Who ya like in WBB in our state? We say JMU, Liberty and Virginia Tech are 1-2-3

We're expecting another big year for Liberty's Rininger.

Rankings are tough business during the preseason, but we thought we'd take a stab. Don't judge us too harshly, as no games have been played until tomorrow (we think of this as Christmas Eve) and if you prove us wrong, all the better.

1. James Madison

Yes, we know the Dukes lost Precious Hall for the season and we haven't forgotten that Toia and Lady graduated. The three are huge losses for the Dukes, whose consistency under Kenny Brooks is a bragging point for the program. So admittedly, we have questions about how the 2015-16 version of JMU can hold up to the teams of the last few years that have advanced to the NCAA tournament. That said, one of the best point guards in the country, Muff Mickens, returns along with Jazmon Gwathmey, MVP of the last two CAA championships. Gwathmey is loaded with talent but her  shooting inconsistency has prevented her from becoming a dominant player during the regular season. This could be her year -- especially given her improvement on the perimeter. Love the energy Ashley Perez brought to this group last season, and bigs Kayla Cooper-Williams and Savannah Felgemacher could be the rare freshmen on Brooks' team that get ample playing time. Then there's Da'Lishia Griffin, a junior who has waited her turn, and finally could get it, bringing the size and post presence JMU needs to be nationally relevant yet again.

2. Liberty

The Lady Flames are a beacon of consistency and size, and 2015-16 is no different. Bigs Ashley Rininger (the Big South Preseason Player of the Year) and Katelyn Adams will get help from a finally healthy Catherine Kearney, and Sadalia Ellis is a heady point who can set the table for them. Also expecting shooter Jaymee Fisher-Davis to drive more given her excellent free-throw capability. Like JMU, this program does not underachieve.

3. Virginia Tech

On paper, it's hard not to love this Hokie team. Other teams are looking for answers to fill holes; the Hokies have no major holes. While so many teams around the state have question marks at key positions, the Hokies are a proven commodity. They are deep with a talented pool of freshman coming in, including 6-3 Kelly Koshuta, a five-star ESPN recruit, and Chanette Hicks, who should make an immediate impact at the point. Remember how Regan Megarity started last year before a calf injury ended her season five games in? (Scoring 25 in her collegiate debut, she averaged 14 ppg and 10 rpg before being sidelined.) She's back and healthy, ready to join a starting lineup that includes the 6-3 Vanessa Panousis and stat-sheet filler Taijah Campbell. Then there's Rachel Camp, an All-ACC freshman from a year ago, who averaged 11.4 ppg. Yes, we love this VT team, which should easily be Dennis Wolff's best.

4. Virginia

The Cavaliers haven't made the NCAA tournament in six years and will miss Sarah Imovbioh, who transferred to South Carolina for her senior season; she led the team in rebounding and was second in scoring. Faith Randolph and Mikayla Venson bring double-digit scoring back, but Virginia needs an infusion of new blood to make an impact in the ridiculously deep ACC. Leading candidates are 6-3 forward Mone Jones, the 11th ranked recruit at her position, according to ESPN, and eligible transfer J'Kyra Brown, a 5-11 guard from East Carolina. Should the Cavs be 3 here given their dominance over Tech? Maybe, but we gave VT the edge just slightly.

5. Richmond

Michael Shafer is lavish with his praise of the guard tandem of Janelle Hubbard, Lauren Tolson and Micaela Parson, perhaps the best in the Atlantic 10, but post play is a question mark. A healthy Karleigh Wike and Rennie Harrison, both physically stronger than a year ago, are prospects, and we're eager to see what Finnish forward  Tuuli Menna can add. The Spiders are ready given the summer European tour that combined basketball with the sights. Rebounding might be tough, especially against a conference stalwart like George Washington. But ODU/Richmond on Friday at the Robins Center led us to give the Spiders the 5 spot over the Lady Monarchs.

6. Old Dominion

If we had to pick the top player in the state, we'd go with Jennie Simms, who scored 43 in ODU's exhibition, showing what looks to be already mid-season form for our pick for Conference USA POY. The question is who's going to help Simms get it done? It should be a breakout year for Destinee Young offensively, and ideally Ije Ajemba will be able to add points to her already solid defense. It wouldn't surprise us if the Lady Monarchs figure it out in time for the CUSA tournament, but finding the right mix early will be a challenge. Though just a freshman, MaKayla Timmons showed potential at point during preseason; now the hard part begins.


