Olympic Connection in today's LSU-South Carolina game

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From Scott Hotard of The Advocate:


When he meets Dawn Staley at midcourt before today’s game, LSU women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor expects some good-natured ribbing between the two.

“She’ll remind me she won me a gold medal — tell me that three or four times,” Chancellor said. “I’ll remind her I’m the one who picked her to play for me.”

Staley, one of the great players in women’s basketball history, won three Olympic gold medals, the last with Chancellor as coach in 2004. She finished her professional career with Chancellor, playing two seasons on the Houston Comets he coached.

Nowadays, Staley and Chancellor are rivals.

Staley took over the South Carolina women’s program two seasons ago after leading Temple to six NCAA tournaments in eight seasons.

Chancellor left the Comets three years ago and has kept LSU among the nation’s elite in his return to the college game.

On the opening day of Southeastern Conference play, Chancellor and Staley reunite when No. 11 LSU (11-1) faces the Gamecocks (7-5) at 5 p.m. in Columbia, S.C.

Read Scott's entire article: http://bit.ly/4nmzLc

Filed under  //  Media   Team USA  
Posted by Bill Martin  

Breaking in the New Year!

We had two reason to celebrate on December 31. First was obvious -- the ringing in of a new year -- 2010 had arrived. And the night before in our victory over Xavier, Coach Chancellor had grabbed his 500th collegiate coaching victory. After our plane touched down in New Orleans, the coaching staff surprised us by stopping at Cheesecake Bistro and we broke out some Happy New Year hats. Coach Chancellor's family surprised him with some balloons that spelled out "500" -- now on to the new year!

 

Posted by Bill Martin  

Star Watch In The Airport

While waiting on our flight to head to Xavier, the Lady Tigers had time to play cards, grab something to eat and even run into Kim Kardashian in the New Orleans airport. She was kind enough to stop and take a photo!

Filed under  //  Off the Court  
Posted by Bill Martin  

Kent Lowe steps in and steps up

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Kent Lowe - Sr. Associate Sports Information Director (1-1-10):
I was fortunate to get to witness some of Coach Sue Gunter’s milestone wins at LSU and through a certain set of circumstances, I was able to witness Coach Van Chancellor capture his 500th collegiate win on Wednesday when LSU’s defense stepped up and made a statement against a very good Xavier team.

As many of you know I’ve been the men’s basketball SID for 22 years now and for many years did color on home games with Patrick Wright on women’s games. Due to scheduling situations with a lot of our staff in Orlando for the bowl game and with the LSU men playing in Cincinnati the night before, it just made sense for me to stay and cover the women’s game as well. That’s what our sports information staff does is help each other out to make sure we cover things in the right way.

So it was a pleasure to watch the game up close from courtside, I’ve know Coach Chancellor and Coach Starkey for years as well as the other members of the staff. It was a lot of fun and I hope I was able to provide women’s basketball SID Bill Martin some notes and stats that helped him write the story from long-distance in Orlando. I will return to my role as one of the team’s favorite spectators and hopefully I’ll be able to help Bill again during a long post-season run.


Geaux Lady Tigers!

Filed under  //  Media  
Posted by Bill Martin  

Coach Chancellor grabs 500th collegiate victory

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CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The architect of four WNBA championships with the Houston Comets and the coach of the 2004 United States Olympic gold medal team, LSU head coach Van Chancellor has added another accolade to his Hall of Fame career by winning his 500th collegiate game on Wednesday night.

Senior preseason All-American Allison Hightower led all scorers with 18 points and the 11th-ranked LSU women’s basketball team never trailed as the Lady Tigers shutdown 13th-ranked Xavier (Ohio), 56-47, to give Chancellor the milestone victory at Cintas Arena.

“This was a return to the way we used to play defensively,” Chancellor said. “We told our team we had to return to the Lady Tiger way. We had tough practices after Christmas and prepared well for this team. This was a great basketball team we beat tonight. I am really proud of our effort. We learned a lot from the loss at Nebraska. That was an absolute wake-up call.”

The Lady Tigers (11-1) closed their non-conference slate with their first win over a ranked non-SEC opponent on the road since at No. 18 Michigan State on Dec. 17, 2006. LSU opens Southeastern Conference play at South Carolina on Sunday in Columbia. The game will be televised live nationally on ESPNU at 5 p.m. CST.

Xavier (9-3), who was coming off an 81-60 win over Mississippi State, was held to a season-low 47 points and never found a rhythm offensively. The Musketeers came into the contest averaging 74.5 points per game but were held 28 points below their season average.

Chancellor became the 24th active Division I coach to reach 500 wins and the 39th Division I coach all-time to reach the 500 plateau. The 2007 Naismith Hall of Famer, in his 22nd year overall, won 439 games in 19 seasons at Ole Miss and he has captured 61 victories in now his third season at LSU.

“In the scope of things that doesn’t seem important, the 500 wins,” he said. “I am more proud of our team and what they did tonight. That is what is important. These players deserve the credit.”

Filed under  //  Van Chancellor  
Posted by Bill Martin  

Seimone named Female Athlete of the Decade

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From Jim Kleinpeter, The Times Picayune:


BATON ROUGE - Simply calling Seimone Augustus The Times-Picayune Female Athlete of the Decade doesn't do her justice.

