Guru Report: UConn's Doty A Future Harlem Globetrotter?

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA -- Monday was quite the slow day to the point that the Guru returned yet again to Drexel, yet this time to watch Bruiser Flint's men's team suffocate Georgia State.

However, in the first half at the Daskalakis Athletic Center until the final minutes of the period, Dragons women's star Jasmina Rosseel had actually outscored both men's teams combined with her 26 in the second half of Sunday's win over Hofstra.

Georgia State's total in the 30s was so low that former star Gabriela Marginean has actually put up at least three better total game efforts herself in the DAC before graduating last season.

Anyhow, this is not new, but this for the benefit of local folks in town here who may not always venture to the massive coverage of UConn up North in Hartford and Storrs.

Apparently, former Germantown Academy star Caroline Doty, who is recovering from a third ACL knee injury sidelining her this season from the Huskies, has become a must-see attraction on video giving an exhibition of trick shots.

To understand how things are different up there when it comes to women's basketball, the Doty video is being promoted on page one of the Hartford Courant in Tuesday's editions on a day in which a bombing of the main airport in Moscow and the president's State of the Union address are the main topics elsewhere.

If this works, here's the Doty Youtube link.

Incidentally, the Huskies are at Rutgers Wednesday night for a key Big East game and still remain on target to land in the Philadelphia Regional Finals of the NCAA women's tournament in March.

The next big test will come at home in Storrs Monday night when No. 3 Duke visits.

Penn's Baron and Temple's Peddy Share Big Five Honors

They were on opposite sides Saturday afternoon when Temple beat Penn in The Palestra in a closely fought City Series game but two of the top local newcomers shared Big Five player of the week honors Monday.

Shey Peddy, a junior transfer from Wright State contending for Big 5 player of the year honors, earned a share of the award for her effort in scoring 19 points in the win over St. Joseph's, which was not part of the official round-robin standings, and then had 20 points in the win over Penn.

Baron, a true newcomer as a freshman, made an extra splash in the awards department besides being named for her career-tying 23 points. She became just the sixth player in Ivy history since 2001-02 to sweep both the rookie of the week, which she won outright, and player of the week, which she shared with Megan Vazquez.

The native of Miami, Fla., who has won rookie Ivy honors three previous times this season, had 17 points on Wednesday when the Quakers beat La Salle to end an 0-for-24 slump in City Series games dating back to Dec. 1, 2004, when Penn beat St. Joseph's.

Penn begins the rest of the Ivy slate -- the Quakers lost to defending champion Princeton on the road two weeks ago -- this weekend with a Friday stop at Yale and Saturday stop at Brown.

Poll Trivia

Although it was noted in the previous blog as likely to happen but was down deep in case you all bailed out, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer has now guided Ohio State years ago and Stanford since then to a combined 400 appearances in the AP poll, landing behind Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Georgia's Andy Landers.

Duke has now appeared in the Top 10 of the weekly AP vote 200 times and if the Blue Devils hold serve heading into Monday's game at UConn -- the vote will be out before the game -- they will be making their 100th appearance in the Top 5.

OK, that's it until the next 24. The Guru returns to a little DII action on Tuesday night visiting University of the Sciences hosting Philadelphia University.

Incidentally, James Madison, the defending CAA champs featuring Dawn Evans, the nation's leading scorer, visits Drexel on Thursday night.

-- Mel