This blog is all about inspiration.
We’re going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic Coast Conference. And then we’ll talk about how to make that even better…

What makes something a best practice? This isn’t about the most intricate experience. It’s about looking at the world from your consumer’s point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I’m treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let’s move.

It seems fitting that today is here. Yesterday, we covered the details at the bottom of a website (check what Duke does, here)… And today we will flip that around with the top navigation. Let’s move to the Maryland Athletics website, here. As you can see in the image below, they hit us front and center with a For Recruits header.
That’s where the magic happens.

First of all, let’s zoom into that menu, below:

Maryland Positions Twitter as a Recruiting Tool. We have long identified that Twitter offers the potential for prospective student athletes to stay in contact with coaches. But if you look at the majority of sites, they instead offer Twitter under “Fan Zone” or “Multimedia” or, maybe, “Social Media”. And I’m a believer that you identify your audience and speak to them. Maryland makes this very clear.

I clicked into Twitter, and come to Coach Gary Williams’ page, here. Coach Williams does a great job here – he’s up fairly often, and is conversational and relevant. Scroll through it and you’ll see he gives props to former players (Greivis Vasquez, Steve Blake, and Landon Milbourne recently) — signaling that he doesn’t forget you once you leave Maryland. Just solid all around.

How could this be better? Make this the first thing on the menu. Twitter crashed the recruits menu, the mission now is to move it to the first thing we see.

One thing Andrew doesn’t mention is that perhaps an even better use of this comes from “down the hall” at the Comcast Center… Brenda Frese and her staff have, arguably, the Nation’s #1 recruiting class in 2011 and 2012 may be equally as good.  There is no secret that Frese has long been known for her masterful art of recruiting and her staff is tremendous.

The custom UMD Women’s Basketball site (many schools are doing this now) is really, really good.

I follow many coaches “Tweets” out there and the primary difference between the ones flowing out of College Park and the rest is I don’t just here about:  “It’s a beautiful day in (you fill in the college town), or ” Heading to workouts, it’s a great day to be a (fill in mascot of your choice.)” and the best is “just had a great (fill in meal based on time of day) at (fill in local sub, pizza or food spot) AWESOME!”  Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty of that… every staff does that, it’s a given.  Follow Coach Frese on Twitter, you’ll get the idea.

I haven’t personally done a “Best of Twitter College Basketball Review,” maybe that is something that is out there.

Anyone with input and links to really good uses of Twitter forward them via comments section and we will share.

Mark Lewis

Mark Lewis writes for Hoop Gurlz… he writes exceptionally well.  Very insightful.  Would I consider him a writer?  Probably not.  No disrespect intended.  Mark’s a basketball coach.  In my mind’s eye I still see him on the sideline, or out on the road recruiting…. minus the camera.

So many times in the recruiting process parents try to re-live their sports lives (or lack there of) through their child’s… HUGE MISTAKE.  Mark’s insight is accurate and helpful.  Mark says, “I’m not a parent…”  I disagree.  Biology may not have played a part in Mark’s “parenting,” but he “parented” many during his 20+ year coaching career.

I’m a parent.  We have a daughter.  Both my wife and I went off to college.  I blew out my ankle twice.  If I didn’t pick the school because I wanted to be there no matter what happened on the basketball court – I would have been miserable.  My wife did transfer because she was miserable.  We had both sides of the story.  Mark is spot on.

I hope Mark is around and I remember his words in 2018 when our daughter is making her decision.

In… Remember who has the final decision, Mark shares a great perspective into the process of recruiting for parents.  Who actually has the final decision is really important.

Parenting is tough. That fact is evidenced every day by rebellious kids and surrendering parents who just throw up their arms in exasperation. The approaches to guiding, teaching, preparing and supporting are varied and as daunting a challenge as any adult will face.

Now add to that the twists, turns and decisions that come with the recruiting of a prospective student-athlete and you’ve got a volatile mix that can tip the fragile relationship between a teenager and her parents.

I must confess, I’m not a parent. In fact my single greatest contribution to society may well be that I’ve added no offspring of mine to the population. However, I have had a ringside seat to a multitude of recruiting decisions through the years that have revealed some startling child-parent dynamics.

A lot of athletes go through the recruiting process with their parents at their side and come up with the right decision that makes sense for her future in the classroom, on the court and personally. The tug of war begins when the agenda of mom and dad start to override that of their daughter.

