Source: https://womenshoopsblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 04:02:39+00:00

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Peyton Manning has likely played his final NFL game. Sure, there’s a chance he’ll try to run it back, but most agree he should send his starting defense some very nice thank-you gifts and call it a career on a high note.
Peyton Manning. For the past two weeks, his name has been in the headlines — first for winning his second Super Bowl, then, over the weekend, as the subject of a New York Daily News story that details one account of the alleged sexual assault that happened in 1996, when Manning was the star quarterback at the University of Tennessee.
The “incident” has been covered in the media many times over the past 20 years. So, old news, right?
When six former female students filed a sweeping lawsuit against the University of Tennessee last week, they joined a growing list of high profile legal actions against colleges over how sexual assault allegations are handled, particularly those involving male athletes.
Last month, Florida State University settled a lawsuit for $950,000 brought by a former student who said she was raped by star quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston in 2012, but was met with “deliberate indifference” by university officials after she came forward. Winston has denied the allegations.
In January, Baylor University entered into a confidential settlement with a female soccer player after she reported being sexually assaulted by former football defensive end Sam Ukwuachu. A jury found Ukwuachu guilty of the sexual assault in August 2015, months after a campus disciplinary review had cleared Ukwuachu.
The best place to learn about what’s going on? The Title IX Blog.
We have seen emerge a pattern of sexual assault cover-ups by intercollegiate football teams recently. Kent State has interrupted that pattern–not in a good way.
As I wrote last week, the University of Tennessee and Baylor University find themselves in similar situations: student athletes accused of sexual assault and subsequent indifference to these reports by administrators. More has come out about Tennessee, specifically Peyton Manning’s involvement when he was a student athlete. I am moving on to discuss the cases at Baylor though for now and may return to Manning later.
As I noted in my original post, the two situations share characteristics but are different in key ways. First, the judicial system has already handled the cases of two of the accused. Two former Baylor student-athletes were convicted of sexual assault, but the school did nothing about either of them. They did not investigate when victims came forward.
Here are summaries of some recent judicial decisions involving Title IX claims against school districts for failing to adequately respond to reports of sexual harassment and abuse.
A federal court in Connecticut refused to grant summary judgment to a school district in a case stemming from a ninth-grader’s repeated sexual abuse of the sixth-grade plaintiff. The abuse itself occurred outside of school, but the plaintiff alleges that the school district was deliberately indifferent to the fact that the abuse and her reporting of it subjected her to continued harm while at school.
Remember when IUPUI was really awful. Thursday, they took down the Wabbits. They get to play the Coyotes today….
For the first time in 25 games, Siena beat Marist.
SNICK. The C-USA got tight as Western Kentucky took care of Middle Tennessee, 62-51.
The WCC continues to be interesting: San Diego over Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s over Santa Clara.
#13 Stanford knocked the teeth outta the #7 Beavers, 76-54.
Princeton is licking their Ivy League championships chops: Cornell pulled off the stunner, topping Penn, 51-46.
#5 Ohio State v. #20 Michigan State. Can the Buckeyes recover their moxie? Can the Spartans get folks to believe in them?
Always pay attention to the WCC: San Francisco will battle Saint Mary’s, BYU v. Gonzaga.
Big Sky is up for grabs: Idaho (12-3) v. Eastern Washington (12-3).
#22 Oklahoma State v. West Virginia. The Mountaineers have made enough noise to get the attention of the Selection Committee. Both teams are 10-6 in the Big 12. An upset would really seal the deal.
It’s a home game, so I don’t thing UTEP will be looking a head… ’cause the 49ers sure deserve their attention.
Senior Day at UConn prompts ESPN’s MC Barrett to ask: Is Breanna Stewart the best UConn player in history?
With Auriemma’s standard roster of multipositional excellence beside her, Stewart has, in her time at Connecticut, indisputably qualified as one of those rare raise-the-bar talents. She has occasionally been heralded by pundits as potentially the best female player ever.
