Bball Girl
03-25-2006, 08:14 AM
The other post was getting too long. The ABQ Journal is subscrip based, so here are the stories for today.
Sophia Young: Baylor's Building Block
By Brad Moore
Journal Staff Writer
FOCUS ON SOPHIA YOUNG: If Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson is the architect of the Lady Bears' fast ascension into college basketball's elite, senior forward Sophia Young has provided the on-site muscle.
Her record-setting play over the last four years has helped lift the Lady Bears to a national championship last season and a third straight appearance in the Sweet Sixteen this season.
"It will take all day for me to tell you about all of the things I think about Sophia Young," said Mulkey-Robertson.
"I've said it before. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe her."
Maryland coach Brenda Frese can think of one: "Awesome."
"As much film as I've been able to watch, I can't find a weakness," Frese said. "She puts the team on her back and does everything. She defends, rebounds, provides leadership.
"That's why they won a national championship last year and why they're in the Sweet Sixteen this year."
The Lady Bears had never been to the NCAA Tournament before Mulkey-Robertson's arrival six years ago. Young helped her expedite the remarkable turnaround.
The 6-foot, 1-inch senior is one of four players in the history of women's college basketball to total more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 300 assists and 300 steals.
She is averaging 22.2 points, nine rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.7 steals per game this season.
"She's an awesome post player," said Maryland's top post, sophomore Crystal Langhorne. "She has a quick first step and she can jump very high."
Young is from the St. Vincent in the West Indies and came to the United States as a high school sophomore foreign-exchange student.
When Mulkey-Robertson first saw Young at Evangel Academy in Shreveport, La., she said it took her five minutes to turn to her assistant coach and say, "Get her signed before anybody else sees her."
"What a remarkable find it was for us," Mulkey-Robertson said.
The only college offers Young had back then came from programs like Nicholls State, Centenary, Arkansas-Little Rock and Division II Arkansas-Monticello.
"When she was a freshman, she came to our program very raw," Mulkey-Robertson said. "To not have played the game of basketball for a long period of time, she is a tremendous athlete. She can play any position on the floor.
"She will, at the next level, take off further."
Maryland's Shay Doron: Loyal to Terrapins and Israel
By Ken Sickenger
Journal Staff Writer
FOCUS ON SHAY DORON: Shay Doron understands the importance of taking a serious approach. The standout guard for University of Maryland women's basketball team learned by necessity.
Born in Ramat Aviv, Israel, Doron split her formative years between the Middle East and Great Neck, N.Y. She's a product of the civil unrest endemic to her native country and the elite-level basketball at which she's come to excel.
An All-Atlantic Coast Conference honoree after each of her first three campaigns (she was second-team this season), Doron takes her roots seriously.
"I hope to make my family proud," she said Friday at the Pit, where Maryland practiced for tonight's Sweet Sixteen matchup against Baylor. Most of her family resides in Israel.
"Everyone except my parents," she said. "We have a large family on my mom's side. Most of my dad's family died in the Holocaust, but we're growing."
The 5-foot, 9-inch junior already has distinguished herself with the Terrapins. She ranks eighth in career scoring (1,444 points), fourth in career scoring average (15 points per game), third in career 3-pointers (120) and No. 1 in career free throws made (402).
Perhaps more telling is what Doron accomplished on her most recent summer vacation.
Doron, who has dual citizenship, led the Israeli under-20 national team to the country's first women's international tournament title. She was named MVP after Israel finished 6-0 in the Division B European Championship.
Afterward, Doron donned a United States jersey for the 17th World Maccabiah Games played in Israel. She was chosen MVP for the winning U.S. squad.
Doron could have helped the runner-up Israeli team, but felt it more important to serve as aide and tour-guide to U.S. players visiting Israel for the first time.
The experiences, Doron said, helped her assume a greater role with the Terrapins.
"My role has changed a lot," she said. "The burden is not on me as much offensively and my scoring is down (from 17.6 points to 14 per game), but I've improved in other areas and I'm trying to show more leadership."