It’s only natural that parents have important considerations in their daughter’s choice of school. More often than not, it’s distance from home and the parents’ desire to remain a more active part in their daughter’s life and college experience. I’ve met parents who had a hope that their child would choose a certain type of coach. Some wanted a man, some wanted a woman, some want black or white and others still had a concern about the coach’s lifestyle. Sometimes it was religion and others it was the history, tradition or success of the program.

In recruiting matters concerning their children, parents often have trouble keeping their own needs caged up.

All those are fine and certainly legitimate concerns … if they’re those of the athlete as well.

Several times this summer I heard coaching friends of mine remind me of one of the scariest sentiments you come across in recruiting. They told me that this recruit or that recruit was out of the picture because their parents “won’t let them go there.” We’re not talking about off-the-wall choices of schools or coaches recently paroled from federal prison. Reputable universities and programs with caring, professional staffs that the prospect had an interest in were not an option because mom or dad said so. End of story. One coach shared with me that a prominent prospect with many options was given a final four list of schools from which to choose after her father had narrowed it down to schools that met his standards, not hers.

I had almost forgotten how common that thought process is and how absolutely frightening it must be for the athlete. At times it’s been said that the first three major decisions you face on your own are where to go to school, what you want to go into professionally, and who you’ll spend your life with. While I’m not too sure it’s all that cut and dried, I do know that the athletes who head off to school knowing that it’s the school of their own choosing face the challenge of college life with a better much better and more positive perspective.

It’s understandable that parents want their concerns heard in the recruiting process but in the end they’re not the ones going to school. Wanting a daughter close to home so you can see more of her games and share more time together is fine only if that’s what she wants as well. I had one father tell me that he had “invested too much” to let her go away to school. She had offers nationwide and at the highest level but if they weren’t close enough for him they weren’t a consideration for her. In who or what was his investment?

Some parents address the distance factor by saying they can’t afford to travel to games or can’t afford to bring her home during breaks. At the same time, you have to ask yourself if you can afford to force your agenda on her if she wants to go away to school. Sometimes the price is high for tradeoffs in recruiting.

I’ve heard of parents who offer up the “it’s her decision” line accompanied by a heavy dose of subliminal guilt. They tell her, “It’s your choice, but if you go away we won’t be able to afford family vacations or that car we promised you won’t happen, the holidays without you will be tough. But we want you to be happy!” Gee, thanks for the autonomy.

Express your thoughts but don’t impose them. It’s OK to tell her what’s important to you in her decision and it’s important that she understand why you have those concerns. At the same time it’s important that she knows that she has ownership of her decision and can base her ultimate choice on the things that are important to her.

One of the most insightful fathers I came across offered up this thought as his daughter considered going to school clear across country rather than choosing a program in her backyard. “I’d like her to stay close to home, but even more I’d love for her to be happy.” Smart guy.

Vera Jones

We need to support Vera in her attempt to continue to “Play Through the Foul,” (as her book suggests).  This really isn’t about Vera’s attempt to garner her own talk show… though after spending several years with Vera while she broadcast New York Liberty games, I have to vouch for her gift.  She is a talented broadcaster, a funny, funny lady and a great person.  A talk show featuring Vera would, no doubt, be both inspirational and entertaining.

No, this is about Vera only child Andrew.  Andrew is 12 and a short time ago he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Andrew underwent many hours of surgery and came out of it alive, but having lost 3/4 of his sight.  She and Andrew were immediately handed the greatest “foul” of thier lives.

As Vera’s book says…”Play Through the Foul,” she has taught her young son… “it’s not how much you can see, but who you are meant to be.”  Well go ahead V… do your thing!

If that means Vera is meant to host her own TV talk show… Great!  We can help her by voting for her audition tape here.

VERA JONES AUDITION.

… and lending her our thoughts and prayers for Andrew’s complete recovery.

Follow the above link, watch V’s audition and vote to help her realize her dream.  Good Luck Vera!

http://bit.ly/cb4CBh

Kids who fantasize about playing in The Show dream of batting .350, hitting 75 home runs, throwing a no-hitter, or getting the game-winning hit in the seventh game of the World Series. Not many kids go to the ballpark and dream of having a good at-bat or an excellent workout in the bullpen. Yet it is learning how to readjust smaller goals that makes the mighty dreams possible. The best professional players discover that goal-setting is about taking charge of those elements a player can control. A player cannot control whether he hits .350, but he can control whether he has a good at-bat and swings at pitches he can drive. A pitcher cannot control whether a batter gets jammed and bloops a hit, but he can control whether he puts in effective work in the bullpen and whether he maintains his concentration on the mound.

