American gold won't sway those that have made up their minds otherwise.



(*) - This is true for other professional sports as well. However, as women's pro basketball is on shakier ground, the creaks in the floorboards make more noise.
(**) - Quoted initally by Pete Rose, describing his own love of baseball.

(* * *)

The Gwinnett Daily Post writes an article about Toby Wyman, the new Chief Operating Officer of the Atlanta Dream. I'm glad to see that the Gwinnett paper is writing about the Dream; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's treatment of the Dream is either neglect (in the print edition) or abuse (in the blog sections).

Whether the Gwinett paper will cover more Dream stories remains to be seen. The author is Christine Troyke, I think you should send a comment if you were glad to read the article. It looks like some Georgia paper might end up leading the pack on Dream coverage; the sad story is that the leader in Dream coverage might not be Georgia's supposed flagship paper.

Other than that, the treatment of Wyman's career is interesting. They ask him what the #1 goal of the Dream is, and it is not "to win games". It is this:

"I think what we want to do is, No. 1, it’s like anything else, we want to be a viable, successful franchise that is relevant in this marketplace. Which means putting people in the seats every night."

I like the phrase "to be relevant". The Number One goal of any franchise is survival, and in order to survive you have to be relevant enough to get the turnstiles turning. You have to be on the map in the local scene, and this is very difficult in the college-football crazy South. Over the off-season, I've watched Kathy Betty try to sell the team seemingly to one person at a time - appearing pretty much anywhere she can get the word out. You have to admire the effort, but at times I feel a little embarrassed. In my mind's eye, I see Betty appearing in front of sparse crowds anywhere she can hang her shingle, trying to convince potential fans and trying to drum up interest. Can you build a fan base that way? Yes...but is that method the best use of your time and money?

Wyman speaks about what I call the pro paradigm. It's the belief that the WNBA must promote itself like any dull NBA game. Troyke asks Wyman if a better model for the WNBA wouldn't be something like Triple-A baseball:

"But, yes, absolutely, from an accessibility standpoint, from and entertainment standpoint, one of our goals is we need to broaden ourselves out a bit. Certainly we’re a women’s product, but at the end of the day we just want to be perceived as good, sports, family entertainment.

That means we’re also committed to winning on the court. We want to win championships. But certainly we want people to feel like it’s a great entertainment product and, just like anything else, enjoy themselves and keep coming back."

Troyke then addresses the canard advocated by some that summer basketball is a bad idea because people would rather be outdoors. She writes, "People think of summer being meant for outdoors, but frankly, it’s too dang hot here most of the time — I’d like to be in an air-conditioned arena, you know?" I have to concur there - that argument might play out in Chicago or Seattle, but it's too damn hot in the South during the summer.

An illuminating question Troyke asks is whether or not the Dream should just tank in 2010 to pick up Maya Moore.

CT: "So you’re not going to try to lose all your games so you can draft Maya (Moore) in a year?"

TW: "No (smiling). Being from Boston, Red Auerbach drafted Larry Bird a year early. They closed that loophole and that was my first question to our GM, has the WNBA closed that same loophole?"

I suspect that Wyman might know what he's doing on the business end. Whether he'll have input on the pro acquisition end remains to be seen - it appears that Marynell Meadors will continue to wear the dual hats of GM and coach. However, the more I look at Wyman the more I like what I see.

(* * *)

Some great news today, where the Atlanta Dream announced that Fox Sports and SportSouth will cover 16 of the 17 home games of the Atlanta Dream this year.

The link to read is right here. But has Art Eckman moved on? God knows we loved Art Eckman and his interesting observations, particularly those involving Katie Feenstra-Mattera. The two announcers will be Bob Rathbun and LaChina Robinson. We all know Robinson from the previous two years covering the Dream and covering Georgia Tech women's basketball, but Rathbun comes from the Atlanta Hawks. He has his own Wikipedia entry, as he was the play-by-play announcer for the Braves from 1997-2006. He's also a member of Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

It will be interesting to hear Rathbun's take on the game, as generally the NBA announcers don't watch WNBA games. His bio on the Hawks page is here

(* * *)

I'm going to report briefly on what players are doing overseas. You can read the boxscores yourself. The format is borrowed from P. D. Swanson, the creator of Swanny's Stats.

