New York Times
As McNeese State of Louisiana prepared to face top-ranked Baylor and its 6-foot-8 center, Brittney Griner, in December, the Cowgirls had no way to simulate Griner’s height and reach on a basketball court. So their coach took a kayak paddle to practice.
“We duct-taped a pad around the paddle to swat shots,” Coach Brooks Donald-Williams said.
Never has a collegiate women’s player possessed the combination of Griner’s size, mobility, soft shooting touch, effortless dunking and elegant obstructiveness, which allows her to block shots while hardly ever drifting into foul trouble.
As men’s teams did in the 1960s for U.C.L.A. and the 7-footer Lew Alcindor, who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, women’s teams have resorted to exotic preparation and...
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You have no trouble believing Baylor coach Kim Mulkey -- she of the bright-gold game-day jacket -- when she says, "If I could dunk, I'd do back flips down the floor." But you might find it hard to believe that someone who... more »
Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey cobbled together a challenging nonconference schedule for the top-ranked Lady Bears this season to prepare her team for March Madness, not a run at the NCAA record book. But both... more »
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