That is what Auriemma believes Stewart is capable of on the women’s scale of athletic enhancement. And while he does not deal in ranking individuals across playing eras, given Connecticut’s parade of elite alumnae, he did offer contextual elaboration by recounting another of Stewart’s wow moments, from this season, one with a better result, if not a perfect one.
Georgia @ Tennessee. A battle of unranked SEC teams will garner a lot of attention.
Equally interesting battle between two 16-3 teams in MAAC: Quinnipiac v. Iona.
Duke v. UNC: Two blue teams – literally and psychically.
Minnesota v. #6 Maryland. Obviously, the Gophers have to play a better out-of-conference schedule… but Rachel they are sure are doing their best to get noticed. Will the Terps have gotten the message?
Jo had 26 points and 10 rebounds that March night in 2009 in San Antonio, and those numbers don’t begin to tell half of her story. The New England prep school player of the year in 2005, she would go on to be a two-time Division II player of the year and the all-time D-II leading scorer. Drafted by the Connecticut Sun in 2010, Jo played for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics and tied Erika de Souza of Brazil as leading scorer. Jo Leedham, who played in a few exhibition games in 2013 with the Sun, plays for Bourges in France. She scored 28 points Thursday for Great Britain in a stirring comeback over Montenegro in a Eurobasket qualifier.
Kirsty, meanwhile, starred at Cheshire Academy and at Caldwell (N.J.) College before becoming a graduate assistant while getting her MBA in sports management at New Haven. She returned to coach Cheshire Academy for two years before becoming coordinator of player development at Binghamton this season.
No family has given any more to New England small college basketball, to New England basketball, in the past decade. That’s worth remembering today as Jen Leedham fights to remain in this country.
Even though it’s 2016, Cash has still dealt with the less-than-desirable underbelly of the internet. You know, the ones who are dumbfounded that a black woman would be able to talk about professional sports from merit and experience. No mind that the WNBA star is one of the most decorated athletes with her pair of NCAA National Titles, treble of WNBA Championships as well as two Olympic gold medals, of course.
Cash brushes off the ignorant, baseless criticism.
“You have to have a sharp mind to have discernment of what’s coming in and what you’re actually putting out,” said Cash.
Speakin’ of audio: Dishin & Swishin 2/25/16 Podcast: Moriah Jefferson ready to join the Huskies of Honor, but what comes next?
Lady Swish asks: Is your team going to the NCAA tournament?
In theory, each of the state’s 13 teams could qualify for the NCAAs by winning their conference tournaments. Barring that, we feel that only four Virginia schools have even an outside chance of nabbing an at-large bid. Virginia schools have gone five years without receiving an at-large bid. Based on what our teams have done so far, that streak is likely to continue in 2016.
The Ben-Gals won their third SEC game this season by one. The Orange lightning is crashing over the once-proud UT program that hit its bottom. Doesn’t matter how they lost.
The Lady Vols proved once again they have no clue this season. This should be the death knell for the assistant coaches because that’s the only way an embattled coach makes a perception she is willing to accept blame and make changes.
The urban legend that former Pat Head Summitt players make good coaches is dead. D-E-A-D dead.
Not Holly Warlick, not anyone else.
The campus is embroiled in too many other coming lawsuits and other distractions in the important campus sports to make a direct move on Warlick.
It is over. As in so many other things.
The girls basketball finals will be played on Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 40 years after Warsaw’s 5-1 Warren captured the hearts of Hoosiers. She played with the exuberance of a first-grader allowed 20 minutes extra at recess. For Warren and her Warsaw teammates, the 1976 state finals marked the culmination of four years of playing mostly in front of family and close friends.
If Warren had graduated one year earlier, she would have never had the opportunity.
But it was Saturday that saw some surprises.
Just as I say something nice about #17 Oklahoma State, they get upset by TCU, 79-65.
Just as I say something nice about Central Michigan, they meet challenger Toledo and lose, 81-79.
