The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Drexel Douses Marist; Ranked Powers Form an Election Eve Wave; Other Items

 By Mel Greenberg @ womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – Monday may have been night one of the 2026-27 edition of NCAA women’s basketball whose March Madness presentation of the national tournament will be tearing through here nearby in South Philly with two sets of the Sweet 16 and and Elite Eight on the way to the Final Four in Columbus, Ohio — that’s eight teams here in the neighborhood – but stories and results came blazing at the outset in midseason form.

Therefore, buckle up as we fly back over the landscape of opening action and when you see a site name in the upper lefthand corner of a post in bold it means a game leading off was personally attended by yours truly or by other contributors to the cause.

Eight teams formed the part of the local Monday segment, which many times will be the first part of the merged report, but many times also will be handled in separate reports.

Since this is being posted on election day nationwide, might as well take that style of reporting for your entertainment.

Overall, a great night individually here in the Daskalakis Athletic Center for Drexel quickly tossing aside any opening night jitters — even veteran squads get them — to defeat Marist of the Metro Conference rebranded from its longtime MAAC identity 62-47 as the Dragons handled the Red Foxes offensively and defensively off a rebuilt roster whose subtractions were more by way of graduation than in the portal.

Data points were close between the two teams – advantage home folks – but the key defensive stats were a 37-25 advantage on the boards, 10-1 on the offensive glass, and 10-4 on steals, part of a stand that led to 13 turnovers by the visitors to just six miscues by Drexel.

The Dragons won every quarter and other than Marist winning bench points 17-10, it was a wipeout otherwise, 17-10 mined on turnovers, 32-24 in the paint, 5-0 on second chance scoring and 6-2 on fast breaks.

Individually, knocking on doors and taking the lions share of votes, Laine McGurk led the way with 15 points and seven boards, while Spaniard Julia Garcia Roig, the current in a long history of Drexel foreign legion performers here in West Philadelphia, had 14 points and seven assists.

It’s ok to cheer Go Molly Go from the stands but be aware there were two in the starting lineup, Molly Lavin with nine points and sevent boards while Molly Rullo had eight points and a pair of assists.

Megan Rullo off the bench saw just under 22 minutes of action and grabbed five boards.

Drexel led by as many as 19 points early in the fourth quarter.

Marist got 12 points from Ryan Oldaker, the lone visitor scoring in double figures.

By the way, this was Roig’s first start on Drexel after traveling the transfer route from Xavier to enroll before last season.

Her 14 points were a personal best.

Veteran coach Amy Mallon thinks of former Dragon great Hannah Nihill in describing Roig’s style – “the ability to be crafty, make a play on the court, score, do what it takes for you to win a game.”

Her previous school was Xavier, a rival of Villanova in the Big East.

Drexel was picked third in the Coastal Athletic Association coaches’ poll.

Of Roig, her speedy teammate, McGurk said afterwards, “She just shoots in down the floor and gets it out, she’s smart, she knows when to take it, when to pull back. She’s a spicy one, and she’s very competitive.”

Thrilled with the overall performance, Mallon said, “… to come out tonight and play the way we did, and take care of things on that court, was really important for this team moving forward.

“We know with Molly Lavin, Aisha Dabo and Bria Watkins, we have three bigs who really are versatile. One of our focuses has been rebounding, that’s always big for our team, but to see that opening night that’s going to be really important.”

Meanwhile, off the price of gas, don’t criticize Drexel for ignoring the rise by not walking to the Dragons’ next road game Friday two blocks away to The Palestra, the arena turning 100 this year, to play its first Big Five pod game against Penn, in a 1 p.m. matinee game, which follows the Quakers opening their season slate late Tuesday afternoon at home at 5 p.m. hosting Swarthmore in the only local action of the day on a much lighter national schedule.

“There’s rain in the forecast so we’re likely driving,” Mallon quipped.

Jersey Juice but Overall, a Downer Night Locally

On the heels of the national launch of the season in Rome Sunday in which Villanova, a heavy underdog to No. 13 Notre Dame, didn’t run into any Irish famine in the offense with the Midwest crowd featuring Merchantville’s Hannah Hidalgo pouring down 32 points and Princeton transfer Madison St. Rose scored 17in a 99-75 victory, Jasmine Bascoe of Toronto led the ‘Cats with 25, it was an opposition tsunami for the locals in eight games, going 3-5.