Euroleague: Ekaterinburg 84, Krakow 50. The third place game took place on April 11th, with Ekaterinburg facing down Krakow.

EKA: Parker 21, Wauters 14, Bibrzycka 9 (Stepanova 8, Nolan 4, Abrosimova 3, Pondexter 2)
KRA: Burse 11, Fernandez 10
Iziane Castro Marques: 14 points, 7 rebounds, 6-for-17 shooting, 2-for-4 3-points shooting, 37 minutes played

Spartak Moscow 87, Ros Casares 80. Spartak Moscow wins their fourth straight Euroleague championship.

SPA: Taurasi 29, McCarville 20, Korstin 16 (Bird 5, Fowles 4, Jekabsone 0, Miller 0)
ROS: Milton-Jones 19, Valdemoro 14 (Snell 12, Montanana 10, Vesela 5)
Kelly Miller: 0 points, 2 rebounds, 5 minutes played
Erika de Souza: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 7-for-16 shooting, 30 minutes played

Russia: Spartak Moscow 102, Dynamo Kursk 87. Spartak Moscow wins the first game of their post-season semifinals match, and then....

SPA: Taurasi 20, Korstin 20, Osipova 14 (Fowles 13, Jekabsone 11, Bird 10, McCarville 4, Miller 4)
KUR: Snow 28, Lapteva 15, Bimbaite 10, Robbins 10
Kelly Miller: 4 points, 2 assists, 2-for-2 shooting, 9 minutes

Spartak Moscow 92, Dynamo Kursk 69. Spartak Moscow sweeps the best-of-three series and moves on to the finals against the winner of Ekaterinburg-Orenburg.

SPA: Taurasi 21, Osipova 16, Fowles 10 (Jekabsone 11)
KUR: Snow 11, Lapteva 10 (Psareva 14)
Kelly Miller: 3 points, 1-for-5 shooting, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 14 minutes played

Turkey: Galatasaray 68, Ceyhan 49. The final regular-season game of the year. Galatasaray goes 18-4 on the year and finishes in third place. (Fenerbahce finished 22-0; Kocaeli finished 0-22). Galatasaray plays #6 Tarsus in the quartefinals; the next games are on Thursday, April 22 and Sunday April 25th - doesn't look like Leuchanka will be back in Atlanta soon.

GAL: Catchings 20, Douglas 14, Sencebe 13
CEY: Campbell 19, Ervin 12, Yalcin 5 (C.Smith 3)
Yelena Leuchanka: 4 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2-for-6 shooting, 20 minutes played

Spain: Perfumerias 68, Rivas Ecopolis 65. Perfumerias wins the best-of-three series in Game 2 and moves on to the Semifinals against the Ros Casares-Mann Filter winner.

RIV: Cruz 16, Ujhelyi 16, Langhorne 15 (Tornikidou 4, Joens 3)
PER: Domínguez 19, Sánchez 10 (Willingham 6)
Sancho Lyttle: 12 points, 9 rebounds, 6-for-9 shooting, 27 minutes played

Ros Casares 80, Zaragoza 64. Ros Casares wins the first game of their best-of-three series at home against Zaragoza. If they win on Monday, they'll play Perfumerias in the finals.

ROS: Milton-Jones 27, Montañana 19, Valdemoro 14 (Aguilar 0, Snell 0)
ZAR: Feaster 16, Sten 11, Palomares 9
Erika de Souza: 12 points, 10 rebounds, 5-for-11 shooting, 23 minutes played

Spain, Second Division: Valbusenda 83, Burgos 70. Valbusenda upsets the #1 team in the LFB2. There are only three more games left in the LFB2 regular season.

BUR: Nascimento 18, Pablos Villarroel 15, Lozana Adan 11
VAL: Louden 18, Lassiter 15, Szoke 12
Demetress Adams: 0 points, 1 rebound, 0-for-1 shooting, 10 minutes played

AJC Article About the Dream and the Draft

Before tomorrow's draft, Pierce W. Huff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution got a chance to speak with Atlanta Dream coach Marynell Meadors about the needs of the Dream:

"It’s going to be a question of whether a player can make our team,” Dream general manager/coach Marynell Meadors said. “I hate to say it, but it’s going to be tough.”

...

