Kristin Newlin Signed by Phoenix Mercury

The Phoenix Mercury signed Kristin Newlin to a training camp contract last week, as reported on the WNBA website. Kristin has been playing great basketball in Turkey. Currently, she is averaging 18.6 points and 11.9 rebounds per game and played in the Turkish All-Stars game. Kristin would add strength to the Mercury lineup, which lost Jennifer Lacy in the expansion draft. Two other big Phoenix players, Kelly Schumacher and Olympia Scott, have not yet been re-signed.

Alumnae Day at Maples

February 2nd was Alumnae Day at Maples Pavilion. It was a great day to see former players. Jennifer Azzi was the featured speaker at the Women in Sports luncheon prior to the UCLA game. Several other grads attended the luncheon and all basketball alumnae at the game were recognized at center court during half-time. Here are photos of that ceremony. The players in the group photo are (from left to right) Nancy Lovvold Guerland, Kathy Levinson, an alum we are still trying to identify, Mary McCready, Mary Ann Somerville, Jennifer Azzi, Ann Enthoven, Emily Wagner Gallagher, Kim Kupferer, Fran Liu, Anita Kaplan Fiedel, Heather Owen and Stephanie Erickess Caluya. Sarah Dimson, shown below, was also present but missed the group photo.

Val Whiting Becomes a Marathoner

Last November, Val Whiting finished the Philadelphia Marathon, her first distance race, according to an article in the 1/23/08 Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal. Val is now retired from the WNBA and, with her husband, Jay Raymond, operates GameShape, the Athlete's Performance Center, in Wilmington. Last spring, Val decided to take on a new challenge and started to train for the marathon. In the article, she reports that despite the cold, rainy day, finishing the race felt like a great accomplishment, and she might try another marathon. If she does, she "would do it to make a time, not just to finish." Go to the News Journal article to read Val's entire interview.

Susan Borchardt update from Spain

Susan King Borchardt is living in Granada, Spain, with husband Curtis, who plays for the Granada men's team. In this recent interview found on YouTube she describes her recent activities. Watch the video to test your Spanish comprehension skills and find out what she has been doing. Here's a summary in English: Susan is not presently playing basketball. She is working for a couple of the men's clubs, including Granada, which is Curtis's team. Granada does not have a women's basketball team, although she wishes they did because she would love to play. She loves Granada and living in Spain, and runs to keep in shape. Her brother is a collegiate track and cross country runner in the U.S. The Granada team has recently lost a number of games, but she thinks they are working hard every day and that's all they can do.

Milena Flores at Princeton

Milena moved from Yale to Princeton last summer to become assistant coach under new head coach Courtney Banghart. An article in last week's Daily Princetonian provides a summary of Milena's post-Stanford career, including two years in the WNBA, playing in Lithuania and her coaching experience.

Brooke Smith: Update from Italy

After five games, Brooke is averaging 14 points a game and a team-best 10 rebounds a game for the Virtus Viterbo in Italy's A-1 League. In an interview with the Marin Independent-Journal, she describes her experience and adventures this year.

Jamie Carey Added To USA Basketball’s College Tour Roster

Jamie Carey has been added to the roster for the 2007 USA Basketball Women's National Team College Tour, USA Basketball announced today. USA Basketball's fall tour ends with a game at Maples Pavilion on November 15. Carey replaces Loree Moore (New York Liberty) who left the team due to injury. Here is the complete announcement.

Starbird in Stanford Hall of Fame Class of 2007

The Stanford Hall of Fame Selection Committee announced the class of 2007 today, a group that includes eight of Stanford's all-time great athletes across eight different sports -- one of them is:

Kate Starbird- Women's Basketball (1993-1997) 1997 senior season capped banner career... Won 1997 Naismith Award as college basketball Player of the Year... A consensus First-Team All-America selection in 1997... 1997 Pac-10 Player of the Year and First-Team All-Conference performer... Set Stanford single season scoring record in 1996-97 with 753 points, including 20.9 per game... In four years, her Stanford teams posted an overall record of 118-14, advanced to the Final Four three times, and went 68-4 in conference games... First round draft pick by the Seattle Reign of the ABL.

While surfing the internet for a photo of Kate, I found this memorable moment from her Stanford career:

Point guard Jamila Wideman is tearing down the court and zings a half-court pass to Vanessa Nygaard under the basket. But Nygaard, who leaps into the air to catch the ball, doesn’t shoot. Before her feet hit the ground, she flips the ball to Starbird, who has driven toward the basket from the other side and already is in the air. She catches the ball and does a silky lay-in.

Video interview with Seb and Cori

As reported in yesterday's Alumae blog, the Turkish national team did not advance to the quarterfinals of EuroBasketWomen 2007. But in the qualifying round, Turkey had an unexpected big win against Germany. FIBA published a video interview with Seb and Cori after that game. We know about Seb's Turkish connection, but during the interview, Cori explains how she came to play in Turkey. She is now a Turkish citizen. Although she's changed her name (Is Korel Engin the Turkish version of Cori Enghusen?), she and the interviewer both called her "Cori", so I'll do that too.

Seb and Cori on Turkish national team

Sebnem Kimyacioglu and Cori Enghusen (now Korel Engin) are members of the Turkish national team that recently competed in EuroBasketWomen 2007. Unfortunately, Turkey was 1-2 in the qualifying round last week and did not advance to the quarterfinals. Here is an interview with Seb about her EuroBasket adventure, Seb's player profile and Korel's player profile.