BOB STARKEY: It was a great evening -- watching Seimone Augustus and Temeka Johnson do what they love so much -- play basketball.
The evening started with 10 great minutes talking to Annie Meyers-Drysdale. Besides being one of the all-time greats in the history of women's basketball, she is currently the General Manager and soon to be President of the Phoenix Mercury. She is also a huge LSU Lady Tiger fan because of her relationship with Sue Gunter. Coach Gunter coached her in the Olympics and Annie has remained a friend of our program since.
The game was fast-paced, via the Phoenix system. The Mercury's first basket of the game came from a long thread-the-need pass from Meek to Taurasi. The Lynx answered right back with their first basket coming from a baseline floater from Mone. One minute into the game and I was having some great flashbacks.
The night would belong to Phoenix. They would set the WNBA record with most points in a half by pouring in 69. Meek flirted with a triple-double with 8 points, 8 boards and 8 assists in only 18 minutes. Mone scored 13 points while grabbing 4 boards.
But the best part of the night was post-game. Going with Meek and Mone to Fez, a local Pheonix eatery. It was special listening to them talk about the WNBA, different teams and players and hearing all that they know and had learned. They are professional basketball players -- by the strictest terms.
Of course they wanted to know about the Lady Tigers and how hard they were working this summer and what kind of season might we have coming. It was great to hear them talk about what they saw in analyzing our team last year and what we needed to grow.
I'm so very proud of these two young women -- not just because they have forged their basketball gift from God -- but because of the people they have grown to be -- caring about each other and their respective communities.
Both have causes very near to their hearts and we will blog about that later but it speaks to who they are and what they become -- it's speaks to the Lady Tiger Way and a tremendous legacy that they have left for our future student-athletes.