“I think the No. 1 position for us in the draft still is to try to find a post player, and then a guard or a player at small forward,” Meadors said.

My guesses: Jacinta Monroe of Florida State, Brigitte Ardossi of Georgia Tech or Kelsey Griffin of Nebraska.

Marynell Meadors Wins CHOZEN Award

Marynell Meadors will be honored with a CHOZEN award in an awards ceremony to take place on Wednesday, March 24th in Atlanta.

According to their press release, Meadors joings Luisa Margarita Ayes, Nina Brown, recording artist Monica, Dr. Catherine L. Ross and Dee Dee Cocheta-Williams as recepients.

Congratulations, Coach Meadors. I swear, in the off-season the Atlanta Dream has been winning everything....

Atlanta Dream Preseason Game to Be Played at Tennessee Tech

More has been revealed about the 2010 Atlanta Dream season. The Dream will be playing a preseason game on Sunday, May 9th at 3 pm. However, it will not take place at Philips Arena in Atlanta. Rather, it will take place at the Eblen Center in Cookeville, Tennessee - the home of Tennessee Tech basketball. The Dream will take on the Washington Mystics in their second pre-season game of 2010.

The Mother's Day game will be the first professional basketball game ever played at the Eblen Center.

Why there? Well, let the article tell you:

Meadors was a head coach at Tennessee Tech and Florida State for a combined 30 years. She was the first head coach in Tech history, establishing the women’s program and posting a .723 winning percentage. She was twice named OVC Coach of the Year, leading Tech to four Ohio Valley Conference championships and was the first major women’s college coach to win 350 games at one school.

Meadors wasn't just a head coach at Tenneseee Tech, she started the women's basketball program there, along with other sports programs. She's virtually the Founding Mother of Tennessee Tech women's sports.

The game does have some Dream fans riled up, particularly those who don't want to make the trip. Furthermore, with the threat of a relocation hanging over the Dream's head at the end of 2009, fans are undoubtedly hesitant about the Dream showing itself off to Tennessee.

However, you have to remember that fans from the University of Tennessee came out to fill Philips Arena during the Atlanta/Los Angeles game last year. The people of Tennessee showed interest and it makes sense for the Dream to cater to that interest. Coach Meadors gets to help out her former university. It all makes sense to me.

And of course, it also means...ROAD TRIP!

Swish Appeal Provides Atlanta Free Agency Breakdown

Q over at Swish Appeal interviewed Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors for her take on the free agency issues surrounding the Dream.

It's a rather deep review of the Dream as Atlanta thinks about 2010.

Quoting from the article - first, about the fact that the Dream were next to the bottom in turnovers per game in the WNBA:

“I really think that you have to stop and look at all the new players we had last year – we had 8 new players last year out of 11,” said Meadors about their turnovers. “Any team that uses the fast break like we do – we’re not as good as Phoenix, but we’re pretty close – in pushing the ball up the court, you’re going to have more turnovers.

About Ivory Latta and how Meadors perceives Latta's role on the club:

“Ivory is a smaller point guard, she handles the ball, and she scores more than Shalee,” said Meadors. “I truly believe that Ivory is a 2-guard – she’s in a 1-guard body, but she’s really a 2-guard and she’s a great scorer. And 2-guards look to score."

About Shalee Lehning's role on the team:

“We won 18 games with her as a starter, so it’s kind of tough to not put her back out there again,” said Meadors about whether Lehning is the projected starter for 2010. “It seemed that at times, Shalee did a great job of running our team and we were basically looking for that…To me Shalee has proven herself, even in her rookie season…When she got hurt two games before the playoffs started, when we moved to Detroit to play them it really hurt us not having her at point guard.”

There is a lot to read, so I suggest you go read it. The breakdown of the roles of the Dream all by itself is worth reading.

Meadors Awards Team of the Week Award to North Cobb

It's one day before Groundhog Day, and Coach Meadors emerges from her hiding place to....

...just kidding. North Cobb High School becomes the second winner of the Team of the Week award from the Atlanta Dream. The Team of the Week Award is given to girls' basketball teams in Georgia. You can find more information about what the Dream is up to from the Atlanta Dream Facebook Page, the source of the photos above. Give it a visit!