“Numbers—I never look at them. I don’t like them,” shortstop Nomar Garciaparra told Baseball Weekly’s Seth Livingstone. In September 1980, Kansas City’s George Brett got the baseball world buzzing with the possibility of his reaching .400 for the first time since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. The Royals were in a pennant race, and Brett was hitting to win. “Every time up, I was just trying to give out club the kind of at-bat the situation called for,” Brett said. But the night we wrapped up our division, I thought, ‘Hey, I’m close enough. I’m going to go for it. I didn’t have to try to hit .400.’ That was the day things fell apart. I didn’t have many good at-bats when I started concentrating on getting hits.”

Focusing on the job at hand, and on the elements that a player can control, leads to reaching the great goals. Reaching then excelling, in these individual points builds a player’s confidence. The secret is the specifics: do the individual elements correctly and they will lead to greater achievement. The individual, specific goals—journey goals—are what lead to reaching the highest goals—destination goals. Only be mastering the journey goals can you reach the destination.

From Mental Toughness: Baseball’s Winning Edge

by Karl Kuehl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller

Link for the U of A Newsletter – July 2010.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA NEWSLETTER JULY 2010

To join the newsletter list please email seanmiller@arizona.edu, or visit our website each month for a copy.

The WNBA Draft is today!  For Monica Wright, her family as well as a host of others, today is a special day.  In a little less than an hour, everything Monica has known as a player changes.  There will be pay checks, endorsements, appearances, media, pictures, travel.  Exciting times!  Congratulations to all, enjoy the moment and the day – it’s special.  Follow the DRAFT HERE. See our 2010 WNBA MOCK DRAFT HERE.

From By DAVE UTNIK

On the rare occasions when she allowed herself to look beyond the goal directly before her, Monica Wright imagined what it might feel like to walk onto the court for the first time as a professional basketball player.

She’s never been one to assume anything. The University of Virginia’s all-time scoring leader has spent her entire career pursuing one small milestone after another.

Looking too far ahead isn’t her thing. Wright prepares for the moment and then moves on. It’s a personal rule that has worked out well because everywhere she goes, success ultimately follows.

But even Wright has day dreams.

Monica Wright's Draft Day

And her happily-ever-after visions have usually involved playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

Even as a high school sophomore, when she was just beginning to discover her potential as one of the nation’s elite women’s basketball players, it was assumed by everyone around her that Wright would play in the WNBA.

Her talent was that obvious.

Almost everything Wright has accomplished over the past decade—two high school state championships at Forest Park and first-team Associated Press All-America honors at Virginia—has led her to this afternoon’s draft in Secaucus, N.J., where the best player in Prince William County history is expected to be among the top five selections.  She won’t get past the second pick.

“I can see myself around the perimeter playing maybe one through three. That’s where I have been playing throughout my whole career,” Wright said. “But I feel the most comfortable at shooting guard.

“As I have heard and learned, this draft is going to be guard heavy so it’s going to be exciting to see where everybody goes.”

Pre-draft buzz has Wright reaching the podium within 10 minutes, most likely as the No. 2 or No. 3 overall pick—shortly after the Connecticut Sun select UConn center Tina Charles with the first pick.

Here is a quick look at where Wright could be headed:

Connecticut Su

1st and 7th overall pick

After finishing sixth in the Eastern Conference last season at 16-18, the Sun had a busy offseason. They acquired 2009 first-round pick Renee Montgomery from Minnesota in exchange for the first overall pick. On Wednesday, they traded guard/forward Amber Holt and center Chante Black to the Tulsa Shock to get the No. 7 pick.

Connecticut, which desperately needs a center, is expected to select Charles. The last two No. 1 selections—Angel McCoughtry and Candice Parker—went on to win rookie of the year honors.

The Sun would certainly choose Wright at No. 7, but she probably won’t last that long.

Minnesota Lynx

2nd and 3rd overall pick

The Lynx seem to be a perfect fit for Wright, who led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring and was named the NCAA defensive player of the year.

First-year coach Cheryl Reeves wants defense to be a priority after Minnesota gave up the second-most points in the league a year ago. And that is Wright’s forte.  ACC and National Defensive Player of the year, check.

The thing about Wright is that she also creates match-up problems with her speed and versatility. She’s started at point guard, shooting guard and small forward at one point or another in her career. The Lynx appear to be set in the backcourt after acquiring Lindsey Whalen from the Sun to play alongside Candice Wiggins.