Augustus is the best player in the 34-season history of the LSU women's basketball program and the early leader for Female Athlete of the Century for those forward thinkers.

The Baton Rouge native was a three-time All-American and a two-time consensus National Player of the Year, twice winning the Wade Trophy, and the Naismith, Wooden, Associated Press and Honda Awards for women's basketball.

Augustus is LSU's second-leading scorer all-time with 2,702 points, a 19.3 average per game.

But her contributions to LSU women's basketball went beyond personal honors. She was a terrific all-around player who made her teammates better, and helped LSU to three consecutive Final Four appearances, which started a run of five consecutive Final Fours for the program.

"I'm glad I made the choice to go to LSU, " she said. "A lot of people ask me if I could go back would I change it. I'm like 'No, I enjoyed being coached by Coach (Sue) Gunter, Coach (Pokey) Chatman and Coach (Bob) Starkey. I enjoyed the run we had. The four years I was there we made a lot of history.

Read entire article: http://bit.ly/7pTkZF

Filed under  //  Media   Seimone Augustus  
Posted by Bill Martin  

The Last Day of School

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BOB STARKEY (12-24-09):
While working for Coach Dale Brown on the LSU staff, he would send out the following to coaches and friends of our program at Christmas. It is written by Roy Exum. Obviously the mention of Christmas makes it seasonal, but the message speaks to the art of teaching and why we should be coaching. May all of those who take the time to visit our site have a blessed holiday!

When Tony Campolo was in Chattanooga last week to speak at the annual “Gathering of Men” breakfast, the noted sociologist told a story that begs to be repeated, especially on this day:It seems that there was a lady named Jean Thompson and when she stood in front of her fifth-grade class on the very first day of school in the fall, she told the children a lie.

Like most teachers, she looked at her pupils and said that she loved them all the same, that she would treat them all alike. And that was impossible because there in front of her, slumped in his seat on the third row, was a boy named Teddy Stoddard.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed he didn’t play well with other children, that his clothes were unkept and that he constantly needed a bath. Add to it the fact Teddy was unpleasant.

It got to the point during the first few months that she would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold ‘X’s and then marking the ‘F’ at the top of the paper biggest of all.

Because Teddy was a sullen little boy, nobody else seemed to enjoy him, either.

Now at the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child’s records and--because of things--put Teddy’s off until last. But when she opened his file, she was in for a surprise.

His first-grade teacher had written, “Teddy is a bright, inquisitive child with a ready laugh. He does work neatly and has good manners … he is a joy to be around.”

His second-grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is an excellent student and is well-liked by his classmates--but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle.”

The third-grade teacher wrote, “Teddy continues to work hard but his mother’s death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class. His is tardy and could become a problem.”

By now Mrs. Thompson realized the problem but Christmas was coming fast.

It was all she could do, with the school play and all, until the day before the holidays began and she was suddenly forced to focus on Teddy Stoddard on that last day before the vacation would begin.

Her children brought her presents, all in gay ribbon and bright paper, except for Teddy’s, which was clumsily wrapped in heavy, brown paper of scissored grocery bag.

Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents and some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet, with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of cologne.

But she stifled the laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and she dabbed some of the perfume behind the other wrist.

At the end of the day, as the other children joyously raced from the room, Teddy Stoddard stayed behind, just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to.”

As soon as Teddy left, Mrs. Thompson knelt at her desk and there, after the last day of school before Christmas, she cried for at least an hour.

And, on that very day, she quit teaching reading and writing and spelling. Instead she began to teach children. And Jean Thompson paid particular attention to one they all called Teddy.

As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded and, on days that there would be an important test, Mrs. Thompson would remember the cologne.

By the end of the year he had become one of the smartest children in the class and … well, he had also become the “pet” of the teacher who had once vowed to love all of her children exactly the same.

A year later she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that of all the teachers he’d had in elementary school, she was his favorite.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. And then he wrote that as he finished high school, third in his class, she was still his favorite teacher of all time.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, that he’d stayed in school, had stuck with it, and graduated from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson she was still his favorite teacher.

Then four more years passed and another letter came.

This time he explained that after he got his bachelor’s degree, he decided to go a little further. That she was still his favorite teacher but now that his name was a little longer. And the letter was signed, “Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.”

The story doesn’t end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said that… well, that he’d met his girl and was to be married.

He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering … well, if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the pew usually reserved for the mother of the groom.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not she wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing.

But I bet on that special day, Jean Thompson smelled just like … well, just like she smelled many years before on the last day of school before the Christmas Holidays begin.

Posted by Bill Martin  

A Look Back at the Lady Tiger Christmas Party

One of the ongoing traditions of the Lady Tiger basketball program is our annual Christmas Party that is highlight by "Secret Santa." Each player picks the name of another player without their knowledge and then purchases them a Christmas present to be given during the party. Over the past several years, Wayne and Diane Leader have been gracious hosts at the special Christmas retreat. Here's a look back at the wonderful evening our team shared together.

 

Filed under  //  Off the Court  
Posted by Bill Martin