Golic, Say Again about Ravens Defense

Television and print sports commentators are paid the big bucks to have big mouths. Understandable. You draw in readership and ratings and then the advertisers and you get paid.

But commentators, prognostication falls flat when it is rooted in misinformation.

Mike Golic of the wildly popular ESPN Radio program "Mike and Mike in the Morning" is one of the big bucks-big mouth commentators.

In handicapping Sunday's Ravens-Chargers game on ESPN at mid-week, Golic figured he was speaking with authority and conviction. But instead, Golic left some Baltimore fans in a tizzy -- stating that the vaunted Ravens defense was in decline based on the Kansas City Chiefs scoring 24 points in the season opener.

At least Golic got the score right, Ravens 38, Chiefs 24.

It was obvious that, even by mid-week, Golic had not taken the time to review the boxscore or game details before commenting so decisively. Golic figured that because the Ravens had given up 24 points to the lowly Chiefs, they would not be able to contain a potent San Diego offense. They may not be able to contain the Chargers anyway, but it certainly would not based on the Chiefs game.

Here are the some of the game facts:

• Chiefs' Larry Johnson, the last player to rush for 100 yards against the Ravens defense in December 2006, finished the game with 20 yards on 11 carries (the average Chiefs' yardage for the game: 1.7 per carry). Golic, that's the defense.
• The Ravens held a 215-56 advantage in total yards at halftime. Golic, seems like good defense to me.
• Kansas City’s first touchdown came on a blocked punt recovered in the end zone. Golic, that's a special teams breakdown.
• The Chiefs offense had the ball for 20:11 in time of possession (in a 60-minute game), were held to 11 first downs for the game, and were 3 of 15 on third down conversions. Golic, pretty good defense.
• Chiefs' linebacker Derrick Johnson returned an interception 70 yards to inside the Ravens' 10 yard line that set up a touchdown. Golic, that was on a pick on Joe Flacco.

The fact of the matter is that, if you were watching, even when the Ravens went down 14-10 in the third quarter after Johnson's interception, the game never was in doubt. Why? Defense.

Kansas City's one big play of the game on offense was a 50-yard completion to wideout Mark Bradley in the fourth quarter, leading only to a 53-yard field goal. Simply, that play was the Ravens' only significant defensive breakdown in the game. But with QB Flacco and company racking up a team record 501 total net yards for the game, any lucky score the Chiefs had was easily matched by the Ravens' offense.

Who knows if the Ravens' defense can stop Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers this year, but Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and the guys showed they still are pretty damn good.

As a commentator, Golic is one of the good guys. He's sincere, affable, tolerable. He's the "Big Guy," the former player in the "Mike and Mike" phenomenon with squealy co-host Mike Greenberg.

But Golic, watch it. Do your homework. Otherwise, commentators lose credibility.

• More: Mike and Mike in the Morning site.

LifeLock the Top Team in WNBA

When Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter go against San Antonio in an opening round WNBA playoff game Thursday, you won't see "Phoenix" or "Mercury" on their uniform jersey tops, except for the small team logo. Instead, you'll see "LifeLock."

Going into the playoffs, the Mercury and stars Taurasi and Pondexter are entering as the team to beat. The pair are the league's top two scorers, leading the club to the WNBA's best regular season record at 23-11. As the games tip off on ESPN2 -- the Washington Mystics made it and will host Indiana Thursday night at 7 -- the playoffs again will give the WNBA a much needed boost of television exposure after playing its regular during idle summer months.

Since June, Mercury uniforms have been adorned with the LifeLock name, a Tempe, AZ identity theft prevention company. The Mercury are even selling the jerseys that way at the WNBA online store, part of a multi-year marketing partnership with LifeLock. To boot, when existing jerseys with the Mercury name on the front are sold out, only those LifeLock ones will be available.

No other American sports team has gone so far as to actually place the name of a sponsor on its uniform instead of the team name.

Agreed, in an age where sponsorships provide key operating revenue to sports franchises, no league needs the money more than the WNBA. And today they name stadiums after companies, such as M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field. The Wizards in the NBA and the Mystics, of course, play at DC's Verizon Center. Look at the sponsors plastered on the racing attire of NASCAR drivers.