7. VCU

Beth O'Boyle's bunch has a new practice gym with all the bells and whistles (underwater treadmill machine sounds cool), and the Rams should be a more confident team under O'Boyle, in her second season from Stony Brook. Former ODU point Galaisha Goodhope will bring a scoring touch, trusty handle and defense to match for a team that will welcome her in the spring semester. VCU must shoot the ball better than a year ago when poor free-throw shooting and indecision affected its offense. O'Boyle said much of the summer was spent on individual shooting and team offense, and we're eager to see an improved Isis Thorpe and Adaeze Alaeze. Another boon: Rebounding ace Jessica Ogunnorin, 6-1, has transferred in from Stony Brook and is immediately eligible.

8. Hampton

Do we think the Pirates will be the eighth best team in the state by season's middle? No. We're tempted to move them much higher, but we'd like to see David Six's bunch play a few games first. Defensively, we're not worried, and Malia Tate-DeFreitas is our bet to repeat as MEAC Player of the Year. We look forward to seeing the Pirates perhaps more than any other team because you never know what David Six has in store.

9. George Mason

No question about Taylor Brown. The A10 scoring leader is one of the five best players in the state. Coach Nyla Milleson has also lauded this group that includes transfers Kara Wright and Bridget O'Donnell isn't short on work ethic, making for the competitive practices she has yearned for since taking over the program. Among the most intriguing newcomers, we think, is Chinyere Bell. Surrounded by a team full of transfers, she is a freshman who pulled down 16 rebounds to go with 10 points in the team's only exhibition. We can't wait to see what the 5-11 forward, who also lettered four years in track, will bring to her first season of collegiate ball.

10. William and Mary

We'd like to pick the Tribe higher and think Ed Swanson has laid the foundation for W&M to be the most improved team in the state alongside Tech. They'll miss Jazmen Boone, but three of the top four scorers return, including Marlena Tremba. W&M experienced postseason success last season for the first time in Division I. The stock is rising for 2015-16.

11. Radford

Love the frontcourt with Janayla White and Jayda Worthy, and of course, preseason first-team PG Aisha Foy. But preseason ACL tears to Brittany Allen and Claudia Quevado hurt the Highlanders depth. Looking forward to seeing freshman Jen Falconer making the start on Friday against George Mason.


12. Norfolk State

They'll miss Rae Corbo, but Kayla Roberts and Koryn Lawrence bring needed experience. Depth will be an issue, but the Spartans hope to build on their promising 2014-15 season.

13. Longwood

We have no doubt that the Lancers will improve on their 5-win season despite a brutal schedule that starts at Oregon State on Friday and continues in Harrisonburg vs. JMU on Sunday. The great news is Khalilah Ali and Daeisha Brown are healthy again; early-season injuries to the starters was a huge blow to Longwood a year ago.

Reflecting on losing my mother one year later

Mom and Dad

Deviating from the usual WBB just for today.

We played music on a boom box the day we buried my mother, who died one year ago today. The first song was her favorite, "How Deep is the Ocean." When Frank Sinatra uttered the lyric, "And if you should ever leave me, how much will I cry? How deep is the ocean, how high is the sky," I felt as if those words were freshly written for me standing alongside my sister in that chilly cemetery overlooking a busy street in Altoona, Pa.

I miss my mother. I miss her, quite honestly, more than I felt it was possible to miss another. I confess I didn't see the hole she left coming. My dad has been gone 18-plus years, and he was easier for me to connect with for much of my life. A simple man who wanted hot dogs every night for dinner, my pinochle partner who never had meld, a guy who left Tastykakes on my dresser was so easy to love.

A therapist once asked me to describe my mother, and I said she was hard. The therapist said she had never heard that word used that way before, but it fits. When I was a kid, I could never seem to please my mother, who had an opinion on everything and was never shy about voicing it. When I became an adult, she could drive me crazy in a heartbeat. If she hated a certain piece of furniture you had, she mentioned it every time she saw it. If the sweater you were wearing made you look fat, she told you. I remember picking her up from the train station nearly two decades ago, asking my husband his prediction on how long it might be before I got perturbed by something she said. He said, "I think you'll make it back from the train station."

I didn't.

But what I slowly began to understand as I watched her fade in a hospital bed last October was how rooted she was in every aspect of me. Nobody asks about my dentist appointment anymore. Nobody knows if I don't go to the dentist. "What are you having for dinner?" My mother wanted to know. She asked questions, fittingly the kinds of questions I often ask my kids who shrug them off. She reminded me of the obvious, and yet, I still asked. I have a master's degree; she barely finished high school, yet she was the one I would turn to for seemingly things I should know for myself. Harry has mono, I told her, about 2 1/2 weeks before she died. His throat is raw. She told me what kind of throat lozenges to buy. I've bought throat lozenges all my life, but I asked her what she would do.