In some cases, the other side maintained strong favorites role, but not so much across the board.

Among the 13 D1 schools existing the Guru local group, the bright spots came out of New Jersey, both under new coaches.

With Carla Berube having gone to Northwestern in the wake of the retirement of Father Judge grad Joe McKeown, the defending Ivy champion Princeton picked up a quick resume builder – the type of matchups among the higher teams in mid-major conferences, winning at home 63-52 in Jadwin Gym over Missouri Valley contender Belmont as former associate head coach Lauren Goselin took her new seat leading the Tigers.

Princeton stood Tall on a historic night as in Fadima Tall double doubled her way to a personal best 29 points with 22 boards, the Tigers’ first such feat since 1985, a time when professor Albert Einstein’s name recognition easily overshadowed the future powerful program.

Time out: Former Jadwin star Kaitlin Chen, who played on the 2025 UConn national champs her graduation season, Saturday night became the second past Ivy star to be on a WNBA champion, playing with the two-year old franchise Golden State Valkyries, the other Harvard’s Allison Feaster whose daughter Sarah Strong of UConn is the reigning national women’s collegiate player of the year.

Once upon a time in year one of the WNBA in 1997 the champion, Houston, in a Final Four format was crowned on Aug. 30. College games got under way around Nov. 10, a 2.5 months span.

The first-ever AP women’s poll, preseason, long before the coming of the pro leagues, in 1976 was published Thanksgiving weekend, games getting under way the following week.

Three decades and change later, the span was reduced this past weekend to 13 hours and a bonus hour occuring off the return to standard time.

Meanwhile Monday night, just up the road at Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena in New Brunswick, N.J., thumped visiting Long Island University 83-52, the start of mentor Gary Redus II’s head coaching career after being the top recruiter for Kim Mulkey at LSU.

“I’m getting used to it but I’m really enjoying it,” he said.

Mila Pauldo, who with her twin sister was part of the exodus from Tennessee, in their case returning to their home area, had a game-high 21 points, while grabbing seven boards, dishing five assists and grabbing six steals.

Zachara Perkins added 11 points and Imani Lesler was 4-of-5 from the field scoring 10 points.

Rutgers hosts La Salle in the Explorers’ season opener Wednesday.

The Scarlet Knights did a lot of winning in November under Coquese Washington when the schedule was lighter.

As will be said in many of the locals, the jury remains out until the mighty forces of the Big Ten come blowing through.

When it comes to exception passes, give one to Lehigh, having the dubious distinction of a season opening road trip to defending champion UCLA in Pauley Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The Mountain Hawks held their own until the Bruins lowered the boom in a 23-9 third quarter, the home led by Sienna Betts, younger sister of Lauren Betts, who collected 15 points, while newbies Donovyn Hunter adding 15 and KK Bransford scoring 14, a combination of 29 points.

With the bulk of last year’s vets drafted into the WNBA UCLA opened the preseason voting in the AP Poll at No. 11.

The first of the season begins Sunday, released noon Monday and same time each week until the end of the regular season.

Leia Edwards scored 14 for Lehigh and Gracyn Lovette had 1o points.

The Mountain Hawks were tied 17-17 after a quarter and down 32-27 at the half before the deluge hit. Still, Lehigh was outscored by just a point the rest of the way.

Call Temple’s 91-71 loss at George Mason in suburban Washington at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va., a missed opportunity.

On the opponent side, no shame losing to a Patriot team one of the better ones of the Atlantic 10 behind Big 5 rival Saint Joseph’s, a unanimous choice at No. 1, no shame.

But if wanting to claim resume points for what will be an expanded 76-team NCAA field, up eight, in a common fight GMU up one for pursuit of a safety valve at-large bid and the Owls minus one.

GMU’s Mary Amoateng scored 21 as did Kaylah Turner for Temple, whose home opener in the Liacouras Center is Saturday at 2 p.m. hosting Navy, the preseason choice in the Patriot League.

It was a dubious setback for new coach and Penn State alum Tanisha Wright, the previous coach of WNBA runnerup Atlanta, at home 62-61 in former home arena Rec Hall to Cleveland State of the Horizon League.

Granted the Lady Lions lost some key talent in the transfer portal but if you’re a Big Ten school close is not a moral victory.

