The Associated Press is reporting that former UConn star Diana Taurasi's contract has been voided by the European team she was playing for after both her samples tested positive for a banned substance.

Taurasi, who was leading the EuroLeague in scoring with an average of 24.6 points per game, was tested after a Nov. 13 game. Taurasi hasn't publicly commented since news was leaked of her initial positive test or since her backup sample came back positive for modafinil as well but she told UConn coach Geno Auriemma that she "didn’t take that. Whatever they’re saying I didn’t do it."

Taurasi had a backup sample sent to a lab in Germany for testing since the Turkish lab which came back with the positive tests on Taurasi have had some issues and temporarily had their license to conduct doping tests revoked. Two of her Fenerbahce teammates including her Phoenix Mercury teammate Penny Taylor refused to give samples to be tested for banned substances unless the Turkish basketball federation agreed to send the samples to the German lab.

The latest twist was not surprising after Fenerbahce of Istanbul, Turkey signed former Louisville star Angel McCoughtry earlier this week.

Here is the story from the Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey -- American basketball star Diana Taurasi had her contract terminated by Turkish club Fenerbahce on Thursday after her "B" sample tested positive for doping.

The Istanbul-based club made its decision after the Turkish Basketball Federation announced the results of the doping test on its website. Taurasi faces a ban of up to two years, putting in jeopardy her chances of playing for the United States at the 2012 London Olympics.

Taurasi's "A" sample tested positive last month for the banned stimulant modafinil following a Turkish league game on Nov. 13. Taurasi had been suspended by Fenerbahce ever since.

The International Olympic Committee bars any athlete given a doping penalty of six months or more from competing in the next games. Taurasi helped the Americans win gold medals at the past two Olympics and was the leading scorer when the U.S. won the women's world championships.

Modafinil is used to counter excessive sleepiness due to narcolepsy, shift-work sleep disorder or sleep apnea, according to drug manufacturers.

On Tuesday, Geno Auriemma, the United States coach for the 2012 Olympics, said the former University of Connecticut star told him that she did not take modafinil. He also said he didn't know if Taurasi had any problems with sleeplessness.

One of the most decorated women's players in history, Taurasi led the WNBA in scoring for a league-record fourth straight year, averaging 22.6 points last season. The five-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion signed a multiyear contract extension with Phoenix in August.

The Mercury have not commented publicly on the doping case.

Taurasi is one of many American stars who play overseas in the winter because salaries are significantly higher than in the WNBA. She played in Russia for four years for Spartak before joining the Turkish league this season.

Taurasi was leading the league in scoring with 24.6 points per game.

Two of Taurasi's teammates at Fenerbahce have resisted doping tests in Turkey because they do not trust the lab that tests the samples. Australian player Penny Taylor and Czech teammate Hana Horakova provided samples only after the Turkish federation agreed to send them to Germany for testing at a lab in Cologne.

The two players were tested after Fenerbahce's Turkish league game on Sunday.

Modafinil has been involved in several major doping cases, including that of American sprinter Kelli White, and is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.

White won the 100- and 200-meter races at the 2003 world championships in Paris, but both her medals were stripped after she tested positive for the stimulant.

Seton Hall coach Anne Donovan, who coached Taurasi at the 2004 Olympics, had some rather interesting remarks about this subject when she was asked about it on the Big East women's basketball coaches' call today.

First, she addressed whether the use of a drug like modafinil, which is used to combat sleeping disorders, would be used because top women's players like Taurasi need to play both in the WNBA and in Europe to maximize their earning capabilities.

"I don't know that it is a reflection of our premier women's players playing 12 months a year will affect their fatigue," Donovan said. "I think this reflects on that. That is an issue we are all aware of with the WNBA schedule and earning a living overseas is what is required of our top level players if they want to reap the financial rewards why I can. I think it is a really difficult situation for Diana to rely on the fact that a foreign agency, a lab that has struggled and had issues to really determine whether she has been found guilty, it really has to be extremely difficult for Diana.

"I have reached out and touched base with her. I have offered my support. I think she is a tremendous kid, a tremendous role model and I think she is really in a difficult position with a foreign testing agency having the right to make these kinds of tough, career-changing decisions for her. My heart goes out to her, she has my full support and the whole issue and how this particular substance that is now being said that she used, how that reflects on women that is correlating something that not necessarily needs to be correlated."