You’ve come a long way, baby.

But not without your blush, eyeliner and lipstick.

No matter if you can dribble and drive with the best of them. Or have two consecutive NCAA championships to your name. Or you’ve out-dunked the boys -- back when you were in high school.

Your cuts to the basket might be divine, but as a woman athlete you must cut a goddess-like image to get noticed.

And that’s what the WNBA is telling its rookies: You want to get noticed, you gotta wear makeup.

Yep, baby, there’s still a long way to go.

As part of the WNBA’s two-day rookie orientation at a Chicago hotel, the basketball phenoms for the first time were offered hourlong sessions on makeup application and fashion, the Chicago Tribune reports. The orientation also addressed finances and fitness and nutrition.

Sadly, this is what it’s come to. The WNBA, which wouldn’t know a creative marketing move if it were slam-dunked in its face, is relying on sex appeal to generate interest in the best women basketball players in the world. The tactic isn’t new. The league has been using its “Have You Seen Her” campaign, which features top players on the court and off, looking sexy and glam. Before that, it was “This Is Who I Am.”

And it sickens every fiber of my feminist being to say I’d be all for it if I thought it would work. I’d take nearly anything to turn around slumping attendance figures. If seeing a dolled-up Candace Parker will put butts in the seats at every arena she plays in, break out the blush!

But c’mon, the reason ticket sales for the LA Sparks are up is because she’s the most dazzling player to come out of college in a long time, and she’s about to join arguably the best veteran, Lisa Leslie.

The pairing should be a marketing -- and a fan’s -- dream.

But instead, Parker, the nation’s No. 1 pick and two-time NCAA champ, is talking makeup.

“I think it’s very important. I’m the type who likes to put on basketball shorts and a white T, but I love to dress up and wear makeup,” she said in the Chicago Tribune. “But as time goes on, I think (looks) will be less and less important.”

There’s nothing wrong with wearing a little makeup and dressing up off the court. But any player worth her high-tops wants to be known less for her looks than her no-looks.

Let’s call the emphasis on players’ appearance what it is: sexism and homophobia.

The WNBA’s push for pretty is applying makeup -- concealer, if you will -- to gloss over the unsightly blemish of the perception of the league as a bunch of lesbians. As if handing out lists to the media of the moms in the league and emphasizing the players who have husbands or boyfriends weren’t obvious enough tactics.

Just the mere staying power of the league is a testament to these women as athletes and individuals. Don’t take away their legitimacy by falling prey to stereotypes.

“Once you begin to worry about how the person looks as opposed to how she plays, you've crossed the line into dangerous play,” said Susan Ziegler, a Cleveland State professor of sports psychology. “We’re not really focused on marketing them as athletes but as feminine objects.”

Yeah, players wear makeup on the court, too. Four-time WNBA champ Tina Thompson, known for her bright red lipstick, says she wears the stuff as a sort of armor going into battle. And Leslie’s new autobiography, “Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You” describes the pride she takes in her self-described feminine appearance. But she also makes clear that she lets her game speak for itself. And it has spoken: She has three Olympic gold medals and two WNBA championships and is a three-time league MVP.

Let the women’s games do the talking.

Say it ain’t so!

Dawn Staley, the Philly hoops phenom who came home to coach just blocks from where she grew up, is leaving Temple University for the University of South Carolina and a total annual salary package of $650,000.

Staley, who’d been reluctant to coach at all when she was approached for the Temple job in 2000 while she was still playing in the WNBA, said her goal had been to make Temple a national women's basketball powerhouse. In her mind, that meant a national championship, which she’d fallen just short of in her stellar college career at the University of Virginia and in the WNBA.

In her eight years at the gritty North Philadelphia campus, she immediately turned around a decade-long losing record and took her team to the NCAA tournament six times, won the Atlantic 10 Championship four times and compiled a 172-80 record, the best in team history. The Owls cracked the AP Top 25, and two of Staley’s former players are in the WNBA.

Still, by her own measure, Staley leaves unfinished business. Her Owls had yet to advance beyond the first round of the Tournament. Although Staley regularly scheduled powerhouse non-conference opponents -- Tennessee, Maryland, Rutgers, Duke -- who would draw more fans to the Liacouras Center, attendance at the women’s games still came nowhere near the men’s, which was a struggling squad during Staley’s tenure.