A criminal justice major, Doron plans to work eventually either for the Israeli Secret Service or the FBI. But for now, job one is keeping her Maryland teammates focused.
When asked about her first impressions of Albuquerque, the 20-year-old responded in typical, serious fashion.
"It's nice, we like the weather. But we're here for business, not sightseeing."
Frese Is a Master of Chemistry at Maryland
By Rick Wright
Journal Staff Writer
Shay Doron came out of New York's Christ the King High School with enough postseason hardware to open her own Ace outlet. She essentially had her choice, she said Friday, of where to play her college basketball.
So, did she pick Connecticut? Tennessee? Duke? Stanford? North Carolina?
No. Instead, she chose Maryland— a once-strong program caught in a downward spiral and with a young coach not named Pat or Geno. In Brenda Frese's first season, which corresponded with Doron's senior year at Christ the King, the Terrapins had gone 10-18.
Fast forward to tonight, when Maryland (30-4) will take the court against defending national champion Baylor as the No. 2 seed in the Albuquerque Region. Based on the composition of Frese's team, if the Terps don't win a national title this year, they'll be a threat to do so in years to come.
The aforementioned Pat (Summitt, Tennessee, six national titles) and Geno (Auriemma, Connecticut, five national titles) haven't gone anywhere. But, thanks to upstarts like Frese and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson, they've had to move over.
For Frese, 35, microwaving moribund programs is nothing new. She did it at Ball State, taking a team that had averaged barely seven victories in nine previous seasons, to consecutive records of 16-13 and 19-9. She did it at Minnesota, 8-20 in 2000-01, guiding the Golden Gophers to 22 victories and an NCAA Tournament berth the following year.
Now, at Maryland, Frese has followed that 10-18 record in '02-03 with 70 wins (and counting) the past three seasons. This is the Terrapins' third consecutive NCAA appearance.
Based on Frese's record— both wins and losses and her well-traveled coaching résumé— one might think she's a saleswoman who could sweet-talk a blue-chip recruit into signing to play for Albuquerque's TVI.
Her experience, Doron said Friday, was the antithesis of that.
"(Frese) really didn't have to say much to get me to come to Maryland," she said. "Once you get to know her, you just get that feeling from the type of individual she is.
"It wasn't really even so much about basketball. It was just the coaches, the way I clicked with them."
Frese said there's no magic formula, just cards face up on the table.
"We were just honest," she said of Doron's recruitment. "We just said, 'Come and be a part of something special. From Day 1, you're going to have a huge impact on this program.' ''
For Frese and her staff, that approach has led to one recruiting coup after another— six McDonald's and/or Parade All-Americans in four years. Yet another, 2004 Parade national player of the year Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood, has transferred in from Tennessee and will be eligible in December.
Yet, Doron said, those players, however talented, wouldn't be at Maryland if they hadn't fit a profile that transcended their on-court abilities.
"(Frese and her assistants) don't recruit players," Doron said. "They recruit people.
"The best thing we have going in there," she added, with a nod toward the Maryland locker room at the Pit, "is how much we all like each other and how well we get along."
Many coaches, and some players, too, complain that NCAA recruiting restrictions don't allow time for those two parties to get to know one another. Frese said she and her assistants have managed.
"Your biggest thing on a team is chemistry," she said. "We spend a lot of time in the recruiting process through coaches, players' parents, within the high school, to find out the kind of character and the kind of people we're recruiting.
"If they're going to spend the next four years in this environment, you want them to fit your personality and your style of play."
OK, but when the current freshman group's four years are done, will Frese still be around? She took a public-relations beating when she left Minnesota after one season, and her three-schools-in-four-years stint between 2000 and 2003 would seem to shout "carpetbagger."
That seems an unwarranted assumption, since Frese was actively pursued by Maryland athletics director Debbie Yow. Besides, her current address is no mere mail drop; with the Washington D.C. area its front porch and the Baltimore area its back yard, with strong academics and a storied athletic tradition, this job's a keeper.