Chicago Sky

4th overall pick

The Sky nearly made the playoffs for the first time since joining the league in 2005 and Wright is just the kind of athlete who could finally lead them there.

If the Lynx don’t select Wright with one of their two picks, then the Sky almost assuredly will despite five guards on the active roster, including point guard Kristi Toliver, from Maryland, and Jia Perkins.

The Sky bolstered their front court by getting center Courtney Paris from Sacramento in the dispersal draft and Shameka Christon is a trade with the Liberty.

What they need now is an impact scorer. With one pick in the first two rounds, Chicago will have to draft wisely.

San Antonio Silver Star

5th overall pick

The Stars are the first 2009 playoff team to make a pick in this year’s draft. After nearly upsetting eventually champion Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals, there aren’t many weaknesses.

They addressed a need for rebounding by trading for center Michelle Snow, signing Tasha Humphrey and getting forward Laura Harper in the dispersal draft.

All-Star Becky Hammon and shooting guard Roneeka Hodges are the likely backcourt starters, but Wright has a way of blending in almost anywhere.

Washington Mystic

6th overall pick

It’s probably wishful thinking. As wonderful as it would be for Wright to play—and star—in her hometown, there is very little chance of her landing in D.C.

The Mystics are one of the league’s up-and-coming teams after a string of successful drafts and the recent signing of all-star guard Katie Smith, who should play along with Alana Beard and Lindsey Harding in a three-guard backcourt.

After reaching the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, the Mystics could still use another versatile small forward. Maybe they’ll be lucky enough to find Wright still on the draft board at No. 6. It’s not likely though.

When we think of hardship in college basketball, we think injury, graduation loss or must-win expectations. The banged-up Michigan State men, after all, somehow got to the Final Fouron subs and sutures. The Connecticut women, unbeaten in their last 75, have to win it all, or else they become the Greg Norman of their sport.

But what if hardship meant genuine hardship?

Kevin Cook

What if, after coaching some of the best players in the world, you got the short end of the stick during an ownership change and had no full-time job?

And after raising championship trophies with the Houston Comets, whom you coached as a WNBA assistant, the only chance anyone gave you to be a head coach in college was at the world’s only university that’s exclusive to deaf and hard-of-hearing students?

Oh, and you didn’t know a word of sign language when you pulled hard off Florida Avenue in Northeast Washington, through the gates of Gallaudet University?

What if you were Kevin Cook, and three seasons in, none of that ended up amounting to real hardship? What if the Division III women’s team you agreed to coach via e-mail, the team that had not won a conference game in the three years prior to your arrival — one that would lose a league game by 75 points that first year — would one day seem so trivial a problem?

Especially when your hand began shaking two years ago, and the physician said the word you didn’t want to hear: Parkinson’s.

Or when your sister, the person you were closest to in this world — the little girl you grew up with, the woman who helped you move halfway cross-country and then researched a holistic diet when she found out you had a life-altering disease — died at the age of 47 in an Ohio house fire this past December after rescuing two of her children.

“Beautiful girl,” Cook said quietly in his office late Thursday afternoon. “She was really somethin’. ”

He hands you an obituary of Kelly Lynn O’Neill Preston, which features a small photograph of a striking, smiling blonde-haired woman. “At times people said she looked like Stevie Nicks. We actually were both adopted, but I never felt that way. She was my sister. Didn’t think anything else of it.”

“She lived in an old farmhouse. It was an old electrical cord that caught on fire in the kitchen. Windy, winter night — the whole thing. I still keep and look at her e-mails.”

Seated across the desk from her coach, Easter Faafiti, his best player, lowered her glance.

“We wore her favorite color in our shoe strings after it happened — baby blue,” she said. “We just got all the team together and tried to make him feel like he has a strong family here. He cried at first, but he stayed strong for us. He was always strong, even in the most sad times.”

The coach manages a half-smile and begins to talk about the good things that came out of the most trying year a 49-year-old divorcee, trying to hold down any job in his profession, could imagine. And of course that’s where the story forks.

See, after the tragedy and the tears, something special happened: Gallaudet, perennial doormat, got good.

By compiling a 14-12 record, Faafiti and her teammates won more games in one season than the program won in the previous three years combined, and it was Gallaudet’s best record in 10 years. After losing 63 straight Capital Athletic Conference games, the Bison won one for the first time in five years this season.

