ATTENTION: NIAF, OSIA, UNICO: Please consider Diana Taurasi for an Award.

Diana Taurasi's father is from Italy.Her mother is from Argentina (of Italian Heritage?).

Coincidentally, Diana's coach, Geno Auriemma's parents are from Italy. Geno Auriemma  has gone to 4 straight final fours, and two national championships in the past 3 years at UConn. He lost 4 starters from last year's Championship team.

[Preface: The article below written Tuesday before the Final Game of the Championship series, that evening , which UConn won 73-68, defending it's National Title, sparked by player of the year Diana Taurasi, who scores 28 points. The Huskies are the first team to repeat since the Lady Vols (1996-98). Wednesday's article follows on.
==========================================================
Thanks to Professor Ben Lawton
TAURASI JUST WON'T LET CONNECTICUT WOMEN LOSE
New York Times
By Jere Longman
April 8, 2003

Midcourt for a layup. On the final play, she grabbed the ball after Texas guard Alisha Sare let it slip through her hands. Taurasi held on for dear life, and so did UConn.

There could be no doubt that she was the best women's player in the country. Her teammates have come to trust fully that if the game is on the line and Taurasi takes a shot, the ball will end up in the basket. So have UConn's opponents.

On Tuesday, for the third time since 1995, UConn (36-1) will face Tennessee (33-4) in the national championship game. It is women's college basketball's fiercest rivalry, but few teams have been so victimized by Taurasi as the Lady Vols. The last time came in January, when she hit a shot from midcourt at halftime, a 3-pointer near the end of regulation and a leaner in overtime to give UConn a 63-62 victory. Three improbable shots, three baskets, three moments of brutal reliability.

"Pretty much, when it leaves her hand, I'm shocked when it doesn't go in," Mickie DeMoss, the Tennessee assistant coach, said.

It's not simply that Taurasi makes shots, Pat Summitt, Tennessee's head coach, said. She makes shots that can demoralize an opponent, rob it of confidence and determination. Is she the best ever? Cheryl Miller and Chamique Holdsclaw would receive a lot of votes in any poll. At the least, Taurasi seems to represent another branch in the evolutionary tree of the women's game.

Taurasi's 3-point range is unmatched, her shot quick and rhythmic and launched above her head, built on the sturdiness of her legs and the flick of her wrist. She is just as dependable inside, able to score amid the jostling of the lane.

"It's exciting to see, not necessarily to go against, but to see a player like that in the women's game," Summitt said. "She brings a little different dimension. Because she's so skilled, she can play all five positions. They post her up. She can take you off the dribble. She's great off the flare screen. She has N.B.A. range."

And she can be as flamboyant as she is skilled. After UConn defeated Duke, then undefeated and ranked No. 1, on the road in February, Taurasi turned toward the Duke students who had been taunting her and placed her thumb and little finger to the side of her face. "Call me," she motioned in mocking payback.

That is her nature, direct and carefree, although Taurasi, a junior, has become more serious this season on a team that starts two freshmen and a sophomore. Once, she was a back-of-the-bus jokester; now she is the team leader. Taurasi has played with a bone spur in her ankle and a wrenched back. Underneath the bravado is a vulnerability that comes from being a child of immigrant parents, Auriemma said. His parents came from Italy, as did Taurasi's father. Her mother is from Argentina.

"You always walk around with two things," Auriemma said. "There is a sense that you are different and a sense that you have to prove yourself all the time. You also carry around this tremendous self-confidence that your parents gave you, that you can do anything against whatever odds."

There is also a sense among such children, he said, that "I better not screw this up or I'm going to let down a lot of people."

"Diana seems to be immune from the part of 'I'm afraid what people will think of me,' " Auriemma said. "She doesn't care. That's the persona she presents. Deep down inside, there is this tremendous sense of: 'I don't want to let anybody down. I want to shoulder all the responsibility. I want to be what everyone expects me to be.' "

At times, Taurasi did feel that she had let herself and her teammates down. The injuries were dispiriting. The night before the N.C.A.A. tournament began, she met with Auriemma and told him she did not deserve the national player of the year award. Yes she did, he told her. She would have the tournament to prove it.