So, clearly, is Frese.
Sophia Young: Baylor's Building Block
By Brad Moore
Journal Staff Writer
FOCUS ON SOPHIA YOUNG: If Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson is the architect of the Lady Bears' fast ascension into college basketball's elite, senior forward Sophia Young has provided the on-site muscle.
Her record-setting play over the last four years has helped lift the Lady Bears to a national championship last season and a third straight appearance in the Sweet Sixteen this season.
"It will take all day for me to tell you about all of the things I think about Sophia Young," said Mulkey-Robertson.
"I've said it before. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe her."
Maryland coach Brenda Frese can think of one: "Awesome."
"As much film as I've been able to watch, I can't find a weakness," Frese said. "She puts the team on her back and does everything. She defends, rebounds, provides leadership.
"That's why they won a national championship last year and why they're in the Sweet Sixteen this year."
The Lady Bears had never been to the NCAA Tournament before Mulkey-Robertson's arrival six years ago. Young helped her expedite the remarkable turnaround.
The 6-foot, 1-inch senior is one of four players in the history of women's college basketball to total more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 300 assists and 300 steals.
She is averaging 22.2 points, nine rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.7 steals per game this season.
"She's an awesome post player," said Maryland's top post, sophomore Crystal Langhorne. "She has a quick first step and she can jump very high."
Young is from the St. Vincent in the West Indies and came to the United States as a high school sophomore foreign-exchange student.
When Mulkey-Robertson first saw Young at Evangel Academy in Shreveport, La., she said it took her five minutes to turn to her assistant coach and say, "Get her signed before anybody else sees her."
"What a remarkable find it was for us," Mulkey-Robertson said.
The only college offers Young had back then came from programs like Nicholls State, Centenary, Arkansas-Little Rock and Division II Arkansas-Monticello.
"When she was a freshman, she came to our program very raw," Mulkey-Robertson said. "To not have played the game of basketball for a long period of time, she is a tremendous athlete. She can play any position on the floor.
"She will, at the next level, take off further."
Maryland's Shay Doron: Loyal to Terrapins and Israel
By Ken Sickenger
Journal Staff Writer
FOCUS ON SHAY DORON: Shay Doron understands the importance of taking a serious approach. The standout guard for University of Maryland women's basketball team learned by necessity.
Born in Ramat Aviv, Israel, Doron split her formative years between the Middle East and Great Neck, N.Y. She's a product of the civil unrest endemic to her native country and the elite-level basketball at which she's come to excel.
An All-Atlantic Coast Conference honoree after each of her first three campaigns (she was second-team this season), Doron takes her roots seriously.
"I hope to make my family proud," she said Friday at the Pit, where Maryland practiced for tonight's Sweet Sixteen matchup against Baylor. Most of her family resides in Israel.
"Everyone except my parents," she said. "We have a large family on my mom's side. Most of my dad's family died in the Holocaust, but we're growing."
The 5-foot, 9-inch junior already has distinguished herself with the Terrapins. She ranks eighth in career scoring (1,444 points), fourth in career scoring average (15 points per game), third in career 3-pointers (120) and No. 1 in career free throws made (402).
Perhaps more telling is what Doron accomplished on her most recent summer vacation.
Doron, who has dual citizenship, led the Israeli under-20 national team to the country's first women's international tournament title. She was named MVP after Israel finished 6-0 in the Division B European Championship.
Afterward, Doron donned a United States jersey for the 17th World Maccabiah Games played in Israel. She was chosen MVP for the winning U.S. squad.
Doron could have helped the runner-up Israeli team, but felt it more important to serve as aide and tour-guide to U.S. players visiting Israel for the first time.
The experiences, Doron said, helped her assume a greater role with the Terrapins.
"My role has changed a lot," she said. "The burden is not on me as much offensively and my scoring is down (from 17.6 points to 14 per game), but I've improved in other areas and I'm trying to show more leadership."
