Seimone names to Yahoo! All-Decade Team; Syl Honorable Mention
Yahoo! Sports Decade in Review (By Jeremy Stone) takes to the hardwood for a series of women's basketball top fives. Next up is our top five players of the 2000sin the NCAA.
Augustus led LSU to the first three of five consecutive Final Four appearances from 2004 to 2006. She was the top scorer in the country as a senior and never shot worse than 53 percent from the field. Though Augustus never got the Tigers into the championship game, she remains the only back-to-back Wade Trophy winner of the NCAA era.
Though Bird played less than three full seasons in the decade, she was the premier point guard in the country and leader of Husky teams that won the national title in 2000 and 2002. She not only distributed the ball with flair but also possessed a lethal jumper and ability to penetrate. Bird twice shot better than 50 percent from the field and nearly shot 50 percent from three-point range as a sophomore. She played 100 games in the decade and UConn won 97 of them. And of course, she paved the way for Diana Taurasi to lead the Huskies to two more titles after Bird was selected first in the 2002 WNBA draft.
Need her to play point? OK, she'll finish with more assists than Sue Bird. Need her to score? OK, she'll take every clutch shot you need. Lost your top rebounders to the pros? OK, she'll grab two more boards per game the next season. And she'll win more than anyone ever has. The Huskies won 139 games in Taurasi's time from 2000 to 2004, including 31 in a row the season after four UConn starters went in the top six of the WNBA draft. No wonder Taurasi won two Naismith Awards and herself went No. 1 in the 2004 draft.
Move over, Chamique Holdsclaw? Probably not, seeing as Parker played only three seasons for the Lady Vols and won one fewer title. But it's close. Parker morphed into Women's Basketball Superstar 2.0 during her time in Knoxville, satiating the masses with her ability to dunk and wowing women's basketball fans with her unprecedented multifaceted game. And not that anyone questioned her toughness, but she won her second Final Four Most Outstanding Player award while playing through a dislocated shoulder.
The folks in Norman won't make Paris repay her scholarship as she offered to do. Nor should they. Though the Sooners fell short of her championship aspirations, the NCAA career rebounding leader wasn't to blame. She posted double-doubles in her first 112 games and was the first freshman AP All-American, first sophomore AP Player of the Year and first four-time All-American. No other college player in any division has amassed 2,500 points and 2,000 rebounds.