You see my mother always knew what to do.

I drive a lot, and she used to talk me home. There were times I'd think she didn't really know much about me anymore; after all, we rarely chatted about women's basketball or the class I teach or the college where I work. But she knew me from the inside out; just about everybody else knows me from the outside in. We could get off the phone after two hours having talked about nothing beyond the ordinary and yet add all those conversations up and they turned into something extraordinary.

She made me laugh. My sister always said that for some reason, no matter how old we got, we cared what Mom thought. Even in my 40s, I'd swallow hard before telling her something I thought she might not agree with.

"Mom, I don't care what you say, I've done something and I know it's the right thing to do," I said into the phone.

"You're getting divorced."

"No, Mom. We got two puppies."

Life in the last year has been profoundly different in ways that I don't wear on my sleeve. For one, it is so ridiculously quiet. The silence without her is deafening. Quite literally, my mother was a loud person. Her voice was loud as was her personality. When my sister and I cleaned out her apartment sorting through a range of stuff that ranged from the Cosmopolitan with the Burt Reynolds centerfold to the massive painting of the horse galloping in the ocean that had hung on the wall for decades to the railroad passes of her father's she carried in her purse, I half expected her to walk in the door and shout at us for making a mess. But I only hear her voice in the occasional dream now; even a voicemail she left me that I clung to for months has strangely disappeared.

While people tell you to cherish the memories, simply focusing too hard on them hurts. Instead I find myself snuggling in the robe she regularly wore, and sometimes I warm myself in the oversized Redskins sweatshirt from her closet. I wear her blue gloves, though one is gone now. The jade necklace that she always said I could have when she was dead is one of those treasures you'll say you'll grab in a fire. I watch "The Good Wife" and wonder why I didn't listen to her when she told me it was such a good show. I wish we could have talked about it.

Unlike the hard woman I described to that therapist, I think of my mom in only the tenderest terms now.

And sometimes, when I am able, I listen to the final song played at the cemetery that day, Sinatra's "I'll be seeing you." Often I hum the lyrics when I walk my dogs, looking skyward for two stars that I often spot that seem to always be close to one another. One is dull while the other shines, my dad and my mom, I think.

Sometimes I sing the song aloud.

"I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through. 
In that small cafe, the park across the way, the children's carousel, the chestnut tree, the wishing well.
 I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day, in everything that's light and gay, I always think of you that way. 
I will find you in the morning sun, and when the night is new . . .

I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you.

Shout out to those other Dukes of Duquesne and a few words about JMU's Dukes

Put up your Dukes

We wish Duquesne was in Virginia.

Yep, we have our own Dukes (and hint, we think even minus Precious Hall they are the team to beat in the state), but we admit that Dan Burt and his Duquesne Dukes sound like a fun bunch to write about. Along with our own coaches at Atlantic 10 media day last week, we had a chance to catch up with Burt, the Dukes coach, and an avid LadySwish reader (we promise, more fresh content is in the works).

Before we divulge more, let us say we sure hope Virginia product April Robinson (West Springfield High) has the kind of season for Duquesne that Burt anticipates. He champions his senior point guard as the face of the program, and coining a Geno-ism notes, "We've got April Robinson, and you don't."

(Quick Robinson history lesson: Freshmen rarely start at Duquesne; she has started every game of her career. A year ago, she led the A10 with 87 3-pointers and was in the conference top 12 in six other categories. She also made the conference's All-Academic team last year.)

Now how does this relate to our Dukes? For one, Burt dismisses the "mid-major" label as JMU coach Kenny Brooks does and is cognizant of the scheduling challenges facing non-BCS schools. This year Duquesne will play six teams in the top 1-50 (RPI), five in 50-100 and five through 100-150. He wants this team in the NCAA tournament; a year ago, despite a 23-11 record, they were excluded.

"I've learned a lot about scheduling and the RPI," he said. "You need to have games that are winnable and you need to win and you need to have RPI wins 250 and below with the majority, hopefully, 200 and below. Scheduling is an incredibly difficult thing."

Burt isn't shy about going out of the box to play teams that are reluctant to travel to the A.J. Palumbo Center. Two years ago the Dukes played Notre Dame in Toronto and he alludes to a possible future game against a team even better than the Irish.

Ask Brooks about scheduling woes, and he and Burt are kin. Both coaches are used to teams saying no dice when they ask about a home-and-home series. While we think Harrisonburg is lovely this time of year, it's hard to get an ACC, Big Ten or otherwise Power 5 conference contender to head to the Convocation Center for a game. Even in the state, certain teams aren't eager to make the trek up I-81; Old Dominion hasn't played its former CAA rival since moving to Conference USA. By contrast, Pitt, continues to play neighbor Duquesne despite being on the losing end of the series for the last decade.