Penguins forget how to score and get upset by Cleveland State, 53-43.
Hampton got upset by Coppin State , which hurts their MEAC regular season championship prospects.
Crusin’ Mercer got crushed by Chattanooga, 67-43.
Southern squeaks by SWAC title challenger Alabama State, 57-55.
Costal Carolina (5-11, Big South) snuffed the Flames, 58-61. First time since February 19, 1996.
In the battle of South Dakota, it was a wild fourth quarter by both teams. Coyotes take down the Jackrabbits, 80-71, and have their eye on the regular season prize.
In the battle of Montana, the Griz upset the Bobcats, 70-66.
Who misses Ms. Jones? George Washington. They fall to VCU, 79-68.
(Now ranked) Colorado State needed a big fourth quarter to overcome Wyoming, and stay perfect in the Mountain West, 62-57.
Tennessee-Martin makes a statement about who rules the OVC, stifling SIU-Edwardsville, 86-50.
Charlotte built a nice lead and held on to upset the Hilltoppers, 81-72.
They went back and forth by quarters, but it was UC Riverside that ended up with the win over UC Davis. The Highlanders are now 12-0 in the Big West.
UCR remains undefeated in the Big West, running its record to 11-0 in conference and 18-7 overall following an 83-58 thumping of Long Beach State Thursday evening at the Rec Center.
The Highlanders did so with seven available players.
…for that pesky Florida. Nice win for Joni Taylor and Georgia, but what is up with the Gators?
The juxtaposition of so much going right for the Huskies and the difficulties facing the Lady Vols is an unpleasant thing for Tennessee fans. There is no other way to put it. There was a time not so long ago when UConn and Tennessee were both ahead of the rest of women’s basketball.
Since Tennessee ended the series after the 2007 season, the two programs haven’t met. Tennessee won its eighth title in 2008, but hasn’t been back to the Women’s Final Four since. UConn hasn’t missed a Final Four since 2007.
Alas, what Tennessee has to do now, though, is focus on trying to play as well as possible for the two games left in the regular season, the SEC tournament, and the NCAA tournament, which they still are projected to make.
Rachel B proves it wasn’t a fluke, going for 52 (and Kobe liked it) but, unfortunately, in a losing cause. Likely we won’t see her in the NCAA tournament… unless the Gophers can pull off the huge Big 10 Conference Championship upset.
Ouch. Butler upsets St. John’s, 62-58.
Double ouch. That was a disappointing Pac-12 season for Cal.
Squeak! Abilene Christian escaped Southeastern Louisiana (4-21, 3-11), 72-70.
A story leaps to mind for Cynthia Rodriguez of her daughter, Dani, finding $30 on the ground at a market near their Downey, Calif., home.
To a third-grader, that’s a fortune, so she kept the cash close. But the next day at the same market, a woman was begging for money.
Dani, in her youthful wisdom, gave her fortune away.
As a senior point guard, Danielle Rodriguez’s capacity to give to others is tallied up: She’s dished out 429 assists in her career, the fifth-most in school history. But many of her good works off the court are being brought to light as she’s one of 10 women’s basketball players named to the AllState WBCA Good Works Team, which highlights the community service of student-athletes.
The instant that Cait Craft cut to the basket on Thursday night in Value City Arena, Ameryst Alston delivered a bounce pass in traffic so seamlessly that the two Ohio State senior guards appeared connected by some second sense.
The assist and the layup became a sentence within a paragraph of a story four seasons in the writing, and explained why each would describe her feelings as “bittersweet” heading into the pair’s final home game with the Buckeyes today against Illinois.
Adut Bulgak has the name of her late brothers — Deng Atem and Bul Atem — on each shoe.
The 6-foot-4 center for No. 10 Florida State is one of the top seniors in women’s college basketball, averaging 13.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. She will graduate in May with a degree in sociology, likely be selected in the WNBA Draft and try out for a spot on the Canadian Olympic team.
