These games

Tonight's WNBA results:

The Lynx outlasted the Dream in TWO overtimes, 97-93. Six Minnesota players in double figures, including veteran Taj McWilliams-Franklin, who made key plays in the second bonus period to seal the win. Four from Atlanta hit double digits.

Say what? Mercury over Sun, 91-82.

The Sparks snapped their two-game losing streak by blowing out the Mystics, 96-68.

The Sky took down the Liberty, 92-83.

The Fever squeaked out a win over the Silver Stars, 82-78. Tamika Catchings, with 26 points and 11 rebounds, is looking every bit like an MVP.

Other WNBA:

DeWanna Bonner talks about her superstar hooper sister Erica McCall, who will sign to a college in two months.

Chamique Holdsclaw writes about her recent experience as a Basketball Envoy to Africa for the U.S. State Department.

Lurethia Ann "Retha" Smith, 1954-2012

Lurethia Ann "Retha" Smith, or just "Mom," as she was known to so many in the Los Angeles basketball community.

__________________________________

The Los Angeles girls and women's basketball community lost one of its most beloved members on Aug. 25, as Lurethia "Retha" Smith passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 58 years old.

Hundreds attended Retha Smith's memorial service today, including numerous Los Angeles area college coaches, high school coaches, present and former hoopers, friends and associates. Her obituary is as follows:

Lurethia Ann Smith, known by friends and family as "Retha," was born April 7, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, to Ethel Minor and George Scott. In 1959 Retha moved to California to live with her grandmother Frazier and her Aunt Pearl. Retha attended Manual Arts High School and Tuskegee University. She demonstrated her passion for music as a child, playing violin in the LA Junior Philharmonic Orchestra, and various local orchestra groups.

As a child, Retha accepted Jesus Christ as Liberty Baptist Church. As an adult, she became a member of Crenshaw Christian Center. Retha married Homer Smith (preceded in death) in 1974, and was a devoted wife and a loving mother of three children.

Retha enjoyed every facet of life. Much of her time was spent as a legal secretary assisting attorneys at various law firms to spending countless hours administrating youth basketball teams and directing leagues. Retha has been an instrumental force in aiding young players to gain athletic scholarships to college.

More than anything else, Retha was most giving of her time. Regardless of her personal battles, she always offered a listening ear, or opened her home for others to reside, and she fed, clothed and transported any and all in need. She brought joy and laughter in any environment. She was a woman of strong faith and integrity.

Retha Smith helped run the Los Angeles Say No Classic League for a time. More recently she she has assisted her daughter, basketball trainer Sherrise Smith, with her business, Got Game, Inc. When Sherrise began her own summer league a few years ago, "The League," Retha Smith helped with that, too.

Her warmth and openness endeared her to the LA basketball community, young and old. This past summer, no one would ever guess she was battling breast cancer by the way she was rushing about on The League's opening day. Retha Smith would often find herself filling many roles on such occasions: administrator, record-keeper and manager. But to many, she was simply known as "Mom."

Sherrise, sister Christine and brother Kyle all spoke at today's service. Kyle, who is still in college, said he would miss his mother so much. Christine made attendees both cry and laugh with a story, and she called her older sister "the backbone of the family" since Retha Smith's death. Sherrise said it is clear to her that her mother's spirit is still with us. It was a beautiful service.

On a personal note, the last time I saw Retha Smith was in July, at one of The League games. I had come to support two of my girls, playing on the same team. I walked in and had walked right by Retha, sitting on the bleachers, before realizing it. I turned around and went back to give her a hug.

"I'm sorry, Mom, I didn't even see you," I said.

Retha's smile was always golden. We are all going to miss her very much.

Rest in peace.

Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame inductees; lots of WNBA news

Honorees:

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Induction is coming up this weekend. Helen has an excellent list of links profiling each of the inductees.

WNBA:

The return of Lauren Jackson has been more of a slow boil for the Storm, instead of the immediate impact many banked upon.

Lindsay Whalen blogs.

The WNBA will honor Team USA at a luncheon Monday.

Dishin & Swishin talks to Lindsey Harding and LaChina Robinson about the Atlanta Dream.

One columnist comes to the defense of Angel McCoughtry, who he says is "being assassinated."

Sophia Young: from St. Vincent to the WNBA.

How much better has Kristi Toliver been this season?

Race to the MVP, week 10:

1. Tina Charles
2. Candace Parker
3. Tamika Catchings
4. Sophia Young
5. Seimone Augustus
6. Kristi Toliver
7. Sylvia Fowles
8. Cappie Pondexter
9. Angel McCoughtry
10. Maya Moore

Agree or disagree with that order?

Still thinking of college hoops

Lady Vol interviews.

Arizona State Coach Charli Turner Thorne's blog from the team's recent trip to New Zealand.

Catching up with Michigan guard Aquashia Anderson, along with other player interviews.

Texas' Nadia Taylor has been a softball player for the University for four years, and now she'll join the basketball team.

Georgia Tech has a new floor. They'll tip off the season there Nov. 11, against Tennessee.

Tonight's WNBA results:

Dream 71, Fever 64

Liberty 87, Mercury 59

Cause for pause

Eastern and Western Conference players of the month for August are Tamika Catchings and Kristi Toliver, respectively.

