President Obama fills out women’s brackets for ESPN

We all know President Barack Obama is a huge hoops fans. In fact after last year’s NCAA title, Obama invited the UConn women’s team to a championship ceremony at the White House and even ended up shooting baskets with the players.  At the time, he said that as the father of two young daughters, he especially appreciated the success of female athletes like the Connecticut team.

This week Obama picked UConn to win another national championship.  In an ESPN exclusive,  Obama filled out his bracket predictions for both the 2010 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments with ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz and ESPN basketball analyst Doris Burke. This is the first time President Obama has publicly provided his bracket for the women’s tournament.

Obama’s brackets will be posted on ESPN.com shortly after SportsCenter airs his interview on Wednesday, March 17th with Katz and will appear alongside fans expected to play in ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge presented by Capital One.

The President is predicting a Women’s Final Four of Connecticut, Notre Dame, Stanford and Tennessee to meet April 4-6 in San Antonio.

Referring to the interview, Burke said, “In just the short time I spent with President Obama, it was obvious how much of a basketball fan he is. While he has joined the rest of the nation in following the storyline of the Connecticut Huskies and their current historic win streak, I was impressed with his overall knowledge and passion for all of basketball. He is also intrigued with the potential matchup of the titans of women’s basketball in Tennessee and Connecticut.”

Don’t let the Prez be the only one having fun during March Madness. If you want to play along,  join the WomenTalkSports group for the Bracket Challenge! Here’s how:

1. Check out NCAA Games and create a user account. (name, password)
2. Click here to head to the Women’s Basketball Bracket page. (or go to D-1 Women’s basketball-picks)
3. Navigate to “Join a Group”- Join the WomenTalkSports group by entering:

group name: WomenTalkSports

password: womentalksports

It’s as simple as that, but will be loads of fun as WTS will be giving away random prizes throughout the tournament and a grand prize for the winner of our bracket challenge!

2009 Salute to Women in Sports

Other WomenTalkSports posts of “Best of ‘09″:

• From Because I Played Sports, Best of ‘09: Forming a community, WomenTalkSports.com

• From One Sport Voice, The “Best” of 2009 and the State of Girls & Women in Sports

• From WakeGirls.com, Best of ‘09 – A Year for Women in Wake

2009 D-I Field Hockey bracket released

Defending champ Maryland hasn’t lost this year, going 20-0 en route to an ACC title. Tonight, the Terps and 15 others learned their fates in the D-I Selection Show.

Five conferences were awarded automatic qualification. In addition, six conferences competed for three play-in berths and the remaining eight teams were selected at large.

The following conferences and their representatives received automatic qualification:

Atlantic Coast Conference       University of Maryland, College Park
Big East Conference                    University of Connecticut
Big Ten Conference                     Michigan State University
Colonial Athletic Assn              University of Delaware
Ivy Group                                       Princeton University

The teams winning the play-in berths were American University from the Patriot League, the University of Richmond from the Atlantic 10 Conference and Stanford University from the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference.

The NCAA championship bracket lists the eight at-large teams, as well as the pairings, sites and dates.

First- and second-round games will be played on four campus sites November 14 and 15. Wake Forest University will host the semifinals and final, November 20 and 22 at Kentner Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For ticket information, call 888/758-3322.

In 2008, Maryland claimed its sixth NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship title with a 4-2 victory over Wake Forest at Trager Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.

To see how the Terps clinched their perfect season and the ACC Championship, check out the video below.

UPDATE: Hartford paper rethinks publishing Auriemma’s daughter

I grew up in Connecticut where women’s basketball rules.

Long before other women’s college teams got exposure and respect, the public TV station broadcast the UConn games. In fact, CPTV began its coverage of the university women during  the 1993-94 season and has covered the team ever since.