"After we beat Kansas and Ohio State back-to-back years, no one was taking that call," Burt said. "Most of the Power 5 will not do it."

Another A10 coach with similar struggles: St. Bonaventure's Jim Crowley, who's built a non-conference sked this season that includes Penn State, Georgetown and JMU, which dominated the Bonnies last year in Harrisonburg.

Like Burt, like Brooks, like us, he's ready to toss the word "mid-major" into the dumper.

"JMU is one of the best programs in the country," Crowley said. "People want to say mid-major; that's garbage. They're one of the best programs in the country. We know what they have and we know what a great job Kenny does; to play a team like that in December is great for our future because we're going to find out things about ourselves."

One more Duquesne note that tickles us: The preseason media supplement notes they're not Lady Dukes and not Dutchesses. Just Dukes, thank you.

Former Lady Monarch Kelley earns championship with WNBA's Lynx

Shae Kelley has a WNBA championship ring.

The former Old Dominion star who spent her final year of eligibility playing at the University of Minnesota re-joined the Minnesota Lynx on July 31. Though she didn't log any minutes in the playoffs, but still feels she grew from the experience.

Kelley left ODU because she felt she could get better exposure playing in the Big Ten, which has its own network. A First-Team Big Ten (media) and Second-Team Big Ten (coaches) selection, the 6-1 forward averaged 17.5 ppg, shooting .486. Kelley started all 33 games for the Gophers, who lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament; She was drafted by Minnesota in the third round and appeared in eight regular season games this season, nabbing three rebounds, one assist and a steal. She was cut in July.

"At that time it was what the team needed, and they had to make that decision," she said.

Kelley calls the second opportunity a blessing. "They didn't have to call me back," she said. Coach Cheryl Reeve was candid in telling her she might not get playing time, but she would learn from some of the league's biggest stars. Minnesota's roster includes Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles and Lindsay Whalen.

"It was just crazy to watch them and play with them and practice every day," Kelley said. "I took it all in and got a championship out of it."

Kelley said she studied how Augustus was able to get open, Moore's ability to score with off-balance shots and Whalen's on-court smarts.

"I took a little bit from each person," Kelley said.

She's in Poland now on Energa Torun's roster, ready for another season and excited to be out of the United States for the first time ever.

Her continues to be grateful for her time as a Lady Monarch and heard from coach Karen Barefoot during the Lynx's run. "It was great the whole time I was there," she said. "I'm ODU alumni; that's where I graduated from."

Richmond's Liv Healy talks about the long road back from ACL surgery

"My previous knee -- it was just an ACL." -- Liv Healy


A-C-L. These letters are so routine in women's basketball that we in media are guilty of dismissively writing, "She tore her ACL," or "she is back after recovering from a torn ACL, without really exploring what that means. We often forget the rigor that goes into the rehab, the painful days that linger during damp weather, the grind of one foot forward, two back from tearing an anterior cruciate ligament -- which joins the upper leg bone with the lower leg bone and controls the stability of the knee. The ACL takes an especially long time to heal because of its poor blood supply and location.

So we probed deeper when talking to Richmond guard Liv Healy about her second ACL tear, this one to the left knee, suffered in February at Dayton. Healy collided with Flyers guard    Amber Deane, lunged toward her right and felt her left knee snap. She heard one huge pop and four smaller ones.

"I knew from the moment I hit the ground I was done," says the junior from Reading, Mass. "When they came over to me, I said, 'I've done it again, but it's worse.' "

Healy tore her right ACL 13 months prior to that in a game at St. Louis -- the same game she was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week.

















2 years. 2 tears.

"This is definitely not how I pictured my four years," says Healy, who scored a career-high 17 against Dayton that day and averaged 8.2 ppg and 4.3 rpg last season in the 23 games she played.  "It's been one of the most challenging things I've had to deal with. It's been a really hard adjustment for me this
year, not really knowing what my role is, taking it day by day."

The second time Healy also tore both the left and right meniscus and sprained her MCL. "I had a whole knee repair. It was also hard for me to understand how my rehab was going to be, because my previous knee -- it was just an ACL."

Here's a peek inside what Healy has dealt with since surgery, starting with the immediate hours afterward. Unable to keep the anaesthesia and nerve block down, she had to return to the hospital for a second nerve block. In fact, the doctor actually had to come to her because of the pain.