The Minnesota Lynx are back on top of this week's power rankings:

1. Lynx
2. Sun
3. Fever
4. Sparks
5. Silver Stars
6. Dream
7. Storm
8. Sky
9. Liberty
10. Shock
11. Mercury
12. Mystics

The Lynx's nine-game winning streak seems to indicate that they are pulling away, and might be on the road to a repeat championship.

WNBA bonus:

The league gets an A-plus for diversity in hiring.

Seimone Augustus becomes Minnesota's all-time scoring leader in win over Sparks

The Lynx upended the Sparks, 88-77. In the process, Minnesota forward Seimone Augustus became the franchise all-time scoring leader, surpassing the old mark of 3,605, set by Katie Smith. This included six three-pointers - a personal record for Augustus. But true to form, Augustus gave credit to teammate Maya Moore, whom she called "cat woman" for her personal best seven steals.

In tonight's other game, another one fell through the fingers of the Mystics, as Tina Charles lead the Sun to a 77-70 victory.

Earlier today, Sparks forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike was named rookie of the month for August.

Tamika Catchings and DeWanna Bonner were named Eastern and Western Conference players of the week.

Hollinger Power Rankings

This week's Hollinger Power Rankings:

1. Lynx
2. Sparks
3. Silver Stars
4. Fever
5. Sun
6. Dream
7. Storm
8. Sky
9. Shock
10. Liberty
11. Mystics
12. Mercury

Two games on tap tomorrow:

Sun at Mystics and

Sparks at Lynx

Alana Beard has found a fresh start in LA.

Thinking ahead to college season

Charlie Creme compiled this 2012-2013 projected list before last year's Final Four even went down:

1. Baylor
2. Connecticut
3. Duke
4. Maryland
5. Kentucky
6. Stanford
7. Penn State
8. Notre Dame
9. Georgia
10. St. John's
11. Louisville
12. Oklahoma
13. Delaware
14. Georgia Tech
15. California
16. Nebraska
17. Texas A&M
18. Purdue
19. Oklahoma State
20. Vanderbilt
21. Tennessee
22. Kansas
23. Texas
24. Iowa
25. Iowa State

The top three will likely stay there: Baylor didn't lose anyone to graduation, Connecticut will stay strong, and Duke has some great returners and incoming freshmen.

Everyone else on the list is in the air.

Stanford enters a time of rebuilding this year after an era of dominance. Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who graduated last year and seems poised to take WNBA MVP ROY this summer, was the only reason the Cardinal came anywhere near the Final Four last year. Coach Tara VanDerveer will need a lot of time to re-fortify the depleted ranks that Ogwumike helped conceal so well.

Georgia will not see the top 20 - much less the top 10 - until they get a new coach. Andy Landers is a great man and a fine coach, but the Bulldogs need someone new.

We'll see how long it takes St. John's to recover from the loss of Kim Barnes Arico - the heart and soul of the program - who left for Michigan. My guess is it will be a while, but I could be wrong.

Speaking of that, Michigan should be on this list (Barnes Arico hadn't taken the job at the time of this posting, though).

Georgia Tech should be further up on the list. Ditto Cal, Tennessee and Texas.

Oklahoma State probably shouldn't be ranked in the top 25 yet.

What do you think of this list? Who should be on it that's not? Who shouldn't be on it that is?

Not so fast: WNBA championship still up for grabs

Indiana was struggling before the Olympic break, and San Antonio was red-hot. But look at these results from yesterday:

Fever 81, Sky 64
Mercury 94, Silver Stars 90
Liberty 79, Mystics 73 (Fire Trudi Lacey)

Also before the break, Connecticut was indomitable, and the Sparks were surging - a trend they continued their first week back. But check today's games:

Dream 87, Sun 80 (Atlanta played with Angel McCoughtry for the first time since her suspension last week)
Sky 85, Sparks 74

Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, Los Angeles and San Antonio have all secured playoff spots. Seattle will get the fourth slot in the West, while Eastern Conference teams will be duking it out for numbers three and four.

Minnesota has won eight consecutive games; Indiana, five. But the Lynx could easily begin a second slump, as the Sparks seem to be doing. The Sun could return to their consistent ways, just as easily as the Fever could harken back to their inconsistent ones. The Silver Stars could get flaming hot again.

There are still plenty of games left in the regular season. It's anybody's championship.

Interesting question

Does the Atlanta Dream player-coach dispute show the WNBA's progress?


But down in Atlanta we have a regular old dispute between a women's player, coach and franchise. Makes one think back to the good old Allen Iverson days in Philadelphia.

Here are the facts:

The Atlanta Dream's Angel McCoughtry, the WNBA's top player, came back from London with a gold medal as part of the USA’s winning women’s basketball team. One of the assistant coaches on that team was Marynell Meadors, the head coach and general manager of the Dream.

Whatever was happening, McCoughtry and Meadors were not seeing eye-to-eye.

The Atlanta owners, taking a page from the Orlando Magic with Dwight Howard (and that worked out real well for them didn’t it?), decided to fire Meadors and make assistant coach Fred Williams not only the interim the head coach but the general manager as well.

Just because they apparently want the star player to be happy doesn’t mean they want to add another salary and get an experienced general manager after all.

Williams immediately suspended McCoughtry for a violation of team rules and told her she have to agree to some things in writing to have the suspension lifted.

My answer: heck no.

My mantra: fire Trudi Lacey.