It’s hard to believe the three-time Olympic gold medalist would leave Philadelphia for another coaching job, given her protestations that she was attracted to the Temple job only because it gave her the chance to give more back to her hometown. She’d started the Dawn Staley Foundation to help inner-city youth years before, but she’d not considered coaching. Didn’t think she’d be good at it.

Nearly everyone else knew better. The best in the business have called her, well, simply the best. C. Vivian Stringer: “Dawn is just special.” Nancy Lieberman: She’s a “gem.”

So Temple awarded their gem a six-year contract extension last year, worth about $500,000 annually, when other teams came calling. After all, this is a school whose founder, Russell Conwell, built the institution based on the mission of cultivating the “acres of diamonds” in one’s own backyard. Staley had been one of those diamonds in the rough, just 10 blocks away at the Raymond Rosen houses.

But diamonds are much-coveted, and South Carolina has an attractive setting. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to compete in the all-powerful SEC? The conference draws bigger crowds and thus is an easier sell for top recruits. And then there’s the $650,000 a year, plus the promise to help pay back Staley’s $500,000 buyout.

Staley’s guaranteed income is more than Gamecocks baseball coach Ray Tanner ($345,000) and the man who hired her, USC athletics director Eric Hyman ($475,000), The State reported.

So while I’m bereft that Staley, one of my idols, is leaving my alma mater, I’m consoled that she left it much better than when she came. Still, how great would it have been for her to have done what even the legendary John Chaney could not?: Bring a national basketball championship to North Broad Street.

“She’s looking at me! Make her stop looking at me!”

“He started it!”

The two top coaches in women’s college basketball devolved this season into the nonsensical argument my brother and I inflicted on our parents back when I was 8 and he was 5.

Now we know why, but it still doesn’t make any sense.

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma finally shared his side of the story behind the breakup — painful for basketball fans everywhere — with Tennessee’s Pat Summitt. But she’s still not talking.

And he says she’s a chicken for not telling her side. Nyah-nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah.

Auriemma, as promised when all this open acrimony started, related the story as he sees it, now that the season of discontent has finished with Tennessee crowned as champion for the eighth time.

Summitt ended the 13-year-old classic series between her Lady Vols and Auriemma’s UConn Huskies because Summitt accused Connecticut of a recruiting violation.

“Pat knows and I don’t have anything to say about it anymore,” Auriemma said during his end-of-season news conference (see video). “But I am not the one who made the decision not play. She should just tell everyone [why] instead of continuing to say, ‘Geno knows.’

“I do know why [they are not playing]. She accused us of cheating in recruiting, but she doesn’t have the courage to say it in public. So, yes, I guess I do know because I’ve already said why. Then again, there’s a lot I know about a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I go around canceling series.

“Remember, this is the same person who said if the Duke fans didn’t treat her players well she’d cancel that series. So, if people don’t stop misbehaving, she’ll only be able to play regular-season conference games, unless that starts to bug them, too.

“It’s not going to change. It’s not going to happen. ... Do I see the cold war ending? Nope. Nope. Not until she tears down that wall.”

UConn officials said in March they self-reported a secondary violation of NCAA rules in connection with a 2005 ESPN studio tour that the women’s basketball office arranged for top recruit Maya Moore. Tennessee had been after hot prospect Moore, who this season became the first freshman to win Big East Player of the Year honors.

ESPN reported last month that Tennessee had complained to Southeastern Conference officials about the tour, but Tennessee and SEC representatives would not comment.

Summitt has referred to the loss of Moore to UConn as the most disappointing of her career.

Could it be that in her drive to be the best, to keep winning championships and stay ahead of Auriemma’s five titles, Pat is getting pricklier under pressure?

Does the fact that Auriemma is breathing down her neck with his quips and pokes and — more importantly — getting the recruits she most covets move her to such high dudgeon that her judgment has been slam-dunked?

Until about 9 months ago, Summitt represented all that was good in women’s basketball. She’s done a ton of heavy lifting to put the game on the map and erect signs so that everyone would find it. But since her decision to end the Tennessee-UConn game and her stubborn and misguided refusal to speak candidly about it, she’s demonstrated how lost she is.

She’s let Auriemma get to her and throw her off course with what amounts to sour grapes at a time when her willingness to be an emissary of the game is still vital. This season, she’ll likely become the first Division I coach to hit 1,000 wins.

She doesn’t need to restore the UConn-Tennessee rivalry in order to keep growing the game. As Geno said, It’s not gonna happen. But she does need to recognize that her role in the ‘cold war’ is destroying years of basketball diplomacy.