Top Atlanta Dream Moments of 2009

Women Talk Sports has asked its members to come up with the “Best of ‘09”, the best moments in women’s sports in 2009. I’ve had some difficulty in completing this example for two reasons:

1) Real life. Normally, real life isn’t something to be condemned. We all want as much of a real life as possible, the alternative being several orders of magnitude worse. However, this month might be the month when Real Life (all caps) has made the most demands on my time. I don’t believe that I’ve ever abandoned the blog for 10 days before, and trust me, it wasn’t because I was somewhere on a Caribbean shore drinking a glass of orange juice on a sandy beach. November and December have been months of encroachment – good encroachment and bad encroachment combined.

2) A “Dream centric” approach. The problem is that even though I religiously follow the WNBA, I have not only barely kept up with anything going on in women’s sports, I have neglected the entire realm of sports outside of the WNBA and possibly Georgia Tech women’s basketball. If you were to ask me the “Best of ‘09” in women’s sports, I would be at a loss. I don’t know who is leading the LPGA. I don’t know who won women’s singles at Wimbleton. Did North Carolina win another NCAA women’s soccer championship?

You got me, sister. Only so many hours in the day.

On the other hand – I know about the Atlanta Dream. You might have heard of them, you know, that organization where thousands of people meet on weekday nights that completely escapes the eyes of the Atlanta sports media. And I think that I can tell you what the best moments for the Atlanta Dream were in 2009.

1. The acquisition of Chamique Holdsclaw. In their inaugural 2008 season, the Atlanta Dream finished with a 4-30 record, after starting out with 17 straight losses. Undoubtedly, the hope for 2009 was simply not to finish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Those WNBA fans in it for the long haul thought that the Dream might contend in about five years.

However, the Dream were about to make a bold move. In December of 2008, the Dream traded the 13th draft pick in the 2009 draft to the Sparks for the rights to Holdsclaw. Would she even play? She returned from Poland in February with a bad knee and for many Dream fans, they would believe that The Claw was back when they saw it.

Well, they saw it. And how. Holdsclaw only averaged about 14 points a game, about four points off her career average. She only played in 25 regular season games and injuries limited her effectiveness. However, Dream fans saw flashes of the old Holdsclaw, who might be one of the best players in the WNBA in moving the ball. Rumor has it that Holdsclaw’s presence returned stabilitiy to the locker room after a contentious 2008 season that saw two players (Camille Little and Stacey Lovelace) essentially jump ship.

2. The drafting of Angel McCoughtry. In 2009 it was, “in with the old (Holdsclaw) and in with the new (McCoughtry).” Despite their 4-30 finish, the Dream could at least look forward to securing the #1 draft pick in the 2009 draft. There was much discussion regarding that choice, which would have an immediate impact on 2009.

Should it be Renee Montgomery? Or Marissa Coleman? Or Courtney Paris? No, it would be Angel McCoughtry out of Louisville. McCoughtry managed to lead her Cardinals to the NCAA title game in her senior year, and this got the attention of Dream head coach Marynell Meadors, who was impressed with McCoughtry putting the team on her back. Perhaps McCoughtry could do the same for the Dream.

In Meadors’s universe, rookies – even super-rookies – don’t start. Dream fans were treated to McCoughtry coming off the bench, and when she came on the floor the game of the entire team picked up. The hard part for McCoughtry was to learn not to do too much by herself – not just yet, anyway.

It became obvious that despite any perceived deficiencies in Meadors’s coaching, Meadors knows how to evaluate talent. McCoughtry scored 12.8 points a season and was the only high point of a playoff sweep by the Detroit Shock, averaging 19 points a game over both losses. The question was whether or not McCoughtry would finish in front of DeWanna Bonner. McCoughtry triumphed with a Rookie of the Year Award, was named to the United States Women’s Basketball Team in the off-season and last I heard she was tearing it up in Europe.

The frightening thing? McCoughtry will be better this year than she was last year. I don’t want to put the “game-changer” label on McCoughtry just yet; that might have to wait until 2010.

3. The surprise of Shalee Lehning. Over the course of the off-season, the Dream stocked up. They picked up Carol Ross, formerly head coach at Mississippi, to join the coaching staff. They picked up big time free agents in Sancho Lyttle and Michelle Snow. And of course, they added Holdsclaw and McCoughtry as well.

