Marie shines in play-off loss

Even with her Sparks losing to the WNBA's best team on the road, Marie Ferdinand showed that she is still one of the leagues better perimeter players.  Marie lead Los Angeles in scoring with 18 points on 7 of 15 shooting (including 2 3-pointers).  She also added 3 rebounds and 2 assists as LA fell to Seattle 79-66.  The series moves to Los Angeles where the Sparks will need a win to tie the series.  A Storm victory wraps of the series.

LA/Seattle Game Story & Box: http://bit.ly/di83YK

Filed under  //  Alumni   WNBA  
Posted by Bob Starkey 

Lady Tigers get head start on injury prevention -- thanks to Micki

MICKI COLLINS: As an athletic trainer, I think the most important part of my job is prevention.  Prevention of injuries keeps my athletes on the court.  It’s important to me that I treat the “whole” athlete.  At LSU we don’t just treat the sprains and strains.  Yesterday, I sat down with the team to discuss several different topics will help them be the best that they can be.  We discussed sleep habits, concussions and our ACL prevention program.  Throughout the year, we work on ACL prevention.  This includes a jump training program and gluteus medius maintenance work.  We reviewed the exercises and made sure every athlete was completing the exercise correctly.  This year, Dr. David Thomas will be looking at our athlete’s sleeping habits.  Yesterday, they spent time working on a questionnaire for Dr. Thomas.  He will review these questionnaires and address the team later this month with his concerns.  The last topic we discussed yesterday was concussions.  All athletes will be completing an IMPACT baseline test.  This test will help us monitor an athlete in the event that they suffer a concussion. We spent time discussing what concussions are and how important it is to report any concussion symptoms. 

Posted by Bob Starkey 

Tackling Adversity: Seimone Augustus Exclusive WNBA.com Video

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Former LSU star Seimone Augustus conducted an emotional video interview with WNBA.com discussing her return from injury this season.

Watch it here:

http://www.wnba.com/video/wnba/2010/08/19/wnbaaugustusmov-1396038

Posted by Bill Martin  

Johnson, Ferdinand-Harris Advance to 2010 WNBA Playoffs

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Former LSU women’s basketball players Temeka Johnson and Marie Ferdinand-Harris will continue their professional seasons this week as the 2010 WNBA Playoffs get underway for both the Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks.

Johnson, starting point guard for the Mercury, aims for a second straight WNBA championship when Phoenix opens conference semifinal play against San Antonio at 8 p.m. CT Thursday on ESPN2. Game 2 will be played at noon CT Saturday with Game 3 on Monday if necessary.

Johnson has enjoyed a tremendous sixth WNBA season and her second in Phoenix. She has averaged 9.2 points and 4.7 assists (eighth in the league) per game while starting all 34 games. Last season en route to the title, Johnson posted 7.5 points and 3.1 assists per contest in 11 playoff games.

Ferdinand is making her fourth straight WNBA playoff appearance and her third with Los Angeles, who opens the conference semifinals at Seattle at 10 p.m. CT Wednesday on ESPN2. Game 2 of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT Saturday on ESPN2 with Game 3 at 9 p.m. CT Tuesday, Aug. 31 on NBA TV.

Ferdinand has produced her highest career scoring average since the 2005 season as she has averaged 8.9 points per game. She has played in 20 career playoff games dating back to her rookie season of 2001.

Several former Lady Tigers finished their seasons on Sunday, the final day of the regular season. Sylvia Fowles, starting center on the Chicago Sky, concluded her season ranked in the top six in five major statistical categories, including sixth in points (17.8), third in rebounds (9.9), third in field goal percentage (.582), first in blocks (2.6) and second in defensive rebounds (7.8). She was second in the entire league in double-doubles with 15.

Seimone Augustus and the Minnesota Lynx just missed qualifying for the playoffs with a fourth-place finish in the Western Conference. Augustus scored 25 points and the Lynx rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat Indiana on Sunday.

She finished the year seventh in the league in points per game with 16.9 and fifth in minutes played (33.3). Augustus still holds the WNBA career scoring average record with 20.7 points per contest.


Scholanda Robinson and the Tulsa Shock concluded their inaugural season in the WNBA. Robinson, a fifth-year veteran, produced the highest scoring average of her career with 11.9 ppg. She finished seventh in the league in steals per contest with 1.6.