Summitt’s missteps have left Auriemma in all his pomposity on the high road, while she comes off as “passive-aggressive” and “always wanting someone else to blame for what’s going on.” Yes, I’m agreeing with Auriemma here.

Although he says “you can’t take me too seriously, come on. That’s another reason we’re not playing, I’m too much of a smart-ass.”

C’mon, Pat, don’t let the smart-ass win.

TAMPA, Fla. -- By most accounts, Stanford was the favorite coming into Tuesday night's NCAA Tournament Final against defending champion Tennessee. The Cardinal had the momentum, the NCAA's longest active win streak and Candice Wiggins.

But they ran into the brick wall of Tennessee tradition and a ferocious defense that almost immediately walloped the wind out of Stanford. Tennessee pressed and pressed and pressed some more, immediately flustering Stanford. It broke up their triangle offense and forced turnovers. Stanford's 25 turnovers was the most for the Cardinal in two-and-a-half seasons.

Surprisingly, the phenomenal Candace Parker did not undo Stanford for the Vols' 64-48 win. Sure, she eventually racked up a game-high 17 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and her second Most Outstanding Player award, but she got off to a slow, un-Candace-like start in the first half.

It was the two Lady Vol seniors from New York City, jackrabbit point guard Shannon Bobbitt and center Nicky Anosike, who jumped on Stanford and kept on pounding, before Parker joined them in the second half when the damage already had been done. Anosike and Bobbitt were named to the All-Tournament Team along with Parker.

Anosike forced 6 steals, scored 12 points and reined in 8 rebounds. She averages 8.8 points and 1.7 steals a game. Anosike's performance was notable for her taking -- and making -- jumpers from the free-throw line but more so for her determined defense, at the top of the press, which pushed Stanford's two formidible posts away from their comfort zone.

"I wasn't going home without a championship," Anosike, of Staten Island, said after the game. "If we lost, I was going to live here, because I wasn't going back home. No one was going to deny me a national championship. I did whatever I needed to do to make sure we won."

Parker gave props to the 6-4 center who whispered some motivational words in the star's ear -- which they wouldn't share -- right before Parker went on her offensive tear in the second half.

"She came out ready to play, and she was the reason we won the national championship, because we looked in her eyes and we knew we weren't going to lose after that," said Parker, the Naismith and Associated Press Player of the Year.

Coming up big in the biggest game of the year is nothing new for Anosike. She hauled in 16 rebounds in last year's national championship.

Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, after her 983rd career win, called Anosike the team's inspirational leader.

"I think this game inspired her," Summitt said. "She's one of the most fierce competitors I've ever coached.

"She's going to be very successful in life, because that's who she is."

Who Bobbitt is, is the scrappy, undersized point guard who likes the shake-n-bake as much as the big three from the corner. Her ankle-breaking antics straight from Rucker Park sometimes get her the Pat-ented death stare from Summitt, but the coach said Tuesday night there's no way she'd have won these past two national titles without Bobbitt and the other JuCo transfer, Alberta Auguste. Bobbitt made three threes and hounded Stanford guards JJ Hones and fellow NYer Rosalyn Gold-Onwude into bad passes and a rushed offense. Bobbitt, the smallest player in the Final Four, at 5-2, has a game that's bigger.

"She's so tough-minded," Summitt said. "She thinks she's about 6-5 the way she plays."

And now Bobbitt, Anosike and the Vols have a towering achievement: a second straight national championship.

TAMPA, Fla. -- It's Ace: 2, Ice: 1. But who will come away with the Big One?

Candace Parker, Tennessee's do-everything guard/forward/center, was named Naismith Player of the Year on Monday at the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, putting her one season's-end award ahead of the Stanford senior guard with whom she shares a name but not a spelling. Candice Wiggins, the four-time WBCA All-American, won the Heisman of women's basketball, the Wade Trophy, on Saturday. Parker had won the AP Player of the Year award the same day.

But either player would say she'd rather have the national title than an armful of individual awards any day. One of them -- Ace or Ice -- will leave Tampa with the championship after Tuesday's NCAA Final between seven-time champ Tennessee and two-time champ Stanford. Parker last year led her team to its first title since 1998. Wiggins led hers to its first Final Four since 1996; the Cardinal last won the title in 1992.

In accepting the Naismith, Parker gave props to her fellow finalists -- Wiggins, LSU's Sylvia Fowles and Oklahoma's Courtney Paris -- and talked about living up to and continuing the legacy of the great players who came before and the current ones who make her and the game better.

