Kate Turns Pro - And Other Notes

By Mel Greenberg

That's right you Rutgers fans of Kate Burkholder's work at the Daily Targum.

Your worst fears have been realized - Kate is jumping to the WNBA, potentially making her debut today (Saturday) in a Madison Square Garden exhibition tilt between the new-look New York Liberty and defending champion Sacramento Monarchs.

"There's nothing really left for her to accomplish in college," said one major newspaper East Coast executive who has observed her copy, particularly in recent weeks before the Targum shuttered its doors for the summer.

All right, all right, now that the Guru has your attention: Calm down.

Kate has returned to the area and her home down here for the summer where she'll be pulling in bread in a non-newspaper job near the White Tower (this building), but be in close proximity to dabble in her journalistic passion, as she desires, while still enjoying the thrill of a student on summer vacation.

So, Kate will blog here, where many of you have become her fans during her wonderful work in Boston, when we brought her aboard for the Final Four and the WNBA draft. (What else can I do after giving the kid the keys to the site :) ).

Her work will range on anything -- sometimes serious, sometimes not, other times not at all. Kate will also be able to use this venue to keep you Rutgers fans up to date over the summer on such as items as a Purdue transfer heading for Scarlet Knights' land, according to a phone call the Guru received from from a Chicago scribe who is a close friend.

Skilled journalist that she is, Kate will be checking facts before posting meaningful news.

Her variety of talent could offer over the summer either a game story from one of the three WNBA cities, or a feature, or whatever, including behind-the-scenes secrets of the Guru's operation, as she dealt in Beantown.

But Kate's work will be her show alongside whatever we usually provide, assuming the yet-to-be-determine-new-owners (any day now) of the newspaper here that issues weekly paychecks don't decide I'd make a great pencil salesman outside the building on the corner. :)

Commentary on Saturday's scene will be up to Kate _ wait till she sees the it's not-all-glamour Japanese-restaurant-style low seats we normally are placed behind the left basket.

The Guru's only interest on Saturday is getting Kate's season credential handled for the Liberty as well as those tasty french fries at the concession stand.

Oh, and there will be a very nice meal at the end of the day to make up for the quick McDonald's stop on the way home from Boston.

We may even practice the file-from-the-train trick now that Guru's laptop computer has an air card, which you became aware of off a recent post on a trip to D.C.

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While we're on the subject of collegiate types, Jonathan Tannenwald, the Penn student who was a sportswriter at the Daily Pennsylvanian and filed for us last summer from Washington Mystics games -- he might appear from there a little bit this summer == is graduating this weekend. So we wish him well.

(This is starting to sound like a Rebecca Lobo shoutout log at the WNBA site.)

We may also get some help from George Washington student Joshua Meredith in New York if neither Kate nor myself is on the scene. He's the sports editor of the Daily Colonial in the nation's capital.

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Note to Temple types: Chicago sources report Temple star Candice Dupree performed well in her first exhibition game when the Sky beat Los Angeles.

"Forget the stats," our colleague said. "She went up against Lisa Leslie, one of the all-time greats, and didn't back down."

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Note to the Philly market. Until local horses stop winning triple crown races, or a local major league team stops winning baseball games, or until a West Coast athlete's ability to hit homers diminishes, or news in our venue actually forces its way into print, you can come directly here and do not stop at philly.com (which only reflects our print edition work) to get your fix of things that might not have been posted yet over on the fine women's hoops site.

That's it for now. The serious stuff tonight was posted behind this one off the teleconference with WNBA commissioner Donna Orender.

On Monday, we're involved with a roundtable on the WNBA at sports business daily, which, unless straightened out, will occur at the same time as league coaches will be giving their annual assessments to the media.

-- Mel