When Shalee Lehning of Kansas State was drafted in the second round, the fan reaction was “nod pleasantly”. Lehning wasn’t considered a top rank point guard, although she did score high on the Senior Prospects Metric. There was certainly no buzz about Lehning, no hint that she was overlooked – second round seemed a correct assessment. She’d most likely either get cut at training camp, or, if she was lucky, she’d ride the bench.

Then the bombshell went off in June when Meadors announced that popular point guard Ivory Latta failed to make the cut – and Lehning was going to be the point guard behind Nikki Teasley. The sound heard in Kansas was the sound of swear words from Latta fans across Atlanta. Lehning? The Dream’s starter? Realllly?

Oh yes, really. And even though her role seemed limited to pushing the ball into the post, Lehning would become the dream’s starting point guard. Lehning had a devoted following from Kansas State, each of whom became long distance Dream fans. Lehning supporters in and out of Kansas attributed to Lehning the qualities of an athlete out of a story book – soft spoken, saying “yes m’aam” and without any flash, the prototypical Selfless Athlete.

Latta returned when Teasley was dealt to the Shock – but Lehning stayed, and kept her starting role. A severe shoulder separation denied her the chance to go to the playoffs, but she was with the team to the bitter end. 2010 will reveal if Lehning has more surprises for us.

4. The Twin Towers. It seems that if you put two post players together that are each taller than 6’2”, you can call them the “Twin Towers”. I always thought of Ruth Riley and Ann Wauters being San Antonio’s version of the Towers; but Sancho Lyttle and Erika de Souza deserved that name.

Lyttle came to the Dream from the Houston dispersal draft. For Lyttle, who grew up overseas and learned basketball late in life, it seemed that she was following the quick trajectory of a person who was making quantum leaps in her acquisition of basketball knowledge.

As for Erika de Souza, Dream fans were denied seeing much of de Souza in 2009, due to injuries. What they saw surprised them. De Souza, who had come off a grueling season in the Spanish League, and who had the added burden of Euroleague games with Ros Casares, seemed to play with fresh legs every night. Meadors said something to the effect that “she is a beast”, and the Beast from Brazil was born.

The combination of Lyttle and de Souza in the post added two things that the Dream didn’t have in 2008. The first was height – with Michelle Snow as a back-up post, the Dream were the tallest team in the league. The second was toughness. In 2008, Dream opponents could waltz into a combination of Mattera and Lacy and come up with two points; in 2009 opposing teams ended up terrorized.

Lyttle and de Souza made it to the 2009 All-Star Game, their first seasons as All-Stars. Lyttle and de Souza were exactly as important to the Dream’s playoff season as Holdsclaw or McCoughtry were; all of the pieces needed to be there for it to happen.

5. Dream 106, Mercury 76. The Dream were already having a much better season, but there was still talk of the awful 2008 season. The old joke was that one person would say, “last night, the Dream were up 15 points in the fourth quarter” and the response would be “wow! Did they win?”

The Dream’s 106-76 demolishment of the Phoenix Mercury killed the ghost. There would be no asterisk next to this win – it wasn’t as if Diana Taurasi was in jail or Cappie Pondexter was recovering from a bad perm. The Dream blew out the Mercury in the first three quarters, had a 40-point lead late in the game, and near the end the Dream were trying impossible shots just to see if they would go in.

It was the first time that the Dream had not merely beaten a quality opponent – but whipped them. Granted the Dream had beaten opponents before – they beat the Sparks late in the 2008 season while on the road – but sometimes, you can stumble into a win. There was no “yes, butting” the 106-76 victory. One game doesn’t normally prove a season, but this game did. It meant that the rest of the league could no longer count on the Dream being an easy win.

6. Playoff glory. Near the end of the 2009 season, the Dream were managing to hang on to second place – barely – behind the Indiana Fever. Behind the Dream was a pack of barking dogs – the defending WNBA champion Detroit Shock, the Chicago Sky, the Washington Mystics and the Connecticut Sun. (Only the Liberty had played themselves out of contention.)

Near the end of the season one needed a calculator to determine who went where in the post season with what combination of wins and losses. In the 33rd game of the season – just before the final season game – the Dream beat the Connecticut Sun 88-64 to clinch second place and home field advantage in the playoffs.