"The first 12 hours, I was in the most agonizing pain I've ever been in in my life," she says. "I'm so thankful for my loving mother and father who came down from Rhode Island to stay with me for three weeks."

Rehab every day wore on her mentally.

"You wake up one day and you squat down and you wake up the next day and you can't get out of bed. The rehab is two hours a day after everyone else has left the Robins Center. The most frustrating part is dealing with that roller coaster ride every day -- not knowing what tomorrow is going to feel like and not knowing if you're ever going to be the player that you were."

Healy was a star in the making at Richmond and a decorated as a high school player. She amassed nearly 2,000 points, tops all time at Reading High, and was the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and ESPN Magazine's Miss Boston Player of the Year, both in 2013. She had a double-double 17 points, 10 boards in her collegiate debut against Georgetown.

"I was a Gatorade Player, All-American and now I come to college and haven't even completed one full season. I've never made it to the postseason," she says.

Some days, she says, you tackle rehab with a mindset that tells you that you can attack win, you can be that person who overcomes this without issues.

"In reality, that's not possible," she says. "You face some terrible days where you're crying in your car, but then you have great days when you can put five pounds on your leg and do leg lifts. The little progress is the most rewarding."

Healy has tried to run only to stop. Too much pain, she says, soreness that worsens during the type of weather we've had in the last few weeks when true sunshine has been a stranger.

As for playing again when -- we're not there yet. Best case scenario is returning to the floor two months after she starts running again, and Healy will try again in the next two weeks.

"A miracle could happen and I could feel great tomorrow and I could start running," she says. "It's been really difficult to deal with and the coaches have done a great job keeping me focused on the present day. Because sometimes when I have a bad day, I think I'll never be back."

Even if she's cleared in late December or January, it's not just a matter of jumping back in. ACLs mess with more than your knee. They get into your head. A year ago when Healy returned, she remembers turnovers and a lack of confidence affecting her play. By Christmas last season, she felt herself again, and then a month later came the Dayton game.

She knows this much. Before she can consider playing again, she has to be healthy. She has to be confident.

"It's not good to have one but not the other."

Healy is candid in admitting she can't promise she will be back playing at the same level as before.

"I can't say that right now," she says. "Not yet. Right now I feel like my health is a little bit higher than my confidence. I just had two friends go down with knee surgeries. One retore her ACL and meniscus, and since then, I've been terrified. I've had moments in the day when my mind wanders and I daydream and my leg will twitch and I will daydream about tearing it again. All the sudden I'll feel it and think, 'I can do it again in a second.' Until that feeling is gone, I'm not ready to step onto a basketball court."

She loves this team and is excited for the season, thrilled with the guards she calls the BIC -- Best in Conference. Yes, she longs to be a part of it, yearns to play at Providence in November, so close to her hometown when Mom, Dad and grandparents will all be in the stands.

"It makes me upset that I'm in the same position as last year and I worked so hard not to be in that position," she says.

Healy's mom told her that a silver lining would come, and it has. This fall the junior dropped her dance class for obvious reasons and picked up the only class she could find available: Journalism 101.

"I fell in love with it," she says. "I couldn't stop writing. I couldn't stop reading the news. And that's how I became a journalism major."

She is a regular writer for The Collegian, Richmond's student newspaper (we were impressed with her feature on a Richmond golfer) and is part of the Spider TV crew and social media. She will be writing about the men's basketball team during its season.

Joining a sorority is another prospect and that, along with the journalism, are all interests she would not have discovered had she not torn up her knee again.

We love that Liv has found joy in writing, something we embrace just a bit. But we hate to hear about any ACL injury of any kind and look forward to talking to her when her rehab is in the rear view mirror.

First day of practice snippets

ODU's Mery Andrade now Coach Andrade

Remember that movie "There's Something About Mary"? Well, we spell Mery differently in this blog, and we've always known there's something about Mery Andrade that would make her a great asset to any coaching staff.

Nobody outworked the Old Dominion defensive menace, whose expressions of absolute disbelief when called for a block still tickle us inside some 18 years after the Lady Monarchs advanced to the national title game. Andrade, along with her buds Ticha Penicheiro and Clarisse Machanguana, were part of that Portuguese connection that the ODU fan base adored during a magical time in the program's storied history.

Andrade, the soul of the 1997 team that finished 34-2, was co-CAA Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 1998-99.

Alas, Mery is finally done terrorizing the opposition's best offensive player, deciding to join the

coaching ranks. Earlier this month, former ODU assistant Cindy Fisher (who coached alongside Wendy Larry in '97) added Andrade to her staff at the University of San Diego. Fisher has been head coach there for a decade.