Perhaps things will get better quickly though if the current staff were players with a similar setback Rec Hall, a place that became the more common home for advantage last season would be a place under coach they might still be running in the track this morning.

Ava Black, a sophomore, got her first double double with 17 points and 10 boards in the defeat.

Devyn Quigley scored 12, and Skylar Durley scored 10.

The home did have the edge on the boards 45-41.

As for the remaining locals, Rider on the road got edged not far from Alumni Gym losing 50-45 to NJIT of the America East in Newark, Giana Hoddinott scoring 16 points for the visiting Broncos and Gabby Sweeney grabbing 11 rebounds in defeat, while Lafayette, under new coach Ben O’Brien from Scranton’s national D3 runnersup, got plundered 95-37 at St. John’s.

The visiting Leopards, who open at home Thursday hosting Wagner, would have been big underdogs to the Red Storm, while Rider would have been a 50-50 situation entering the contest.

On the national scene, many places to start, but why not at the top on a night ranked teams were there on giant wave, though where two met each other not a good one for Courtney Banghart over in Paris on doubleheader after No. 1 South Carolina rode a big lead and held on for a 101-93 win over No. 20 Maryland, and then Banghart’s No. 12 North Carolina team, which visits Penn at 4 p.m. next Saturday in a return to The Palestra for the former Princeton coach, was upset 91-79 by No. 21 Oklahoma.

The winning Sooners rode Sahara Williams’ third quarter surge with 13 of her 22 points in a period the Tar Heels shot 30 percent.

Oklahoma frosh LeeLee Bell rang up 25 points with six boards.

Freshman Kate Hapring provided a glimps of better days for UNC, scoring 21 points as the losing ACC squad had five players in double figures.

As for Dawn Staley’s South Carolina contingent, which plays UNC in Charlotte Sunday, Joyce Edwards led five winning Gamecock players in double figures with 23 points while the Terrapins trailing by as many as 31 points caused by 21 first half turnovers 27 fastbreak points moved within single digits at 89-80 with 4:30 left in regulation.

Staley’s crew turned the surge aside with a 7-0 run.

Addi Mack had 31 of her 35 points in the second half for Maryland and from deep was 6-for-10.

In the two spots in the preseason poll, No. 2 UConn as would be expected routed Cornell 100-35 in Hartford as reigning national player of the year Sarah Strong had 19 points with four boards, five dishes, and eight steals, while freshman Jovana Popovic collected 19 points.

Consider the visiting Big Red to be a warmup for a slew of Elite Eight style contingents ahead.

KK Arnold added 11 points for the Huskies, Marine Dursus also scored 11 while Jana El Alfy had nine points and five boards.

Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, the Norristown longtime resident who is the winningest coach men or women in collegiate history, is 9-0 against Ivy opposition, including his former player Carla Berube when at Princeton.

It was all smiles for No. 3 Southern Cal squad in casino land in a Hall of Fame series game, with JujuWatkins, returned from a year rehabbing from the 2025 NCAA tournament injury her sophomore national player of the year, scoring 21 points, while freshman Saniyah Hall scored 22 in a 100-68 win over Mountain West powerhouse UNLV.

Watkins comes to Maryland, Jan. 8 and Rutgers Jan. 11.

Jazzy Jefferson, last year’s freshman sensation with the Trojans, had 23 points on 10-for-11 from the field.

Central New Jersey’s Mikayla Blake, expected in the national player hunt with Strong, Watkins, and Hidalgo out of No. 8 Vanderbilt, scored 27 points for the Commodores in their winning season and home opener in Nashville, a 112-53 win over Lipscomb.

Elsewhere, mostly all tuneup games from ranked teams, in the Big Ten group it was No. 16 Washington home in Seattle winning 79-63; No. 17 Minnesota at home in Minneapolis cruising 82-62 on Ivy hopeful Harvard, while No. 18 Ohio State in Columbus, the return site for the NCAA Women’s Final Four, won 81-34 over UIC, as Jaloni Cambridge scored 22 with nine boards, and Elsa Lemmila had 15 points and 11 boards.

Towson on the road hung at No. 10 Iowa for a half and then the Hawkeyes took off for a 73-45 victory as as Dani Carnegie scored 21 points.

Freshman sensation McKenna Woliczko had 10 points and eight boards.