Then it all fell apart. Shalee Lehning separated her shoulder in a meaningless final game in Washington. The Detroit Shock won easily in Detroit. The Atlanta Dream was bumped out of its home court second game by Sesame Street, of all things. At Gwinnett Arena, Deanna Nolan came back on fire from a first-game injury. The Dream played listlessly, and proved that playoff glory can be fleeting.

Dream fans took the good with the bad. Bad to lose the playoffs – but worse not to even go.

7. Coach of the Year. Head coach Marynell Meadors has been called a lot of things – even by Dream fans – but she’s never been considered Coach of the Year material.

The argument, however, could be made that we’ve never seen Meadors with a good team. Meadors was one of the eight original coaches of the WNBA, and only got two years with the Charlotte Sting before being fired in the middle of the third season. After that, she served at the college and WNBA levels in supporting coaching roles until Ron Terwilliger hired Meadors for another building project in 2008.

Meadors’s 2009 Atlanta Dream won 14 more games than the previous model, and made the playoffs. Even if Meadors were not a good coach, she was a great GM. Perhaps the feeling around the league was that she deserved it more than (relatively) new coach Lin Dunn. Meadors was given the honor of Coach of the Year in 2009, which sets the bar even higher for 2010.

8. The Dream survive. With a bad economy, a disastrous previous season and the Atlanta media treating the Dream as if it were a contagious case of cancer, the Dream’s attendance and gate suffered. Ron Terwilliger, who made his money in real estate, could now longer afford the Dream when the real estate market plunged in the off-season.

The big question was if Terwillger would find a buyer. If he didn’t, the Dream would be dispersed after just two years, the shortest life span of any WNBA team. There was also the threat that the Dream would leave Atlanta and end up in Oklahoma, as Tulsa investors were searching for a team.

The Dream, however, would be rescued. Kathy Betty, the widow of the CEO of Earthlink and a successful businesswoman in her own right, purchased the Dream, guaranteeing the survival of the team to at least the 2010 season. With the Detroit Shock ending up in Tulsa and the Sacramento Monarchs outright folding, the Dream’s survival was a close call.


So from the Pleasant Dreams blog, here's wishing all WNBA fans and Atlanta Dream fans a Happy New Year. "Next year is trophy year!"

New Post at Swish Appeal

Does Marynell Meadors winning the WNBA Coach of the Year award give her a cushion? New post up at Swish Appeal called "The Invulnerable (?) WNBA Coach of the Year".

You might recognize the author. ::smile::

Oh Marynell!

Davan Mani in his My Rants and Opinions blog writes that best finder of talent anywhere in pro basketball today is...Marynell Meadors?

Lot of scouts and GM's tend to get individual players but not try to build a team. In Marynell case, she gets players and builds teams. She likes players who believe in hard work but fair play. When she was Charlotte, she built a solid nucleus of players such as Vicky Bullett, Andrea Stinson, Dawn Staley, and Rhonda Mapp who had those characteristics. As a scouting directing for the Sol, she built a solid nucleus of Ruth Riley, Sheri Sam, Yelena Baranova, and Sandy Brondello. When they folded, these players continued to play at a high level with other teams the characteristics of hard work and fair play. Now in Atlanta, she has those type of players in Erika DeSouza, Shalee Lehning, Sancho Little, Michelle Snow, and Angel McCoughtry which brings success and continuity.

Mani hopes that if Meadors loses her job for whatever reason, that she would be come a director of scouting for some NBA team. I must say that Mani makes a persuasive case. If Nancy Lieberman can coach in the NBDL, then why can't Marynell Meadors scout men's basketball?

Marynell Meadors Named WNBA Coach of the Year

From the WNBA:

NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2009 – The Atlanta Dream’s Marynell Meadors was named the recipient of the 2009 WNBA Coach of the Year Award, the WNBA announced today. Meadors received 30 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Indiana’s Lin Dunn finished second with six votes while Phoenix’s Corey Gaines placed third with four votes.

My comment: " ".

Vivlamore: McCoughtry and Meadors Will Be ROY and COY

We call this click-love time! Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution gives us some amazing insight on the 2009 season for the Dream.

Angel McCoughtry was ready to quit.