"I just want to say how happy I am to be a part of women's basketball at this time," she said, before hastily leaving the ballroom to prepare for the final.

And we, too, should be happy that she and Wiggins are a part of women's basketball. They're making the game better practically every time they play.

Parker has revolutionized the game since high school, when she became the first female to win the McDonald's All-America slam dunk contest. She's a 6-4 player with the grace of a guard, the power of a post and the wingspan of a condor. Yes, I think she can fly.

No less than Pat Summitt has called her the best ever. Sure, Summitt might be biased toward her player, but she's seen enough great players in her 33 seasons at Tennessee to know -- she's coached 12 Olympians and 19 Kodak All-Americans.

Wiggins is pretty good too -- she scored 44 points and 41 points in consecutive games in the tournament's earlier rounds, the first player to do so -- she hits threes with deadly accuracy and makes plays whenever her team needs them on offense or defense. As many a Stanford T-shirt in Tampa advertises, "Where there's a Wiggins, there's a way."

She had a way into America's hearts when she uttered, "I'm sorry, America," as emotions overwhelmed her during a post-game interview on ESPN after she and the Cardinal took down Maryland to reach their first Final Four in 11 years.

Ice and Ace match up fairly evenly -- Wiggins averages 20.3 ppg, Parker 21.4 -- but Wiggins might have two advantages. Parker's still suffering the effects of dislocating her left (non-shooting) shoulder twice in the Regional Final, and Stanford gave Tennessee one of its two losses this season, in overtime, 73-69.

Whatever the Final outcome -- I predict a Stanford win -- Candace and Candice will be remembered among the best in women's college basketball. And they'll be the same in the WNBA, where they'll continue the basketball revolution.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Tennessee took the adage "It's OK to win ugly, just win" way too far. The Vols' semi-final win over LSU Sunday night was UGLY with a capital UG. It came in sharp contrast to the earlier semi-final in which Stanford and Wade Trophy winner Candice Wiggins played a beautiful game against overall favorite Connecticut to come away with a solid 82-73 win.

LSU and Tennessee's 47-46 contest was the lowest-scoring game in Final Four history. The last time Tennessee scored under 50 points was 1982. LSU, in its fifth straight Final Four without advancing to the final game, shot 35 percent. Tennessee, looking to win its second straight championship and eighth overall, shot 30 percent. Foul-shooting was even worse. Tennessee got to the line just seven times, but made only two shots. Fowles, who must have taken foul-shooting lessons from Shaq, was 4-11 from the line and her team just 7-19.

Still, Fowles was the player of the game. She scored 24 points, grabbed 20 rebounds and thwapped 5 blocks. She didn't get much support from her teammates. None of them scored in double figures. The backcourt, which needed to step up, shot 1-9 from behind the arc. Quianna Chaney hit the only three, but she was 1-6, and she finished with 9 points.

Tennessee star Candace Parker, hampered by a sore left shoulder and LSU's physical defense, shot 6-for-27. She finished with 13 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks. Her individual stats were the best of the Vols', but she got some help from the two junior-college transfers who came through in last year's Final Four, Alberta Auguste (10 points) and Shannon Bobbitt (11 points). Bobbitt, the smallest player on the court by perhaps a hair to LSU's Erica White, made all three of Tennessee's threes on 3-6 shooting, while the team shot 3-12 overall from the perimeter.

Even the game's end, which climaxed with an exciting last-second putback, was ugly nonetheless. Auguste had put Tennessee ahead 45-44 when guard Alexis Hornbuckle fouled White with 7.1 seconds left. The senior calmly sank the two free throws. Parker drove the length of the court, passed to Nicky Anosike in the paint, and she missed the layup. Hornbuckle, who hadn't made a shot all night, grabbed the rebound and put it in with 0.7 seconds on the clock. She then intercepted LSU's inbounds pass to seal the win.

"That's the only shot that mattered," Hornbuckle said after the game.

I only hope that the quality of women's basketball will not be judged on the Tennessee-LSU game. The Stanford-UConn game, with its crisp ball movemement, keen back-door cuts and bigtime threes, was a much better example.

These two teams met in November, and Connecticut came away with a 12-point win. But that was before two Connecticut starters went down with ACL injuries and before Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer tinkered with her triangle offense to take the scoring pressure off Wiggins (25 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists) and allow Jayne Appel (15 points, 10 rebounds) JJ Hones (11 points, 6 assists) and Kayla Pedersen (17 points) to get easier looks.