Given the intense interest in all things related to UConn’s women’s basketball team, including long-time coach Geno Auriemma, it’s not a huge surprise that the state’s largest daily newspaper, the Hartford Courant, hired Auriemma’s daughter, Ally, to write a blog about the six-time national championship team team.

The 23-year-old, who graduated from UConn with a degree in dramatic arts, said she’ll take readers behind the scenes, but will not write anything controversial about her father’s team.

She said she’ll also counter what she called “false press” about her father, a Hall of Famer who will coach the women’s basketball team in the 2012 Olympics. In her personal blog, Live Beyond the Postseason, she writes about her Dad and life in general.

Now, according to ESPN, the Courant is re-evaluating its plan.

The newspaper’s sports editor, Jeff Otterbein, says he hired Alysa Auriemma to give an insider’s viewpoint about her father and the team on monthly blog postings during the upcoming basketball season. Otterbein said Alysa Auriemma would be paid $125 per article.

The arrangement has been criticized by a media ethics expert and journalists, who call Alysa Auriemma’s role a conflict of interest.

Otterbein says he at first considered the blog “a slice of something they could not get elsewhere.”

He said the newspaper is now reconsidering the relationship and is asking readers for their opinions.

Would love to hear any thoughts on the subject. Is this a blog you’d be interested in reading?

UPDATE 9/19/09:

Hartford Courant sports editor Jeff Otterbein said that Alysa Auriemma was paid for posts in July and August, but will not be paid for future posts to “avoid any appearance of impropriety.”

On her personal blog, the 23-year-old UConn grad says she’s pleased with the outcome.

UConn women’s basketball champions visit White House

The benefits of being the best. Win a national championship and you, too, could go to the White House.

A championship ceremony at the White House is standard for many national sports teams. But shooting hoops with the president, now that’s something else entirely.

Moments after today’s event in front of the White House’s South Portico, President Barack Obama hustled the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team over to the outdoor half-court.

The president, a former high school player and avid fan who still plays pickup games, prevailed in a brief, impromptu game of P-I-G with a few of the players.

“He was pretty good from 17 feet,” said coach Geno Auriemma. “His shot’s a little unorthodox, but it goes in … He’s got a little bit of that swagger.”

Renee Montgomery, a senior guard, said Obama only missed one shot and that he sank a final fade-away shot from off the court.

After about 10 minutes, Obama walked back to the White House with his sleeves rolled up and his suit jacket slung over his shoulder.

Connecticut dominated women’s college basketball this season, going 39-0 and beating opponents by an average of better than 30 points. They capped the season earlier this month in St. Louis with a 76-54 victory over Louisville. It was Connecticut’s sixth national college championship and third perfect season.

The team gave Obama a basketball signed by the players and a Connecticut jersey emblazoned with “1″ and his name on the back.

“Number One — that’s what I’m talking about,” Obama joked. “I will wear it when I’m playing.”

The Commander in Chief also commended the young women for their off court excellence as well.  Maya Moore was chosen an academic All-American — an outgrowth of perhaps the program’s most impressive statistic, the NCAA recognized the top academic performance of the team which has enjoyed a 100% graduation rate in Auriemma’s 24 seasons.

Obama said that as the father of two young daughters, he especially appreciates the success of female athletes like the Connecticut team.

“My girls look at the TV when I’m watching ‘SportsCenter’ and they see women staring back,” Obama said of the ESPN program, a personal favorite. “That shows them that they can be champions, too.”

Gobama!

Coach Auriemma has a good chance of returning to the White House, along with some of the players from his teams. He has been named coach of Team USA and will be coaching the U.S. team in the 2012 Olympics.

So what about UConn?  Will the women’s team be back in Washington next year? Well, there’s a very good chance. The team lost just one key player, Renee Montgomery, and they have a top recruit coming in so beating them next year will be pretty tough!

Auriemma to be named U.S. Women’s Basketball Coach

The NCAA championships are over, the WNBA Draft is done and just when you thought there might be a lull in women’s basketball comes major breaking news.