Posted by Bill Martin  

Lady Tigers a strong part of the WNBA history

With the conclusion of the WNBA regular season, we wanted to congratulate all the Lady Tigers on a wonderful season.  LSU alums had great seasons this past year and are among the league leaders in many statistical categories.  LSU remains one of the nation's elite teams in terms of players being drafted into the WNBA and we wanted to take this opportunity enjoy our great WNBA history.

Posted by Bob Starkey 

Lady Tigers kick off year with CHAMPS Back to School Bash

As has become tradition at LSU, all student-athletes joined together for the annual CHAMPS Back to School Bash.  This year the event was held in the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.  The event includes all the student-athletes from the various teams at LSU along with all the coaches and the administration at LSU.  Another keynote to the event is great food and there was a wonderful spread of bar-b-que for all to enjoy.  Athletic Director Joe Alleva kicked the evening off by welcoming all the student-athletes back and encouraging them to take full advantage of the many resources available to them to succeed.  Tiger Athletic Foundation CED General Ron Richard then took a moment to also welcome us all back while letting us know how hard they are working on our behalf.  From there is was on to the competitions for the night with all the student-athletes placed in selected teams.  This is a great way for them to get to know the other student-athletes from the other sports.  It was another great evening and were certainly owe a great deal of thanks to Mike Mallett and Jade Jenkins on all the people at CHAMPS for again helping us to start the school year in grand fasion!

Filed under  //  Community   Team  
Posted by Bob Starkey 

2010-2011 Lady Tiger hold first team meeting

At 2:00 PM in the Sue Gunter Complex, the 2010-2011 edition of the LSU Lady Tigers gathered for the first time as unit for their season opening team meeting.  Unlike the past where they were great by Coach Van Chancellor with a nice "welcome back to campus" speech, the team was hit quickly with a list of expecations and areas of improvement along with a game plan for accomplishing both.

"I felt that we needed a sense of urgency to start the season this year and it was my job to set the tone," said Coach Chancellor.  "We have a wonderful opportunity to have a good team this year but it's only an opportunity if we don't lay a foundation in the next few months."

Usually thinks like team goals have been collected in early October but this the team set upon one goal that will effect them from this moment forward.

GOAL #1: being the absolute BEST we can be EVERYDAY!

"It's a goal that is process driven as opposed to being result oriented," said Coach Chancellor.  "We can apply this goal today, tomorrow and the next day.  It can be applied to class, conditioning, weighting training, practice, games -- absolutely anything."

Another point of emphasis for the Lady Tigers will be improved mental toughness.  Coach Chancellor spoke to the team in terms of them allowing to many outside factors effecting their player last year.  He also told the team that "mental toughness is one of the few traits that effect everything else on the basketball court."

Communication was another area that Coach Chancellor listed as a necessary area for improvement.  "We want to talk more, talk often and talk loud."  Every great team I've been associated with or observed has been an excellent communication team."  He also added that listening was another area of communication that he wanted to improve upon.

Still yet another topic was to "finish."  Coach Chancellor said that the team must first learn to finish in drills, both in practice and conditioning before they can consistently finish plays and games.  He vowed to push the team in this area.

The meeting also saw the team receive their notebooks for the year and they also received a personal letter from Coach Chancellor."I really liked the sense of urgency in the meeting," said co-captain Katherine Graham.  "This is my senior season and I want our team to strive to be the best that we can be."

Andrea Kelly, also a co-captain, echoed KG's thoughts:  "Coach Chancellor certainly laid it out there for us and I thought our team had a great attitude in receiving his message and knowing what we need to do."

Filed under  //  Team   Van Chancellor  
Posted by Bob Starkey 

WNBA.com features story on Meek's book

The following is a portion of an article by Frank Della Femina, WNBA.com:

WNBA.com: First off, what made you decide that you wanted to write a children’s book?

Temeka Johnson: My interest from the start has always been kids. Giving back to them and letting them know that it’s OK to make mistakes and know that people believe in them and their future and the society as a whole, with kids making decisions a whole lot earlier than we really had to make decisions. I’m not that far removed from them and I think it was fitting for me to do it. The book actually depicts my life but it’s in the children’s form. I started out wanting to write a biography, but through my foundation, the marketing manager Quency Phillips was like, “Why don’t we start with a book series?” And I agreed on a children’s book series.

WNBA.com: What’s the emphasis and focus of the whole book?