Connecticut was led by freshman sensation Maya Moore (20 points) and Renee Montgomery (15 points) and was able to come back from a 40-33 halftime deficit to within 47-46 -- the final score in the Tenn-LSU game -- by making runs and pressing. But Wiggins hit two huge threes to help the Cardinal pull away and have a chance at its first title since 1992.

Stanford beat Connecticut at its own game.

"We ran with them and we ran on them," said Stanford guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude of Queens. "That's their game. This is amazing. Yous aw after we got in the Final Four, everybody was crying. This time, we're happy, but we're also very focused."

Tennessee better watch out.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Are we headed for the inevitable in women's basketball, a Tennessee-Connecticut final in the NCAA Tournament? Gosh, I hope not.

I can't wait for the semi-finals tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum, where UConn takes on Stanford in the first matchup, then Tennesse faces off with SEC rival LSU. Right now, I have all the confidence in the world that No. 2 seed Stanford can topple Connecticut from its lofty No. 1 perch and that resilient No. 2 seed LSU can knock off defending champ Tennessee and injured star Candace Parker.

Of course, I almost always approach a game between Connecticut and another highly ranked opponent hopeful for an upset win for the opponent. Doesn't matter who the opponent is, I just like to see 1) an underdog win 2) smug Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma go crazy on the sidelines and get cut down to size a bit.

I've soul-searched for a long time looking for a source for my intense dislike for the University of Connecticut team, and I think I've found it: It's Geno. I don't deny his outsized coaching abilities, it's his outsized bombasticity that really bugs me. He does a great job recruiting and brings tremendous players to Storrs, and I have nothing against those players. I'm truly looking forward to three more years of Maya Moore and four of Husky-to-be Elena Delle Donne; Geno's arrogance and Pat Summitt-baiting have made it impossible for me to root for his team. That, and the annoying UConn fanatism I have to put up with from my newsroom boss.

Having established that I don't like Connecticut, I still truly believe Stanford and Candice Wiggins can outplay UConn and Moore. Wiggins is a senior, Moore a freshman. Wiggins is the only player to have put together two Tournament games with 40-plus points; Moore looked tentative in scoring 7 points in the Regional Final against Rutgers. Moore has rarely looked like a freshman in the wondrous year she's had, but no one could blame her of the freshman jitters visit on the huge stage of the Final Four.

The two stars have worthy supporting casts who will have to step up. Stanford's Jayne Appel, Kayla Pederson and J.J. Hones proved they can put up big points as they did in their Regional Final against 1-seed Maryland.They'll have to do so again to have a shot against Connecticut, and they'll have to throw some serious defense on the Huskies just to keep themselves in the game. It's a tough order, but it can be done.

Tennessee is even more vulnerable. Parker's been working with the training staff around the clock since dislocating her shoulder twice against Texas A&M in their Regional. There's no doubt she'll play, but will she be 100 percent? Parker at 60 percent is certainly better than no Parker at all, because Tennessee's offense was nonexistent for the 10 minutes she missed against A&M. Guard Alexis Hornbuckle will have to come through, and so will point guard Shannon Bobbitt, whose been slumping in the Tournament. LSU, on the other hand, has been surging. They're in their fifth consecutive Final Four, and this one can be their breakthrough. Big Syl, 6-6 center Sylvia Fowles, has been playing her best basketball, and the Tigers perimeter -- Qianna Chaney, RaShonta LeBlanc and Erica White -- has been hitting on all cylinders. I'm really looking forward to the mighty-mite showdown between White and Bobbitt, two smart points who like to mix it up.

So, yes, a final with teams other than Tennessee-Rutgers is possible, and to me, preferable. I'm just tired of all the hype surrounding these two teams and the animosity between the two coaches. The rivalry used to be good for the game, now I think it's reached dysfunctional overload and is a detriment.

Let's set the stage for new rivals. LSU-Stanford? More likely, LSU-UConn. Let's see if Geno strafes affable LSU coach Van Chancellor the way he does with Summitt. Let's see East Coast brash vs. aw-shucks Southern charm, NY's Tina Charles in center vs. Florida hometown girl Big Syl. I pick LSU.

TAMPA -- Yeah, politics make strange bedfellows, but in the women's basketball post-season those bedmates get even stranger.

After a season that raised the rancor between the University of Connecticut and the University of Tennessee so high that UN peacekeepers have been called in, the sight of UConn and UTenn fans cheering for the same team had me wondering if I'd entered an alternate universe at the University of South Florida Sun Dome.