A criminal justice major, Doron plans to work eventually either for the Israeli Secret Service or the FBI. But for now, job one is keeping her Maryland teammates focused.
When asked about her first impressions of Albuquerque, the 20-year-old responded in typical, serious fashion.
"It's nice, we like the weather. But we're here for business, not sightseeing."
Frese Is a Master of Chemistry at Maryland
By Rick Wright
Journal Staff Writer
Shay Doron came out of New York's Christ the King High School with enough postseason hardware to open her own Ace outlet. She essentially had her choice, she said Friday, of where to play her college basketball.
So, did she pick Connecticut? Tennessee? Duke? Stanford? North Carolina?
No. Instead, she chose Maryland— a once-strong program caught in a downward spiral and with a young coach not named Pat or Geno. In Brenda Frese's first season, which corresponded with Doron's senior year at Christ the King, the Terrapins had gone 10-18.
Fast forward to tonight, when Maryland (30-4) will take the court against defending national champion Baylor as the No. 2 seed in the Albuquerque Region. Based on the composition of Frese's team, if the Terps don't win a national title this year, they'll be a threat to do so in years to come.
The aforementioned Pat (Summitt, Tennessee, six national titles) and Geno (Auriemma, Connecticut, five national titles) haven't gone anywhere. But, thanks to upstarts like Frese and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson, they've had to move over.
For Frese, 35, microwaving moribund programs is nothing new. She did it at Ball State, taking a team that had averaged barely seven victories in nine previous seasons, to consecutive records of 16-13 and 19-9. She did it at Minnesota, 8-20 in 2000-01, guiding the Golden Gophers to 22 victories and an NCAA Tournament berth the following year.
Now, at Maryland, Frese has followed that 10-18 record in '02-03 with 70 wins (and counting) the past three seasons. This is the Terrapins' third consecutive NCAA appearance.
Based on Frese's record— both wins and losses and her well-traveled coaching résumé— one might think she's a saleswoman who could sweet-talk a blue-chip recruit into signing to play for Albuquerque's TVI.
Her experience, Doron said Friday, was the antithesis of that.
"(Frese) really didn't have to say much to get me to come to Maryland," she said. "Once you get to know her, you just get that feeling from the type of individual she is.
"It wasn't really even so much about basketball. It was just the coaches, the way I clicked with them."
Frese said there's no magic formula, just cards face up on the table.
"We were just honest," she said of Doron's recruitment. "We just said, 'Come and be a part of something special. From Day 1, you're going to have a huge impact on this program.' ''
For Frese and her staff, that approach has led to one recruiting coup after another— six McDonald's and/or Parade All-Americans in four years. Yet another, 2004 Parade national player of the year Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood, has transferred in from Tennessee and will be eligible in December.
Yet, Doron said, those players, however talented, wouldn't be at Maryland if they hadn't fit a profile that transcended their on-court abilities.
"(Frese and her assistants) don't recruit players," Doron said. "They recruit people.
"The best thing we have going in there," she added, with a nod toward the Maryland locker room at the Pit, "is how much we all like each other and how well we get along."
Many coaches, and some players, too, complain that NCAA recruiting restrictions don't allow time for those two parties to get to know one another. Frese said she and her assistants have managed.
"Your biggest thing on a team is chemistry," she said. "We spend a lot of time in the recruiting process through coaches, players' parents, within the high school, to find out the kind of character and the kind of people we're recruiting.
"If they're going to spend the next four years in this environment, you want them to fit your personality and your style of play."
OK, but when the current freshman group's four years are done, will Frese still be around? She took a public-relations beating when she left Minnesota after one season, and her three-schools-in-four-years stint between 2000 and 2003 would seem to shout "carpetbagger."
That seems an unwarranted assumption, since Frese was actively pursued by Maryland athletics director Debbie Yow. Besides, her current address is no mere mail drop; with the Washington D.C. area its front porch and the Baltimore area its back yard, with strong academics and a storied athletic tradition, this job's a keeper.
So, clearly, is Frese.