And she has, with great flair and dependability.

Taurasi Just Won't Let Connecticut Women Lose
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/sports/ncaabasketball/08women.html
=============================================================================
REBUILT HUSKIES REPEAT AS CHAMPIONS

New York Times
By Jere Longman
April 9, 2003
 

ATLANTA, April 8 - A season that began with rare uncertainty ended with familiar success tonight as Connecticut won its second consecutive N.C.A.A. championship in women's basketball and the third in four years, establishing itself among the most dominant teams in all of sports.

A year ago, with a lineup that included four seniors who became top picks in the women's professional basketball draft, an undefeated season and a championship seemed inevitable for UConn. Not so this season with a callow roster that included four freshmen, along with sophomores and juniors who had played little and given scant hint of great possibility.

And yet the Huskies (37-1) returned to the championship game against a familiar and fierce rival, Tennessee, and UConn prevailed, 73-68, at the Georgia Dome. This victory represented the Huskies at their most selfless and maddening. They gained a large lead then nearly lost it, finally winning with dexterous 3-point shooting (10 of 21), crisp passing, elbowing defense and patient inclusiveness.

Diana Taurasi, as usual, led the way with 28 points...,There can be no doubt now that UConn is the pre-eminent team in women's college basketball. The Huskies have now won 76 of their last 77 games and four national titles in the last nine seasons. Tennessee has won six titles, but none since 1998, and now UConn has defeated the Lady Volunteers three times in the championship game since 1995. And it will not get any easier for the Huskies' opponents. Every player returns next season.

"Because they are so young and inexperienced, what they've done is an unbelievable testament," Auriemma said.

Risking anticlimax, the women's championship was played for the first time a day after the men's title game. It was an effort to give the women their own spotlight, and Taurasi confirmed her reputation for mesmerizing dependability.

"She's just fearless," Auriemma said. "She just comes from different cloth.

"The national player of the year, Taurasi led all scorers, but as important, she involved her young teammates early, inflating their confidence. By the time she scored a point, all of the other UConn starters had a basket, and the Huskies had a 12-5 lead in a game in which they never trailed. Taurasi played soccer when she was younger, and she has long come to value a pass as deliciously as a shot.

Not that she is shy about scoring. She extended a 35-30 halftime lead to 47-34 with a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws. Seemingly, she could not miss, no matter how flamboyant her shots. She dropped in a pair of running bank shots, then made a wild spinner on the baseline as she tumbled out of bounds.

Taurasi is a true star now, given star treatment. With 6 minutes 11 seconds left, she flattened Tennessee's Shanna Zolman in the lane, but it was Zolman who drew the foul. Taurasi's free throws gave UConn a 67-54 lead...

This season will be remembered as a charming surprise. When practice started last October, players were unfamiliar with one another, not to mention the intricacies of Auriemma's offense and defense. They lost only once, to Villanova in the Big East tournament final.

That one defeat, while disappointing to the point of tears, seemed to relieve the team of pressure to sustain a record winning streak that had stretched to 70 games. After nearly two weeks of rest, the Huskies opened the tournament with a renewed sense of purpose and enjoyment.

This was a team that lacked athleticism, speed and size, but it played ceaseless defense and rebounded hungrily. Most important, it expected to win every game, following Auriemma's demanding style and Taurasi's brilliant insistence. Defined roles were performed expertly. Players knew their limitations and did not stray into vulnerable areas.

"We're definitely the slowest team in America - ever," the junior forward Morgan Valley said. "But we know what we can do.

"When tonight's championship arrived, Taurasi tossed the ball into the stands and held up her fingers, signifying No. 1. "We just needed time," she said. "They were babies. They grew up. So did I."

Rebuilt Huskies Repeat as Champions
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/sports/ncaabasketball/09women_CA2.html