Nope, it was the WBCA High School All-America game on Saturday as part of the women's NCAA Final Four, and it was stunning for its offensive output. The final result, 114-79, was a new record for points scored. It wasn't a surprise that a game that featured four Tennessee recruits and two UConn recruits would reach triple digits. But it was a little disconcerting to see the future Vols and Huskies play so well -- together, on the victorious Red Team.

To a New Yorker, the crowd looked like it was ready for a Mets game, what with all the blue and orange. But no, these fans were the Husky Hardcores and the Orange Crush -- and they were cheering for the same team and calling out the names of these college stars-to-be.

Rival-come-lately Rutgers also had four recruits in the game, on the losing White Team.

The high-octane Red Team, led by the nation's top high schooler Elena Delle Donne (UConn, 15 points, 11 rebounds) and Tiffany Hayes (Tennessee, 18 points), ran circles around the White Team, which was led by Nnemkadi Ogwumike (Stanford, 17 points).

How did the Red Team keep the UConn-Tennessee animus from ruining team chemistry? They didn't talk about their teams-to-be, Delle Donne said. Rivalry be damned unless the much-anticipated showdown between the two comes to fruition in Tuesday's final.

"We put it aside," Delle Donne said. "Now, it's on."

TAMPA -- So which women's basketball player whose name starts with Cand is the best in the game this season? A couple big awards have given conflicting answers. The WBCA Wade Tropy winner is ... Stanford's Candice Wiggins. And the AP Player of the Year winner is ... Tennessee's Candace Parker.

Perhaps the Naismith Award will break the tie. Or not. There's always SEC Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles or Big East Player of the Year Maya Moore ...

Maybe the WBCA is trying to achieve an -ace, -ice balance, since Parker was last year's winner. Not that Wiggins isn't deserving. She became only the seventh Division I player to earn WBCA All-America honors all four of her seasons. She broke Lisa Leslie's Pac-10 career scoring record and is averaging 20.2 ppg. Parker leads the SEC in scoring, with 21.6 ppg, and blocks, with 2.35 per game. She also leads the NCAA Tournament in toughness, playing through three shoulder dislocations.

The Naismith will be announced Monday here at the women's Final Four, where Parker, Wiggins, Fowles and Moore will be in action starting Sunday.

On Friday, it will be one year since Don Imus and his band of boobs uttered the words that ignited a firestorm, inspired discussions on gender and race and robbed two stellar women’s basketball teams and their fans of the unfettered celebration that should have followed the close of a season well-played.

Friday also marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. While it might be hard to draw rational comparisons between the two events, I can’t help but think that the character assassination that the Rutgers women suffered at the mouths of Imus and his pals was borne of the same ignorance and fear that drove the killer of King.

Let’s recap: Rutgers, under the steel-willed coaching of C. Vivian Stringer, turned around a season that started 2-4 and advanced to the national title game against six-time champion Tennessee. Rutgers, which used a stifling defense led by the Big East’s top defender Essence Carson to dismantle opponents, fell short of its first championship. But they still were winners in the eyes of their fans, their coach and themselves after life and basketball lessons learned brought them together as people first and players second.

Then it all came crashing down in the din of Don.

But Stringer and her players rose above it all in that extraordinary news conference that showed the world what a woman athlete looks like and sounds like. Carson, the quietest of them all, was the player whose message resounded the loudest.

“It has stolen a moment of pure grace from us,” she said.

“You don’t get too many opportunities to finally stand up for what you know is right,” Carson said. “I know we’re at a young age but we definitely understand what is right and what should get done and what should be made of this. We’re happy — we’re glad to finally have the opportunity to stand up for what we know is right.”

And, in the weird twist of reason that governs society and sport, Imus unwittingly gave Rutgers, women’s basketball and proponents of racial and gender equality a platform to gain the kind of recognition never before afforded.

In the year since, unfortunately, the spotlight has faded and the conversation the Rutgers women so eloquently started has trailed off.

Sure, Rutgers has benefited from the attention: Stringer inked a lucrative deal for her autobiography, released just in time for this year’s NCAA Tournament; and she’s recruited a freshman class for 2008-09 that some have called the best in the country. Rutgers didn’t lose anyone from last year’s team and put together another magnificent season, only to run into the University of Connecticut buzz-saw in the Greensboro Regional Final this week.