The remaning ACC ranked duo of No. 7 Louisville, won 119-47 over visiting Bellarmine, while No. 25 NC State cruised at home in Raleigh to an 80-50 win over visiting Wofford.

Other ranked romps out of the SEC saw No. 19 Ole Miss win 80-38 over visiting Alcorn; No. 14 Kentucky 85-42 over visiting Morehead State, and No. 9 LSU 129-35 over visiting SE Louisiana.

The totally rebuilt Tennessee roster from the unranked Volunteers in Kim Caldwell’s third year, claimed a 109-62 win home in Knoxville over Duquesne of the Atlantic 10 but this will be another jury remains out situation until the brutes of the SEC appear on the other bench.

No. 22 Oklahoma State at home easily won 81-39 in the only game with a Big 12 ranked team prevailing 81-39 over Southern U, the SWAC favorite, as Audi Crooks, the prized in-conference transfer from Iowa State had 22 points.

Put a red alert at Stanford, which owned the Bay Area before Tara VanDerveer retired and the WNBA Golden Valkyries became the new flavor, now as a WNBA champion, while the Cardinal now in the ACC, fell 84-69 at former PAC-12 rival Arizona, now in the Big 12, the visiting squad already two years removed from its most recent NCAA appearance.

The annual opening day and first of a two-part Sun Belt/MAC challenge took place, the Sun Belt teams gaining a slim 7-5 win and a series total of 43-33, Monday’s road success a conference best.

But Sun Belt favorite James Madison, heading for the American next season, fell to MAC contender Miami of Ohio, 82-59.

Columbia, without Megan Griffith serving a few game suspensions under an independent finding that did not claim NCAA violations, won 71-65 over A-10 preseason runnerup Davidson in New York City.

FDU, expected to own the Northeast Conference again, joined up for the get paid well while getting rocked tour, started with an 87-66 loss at Baylor. A

The Pac-12 was back in action after a two-year recovery from losing all but Washington State and Oregon State went 5-1 with preseason favorite and prized pounced from the WCC in Gonzaga, at home claiming a narrow 62-56 win over Summit favorite North Dakota State.

The lone reversal in a game of former PAC-12 rivals, Cal at home claimed an 80-58 win over Washington State.

The losing Cougars are in Saint Joseph’s tournament in December, a field including Holy Cross which has newly minted Big Five Hall of Famer Hawks coach Cindy Griffin’s younger daughter on the roster.

Washington State is coached by former Texas All-American Kammie Ethridge.

This week into Saturday will be at Penn tonight, at Rutgers hosting La Salle tomorrow, Philly Sports Hall of Fame Thursday, back at penn for drexel Friday afternoon, at Temple for Navy Saturday, owls moved start time which blocked also being at Saint Joseph’s.

The WNBA is coming in 2030 but you can start now by showing on the college scene with lots of great games, the Big 5 triple header, the Ivy tourney, the return of Unrivaled, the NCAA regional, the Philly Sportswriters dinner is in the Palestra Jan 11, a fun night to consider.

I’m your womhoops Guru and I approve my closing message.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s WNBA Report: The Mighty Fall as New York and Las Vegas Swept 3-0 in Semis by Atlanta and Golden State

 

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

NEW YORK – As WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is about to oversee her last league playoff finals after the longest gap following the semifinals before heading into retirement when the lights in Times Square over in Manhattan signal the arrival of 2027, as she departs two teams of a newer mold will compete in the best of seven series starting Saturday, each for the right to their first title concluding the 30th anniversary season.

In a historic Friday night in league history two titan franchises in terms of branding in the now 15-team and growing league, the New York Liberty here in front of a sellout crowd of 17, 991 in Brooklyn’s Barkleys Center and defending champion Las Vegas, with trophies three of the last four years in front of a Micheloeb ULTRA Arena crowd of 10,218, each in narrow outcomes ended up whisked in two 3-0 sweeps.

Atlanta set the tormenting off at the end of the season following the break for the FIBA World Cup when a tight race for seeding in the eight-team field saw the Dream win the last two games here in Brooklyn that gained a fourth seed and home court advantage over Washington in a 2-0 first round sweep.

That also provided home advantage and doomed New York to an eight seed, which unwittingly helped the Atlanta cause because Minnesota, which owned the regular season, drew the toughest obstacle to advancement, and got wiped by the Liberty 2-0, removing a tough obstacle in the Dream storyline.

