Guru Report: Delle Donne Back In USABasketball Loop

By Mel Greenberg

Though the official USABasketball invite list is soon to be made public, Delaware's Elena Delle Donne is in the group of those who still have collegiate eligibility and have been offered a shot at making the World University Games USA women's squad when trials are beld late next month in Colorado Springs, Colo.

A source familiar with Delle Donne's invitation confirmed her first offer from USA Basketball since she was a finalist for the U19 team in 2007 but declined to participate with the eventual gold medalists as she went into a summer hiatus as a high school senior at Wilmington's Ursuline Academy.

The following September she initially chose the powerful University of Connecticut program from her list of final four considerations of where to spend her collegiate career. But her time with the Huskies was just a little over a day following enrollment in summer school in June 2008 and she eventually joined Delaware but took a year off from basketball before opting to play for the Blue Hens following her one-year stint on the volleyball team.

Connecticut eligibles who receive invitations won't attend due to a trip the team is taking to Rome and Athens, Greece this summer.

Iowa State's Bill Fennelly is the head coach of the USA squad while Duquesne's Suzie McConnell-Serio and Georgetown's Terri Williams-Fournoy, both former Penn State teammates, will be his assistants.

More Awards

There is no Philly Six per se in men's and women's basketball in the Philadelphia area but the entity becomes virtual reality anytime the media or other individuals include Drexel and combine the Dragons' achievements along with the Big Five school -- La Salle, Penn, St. Joseph's, Villianva and Temple.

In that regard Glenn Papazian, who runs the Phillycollegessports.com website on the internet invited yours truly to select women's psuedo-Philly Six women's honorees, which are listed at the following link: http://phillycollegesports.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/philly-college-sports-all-philly-division-i-womens-basketball-team/.

If that doesn't get you there, just use the front part of the link to get access.

The individual winners were the same as the recently announced Big Five women's honorees -- Temple's Shey Peddy was player of the year, the Owls' Tony Cardoza was coach of the year, and Penn newcomer Alyssa Baron was the freshman of the year.

Villanova, the last of the locals, will have its women's awards banquet Sunday afternoon on the Main Line.

-- Mel
Incidentally, Drexel had its combination men's and women's postseason dinner in the Dragons' Daskalakis Athletic Center Tuesday night and the honorees can be found at the Dragons' athletic department website.

Though Drexel's lone senior Jasmina Rosseel has returned to Belgium, the wonders of modern technology enabled her to get on her computer and tape a farewell and thank you address from overseas in one of the many highlights of the night.

The guru also learned that Britt Faulstick, who has been the Dragons' women's media contact the last several seasons, is moving to University Relations so those of you who have interest in being with a program expected to do well in the Colonial Athletic Association next season should contact Mike Tuberosa, the main sports information dirtector for the athletic department.