Guru's College Report: Dawn Staley Enters The AP Poll "Doubles" Club

(Guru’s note: A post below this lists a bunch of performances that earned Conference player of the week honors and thus made them along with other pow conference winners eligible for the weekly United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) women’a national player of the week. If you are in melgreenberg.com click mel’s blog on the left to get to the full archive. Also, over in Phillly.com from the print section of the paper the Guru per request has begun a Tuesday women’s notebook involving the Big Five schools and Drexel.)

By Mel Greenberg

Riding along at 14-2 South Carolina returned to the Associated Press women’s poll for the first time since the end of the 2002-03 season.

That enabled basketball legend Dawn Staley to become the 37^th member of the doubles club – coaches who have guided two separate teams to rankings.

Staley earned entry after coaching Temple in her hometown Philadelphia to the Owls’ first-ever ranking in the middle of the last decade when current WNBA All-Star Candice Dupree of the Phoenix Mercury was leading the Owls to three straight Atlantic 10 crowns.

Now Staley has done likewise in her fourth season with the Gamecocks, who could be leading her to her first NCAA appearance since making the move.

This will already be a big year for Staley with induction to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in June.

Here’s a list of all the coaches who have taken two teams into the poll as well as the more exclusive group below who have taken three different teams to rankings, headed by Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer.

Also, Texas Tech’s appearance at No. 10 is the first for the Red Raiders in the top 10 since January 17, 2005.

Here’s the Doubles Group:

Coaches In AP Poll With Two Different Teams

(Compiled By Mel Greenberg, Jan. 9, 2012)

1. Tara VanDerveer – 417 (Ohio State 27, Stanford 390)

2. X-Rene Portland – 336 (St. Joseph’s 22, Penn State 314)

3. Gail Goestenkors – 295 (Duke 229, Texas 66)

4. %-Joan Bonvicini – 267 (Long Beach St. 202, Arizona 65)

5. X-Van Chancellor – 261 (Mississippi 221, LSU 40)

6. X-Theresa Grentz – 225 (Rutgers 181, Illinois 44)

7.W-Marianne Stanley – 183 (Old Dominion 141, USC 24, #Stanford 18)

8. X-Paul Sanderford – 182 (W. Kentucky 158, Nebraska 24)

9. Joanne P. MCallie – 157 (Mchigan State 71, Duke 86)

10. Melanie Balcomb -- 152 (Xavier 17, Vanderbilt 135)

11. Bill Fennelly – 131 (Toledo 2, Iowa State 129)

11. Brenda Frese – 131 (Minnesota 8, Maryland 123)

13. ++-Joe McKeown – 116 (New Mexico State 6, George Washington 110)

14. W-Carol Ross – 114 (Florida 111, Mississippi 3)

15. ^-Cathy Inglese – 98 (Vermont 13, Boston College 85)

16. &-Jane Albright – 96 (N. Illinois 17, Wisconsin 79)

17. X-Billie Moore – 85 (Cal-St. Fullerton 10, UCLA 75)

18. X-Kurt Budke – 80 (Louisiana Tech 42, Oklahoma State 38)

19. X-Lynn Hickey – 64 (Kansas State 63, Texas A&M 1)

20. Joanne Boyle – 61 (California 60, Virginia 1)21.

21. X- Pam Parsons 49 (Old Dominion 7, South Carolina 42)

22. Bonnie Henrickson – 45 (Virginia Tech 36, Kansas 9)

23. Agnus Berenato – 37 (Georgia Tech 5, Pittsburgh 32)

24. **-June Dougherty – 32 (Boise State 10, Washington 22)

