McDonald's All-American game: one player's perspective

Reshanda Gray of Washington Prep High School in Los Angeles was one of the players for the West in yesterday's McDonald's All-American high school game. The event capped off a big year for the Cal signee, who won a gold medal last June playing for USA Basketball's U17 team.

"Too Tall" had reported having a lot of fun in the days leading up to the game, so I talked with her about her experience after she returned today.

SF: What activities did you participate in for the four days leading up to the game?

RG: We went to Ronald McDonald House the first day and spent time with the kids. They ranged in age from 1-10, and we did arts and crafts with them, played video games and decorated sugar cookies. We also autographed balls for them. It was a lot of fun.

On Monday we had the Jamfest. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (Mater Dei) won the three-point shooting contest. Ariya Crook-Williams (Long Beach Poly) won the skills challenge, which was a sequence of dribble patterns, layups and different types of passes.

SF: What was it like playing in the game, in front of 19,000 people?

RG: I'd never played in front of that many people before, and at first I was a little nervous. But then I just went out there and did what I could do.

SF: I can't find a box score - how did you do?

RG: Five points, seven rebounds and three blocks.

SF: Were the East and West teams separated, or were you together?

RG: We hung out with each other outside of practices. They assigned roommates from the same team, so all the West players roomed together.

SF: Whom did you share a room with?

RG: (UCLA signee) Justine Hartman. We kinda bonded.

SF: How many practices did you have leading up to the game?

RG: Just one a day, not two.

SF: What celebrities did you get to meet?

RG: Alonzo Mourning, Larry Bird and Doc Rivers.

SF: What was the best part of the experience for you?

RG: The whole trip was a great experience for me. I got to meet other players from the East coast, I got to do something I loved, and we helped kids. We did it all.



Reshanda Gray and former Miami Heat player Alonzo Mourning.

ESPN's game story.

Hoopfeed story.

Final Four stuff, coaching news

The lead of this fine Stanford story on their seniors says it all:

Four straight Final Fours. Who does that?

Indeed.

Tara the Terrible.

At Texas A&M, it's been a long journey to the 'Four.

Coaching non-hires:

Texas Tech's Kristy Curry has dropped her bid for the LSU job.

Kelly Graves has spurned the University of Washington's interest to stay at Gonzaga.

Outsted Cindy Blodgett feels betrayed by the University of Maine.

Different angles on the NCAA tournament

The Final Four won't be what most predicted, but it will still be riveting.

Well, actually 3,751 people did predict the four teams that made it.

The four teams are very different.

ESPNW has five storylines to watch out for this coming weekend.

UCLA Coach Nikki Caldwell breaks down Stanford's strategies and how they can beat Texas A&M.

I knew it: attendance for the tourmanent is up 65 percent so far.

From last year's FF: Xavier's Dee Dee Jernigan laments her missed layups in last year's Elite Eight loss to Stanford. (Ouch!)

Update at 9:48 p.m.: the Cardinal - not UConn - are ESPN unanimous picks for a win Sunday.

Bonus:

Dawn Staley confirms she's not going for the Virginia job.

Former Maine Coach Cindy Blodgett has hired a lawyer.

Look at the LA Sparks team list so far. So Betty Lennox hasn't decided if she's coming back yet, huh?

McDonald's All-American game: East 78, West 66

The news is pretty paltry right now. But Duke signee Elizabeth Williams was the leading scorer of the game, for the East, with 23 points and 11 rebounds.

I need a longer, more complete story with a box score. ASAP.

USC and Toldeo to face off for WNIT title

In tonight's semifinals:

Toledo beat (on) Charlotte 83-60 - and in front of a sold-out crowd, too.

In the meantime, USC crushed Illinois state 63-36.

The two teams will battle for the title Saturday in Toledo.

Wooden Award team announced

Here they are:

Maya Moore
Brittney Griner
Jeannette Pohlen
Nnemkadi Ogwumike
Courtney Vandersloot

What an honor. Congrats to all.

Cal's leading scorer leaving

DeNesha Stallworth is leaving Cal before she even has a place to land.

"She has a signed release and we're communicating with some schools and setting up some visits," Chris Stallworth said. "It wasn't a bad break, it just wasn't a good fit."

Stallworth, a 6-foot-3 forward from Richmond, Calif., is planning visits with Florida, Fresno State and Kansas, but is also looking into other options, according to her father.

Stallworth led Cal in scoring this season at 13.3 points per game and helped the team reach the WNIT for the second straight season.

Hey hey hey, it's mid-day

It's finally warm in Southern California right now, after a loooooong winter, so I'm hyped.

So are the McDonald's All-Americans: the girls play at 6:30 p.m. CST on ESPNU.

La Jolla Country Day (San Diego) Coach Terri Bamford is the Russell Athletic Regional High School Coach of the Year. She will coach the WNCA high school all-star game this weekend.

Australian star baller Liz Cambage is demanding to be in the WNBA, but refuses to go to Tulsa. You gotta love that NBA attitude.

Kye Allums - the George Washington transgender player - had his season cut short after sustaining multiple concussions.

Hoopfeed has a great write-up on last night's Baylor-Texas A&M game.

More coach firing drama

The University of Maine has removed Coach Cindy Blodgett, "effective immediately." She was their star player 13 years ago, and had been coaching there for the last four seasons.

Sounds like Oregon and Bev Smith a couple years ago, only with much more harsh language.

Bonus: do athletes think faster? Yepthat'sbeenmyexperiencebothpersonallyandinobservation.

Day 8 (deja vu)

Tonight seemed to be the opposite of last night's fourth round, with the blowout up first and the surprise upset second.

UConn just dismantled Duke from top to bottom. I knew the Huskies would win, but I didn't guess the score would be 75-40. Maya Moore's 3000th point was the icing on the cake for UConn.

Like last night's takedown, Texas A&M's upset of Baylor surprised me a bit. (It always surprises me when a team actually does what they're capable of doing). But after eight losses to the Bears, the ninth time was the charm for the Aggies, and in the biggest arena - over 11,000 fans. Like Notre Dame did to Tennessee last night, A&M lead Baylor the entire game.

So now we have Notre Dame set to play UConn on Sunday and Stanford to face Texas A&M, and again, I feel like I'm in "Groundhog Day." In the Pac-10 tournament a few weeks ago, Cal upset Arizona State to advance to the semifinal, and Arizona upended USC on the other side of the bracket. The Bears and Cats each earned the privilege of playing the conference top dogs, UCLA and Stanford.

And both teams got their butts kicked.

So here's what I'm wondering: will Stanford and UConn make their opponents look like high school teams, or will we really have a game or two? Of course I'm hoping for the latter. This has been one of the wildest tournaments in years.....and I love it.

Amazing Brittney Griner photo from tonight, courtesy of hoopfeed.

Baylor's Kim Mulkey explains why she likes to coach.

Nice piece on the Ogwumikes.