And that team that laid the wood on Gallaudet, 101-26, in Cook’s first season? St. Mary’s went down hard in February, but only after Cook changed into an all-pink suit at halftime during a breast cancer awareness charity night.

An image of Cook pulled up on a mobile phone, of essentially a human Easter bunny leaping for joy after Faafiti fired a beautiful baseball pass from her own end line for the game-winning layup with eight seconds left, is a marked contrast from the person who sat in this very office in mid-December and dropped the phone when he heard the news of his sister.

“One of my players signed ‘pink’ that night, and I just went in and changed,” Cook said, taking his index and middle finger and positioning them near his chin.

In a slow, measured tone, the coach added, “It’s been an incredible year — of highs and lows.”

East Indian yoga in a heated room has helped. “That and a lot of prayer,” he said. Asked the prognosis he was given for Parkinson’s disease, he added, “I was told, ‘In 20 years you’re not going to have much of a quality of life.’ I had to rebuke that statement right off. I say, ‘My healing is right around the corner.’ ”

This weekend, Cook will go to the women’s Final Four in San Antonio. On Tuesday, he will become the second Division III coach to receive the prestigiousCarol Eckman Award, named for the late West Chester coach who organized the first women’s college basketball championship in 1969.

He is much better at sign language today than his first season. Though most of his players are completely deaf and a few, like Faafiti, are hard of hearing, Cook did not use an interpreter for the first three weeks of practice this year.

“I’m still learning,” Cook said, chuckling. “I still don’t understand when Easter asks out of the game. The finger spelling is hard. I just sign: ‘I don’t understand. Keep playing.’ ” Faafiti is cracking up now, smiling.

“Funny, huh? I’m a guy and I wound up coaching women. . . . I’m not deaf and now I’m at Gallaudet.”

It all seems to fit in the end.

Who knew the man who once had offices down the hall from Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Jeff Van Gundy at different times during his coaching career would end up just fine with guiding the Gallaudet Bison as far as they can go.

“I like it here — feels like family, you know,” Cook said.

Before you leave the office, there is a quiet moment and an uncomfortable pause and you end up mumbling the old cliche during times like these: “What’s that saying, ‘When one door closes, another opens’?” Cook’s eyes suddenly grow wide and he reaches for the keychain in his pocket.

“It’s amazing you said that,” the coach said. He pushes aside the regular keys and finds the knickknack given to him after he lost his job in Houston. “God Never Shuts One Door Without Opening Another,” it reads.

Kelly “gave me that key,” said Kevin Cook, pursing his lips, nodding.

According to forms filed with the federal government, these schools reported the largest deficits for their women’s basketball programs in regard to the 2008-09 season:

School Deficit

1. Kansas $3,177,605

2. South Carolina $3,155,424

3. Arkansas $3,120,026

4. Texas A&M $2,996,821

5. Virginia $2,933,888

6. Auburn $2,874,009

7. Duke $2,836,386

8. Auburn $2,761,504

9. Oklahoma $2,677,885

10. Northwestern $2,652,529

11. Texas $2,639,111

12. Georgia Tech $2,479,525

The cost of Big 12 basketball

As this chart shows, one-third of the Big 12 schools lost money on basketball during the 2008-09 season, largely because of the massive deficits associated with their women’s teams. The revenues and expenses listed for each school were taken from forms filed with the federal government. The revenues listed for Baylor, a private school, may include subsidies from the university.

Texas

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 1,918,013/ 14,770,278/ 16,688,291

Expenses: 4,557,124/ 7,891,661/ 12,448,785

Profit or loss -2,639,111/ 6,878,617/ 4,239,506

Texas A&M

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 1,049,951/ 8,984,818/ 10,034,769

Expenses: 4,046,772/ 6,219,442/ 10,266,214

Profit or loss: -2,996,821/ 2,765,376/ -231,445

Texas Tech

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 1,746,714/ 6,479,893/ 8,226,607

Expenses: 2,734,893/ 3,831,828/ 6,566,721

Profit or loss: -988,179/ 2,648,065/ 1,659,886

Baylor

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 4,082,782/ 4,595,742/ 8,678,524

Expenses: 4,082,782/ 4,595,742/ 8,678,524

Profit or loss: 0/ 0/ 0

Oklahoma

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 1,448,696/ 6,753,149/ 8,201,845

Expenses: 4,126,551/ 5,409,808/ 9,536,359

Profit or loss: -2,677,855/ 1,343,341/ -1,334,514

Oklahoma State

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 427,816/ 11,052,293/ 11,480,109