UConn’s Geno Auriemma, 55, will be named coach of the U.S women’s basketball team through the 2012 Olympics. The university has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday in Storrs.

Auriemma just won his sixth national title at UConn as the Huskies finished off an unbeaten season (39-0) by defeating Louisville in the NCAA women’s final last week. He will serve as head coach through the Summer Games in London.

According to the Hartford Courant:

Auriemma is the first active college coach to head an Olympic team since Tara VanDerveer in 1996. Auriemma became eligible to coach the Olympic team after the USA Basketball executive committee approved a rule change last month. In the past, the Olympic head coaches were required to have WNBA coaching experience. Now the coach must only have five years experience as either an assistant or head coach at any level at the time of the selection.

The U.S., which has won four straight Olympic gold medals, will first have a chance to qualify for the London games at the FIBA World Championships in 2010 in the Czech Republic. The winner of that tournament will receive an automatic berth to the 2012 Games

Olympians Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, former UConn players who also won national titles playing for Auriemma, are likely to be on the U.S. roster.

Being a big UConn fan, this news is huge. There’s no doubt Auriemma is an amazing coach and will serve the U.S. team well.

Surely pundits will have a lot to say about the news in the coming days and months so we’ll keep you posted.

Huskies Maya Moore 2009 Wooden Award winner

A final exclamation point was added to Maya Moore’s season of accomplishment Friday, when the University of Connecticut sophomore was named winner of the John R. Wooden Award as the top player in women’s college basketball. Moore was presented with the unique Wooden Award trophy that represents the legendary coach’s ideal basketball player at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

A finalist and Wooden All American a year ago as a freshman, Moore led Connecticut to a dream undefeated season in 2009, capped off by a win over Louisville in the NCAA title game on Tuesday. The 6-0 forward was the Big East Player of the Year in averaging 21.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 2.3 blocks. Moore recorded 20-plus points 15 times and registered 16 double-doubles this season.

In a storied program, Moore became the fastest player in Husky history to reach the 1,000-point milestone. Among her accolades this season were being named to the All-Tournament team at the Final Four, being chosen Most Outstanding Player of the Trenton Regional and being selected an Academic All-American by ESPN.

In the Wooden Award voting, Moore finished with 176 points to beat out Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris (133 points), Angel McCoughtry of Louisville (101), Connecticut’s Renee Montgomery (97) and Maryland’s Kristi Toliver (68). Moore and Paris, a four-time Wooden All American, attended the announcement, as did Moore’s head coach, Geno Auriemma.

Balloting by more than 300 members of the media and college basketball experts was conducted through the games of the Sweet 16. Voters selected 5 players for the Wooden All-America team from the 19 student-athletes listed on the ballot, and ranked them from 1 to 10. Voters were asked to take into account performance during the regular season and postseason, as well as a player’s character and academic performance.

Moore joins a distinguished group of Wooden Award winners, including Michael Jordan (North Carolina), Larry Bird (Indiana State), Candace Parker (Tennessee), Seimone Augustus (LSU). She is the first sophomore to win the Award and the first Connecticut player to be honored.

The men’s honors went to Okahoma’s Blake Griffin. Like Moore, Griffin basically swept this season’s individual honors, winning The Associated Press player of the year earlier this month as well as the Naismith. He also captured the Robertson Trophy as the top player in college basketball and announced earlier this week he’s going to turn pro.

About the John R. Wooden Award
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA.

Women’s Wooden Award All-Time Winners

Year	Player	School
2009	Maya Moore	University of Connecticut
2008	Candace Parker	University of Tennessee
2007	Candace Parker	University of Tennessee
2006	Seimone Augustus	Louisiana State University
2005	Seimone Augustus	Louisiana State University
2004	Alana Beard	Duke University

A Husky Parade! UCONN Women’s Parade Plans Set

According to media reports, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell says a date has been set for a parade to honor the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team for winning the NCAA national championship.