TJ: It’s about decisions. I prioritize it. Of course, I’m a basketball player and basketball is my passion, and I always said, “I’m going to do my homework as soon as I come back in,” or “I’m going to make my bed as soon as I finish this,” or “I’m going to study for this test as soon as I finish playing.” Basketball sidetracks me throughout the book and I’m faced with decisions and consequences throughout it and I think that’s something that we as people and kids go through on a daily basis.

WNBA.com: Is there a theme to each individual book? What are the decisions involved in this one?

TJ: To answer your first question, this one here is the first one and the hardest thing was finding what audience to try and channel it to. I grow up in each book so of course all of them will be different, but this one is basically the decisions of which you go through as a young child, elementary school: study for your tests, coming home to do your homework and do as you need to do and then you are able to go and play basketball. Do your chores before you can do anything else. It’s dedicated to my grandmother because she raised me. It’s her in there also. I know when my family first saw the pictures they were amazed because the drawing of my grandmother actually looks like her also.

WNBA.com: Did you give the artist something to work with? A few pictures to base the drawings off of?

TJ: You know what? Quency surprised me with the pictures because I didn’t really give him many pictures because he had a couple himself. He surprised me because he knows how passionate and how strong I feel about my grandmother. So the pictures of my grandmother were a huge surprise and I was very please with it.

WNBA.com: Talk about your website and organization a bit. Is the Jewel Johnson Scholarship in honor of your grandmother?

TJ: Yes it is. That’s the scholarship part of the foundation. That’s to give back to underprivileged kids, to give them an opportunity to further their education. Since I can remember many people have come up to me after a game, during the game or a visit or something and told me how much hope I give them or how much hope I give to them, when in actuality they wouldn’t realize how much hope they were giving me to continue to do what I’m doing in what many people call a big woman’s game. I didn’t have much of a choice. I knew that was the best thing to come up with with my foundation. I’ve always wanted to give back and I’ve always given back but not in the form of a foundation or whatnot. I just wanted to help people, and threw the foundation I’m able to do that. Hope comes in so many different shapes, sizes and forms. It can just be giving someone a hug, lending an ear for someone, helping someone to understand something or come to the realization of anything. There’s so many ways to give hope and I’m so happy I can give a small part of it.

WNBA.com: Well not even small, but all of it. All the proceeds from these books are going towards the foundation.

TJ: That’s what it’s about for me. I’m comfortable with myself and my living and everything. I just want kids to know that there are other things out there. There is a better life if you want it and you make the right decisions. So everything from the book proceeds are going to go towards the scholarship.

Read the entire article at: http://bit.ly/avtf5c

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Posted by Bob Starkey 

Sho shines for Tulsa in loss to red-hot Liberty

It was certainly a tall order for the Tulsa Shock, travelling to New York to face the hotest team in the WNBA,  but the Shock gave them a run for their money lead by Lady Tiger Scholanda Robinson.  Sho had 16 points and 4 assists.  She also grabbed 3 rebounds, picked off 2 steals and blocked 3 shots.  Obviously is was a performance that would remind LSU fans of Sho's effort as a Lady Tiger when she was nicknamed the "Matrix" because she seemed to be at more places than one.

Tulsa/New York Boxscore: http://bit.ly/aNO6j5

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Filed under  //  Alumni   WNBA  
Posted by Bob Starkey 

Swish Appeal ranks LSU #14th women's basketball program

Swish Appeal has been on a long track of ranking the top 100 women's basketball programs in the nation based on their success over a long period of time.  The LSU Lady Tigers come in at 14th of all programs in the nation.  Here is what Swish Appeal has to say about LSU women's basketball:

14.   LSU:  The Lady Tigers of Louisana State have had a lot of success, and a lot of great coaches.  Sue Gunter coached the team for 24 years, taking the team to a NCAA Final Four.  Pokey Chatman inherited that team and that team went to three Final Fours after that.  With Chatman's resignation, Van Chancellor took over the team.  The first year he was with the team - 2007-08 - the team went to another Final Four, five consecutive Final Fours in all.  The only other school with five consecutive Final Fours?  Connecticut.

Aside from the WNBA players that come out of the program - Seimone Augustus and Marie Ferdinand-Harris - the program is investing in its infrastructure with a new practice facility that was completed in January 2010.  They picked up the #16 recruiting class in the country according to ESPN.   It looks like LSU wants very badly to at the very least get to another Final Four.  Don't be surprised if they make it.

Check here for all of the Swish Appeal rankings: http://bit.ly/dbHm0x

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Filed under  //  Honors   Sue Gunter   Van Chancellor  
Posted by Bob Starkey