For the moment, New York, which struggled through injury and had consistency issues in its 44-game season, following the dispatch of the Lynx, temporarily gave the Liberty faithful hope their team might return at the end to the aura of two seasons ago winning their first crown in their then 28-year history, the last charter team still around that hadn’t got to spray champagne.

When the semifinals playoffs launched, Atlanta was still dominating and then came Game 2 won by the Dream 101-98 in overtime after New York had forced the extra period as regulation ticked off but then in the final game seconds confusion reigned whether the Liberty had ignored using a reset to create a better shot for Breanna Stewart than the one she missed.

That led to Friday when New York rallied and then the Dream grabbed a slim lead back and held on, Stewart missing an easy bunny, and Atlanta, which launched as an expansion unit in 2008, prevailed 85-83.

For the losing home team, it was seen as a missed opportunity, and in New York, the body wasn’t even cold when the media crowd began seeking player evaluations of first-year coach Chris DeMarco, hired from the staff of the NBA Golden State Warriors, seeking comment over strategy.

Just 12 months earlier the locals were stunned here when the popular Sandy Brondello, two years removed from guiding the Liberty to the title, was let go, after players gave strong endorsements when asked if she should be retained.

Friday night, not so much, when similar comment was sought, but the podium trio of Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, and Breanna Stewart, the core mainstay of the roster, refused to bite.

“That’s not our say,” remarked Jones. “Our job’s to go out and play basketball, represent the fan base well, and our families, and I think we do a good job of focusing on that, and it is what it is.”

Next up was Ionescu, who remarked, “Obviously, that’s not our decision, and we’re thankful for everything he’s done this year … through the ups and downs of the season.”

Then Stewart replied, “It’s just tough to talk or think about that right now. My focus and what I’m thinking about right now is just like: missed opportunity. You know what I mean?

“Yeah, we went to the Finals two years in a row and haven’t gone since. But it’s really hard to get to the finals. It’s really hard to win a WNBA championship.

“I’m not going to tell you exactly what we need, because I don’t think it’s appropriate. But defense. People say defense wins championships. It’s f***king true.”

Long before Saturday’s daylight broke, multiple stories were headlining “DeMarco expects to return.”

Back in the stone age era of the WNBA, successful collegiate coaches treated the league like a plague finding better things to do in their offseason summers, only paying more attention if their individual alumni players had made rosters.

Oh, and routinely uttering two sentences of “I appreciate the call but no, thanks,” when the pro teams came their way seeking hires resulting in a trend of NBA DNA stock in multiple coaches roaming the sidelines.

But heads were turned two years ago by the Dream, beginning the road to becoming a nightmare opponent when they landed Florida Gulf Coast coach Karl Smesko, whose team was a perennial conference champ in the ASun making annual NCAA appearances, including one on the Main Line in 2023 in the Philly burbs when Villanova led by senior star and future WNBA first round pick Maddy Siegrist eliminated his group in the NCAA second round.

He followed Tanisha Wright, who this season is at her alma mater as the new coach at Penn State.

The Atlanta path accelerated this season off a deal with Chicago when Atlanta acquired Angel Reese, yes that Angel Reese who with her LSU teammates topped the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa Hawkeyes for an NCAA title, setting off a must-see rivalry that changed the face of both the collegiate and pro women’s hoops worlds with millions of eyeballs drawn to TV and in person.

It’s going to be hard to swallow for the Clark fans but that’s twice now that Reese, four wins from a WNBA crown, has been a key to advancing further in season play, including Friday when Reese scored 22 points.

Rese recalled frustration sitting home watching the title round on TV when she was on a Chicago squad that was nonproductive, although this year Reese rose to be voted defensive player of the year.

“Sat at home the last two years and watched it,” she said. “I texted (Rutgers grad and Philly native Kahleah Copper), just get me one game in the playoffs.”

“The job isn’t done. Happy where we are right now. We’re not satisfied.”

Atlanta was able to prevail despite the absence of leading scorer Allisha Gray, who suffered a finger injury in the semifinals opener.

Jordin Canada scored 19 with 11 assists for the Dream, while Rhyne Howard, a graduate of Kentucky, had 21 points, while another key was the late season addition of DeWanna Bonner, released by Phoenix to give her a chance to play for a championship contender late in her career.