The Atlanta Dream forward was frustrated with the way she was playing in her first WNBA season. The game was no longer fun, so she gave serious consideration to giving up the game of basketball. Serious consideration.

...

“I was just so frustrated,” McCoughtry said. “Hopefully, this may inspire anyone else who gets frustrated. Don’t give up.”


According to Vivlamore, McCoughtry and Meadors are going to be named Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year on Thursday.

Remember when AJC articles about the Dream were rarer than hen's teeth? You need - to click - the link! (Several times, if necessary.)

Time to Run the Chamique

Helen Wheelock writes about the changes taking place in the WNBA with coaches and how the game is different between college and the pros.

Currently head coach of the Dream, Meadors established the basketball program at Tennessee Tech, and has helped start three WNBA franchises – Charlotte (’97), Miami (’99) and Atlanta (’08). “I think that that has been my call of duty,” she quipped, “to be a starter person.”

That, as well as being an assistant with several of the league’s teams, has given Meadors plenty of opportunity to see how coaching has changed at the professional level. “When we first started this league, we were all college coaches and we ran the college plays,” she explained. “None of us do that anymore. We’re all running sets. We’re always trying to get the ball to the people that we know that can hit the shot.

There was an interesting comment made about how little current college players know the WNBA by former Sacramento Monarchs coach Jenny Boucek:

Something that has surprised Boucek is how unfamiliar many of the newly drafted college players are with the league’s players. “I have a few that were fans growing up and they love talking about old players that played in college or the WNBA,” said Boucek. “But most of them have never even heard of stars that have been through this league. They don’t know them, they’ve never even heard of them. And it never even occurred to them that they should know them.”

Her solution? We have named our post moves after older [female] post players. One of our moves is Katrina [McClain] and one of them is Lucy Harris. I make them Google the names of the players and learn their women’s basketball history.”

I guess Boucek will have to take her teaching skills elsewhere.

Dream Looking Forward to 2010

The Associated Press gives us some clues as to what 2010 will be like in Atlanta.

Don't expect the Atlanta Dream to overhaul their roster again next season, not after the second-biggest one year turnaround in WNBA history.

Coach Marynell Meadors says there will be a few additions after the Dream followed up their four-win 2009 inaugural campaign with 18 victories.

Remember the motto of this blog: CLICKING THE LINK SHOWS YOUR LOVE. How will reporters know that you like basketball if you don't click on the writing?

Among the clues:

* Expect Holdsclaw, Snow and Lyttle back next year.
* Chamique Holdsclaw will play in Poland in the off-season. I wonder if she'll join Iziane Castro Marques in Krakow?
* Meadors will look for some help in the frontcourt for de Souza.
* Atlanta is looking for more depth at point guard. (I suspect that either Latta, Miller or both are gone after this season.)

"We will not be happy until we are wearing rings on our fingers," Meadors said. "We've prove we can play. Now, it's up for us to take to another level."

I just hope Holdsclaw gets some rest. Doesn't the Polish season start on October 1st?

Voepel: McCoughtry ROY, Meadors COY

Mechelle Voepel makes her selections for WNBA awards at ESPN. Her choices:

Most Valuable Player: Diana Taurasi, Mercury.
Rookie of the Year: Angel McCoughtry, Dream.
Coach of the Year: Marynell Meadors, Dream.
Sixth Woman of the Year: DeWanna Bonner, Mercury.
Defensive Player of the Year: Tamika Catchings, Fever.
Most Improved Player of the Year: Erika de Souza, Dream.

All-First Team: Taurasi (Mercury), Pondexter (Mercury), Jackson (Storm), Catchings (Fever), Hammon (Silver Stars)
All-Second Team: Parker (Sparks), Leslie (Sparks), Anosike (Lynx), Douglas (Fever), Nolan (Shock)

Two Coaches from Tennessee Tech

An article in the Cookeville (TN) Herald-Citizen interviews two head coaches of Tennessee Tech.

The new coach? Sytia Messer, a former player from Arkansas. The emeritus coach? ...Marynell Meadors.

The veteran coach had her own advice to give the newly minted Golden Eagle coach. "Come up with your game plan," Meadors said. "Get the players that can fit your system. If you do that, you're going to be a winner. A lot of hard work and dedication is what it's going to take."