Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

WNBA state of mind

Having returned from one of the most bizarre basketball games I have ever witnessed as the Connecticut Sun somehow saw a 20-point lead midway through the fourth quarter sliced to four in the final minute. The Sun, which gave away a game to Detroit at home earlier this month, managed to hold on for a 67-61 win, snapping Indiana's 11-game winning streak.

The reserves for the Eastern and Western teams in Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game are expected to be announced Monday afternoon. Six reserves will be picked by the league coaches. I would consider Asjha Jones of the Connecticut Sun to be a lock to be named. The big question is whether her former UConn teammate Diana Taurasi will be among the Western Conference reserves. There's no questioning Taurasi's basketball resume, she is the league's leading scorer (not including the injured Seimone Augustus of Minnesota) but she is also serving a two-game suspension for being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving earlier this month. If she doesn't get named, obviously something is up. I've been going back and forth on the issue but will find out soon enough. Obviously, Taurasi will be walking into the hornet's nest with the Connecticut media waiting for her at Friday's media availability. But if she decides she isn't ready for the media scrunity (which has never been Taurasi's way), the Mercury's next two games after the all-star break are at New York and Connecticut so she will face a sizeable media contigent one way or the other.

Another ex-Husky is also in the mix as Charde Houston is enjoying an all-star caliber season in her second season with the Minnesota Lynx. Heading into Sunday's schedule, Houston was tied for 14th in scoring with an average of 14.6 points per game while averaging 6 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 blocks. One thing which could hurt Houston is that her Minnesota teammates Nicky Anosike and Candice Wiggins are also in contention for all-star berths. Then again, with Western Conference starters Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson both ailing, Anosike could always be named as a replacement starter opening a spot for Houston.

Former UConn teammates Sue Bird and Swin Cash, in their second season together in Seattle, were both voted as Western Conference starters.

I couldn't help but noticed that former UConn guard Renee Montgomery drew her first career start Sunday for Minnesota against Seattle meaning the two starting point guard (Montgomery and Bird are former UConn stars who led the Huskies to an undefeated season in their final college season). On Saturday, Montgomery's former UConn teammate Ketia Swanier had 13 points, five rebounds and one assist as the Taurasi-less Phoenix Mercury defeated Detroit 97-90. Swanier, who was waived by the Sun in training camp, has had an interesting first season with Phoenix. She has 28 points between Saturday's win and a June 25 win at Washington but has a total of 21 points in the other 13 games.

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