Imus has returned to the air. Sponsors and high-powered guests have come back. The soul-searching has not. His promise to continue talking with and working with Rutgers has not been fulfilled.

What lessons have been learned? Well, what we already knew: Money talks. Imus is money, and so he keeps talking, though in a smaller national forum than before. And the bigotry that he perpetuated continues, whether in the form of comedian D.L. Hughley, who repeated and sharpened Imus’ comments on the Jay Leno “Tonight Show” in the weeks that followed, or in the not-so-subtle relegation of woman athletes to second-class status. Inasmuch as sports are a mirror on society, the reflection as seen in those who dismiss the quality of a game based simply on the gender of the people playing it is unacceptable.

As we reflect on the anniversary of King’s assassination and all the ugliness of this country’s race history and the continued vileness as symbolized by the Imus outburst, let us resolve to get off our butts and do something about it. Talk about race, gender and inequality, no matter how uncomfortable the discourse is. Challenge those who let their ignorance be known through cutting, bigoted commentary, even if it’s cloaked in the guise of comedy.

And watch some women’s sports, especially if you’ve resisted before. They play with the same passion and love for the game as men do. You just might be dazzled by a no-look pass, a high-arcing three or an ankle-breaking crossover.

The women’s Final Four -- LSU vs. Tennessee and UConn vs. Stanford -- begins Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN.

Candace Parker has been carrying her Tennessee Vols on her broad shoulders and fantastic wingspan for the past three years. She’s rarely buckled under the weight. To the contrary, she’s soared – above the rim -- to the rarified heights of a national title and just about every individual honor she could gather.

In this tournament, perhaps she’s feeling the strain. She’s certainly feeling the pain.

She dislocated her left shoulder twice in Tuesday night’s Oklahoma City Regional Final against upstart Texas A&M. The twisting wince on her face said it all as she ran toward the sideline, her shoulder grotesquely protruding. She had dislocated her right in the second round against Purdue.

Parker had been dominating the Aggies, having scored 16 straight points in the first half for a total of 18 before she dislocated the shoulder on a steal and fast break with 3:50 remaining. She went to the locker room with trainer Jenny Moshak to get it popped back in and returned to the game a little more than a minute later. It popped out again while she was defending at the top of the key with less than a minute left in the half. The Vols hadn’t scored since Parker’s first injury, and the pesky, defense-minded Aggies had closed the score to 27-29.

Moshak worked Parker’s arm, trying to get the muscles firing properly, during Coach Pat Summitt’s searing halftime speech imploring her players to leave it all on the court so they could move on with no regrets.

But the Vols returned to the floor without their senior leader. She was still in the locker room as a search was mounted for the proper shoulder brace. It was up to senior Nicky Anosike to gather her teammates and remind them that their defense would get them to the Final Four.

The defense of Anosike and two other senior starters – guards Shannon Bobbitt and Alexis Hornbuckle – kept them in the game while scoring was scarce. Parker watched on a locker room TV as her teammates keep themselves in the game. And perhaps a weight was lifted.

At least, a brace was located, in the team bus underbelly, and Parker returned to the game with 10:39 left and the score tied at 36. She missed badly her first two shots, and A&M went up 40-36. But Parker managed to get herself to the foul line down the stretch – and Hornbuckle hit a shot-clock-beating 3 from Knoxville -- and the Vols prevailed, 53-45, to go to their 18th Final Four. Parker finished with a game-high 26 points. Hornbuckle backed her up with 14.

“I was just going to play as hard as I could and not to think about my shoulder and my situation,” Parker said. “I didn’t want this to be the last time that we played together.”
It won’t be. They’ll face SEC rival LSU in an effort to bring an eighth national championship back to Tennessee after a Willis Reed-like effort from Parker.

“People, sometimes they see Candace as more of a finesse player but I think sometimes when you see finesse players, you don’t realize just how mentally tough they are until you see them fight through the adversity that she fought through tonight,” Summitt said.

Summitt knows what Parker was feeling. The coach recently dislocated her shoulder – while chasing a raccoon from her porch. Fitting that the coach who preaches defense would go down defending herself and her pooch.

And fitting that Tennessee would, as a team, out-defense the scrappy Aggies to live on.

It was their senior moment, and they made the most of it. No forgetting: They created memories and legacies to savor for now and forever.