Andrade retired in May after a long club career in Italy and previously, Portugal. She played in the WNBA, primarily for the former Cleveland team, for five seasons.

"It really is over," she said, genuine wistfulness in her voice. "I keep telling myself it is over. All this practice already with the girls; I want to be playing with them, but can't do."

Andrade said she still feels healthy, "Last year I played 40 minutes, but you know, I'll be 40 this year. I had to stop, and this opportunity came, and I'm really excited about it. All the energy I had when I played, I want to put into coaching. This is a dream come true. I said yes, and didn't think twice."

Shortly after Andrade had knee surgery five years ago, she received a call from ODU coach Karen Barefoot about an assistant position, but it wasn't the right time. "I didn't want my memories of basketball to be from an injury," she said.

Now, with her playing days behind her, she joins a San Diego team that has produced four straight 20-win seasons and is looking to return to the national tournament for the first time since 2008.

Andrade said when she visualizes herself as a coach, she's wants to be open to player needs. "There's no, 'It's my way or the highway,' because in my career I learned so much from every coach I had. They weren't all good things, but I even learned from the bad things. I want to see what fits the players because I don't think a coach should have ideas she doesn't consider changing."

Don't think Andrade doesn't bring in some expectations. She won't back down, she said, from what got her this far in the game. "Intensity, heart -- those are values, not just ways of coaching," she said. "I want to keep the values I grew up with and the work ethic."

While Andrade's college days seem like ions ago in some respects, she hasn't forgotten what she describes as a "short but intense" time. "I bring it with me in everything I do."

The Final Four year, she says, taught her, "When you find yourself in an environment you love, time flies by. That year was like that. The experience in college, I don't know when one year finished and the next started. It was just a ride. It was pure adrenalin in growing and the experience we went through was the best."

She has reminisced with Fisher and fellow San Diego resident Aubrey Eblin and Clar and Ticha, of course. Ticha was her agent this year, and she talks weekly with Clar. She was last at ODU when she was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2010.

Don't look for Mery too close to the East any time soon; the Toreros get no closer to our parts than a trip to Montana State. But she'd welcome a game in the Constant Center.

"That would be my past and my present coming together," she said.

Lady Monarch fans have expressed their congrats to Coach Andrade.

"They've followed my career when I played and now here," she said. "They're like family."

Why it's hard for us to embrace the WNBA

The WNBA playoffs are upon; did you know? Unless you are a diehard, probably not. Great players, good basketball, you won't get an argument there. But relevant to move today's sports dial? Even the NBA commish had to admit when asked Thursday,

"It's not where we hoped it would be."

The normally reticent Maya Moore weighed in recently on a disappointing WNBA season in terms of butts in the seats, exposure and an overall lack of momentum.

We are the WBB diehards and even for us, here's what we find distasteful about the WNBA in 2015.

*New York Liberty president Isiah Thomas. How insulting is it to female fans and players that this man is president of a WNBA team? How tone deaf is Adam Silver to say on Thursday that Thomas "made a mistake at Madison Square Garden." A mistake is traveling with the ball. Thomas settled an $11.5 million sexual harassment lawsuit and was said, with several women corroborating, to have created a hostile workplace for women at the Garden. Now he's president of a WNBA team? "Life is complicated," Silver said when asked about it. Not really. It's pretty simple that this man shouldn't be president of a WNBA team.

*Griner/Johnson saga. We don't pretend to have the inside scoop on Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson, but domestic violence and Griner's lack of interest in providing financial support for Johnson's twins -- which we have to assume Griner had some prior knowledge of -- are hard to stomach.  Imagine a male athlete ditching his pregnant wife and the financial responsbilities that come along with children. He'd be crucified in the media. He'd have to answer for it in a press conference. Bottom line: It's hard to cheer for Griner right now.

*The WNBA has a loyal gay and lesbian following,  yet the league continues to market to this fan base in a lukewarm manner and a pride day a year ago was little more than lip service. Maybe they're trying to be PC, but if I'm part of that fan base, I don't feel appreciated. Frankly, I would feel dismissed.

*Tell me why again why anyone in Tulsa should care that the Shock made the playoffs? The Shock finally have a player to be excited about (and yes, bummer that Skylar missed most of this season with a knee injury), and the team is moving to Dallas where they'll be lost in a sports market consumed by football.

*Sylvia Fowles demanding to be traded to one team. Is that what you would expect from one of the faces of the league? Again, picture a franchise player in the men's game demanding to be traded to one team and not having to answer for it. Can't picture it? That's because it wouldn't happen.