But on the jersey of an American professional sports team? Call it old-fashioned, but such is hard to fathom for some sports fans. The Mercury-LifeLock deal gives all WNBA season ticket holders a one-year complimentary membership valued at $110, among other benefits. Is that a win-win?

NBA Commissioner David Stern praised the deal as "groundbreaking" for the cash-strapped WNBA, signaling we can see others. But would Stern allow LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal to wear "Campbell's Soup Cavaliers" jerseys?

Why not go ahead and put the "Comfort Inn Cowboys" on the front of Tony Romo's America's Team jersey. Shucks, before Oprah Winfrey became a billionaire, she worked in television in the Baltimore media market. She has as much cash as some major corporations. How about the "Oprah Orioles." Why not the "Radio Shack Redskins"?

In justifying the deal, Mercury officials noted that European sports clubs regularly put the names of sponsors on uniforms. (Weak argument. This is America.) It is one thing to put a sponsor's name, logo or likeness on banners, courtside chairs, warm ups or gym bags, but it seems a stretch for the jersey top worn during competition. The uniform should be sacrosanct.

Sports still is supposed to be about the purity of the competition. Professional sports, too. Isn't that why Pete Rose is banned from the Hall of Fame and Shoeless Joe Jackson is one of sports' most infamous figures?

How about some what ifs? If a sponsor has a bad financial quarter, would the sponsor try to influence the competition on the court for "corporate reasons"? And what lengths would a money-hungry franchise go to to keep the sponsor's name on the jersey?

Go LifeLock!

• More: Mercury-LifeLock announcement, Mercury WNBA Web site.
  

Photo: Diana Taurasi Life-Lock jersey, http://store.nba.com

C. Vivian Stringer Well Deserving of Hall

It was a steamy June day outside. Inside, the temperature in the field house in Piscataway, NJ, was rising just as high on a half dozen basketball courts. The teen girl basketball players from Amateur Athletic Union teams along the East Coast were oblivious to the steely-eyed woman watching the box outs, crossover dribbles, off-hand lay-ups and defensive positioning. That woman watching intently was legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer.

Stringer, the head women’s basketball coach the past 14 seasons at Rutgers University, received basketball’s highest honor Friday night in Springfield, MA -- induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Stringer is part of an induction class with Michael Jordan and fellow NBA greats David Robinson and John Stockton and Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan that is being touted as the greatest in the hall’s 50-year history.

But on that late June day in 2008, Stringer was doing what she has done many, many times over a distinguished career, and that is watch – and nurture – young female ballers.

One of the teams competing at Stringer’s Rutgers weekend team shootout was the Maryland Hurricanes 15-under girls’ team out of Baltimore. AAU coaches bring their teams to tournaments like the Stringer shootout as part of a college exposure tour, intent on having girls experience different levels of competition from neighboring states while solidifying the credentials on their basketball resumes.

Stringer attracts some of the top Division I recruits in the country for her Scarlet Knights teams. The Hall of Famer is the only coach – men or women’s – to take three different programs to the NCAA Tournament Final Four in Cheyney State in 1982, Iowa in 1993 and Rutgers in 2000 and 2007. She has put up 825 career victories, third in Division I women's basketball history, and was the first African-American coach to reach 800 career wins in February 2008.

In women’s college basketball, mostly the tallest, hardest working and highly skilled players reach the free-ride status of a major Division I recruit. When a Candace Parker, formerly of Tennessee and now in the WNBA, or a Maya Moore with Connecticut, are 6-4 and 6-0, respectively -- and can handle the ball like a point guard -- you understand what makes an elite player. Despite what their wide-eyed parents might believe, most girl players on the AAU circuit simply are not at that level.

But that did not seem to matter to Coach Stringer. Throughout her tournament, you could see her watching, listening and praising the girls and teams that made the trek to Rutgers. While tournaments aren’t free, Stringer genuinely was interested to listen to the Hurricanes’ volunteer president’s 10-minute spiel about the organization, its players and its goals. Stringer understands full well the opportunities that can come to girls on the hardwood, if not D-1, then D-2 or D-3 or other women’s basketball associations.