For Candice Wiggins, it was her chance to cap a record-breaking career at Stanford with one of the few accomplishments she didn’t have on her resume: a trip to the Final Four. For Sylvia Fowles and the seven other seniors from LSU, it was familiar territory: They were looking to return to the Final Four for a fourth time. And for LSU coach Van Chancellor, himself nearly a senior citizen, it was the opportunity to go to his first Final Four in his 20th year as a college coach and after four WNBA championships and an Olympic gold medal.

Stanford and LSU, each No. 2 seeds, on Monday night faced down their top-ranked opponents, Maryland and North Carolina, respectively, behind their seniors who were on a mission.

Wiggins became the first player to score more than 40 points in two consecutive games in an NCAA tournament. Her 41 points in Monday’s 98-87 win over Maryland followed a career-high 44 points last week against UTEP in the second round. The three-time All-America couldn’t contain her glee – or her tears – as the game clock wound down. It was as if all the previous disappointments of losing in two regional finals were pouring out of her in sobs and smiles. The Cardinal last went to the Final Four in 1997.

“In many ways, it might be her very best, because the most was on the line,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said.
Ironically, the other team to punch its ticket to Tampa on Monday night, halfway across the country, was LSU, the same team that ended Stanford’s run two years ago. Wiggins remembered LSU dancing on the court.

“They were celebrating and dancing and I said, ‘I just want to dance like that, be in the Final Four,’” Wiggins said. “I had that image in my head, and sure enough we are going dancing.”

For LSU this time around, it was more business-like, knowing that the Tigers had been this far four times before and exited in the national semi-final. This time, the end-of-game celebration was relatively subdued, as a teammate said to Fowles, “Two more games to win.”

Behind the 6-6 Fowles, LSU will be hard to beat. Fowles had 21 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, in LSU’s 56-50 victory over UNC.

“We knew it was our last year and we wanted to go all out,” said Fowles, named the most outstanding player of the New Orleans Regional.

And her fellow seniors came through. Quianna Chaney scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers. Point guard Erica White had eight points, six on free throws inside the last two minutes to hold off a North Carolina comeback.

That’s not to diminish the performances and careers of the seniors on the opposing teams. UNC posts Erlana Larkins and LaToya Pringle are likely to join Fowles and Wiggins in the WNBA. Larkins had been the team leader going into the Tournament. Pringle, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds against LSU, led the squad with 48 points and 22 rebounds in the regional.

Larkins, who grew up in Florida playing with and against Fowles, paid tribute to her opponent after the game, fighting back tears as the two embraced.

“I just went over there and told her, ‘Represent not only your university, but make back home mighty proud,’” Larkins said. “Go win it for us.”

Stanford’s Monday night opponents, Maryland, were champions two years ago, and the Terps’ two stellar senior starters were gunning for a reprise. Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper were two of four Maryland starters who have compiled more than 1,400 career points. But they ran into an inspired Wiggins and crew.

“It’s never going to be like this anymore [in the WNBA],” Langhorne said. “This team atmosphere, it’s never going to be like this anymore. We just didn’t want it to end.”

Stanford will face the winner of Tuesday’s UConn/Rutgers contest, and LSU will get the winner of Tennessee/Texas A&M.

That's it. Hell has frozen over. Pigs have gone airborne. The moon is Connecticut Husky blue.

Pat Summitt has voted for sworn enemy Geno Auriemma as Coach of the Year. Nancy Lieberman made the revelation Sunday night during Tennessee's Sweet 16 win over Notre Dame.

There's no question that Auriemma is a heckuva coach. He might have done his best coaching job yet this season, compiling a 35-1 season and landing the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament after losing two starters for the season with ACL injuries. And he was rewarded with his fourth selection as WBCA coach of the year last week.

But for Summitt to vote for Auriemma, the man against whom she's appeared to have declared a silent war, is historic.

Maybe that run-in with the raccoon on her porch did more than separate her shoulder. Perhaps it separated her from whatever has been clouding her senses since last summer. That's when she discontinued the long-standing season matchup between the two premier basketball powers, her Tennessee Vols and Auriemma's UConn Huskies. She's not publicly stated her reasons, other than to say Auriemma knows why. Tennessee and the SEC have filed grievances against UConn alleging recruiting violations.

Auriemma has urged Summitt to simply state the reason for their animosity: "She just hates my guts."

That might be. But the winner of 980 games, including 101 NCAA tournament games and 7 national championships knows good coaching and can swallow her pride long enough to check the box next to Auriemma's name.

Oh, to be a fly on the scorer's table if the two cross paths on the sideline for the Final Four.