The parade will be held next Sunday, April 19, at 3 p.m. in Hartford.

As a Connecticut native, I’m sad to be living 3,000 miles away and miss the chance to honor these amazing, awesome, astonishing women.

Tens of thousands of people have lined the streets of the capital city to celebrate past championships won by the UConn women’s and men’s teams.

UConn beat Big East rival Louisville last week to claim its sixth national championship, and its first since 2004. The Huskies finished the season at a perfect 39-0.

The parade will begin and end at the state Capitol, and run near Bushnell Park, Main Street and Capitol Avenue. A rally will be held after the parade on the north steps of the Capitol.

To all my friends in Connecticut – be sure to get out next weekend to honor a great team and almost-graduate Renee Montgomery!

Hoops Hoopla: UConn Champs, WNBA Draft & more

In case you’ve been living in a hole, or under a rock (I’ve been neither but I have been on vacation) here’s an update on what’s been happening in the world of women’s basketball.

On Tuesday night, the UConn women finished out their perfect season by beating Louisville 76-54 and capturing the NCAA championship for the 6th time.  With that one final blowout, Connecticut grabbed the national title and a piece of basketball history.

It wasn’t just that Connecticut claimed another title. It was how the Huskies did it. They won every one of their 39 games by double digits, an unprecedented run in college basketball.

Associated Press Player of the Year Maya Moore and senior point guard Renee Montgomery played well  throughout the season but it was center Tina Charles who really delivered in the championship game.

Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry finished off her stellar career with 23 points in the final collegiate game.

On Thursday, the WBNA Draft took place and McCoughtry led the class as a surprise first pick for for the Atlanta Dream. With the second pick the Washington Mystics chose Maryland’s Marissa Coleman while her Terps teammate Kristi Toliver went third to the Chicago Sky. UConn standout Renee Montgomery was picked fourth by the Minnesota Lynx.

My local team, the Los Angeles Sparks, picked forward Ashley Paris who will join her sister Courtney in California (Courtney was drafted by Sacramento). See Complete Draft Board.

Megan Hueter (from Because I Played Sports and Women Talk Sports) was at the Draft and has some fun behind-the-scenes footage and commentary including a great interview with Nancy Lieberman.

Congrats to all on a great season and a great future with the WNBA.

Making a Fashion Statement on WNBA Draft Day

With this year’s collegiate basketball season over (congrats UConn), and the 2009 WNBA Draft taking place on Thursday, April 9, rookie players are facing a lot of pressure. Sure, there’s the question of which player gets picked by which team. But equally important is what to wear on the big day? It’s a decision that each player attending the draft must make.

Fifteen of the top women’s basketball prospects have been invited to this year’s Draft. The list is highlighted by Renee Montgomery (Connecticut), Courtney and Ashley Paris (Oklahoma), Angel McCoughtry (Louisville), Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman (Maryland) and Kia Vaughn (Rutgers).

Do the players keep their Draft Day outfits simple or try to make a statement? Do they go with a dress or a suit? If they go with a suit, do they wear pants or a skirt? WNBA players have many options when putting their draft-day outfit together and through the years have shown their style with much success.

Last year, Candace Parker got things started in the right direction with her all-white pant suit. Any coincidence that a phenom from the NBA named LeBron James also wore all white on Draft day?

Perhaps the biggest fashion statement of last year’s draft came from No. 2 pick Sylvia Fowles (photo), who topped off her black pants, white shirt and black vest with a black fedora hat. Pretty Tough? You bet!

Making the right fashion choice can help make players’ memories of draft day all the better. They should smile – not cringe – when they look back at the photos from such an important day, so choosing an outfit wisely is of utmost importance.

Read what players have said in the past about their fashion choices and get all the deets about this year’s draft at WNBA.com.

Good luck to all (on the fashion choices as well as the draft picks)!

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