*No Taurasi. We don't blame you, Diana, or Candace (who missed the early part of the season to rest). But the fact that international play remains a priority -- and given salaries, that's understandable -- it's hard to invest in a league that doesn't invest in its players.

Media remain remiss to criticize or even to analyze women's athletics with depth. We should be past the point that we're happy women are playing and hold female athletes to the same standards as their male counterparts. That means Griner and Fowles might have to answer some difficult questions.

No don't get us wrong. We like the idea of the WNBA. We respect the overwhelming majority of the player in the WNBA. We were thrilled that Elena Delle Donne, a kid we saw play in high school, got the much-deserved MVP vote. But this is a league with some problems worth addressing that often seems tone deaf to reality. Isn't it time for a realistic conversation about a league that is loaded with talent but struggles for relevancy, that has playoffs just when the NFL and college football have started, that will lose most of its marquee talent in a year to the Olympics?

The WNBA isn't where we want it to be, either, and we admire Silver for his candor, but we hope he moves the ball forward. He has a stake in this league succeeding, but let's not stand around and wonder why it's not. Many of the aforementioned issues need to be addressed in a thoughtful manner.

The league's infomercials say "WNBA cares." Our question is cares about whom?

Being gay in women's basketball: It's still don't ask, don't tell

It's been a little over two months since the Supreme Court ruled on the legality of gay marriages in this country. We haven't heard a peep about it from college women's basketball coaches.

Here's the secret in the collegiate game that everybody knows and nobody talks about. Many of its coaches are gay. Many of its players are lesbians. While it's not unusual for players in the WNBA to come out as Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson have, it is unusual for both professional and collegiate coaches and players to be open about the lifestyle they are leading if they, in fact, happen to be gay.

There are no openly gay coaches in the women's game. A year ago, there was one, Sherri Murrell, who shared news of her partner and children in her bio for Portland State. Murrell was let go after eight seasons last winter.

We had hoped the Supreme Court ruling would pave the way for others to be comfortable enough to be open about their lifestyle that really should be nothing more than that. Just as nobody is making a political statement about being straight; nobody is making a political or theological statement about being gay. Last month, SportsCenter droning in the background, my college-age son and I had the same reaction to a tease for an upcoming story on a Major League Baseball player's decison to come out to his teammates.

"Why is this even a story at all?" my son asked. "So what if he's gay? Do you see stories about players opening declaring they're straight?"

I'm a generation behind him and wonder the same thing. The first black man to play baseball was a story just as the first NFL player to be openly gay was a story. Someday it won't be. Today, we can't see the word Michael Sam in a sentence without a mention of his being gay.

Except that you hear nothing about women's basketball minus the latest revelation in the Griner/Johnson drama. College women's basketball is silent. Insiders still hear about programs that discriminate against gay players, so called "non-gay" programs singled out during a recruiting process that we rarely get a real look at. I've been around this sport for 20 years. I know gay coaches; I know straight coaches; I know gay players; I know straight players. But I would feel just as uncomfortable asking a coach about her partner as she would answering it.

Coaches, perhaps fearful of losing certain recruits, booster support, geez, maybe even their jobs remain silent. They don't talk of partners; they don't share family photos on their bio pages. If their partner has a child, they often don't recognize him or her as their child. But haven't we gotten to the point where if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem?

I asked for response before I wrote this, and most of my emails went unreturned. A refreshing exception was former Old Dominion guard Bettina Love, a Lady Monarch for two seasons prior to transferring to Pitt. Today she is an author, speaker and associate professor of educational theory and practice at the University of Georgia.

Like many college-age women, Love discovered her sexuality in what she calls a welcoming community at Old Dominion, where she met the woman who today is her wife.

For attitudes to change and for progress to be made, Love stressed that being open about lifestyle must come from the top down. Ideally, she said, WNBA presidents, college administration and college coaches would pave the way.

"WNBA coaches don't have to recruit; they don't have to take the heat that a collegiate coach might take," Love said. "

In 2014, the WNBA planned to have a gay pride initiative, which ended up being seen as little more than lip service, a knock to a sizable percentage of the league's fan base.

"If you're looking at the WNBA as a model, this is terrible," Love said. "How do you just deny this huge, loyal fan base you have? You go to any WNBA game, any college game, there are a huge amount of gay people. Because we love the game, because we embrace the community, we tolerate it.

"At the end of the day, it's about revenue. This is the problem with the WNBA. They haven't lost fans because of their homophobia."

Love understands how college coaches are fearful of losing recruits if they open up about their lifestyle, but she adds, "They will also gain some."

Love said she believe many coaches believe they have more to lose than to gain by being open about their sexuality, but isn't it time, she asks for "somebody to step outside the box?"