“I built a tougher mentality because I had some terrible things happen to me just like other people have,” she said.
The shorthand way of describing why Diana Taurasi did not play the 2015 WNBA season for Phoenix was that she took off the summer to rest.
Except that’s not exactly what happened.
In other words, last summer wasn’t about just taking a breather and texting snarky comments to motivate Mercury teammate Brittney Griner (although she did both).
keeping one eye on the goings on as we near the end of the regular season.
America East: Unless there’s a surprise upset, Albany and Maine will share the top spot in regular season play. It would be nice for them to face off for the Conference championship.
American: Yah, Connecticut… but the Owls are “workin’ overtime” and trying to make some noise about going to the Big Dance.
A-10: Duquesne, George Washington, St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis are all finding for the top spot. Much depends on Jones’ health… but the emergence of the Billikens is my top story.
ACC: My two Coach of the Year candidates (’cause it usually goes to a “big name program”) Muffet and Jeff are in the top two spots, with an inconsistent Florida State lurking behind.
A-10: Florida Gulf Coast rebuffed all comers so far… kinda looks like it’s the same old, same old.
Big 12: Baylor and Texas seem to be the consistent cream at the top. The more mature team ought to win.
Big East: DePaul’s had some head scratchers, but they’re still sittin’ pretty atop the Big East.
Big Sky: Montana State’s only conference loss is to the number two team: Eastern Washington. They won’t play again unless they meet in the conference tournament.
Big South: We’ve been tracking UNC-Asheville‘s rise. They’re in first place, having earned a “revenge” win over Liberty. Gardner-Webb looms next.
Big 10: Two teams that like to score, Ohio State and Maryland, are leading the conference. Doesn’t feel like other teams have the firepower to take either down.
Big West: UC Riverside’s conference record is unblemished so far. Let’s see if that holds through their rematch with Hawai’i on the 27th.
CAA: It seemed like there might be cracks in James Madison’s armor early on… but nope.
Conference USA: UTEP seems to have the regular season crown sewn up. Western Kentucky will have to face down the surprisingly resilient Blue Raiders if they want to hold on to the second seed in the conference tournament.
Horizon: Like the Dukes, Green Bay has repelled all challengers. Still thing Wright State is a team to keep an eye on.
Ivy: All eyes are on the 3/8 game in New Jersey when Princeton faces off against Penn.
MAAC: It’s a tight little clump at the top with Quinnipiac, Iona and Marist vying for supremacy.
Mid-American: Ohio and Central Michigan. The first time they met, it was a two-point win for the Bobcats. The next time? Maybe the conference tourney.
Mountain West: Colorado State is 13-0 in the conference. They play the #2 team, Fresno State, March 1st.
Northeast: Bryant’s stumbles have opened the way for Sacred Heart. The two teams will meet on the 22nd.
Ohio Valley: The usual top dog, Tennessee-Martin, is number one, but SIU-Edwardsville is knocking on the door.
Pac-12: The pecking order in the 12 seems to have been set: Oregon State, Arizona State, UCLA.
Patriot: No surprise, it looks to be Bucknell v. Army for a tournament berth…. unless someone else gets feisty.
SEC: It’s South Carolina for the third year in a row. Will any of their offensively challenged conference-mates test them for the championship?
Southern: It’s a bit of a surprise to see Mercer in the top spot. They’ll face off against Chattanooga one more time... but I believe even a loss will keep the Teddy Bears as regular season champs.
Southland: Abilene Christian is still rollin’, but perennial conference power Central Arkansas is nippin’ at their heels.
SWAC: Three teams want it: Texas Southern, Alabama State and Southern.
Summit: It’s all about the (South) Dakotas.
Sun Belt: Arkansas State seems to have this well in hand.
West Coast: Sure, BYU is sittin’ pretty – but this is the WCC. Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara and San Diego all have a shot at the conference championship.
WAC: It looked like UT Rio Grande Valley was going to challenge New Mexico State for the conference title… but maybe not this year.

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