Expenses: 2,118,334/ 5,166,055/ 7,284,389

Profit or loss: -1,690,518/ 5,886,238/ 4,195,720

Colorado

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 389,436/ 3,993,889/ 4,383,325

Expenses: 2,710,495/ 3,951,423/ 6,661,918

Profit or loss: -2,321,059/ 42,466/ -2,278,593

Iowa State

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 1,541,423/ 6,197,669/ 7,739,092

Expenses: 2,996,712/ 4,296,701/ 7,293,413

Profit or loss: -1,455,289/ 1,900,968/ 445,679

Kansas

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 315,529/ 15,737,145/ 16,052,674

Expenses: 3,493,134/ 8,219,362/ 11,712,496

Profit or loss: -3,177,605/ 7,517,783/ 4,340,178

Kansas State

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 765,006/ 5,656,041/ 6,421,047

Expenses: 2,513,866/ 4,608,889/ 7,122,755

Profit or loss: -1,748,860/ 1,047,152/ -701,708

Missouri

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 354,849/8,857,828/9,212,677

Expenses: 2,028,463/4,528,720/6,557,183

Profit or loss: -1,673,614/4,329,108/2,655,494

Nebraska

Women/Men/Total

Revenue: 695,026/6,297,232/6,992,258

Expenses: 2,247,575/3,961,218/6,208,793

Profit or loss: -1,552,549/2,336,014/783,465

“This is definitely a time of year that I look forward to annually as I get to announce the 12 finalists for The State Farm Wade Trophy,” said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. “The prestige of this award goes without saying, and I can only imagine how excited these 12 student-athletes are to be on this list. We wish them the best of luck in the remainder of their seasons.”

The short list includes last year’s winner, Maya Moore of Connecticut, as well as her teammate, Tina Charles. Ohio State (Jantel Lavender, Samantha Prahalis) and Stanford (Jayne Appel, Nnemkadi Ogwumike) also had two players apiece on the list of finalists.

The complete list of 12 finalists includes:

This is one of those moments… Thank You Monica.

Monica Wright

Virginia senior guard Monica Wright (Woodbridge, Va.) has been named to theAssociated Press All-America first team, the organization announced Tuesday (March 30). Wright becomes the first Cavalier to earn first-team honors.

Wright is joined on the 2010 squad by Tina Charles (Connecticut), Kelsey Griffin (Nebraska), Jantel Lavender (Ohio State) and Maya Moore (Connecticut).

“This is a tremendous honor and I can honestly breathe a sigh of satisfaction knowing that four years of hard work has paid off,” Wright said. “To be mentioned in the same breath as some of the all-time great players at Virginia is wonderful. I obviously would like to thank my coaches and teammates but also a big thanks goes out to my family for all their support throughout the years.”

Wright wrapped up her illustrious career at Virginia as the Cavaliers’ all-time leading scorer with 2,540 points, a total that ranks third on the ACC’s all-time scoring list. This past season, Wright set the UVa single-season scoring mark with 734 points, breaking her own school-record of 696 points set in 2008-09. She averaged 23.7 points per game, which led the ACC and ranked seventh in the nation, and she tallied eight 30-point games and 22 20-point games in 2009-10.

She was named the WBCA National Defensive Player of the Year on Monday (March 29), and averaged 3.6 steals and 6.5 rebounds per game this season. Wright tied the school-record with 10 steals in a game vs. Liberty on Dec. 29.

Wright was named the ACC Player of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year and first team All-ACC as a senior. She was also named to the ACC All-Tournament second team and was tabbed the Richmond Times-Dispatch State Player of the Year.

Wright has started and played in every game during her four years with the Cavaliers. She was a State Farm Coaches’ All-America Team regional finalist as a junior and sophomore and was the ACC Rookie of the Year her freshman year. She is majoring in sociology.

Associated Press All-America First Team
Tina Charles, Connecticut
Kelsey Griffin, Nebraska
Jantel Lavender, Ohio State
Maya Moore, Connecticut
Monica Wright, Virginia

Second Team
Jayne Appel, Stanford
Alysha Clark, Middle Tennessee State
Brittney Griner, Baylor
Nnemka Ogwumike, Stanford
Andrea Riley, Oklahoma State

Third Team
Elena Delle Donne, Delaware
Victoria Dunlap, Kentucky
Amber Harris, Xavier
Danielle Robinson, Oklahoma
Jasmine Thomas, Duke