Unwittingly, that move could suggest that Phoenix stuck it to the Liberty two years straight, last season when they eliminated New York and now through the move that got Bonner to Atlanta.

She finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Just like when the NCAA committee considers total body of work, all credit to Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Cheryl Reeve, the South Jersey native who played at La Salle, but if it comes to executive of the year, a strong move should be in the direction of executive Dan Padover.

And in the Philly area, pending what the 76ers do with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley about involving her at the ownership level, as former UConn star Renee Montgomery is with the Dream, keep an eye on Podover as a possible executive candidate when the time comes to put together the future Philly WNBA squad on the road to 2030.

Why?

The GM and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Dream is a native of Somers Point, N.J., was a video coordinator for C. Vivian Stringer’s Rutgers squads, also did work at UConn, had various roles with the Liberty before moving to Las Vegas when Bill Laimbeer was coaching the squad.

He’s already won Executive of the Year in 2020, 2021, and 2025.

And he was a 76ers intern in the video department.

By the way, it was recently announced that the Dream are moving from their small suburban facility to the State Farm Arena, home of the NBA Hawks next season.

Atlanta played this series in the arena.

The Dream became a WNBA squad as an expansion unit in 2008, the last new squad in the league until the current cycle, and made the playoffs, the first time, losing in the opening round in 2009, then finishing fourth in 2010 and knocked off New York like Friday night to reach the finals, being swept by Seattle.

The addition of former Louisville star Angel McCoughtry helped reaching those levels.

They were back in the finals the following year, losing as Minnesota won its first title with rookie and UConn great Maya Moore.

In 2013 it was back to the finals, the last time until this coming weekend.

All of which brings us to Friday night’s other big story as Golden State completed the sweep of Las Vegas, coming in the Valkyries’ second season after ownership. when introduced ahead of last season, called for a championship within five years.

Back in New York, Smesko had expressed the desire to beat in New York in a sweep and not letting a win occur to start gaining momentum.

Out West, after winning two games as the No. 2 seed, just one seed behind Minnesota when the playoffs started, and one ahead of the Aces, Golden State had the same idea about keeping the opposition supressed.

Last year, the team under former Aces assistant Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American coach in the WNBA, became the first to make the postseason as an expansion squad and produced the most first-year wins.

All that got blown away this season, culminating in Friday’s 87-77 win in overtime, the first two-year group to reach the Finals.

Kayla Thornton, Williams, and Tiffany Hayes scored all the Valkyries overtime points and finished with 18, 16, and 11 points, respectively. Kiah Stokes added 11 points with 10 boards and three blocks.

“Big Dreams. This is a dream come true to be going to the Finals in our second year,” Nakase said. “I told them I was proud of our whole team,” Nakase said. “I saw another level of fight tonight. We really left it all out on the floor. We emptied the tank.”

“It feels special because this is a special group,” said former UConn star Gabby Williams, a member of the French squad runner up to USA by a point in the Olympics in Paris in 2024 and last month by more in the FIBA Cup.

“We are going to get some bandwagoners because we weren’t getting no love all season. Honestly, no one believed in us, but it honestly made us smile. All we need each other.”

The team also has former Princeton star Kaitlyn Chen, who was at UConn as a graduate and scored six points.

Golden State outscored the Aces 16-9 in the extra period.

Janelle Salaun, voted sixth player by the WNBA panel, was held to three points.

Just 24 hours earlier, the Aces’ A’ja Wilson, the South Carolina great, earned a record fifth overall and third straight MVP honor and went on to score 21 points with 10 boards, while Jackie Young scored 18.

“I feel like we have created a culture and a standard that if we don’t do what people want us to do and what they’ve seen us do all the time, they’re like, ‘Well, what’s wrong with you?’” Wilson said. “And I don’t think we get enough grace when it comes to that, because we’re still human. We’re still players, we’re gonna miss shots, so we may not look like ourselves every single day.”

“She had her club playing at a super high level all year,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said of Nakase, her former assistant. “If you want to be a WNBA champion you have to be a top three or top four defense and we weren’t this year. We had moments but we weren’t good enough to be at championship level.”

“Obviously, have to make some adjustments, make some moves. It’s a hard question to ask right now. I saw us not scoring and it affected our defense.”