25. Connie Yori – 31 (Creighton 3, Nebraska 28)

26. Nell Fortner – 30 (Purdue 1, Auburn 29)

27. X-Carolyn Peck – 29 (Purdue 25, Florida 4)

28. Lisa Bluder 28 – (Drake 2, Iowa 26)

29. Dawn Staley 27 – (Temple 26, South Carolina 1)

30. Nikki Caldwell 24 – (UCLA 21, LSU 3)

31. X-Ellen Mosher – 20 (Minnesota 10, UCLA 10)

32. X-Maura McHugh – 18 (Oklahoma 17, Arizona State 1)

33. X-Joe Curl 13 – (Stephen F. Austin 3, Houston 10)

34. X-Ed Nixon 12 – (Miss. College 8, Mercer 4)

35. ##-Beth Burns – 11 (San Diego State 6, Ohio State 4, San Diego State 1)

36. X-Jim Izard – 2 (DePaul 1, Indiana 1)

36. X-Lisa Stone – 2 (Drake 1, Wisconsin 1)

First team followed by current team in parentheses. Footnotes designate current team elsewhere. X-Not In Division I Head Coach; W-In WNBA;

$-At Seattle; ++-At Northwestern; ^-At Rhode Island; &-At Nevada; **-At Washington State; ##-Two tours of duty at San Diego State; #-Marianne Stanley and Amy Tucker headed Stanford in 1995-96 when Tara VanDerveer coached the 1996 US Olympic Team.

Coaches In AP Poll With Three Different Teams

1. C. Vivian Stringer (Cheyney-85), (Iowa-155), (Rutgers-158), 398

2. Jim Foster (St. Joe-35), (Vanderbilt-164), (Ohio St.-156), 355

3. Gary Blair (Steph. F. Austin-79), (Arkansas-67), (Texas A&M-110), 256

4. W-Marianne Stanley (ODU-141), (Southern Cal-24), (Stanford#-18), 183

5. W-Lin Dunn (Miami-2), (Mississippi-1), (Purdue-130), 133

6. X-Don Perrelli (Northwestern-52), (S. Conn.-20), (St. John’s-1), 73

7. Tom Collen (Colorado St.-34), (Louisville-17), (Arkansas-7), 58

8. Sharon Fanning-Otis (Kentucky-4), (Miss. St.-48), (Tn.-Chatt.-4), 56

9. X-Debbie Yow (Florida-2), (Kentucky-21), (Oral Roberts-1), 24

Looking Ahead

On the local front, Tuesday morning St. Joseph’s will get a chance to ramp up its chase for the Atlantic 10 title when co-favorite Dayton visits Hagan Arena, also the site of the conference tournament, at 11:30.

Two Big East teams are on the road with Villanova visiting Marquette at night while Rutgers is at Pittsburgh.

Wednesday offers a chance to double dip – Fordham, coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley who is in her first year with the Rams, visits La Salle in an A-10 noon game while St. Bonaventure, one of the hot A-10 teams, visits the Liacouras Center, not McGonigle Hall, to play Temple in another sort of must win for the Owls.

The game is at 7 p.m. the same time Penn, trying to bounce back from its Princeton setback, plays a nonconference game hosting NJIT in The Palestra.

On Thursday, Penn State, which just dropped out of the rankings, hosts Michigan, which upset Ohio State while the Lady Lions are seeking to get back on track after losing at home to Michigan State.

Drexel is at William &Mary, but Delaware is hosting UNC Wilmington, which is coached by former WNBA great Cynthia Cooper-Dyke. The Blue Hens also have a dads and daughters promotion. Both games are CAA contests.

Friday in the area Princeton will host Brown in another Ivy contest and on Sunday the Tigers will host Columbia.

Connecticut, which just dropped a spot to No. 3 after losing to previous number three Notre Dame, will visit Villanova at 2 p.m. Saturday the same time Rutgers will be hosting Louisville in another game of Big East ranked teams.

St. Joseph’s will host Penn in a Big Five game, while defending champion, but struggling Xavier, will visit La Salle, all on Saturday.

The only other home game Sunday besides Princeton is Georgia State’s visit to Drexel in a CAA contest at 2 p.m.

Since it’s an early wakeup for St. Joe’s, time to close out for now. But @womhoopsguru will tweet from the game.

-- Mel