As for collegiate players . . . 

"There's a difference on everybody on campus knowing an athlete is gay and the public knowing," Love said. "There's this notion these players (like Sam and Griner) are coming out to the public, but that doesn't mean they haven't been living their lives openly gay. I'm a college professor. I don't tell my students I'm gay, but I don't live my life in a way that I'm hiding, either."

One of the most insightful books on the subject is from Kate Fagan, who discovered her sexuality while playing for a University of Colorado team led by born-again Christians. In her book "The Reappearing Act," Fagan talks about losing her best friend, a teammate, because of her sexuality and being made to feel that being a lesbian was a sin. In an article written shortly after the high court's ruling, Fagan questions whether it will have an impact on female athletics and concludes that while it will, it will be in painstakingly slow fashion.

Like my son, I relish the day when this isn't a story -- when we're not looking to either celebrate or condemn a lifestyle. Someone will take the lead in this sport and others will follow. Until it happens, it's still taboo -- unfortunate for a sport that strives to be progressive by its nature.

As always, we welcome your comments.

Related: Same-sex marriage: What's it to you?

Comings and Goings XIII: Hampton

Chanel Green

Here's our final installment of Comings and Goings with a look at Hampton.

The rest of the series is here with an updated note on George Mason's Jasmine Jackson. Makes us giddy for the season!


Comings and Goings: Old Dominion
Comings and Goings: Richmond
Comings and Goings: George Mason
Comings and Goings: Virginia
Comings and Goings: Virginia Tech
Comings and Goings: William and Mary
Comings and Goings: VCU
Comings and Goings: Liberty
Comings and Goings: Longwood
Comings and Goings: Norfolk State
Comings and Goings: Radford

Who's going

Kenia Cole 5-4 Sr. G; graduated, made 17 starts and averaged 7.6 ppg and 3.5 rpg, second in the MEAC in apg (3.9)

Kyani White, 5-7 Sr. G;  graduated, started 29 games and averaged 10.3 ppg, MEAC 3-pt FG percentage leader (.436)

Jackie Marshall 5-9 Sr. G; graduated, played sparingly, scoring just 56 points all season

Lauren Johnson 5-6 Sr. G; graduated, played sparingly, scoring just 23 points all season

Tyler Hobgood, 6-1 R-Jr. F; graduated, made 12 starts and averaged 2.2 ppg; 

Brielle Ward, 6-2 R-Jr. F; graduated and will play her final year of eligibility at St. Francis; started 47 games and averaged more than 20 minutes per game the last two season; averaged 6.9 rpg last season
Barbara Burgess: the former assistant is now head coach at Delaware State

White developed as a scorer at Hampton after transferring in from East Carolina; her 10.3 ppg was second to Malia Tate-DeFreitas (21.3 ppg). Cole's steady hand will also be missed; she led the MEAC in assist-to-turnover ratio. Ward will be asked to fill in the void left by the graduation of three posts for the Red Flash, 6-23 last season.

Who's coming

Leah Whitehead, 6-2 F, Laurel, Md., (Pallotti High) -- transferred to the Maryland private school from Arundel High for her senior year
K'Lynn Willis, 5-5 PG, Detroit (Cass Tech); the point guard has been called "lightning in a bottle," by Pirates coach David Six
Dejanae James, 5-4 G, Hartford, Conn. (Weaver High); slick passer also recruited by Drexel and Marist
Chanel Green; 5-4 G, Washington, D.C., (East Carolina); the transfer played high school ball at Woodson and sat out last season due to NCAA rules; earned invite to the Nike Skills Academy in high school; did not put up significant numbers for ECU; will have two years of eligibility remaining
Janell Crayton: the former assistant at UNC Asheville joins Six's staff

Green's experience and quickness at guard should mesh well with a Hampton team that struggled to find scoring at the guard spot a year ago when a last-second basket in the MEAC tournament quarterfinals to Maryland-Eastern Shore prevented a run to a sixth straight title. James' basketball IQ could afford her early playing time, joining a returning nucleus that includes reigning conference Player of the Year Tate-DeFreitas, Kaylah Lupoe, Ryan Jordan and Georgianna Gilbeaux. Lupoe emerged as a scorer late in the season, scoring 81in a four-game span.

Jephany Brown, a 6-0 forward from Washington, D.C., who ranks as one of the top five junior college prospects in the nation and played high school ball with Green, signed with Hampton but her availability is uncertain until she finishes summer session at Walters State (Tenn.) Community College. Taylor Pate, a 6-2 forward/center form Proviso West High in Hillside, Ill., will not be attending Hampton this fall.