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PARIS (AP) — Breanna Stewart and the U.S. women's basketball team cruised to a familiar place — the Olympic gold medal game. Stewart led a balanced offense as the Americans beat Australia 85-64 on Friday in the semifinals to extend their Olympic winning streak to 60 consecutive games dating back to the 1992 Barcelona Games. "The streak is crazy. I mean, they just told me when I was doing TV that it was, like, before I was born that it kind of started, which is wild," Stewart said. "It just goes to show those that have really paved the way and...
The NCAA has presented a plan to Division I conference commissioners that would expand the lucrative men's and women's basketball tournaments by four or eight teams alongside an option to leave each field at 68 teams, according to a person familiar with the details. The proposals were outlined to the commissioners this week by NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt and NCAA Vice President for Women's Basketball Lynn Holzman, the person told The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity because no official...
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Caitlin Clark's much anticipated WNBA debut is set for Tuesday night in Connecticut. The No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft is coming off a record-setting college career at Iowa. "This is what you've worked for and dreamed of. Now you get to put your jersey on for the first real time and go out there and play," Clark said. "We get to play on the biggest stage, there's going to be a lot of people there, it's going to be loud. But you only play your first WNBA game once. I think I just want to enjoy it. It's going to be c...
South Carolina can add another first to its perfect season: The national champion Gamecocks finished atop the first Associated Press Top 25 women's basketball poll to be released after the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks, who won their second title in three years Sunday with an 87-75 victory over Iowa, received all 35 first-place votes from a national media panel Monday. South Carolina was No. 1 for every week this season except for the preseason poll, when the team was sixth, and at 38-0 became just the 10th team to finish a season undefeated....
No lead seemed safe on Saturday in the first round of the women's NCAA Tournament. Baylor, Miami and Ohio State all rallied from double-digits deficits to advance to the second round. The Bears trailed by 18 points against Alabama early on and overcame it for a 78-74 win. It was tied for the third-largest comeback in the history of the tournament. Baylor was down by 11 at the half and coach Nicki Collen took a calm approach at the break. "No swear words, I gave those up for Lent, but a lot of challenges thrown out about how we needed to...
Brittney Griner will be back in the WNBA this season, once again playing with the Phoenix Mercury. Griner, who was a free agent, re-signed with the team Tuesday. The 32-year-old Griner had said she would return to Phoenix in a social media post in December, after she returned home from her 10-month detainment in Russia. Griner had been arrested at an airport just outside of Moscow on drug possession charges a year ago and was brought home in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange in December. "We missed BG every day that she was gone and,...
WASHINGTON (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner tried to call her wife nearly a dozen times through the American embassy in Russia on the couple's fourth anniversary Saturday, but they never connected since the phone line at the embassy was not staffed, Cherelle Griner said Monday. The couple has not spoken by phone in the four months since Griner's arrest in Russia, where she remains jailed. That was to have changed Saturday, when a long-awaited call was to have finally taken place after getting Russian government approval. But the day came and we...
The WNBA will honor Phoenix star Brittney Griner with a floor decal and allow the Mercury to pay her without it counting against the team's salary cap, the league announced Tuesday. The All-Star center remains in Russia after being detained following her arrival at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17. Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges that allegedly contained oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. She has a hearing set for May 19. The Biden administration determined...
For the elite athletes in the WNBA, spending the offseason playing in Russia can mean earning more money than they can make back home — sometimes even two or three times as much. But those who have done that also describe the loneliness of being away from family and friends, of struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, and of living in a place with only a few hours of sunlight in the winter and temperatures well below freezing. Brittney Griner is one of those players who went to Russia in recent years to earn extra money. For the t...
Russian media reported that the detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner was extended until May 19, a development that could see the two-time Olympic champion being held for at least three months before her case is resolved. The case of the 31-year-old Griner, one of the most recognizable players in women's basketball, comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Griner was detained at a Moscow airport, reportedly in mid-February, after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed...
Dawn Staley and South Carolina are once again a No. 1 seed in the women's basketball NCAA Tournament — a familiar role for the Gamecocks. South Carolina earned the the top overall seed in this year's tournament field, which was announced Sunday night. The Gamecocks have been No. 1 in a region six times since 2014. The women's tournament itself also is getting back to a familiar setting. For the first time since 2019, the tournament will feature games on campus sites with fans in the stands. "I just think the semblance of normalcy, I hope b...
Russia has been a popular destination for WNBA players like Brittney Griner over the past two decades because of the money they can make playing there in the winter. With top players earning more than $1 million — nearly quadruple what they can make as a base salary in the WNBA — Griner, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Jonquel Jones have been willing to spend their offseason playing far from home. It's tough for WNBA players to turn down that kind of money despite safety concerns and politics in some of the countries where they pla...
Candace Parker wrestled with the decision to make a huge change in her life and leave Los Angeles — where she had played her entire WNBA career — and head home to Chicago. In the end, the appeal of a homecoming was too much for Parker to ignore, and it couldn't have worked out better. The 35-year-old Parker staved off Father Time to help the Chicago Sky win the franchise's first WNBA championship and capped off 2021 by being named The Associated Press' Female Athlete of the Year for a second time. "There was something about going to where you...
NEW YORK (AP) — Las Vegas is going to take a chance on hosting major college sporting events. The city is set to bid on nearly a half dozen different NCAA championship events, including women's basketball. The NCAA will start accepting bids Monday on nearly two dozen sports championships over all three divisions. This is the first year that Las Vegas is eligible to bid after the governing body for college sports indefinitely suspended a ban last year that prevented events from being hosted in states that accept wagers on single games. George K...
NEW YORK (AP) — It's been pretty easy to pick UConn to win the title the last few years. While the path may be more difficult this season, the result will be the same. The question is what will happen in the other 57 games in the women's bracket that may not be so obvious. Here's one look at what could happen over the next three weeks: The bracket breakdown (winners in all caps): BRIDGEPORT REGIONAL FIRST ROUND (1) UCONN vs. (16) Albany — The Great Danes have dominated the America East, winning the title six straight years. First-year coa...
NEW YORK (AP) — A suicide at Northwestern brought back painful memories for Penn track coach Steve Dolan. It was three years ago that one of his athletes, Madison Holleran, killed herself. He could empathize with what Northwestern coach Joe McKeown and his team were going through when Wildcats guard Jordan Hankins took her own life last week. "My heart goes out to the students of the team on Northwestern and her family and friends," Dolan said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "In our society at large, and on college campuses, i...