In her induction speech, a humbled Stringer appropriately said: "As I walk into the Hall of Fame, we all walk into the Hall of Fame."

Stringer also knows there is giveback from her 39 years as a coach. One of her former great players, Lisa Long, is an AAU and high school coach in Baltimore, including coaching the Hurricanes team of girls born in 1998.

You hear about C. Vivian Stringer’s life and what she has overcome to endure as a coach: Born a coal miner's daughter in tiny Edenborn, PA … her only daughter being stricken with spinal meningitis in 1982 just before her team’s appearance in the first women’s Final Four … the sudden death of her husband, Bill, on Thanksgiving Day 1992 … fighting breast cancer … the media scrutiny of 2007 stemming from the disparaging remarks of radio-man Don Imus about her Rutgers team.

John Chaney, the former head coach at Temple University and a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2001 who served as Stringer’s presenter, summed up her influence as transforming "hundreds of young women into confident leaders and role models, which will always remain an integral piece of her Hall of Fame legacy."

For the Maryland Hurricanes players and other girls lucky enough to compete at Stringer’s shootout, that is the point.

Editorial Note: Marvin Greene serves as volunteer president of the Maryland Hurricanes and attended the Stringer shootout in 2008. His daughter, now a 17-year-old freshman recruit at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, was the point guard for the Hurricanes team at the tournament.

• More: Maryland Hurricanes Girls AAU alumni list, C. Vivian Stringer camp Web site.

Photo: C. Vivian Stringer, http://scarletknights.com/basketball-women/coaches/stringer.html

Imperfect, Can Ravens Get Back to House?

Joe Cool: Ravens second-year QB Joe Flacco
Photo: http://www.baltimoreravens.com

Heading into the new season Sunday versus a struggling, red-meat Kansas City Chiefs, the Ravens are looking like a team out to show -- again -- that imperfection can win a Super Bowl.

The 2009 version of the Ravens is relying on a familiar formula -- a Ray Lewis-led, shut-down defense, a solid running game and stout line play on both sides of the ball. If they can beat AFC North nemesis Pittsburgh after three losses last season (23-20, 13-9, 23-14) to the Super Bowl champion, the stars could align their way.

After the surprise of last season, reaching the AFC title game with first-year head coach John Harbaugh and rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens are being touted as one of the league’s elite teams along with the Steelers, Eagles, Patriots, Giants, Titans, Chargers and Vikings. There is every reason to believe that the unflappable and strong-armed Flacco will be even better going into his sophomore season.

A Sporting News list of the 100 greatest players in the NFL today listed five Ravens, safety Ed Reed at No. 7, middle backer Lewis (11), center Matt Birk (40), linebacker Terrell Suggs (45) and defensive tackle Haloti Ngata (92). Only the Steelers, Vikings, Chargers and Colts had more players on the list than the Ravens.

All spring and summer, most Ravens talk involved the wide receiver position and whether to mortgage draft picks and salary cap for an Anquan Boldin of Arizona or a Brandon Marshall of Denver. GM Ozzie Newsome opted for pulling the trigger on neither. Instead, the Ravens did what the good teams do – fortify the O-line and defense with fresh talent. First-round pick Michael Oher from Mississippi just might help keep Steeler blitzers off Flacco’s right flank.

In 1996, Newsome made the right move when he selected future Hall of Famer and character-guy Jonathan Ogden out of UCLA over the alluring but troubled all-world Nebraska back Lawrence Phillips.

After NFL cut-down day last Friday to the 53-man roster, the Ravens were content to enter the season with just four wide receivers. Derrick Mason along with Mark Clayton, Kelley Washington and Demetrius Williams may not stack up to Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, Chad Ochocinco or Terrell Owens on the outside, but if the line holds up, Flacco is poised to get the ball up field. Ray Rice wrestled the starting tailback position from Willis McGahee during the offseason and figures to catch a lot of balls out of the backfield, and tight end Todd Heap is promising a return to his All-Pro form. A David Tyree or Bobby Wade, late of the Giants and Vikings, respectively, might be a last-minute addition to the roster to bolster the passing game.

Imperfect, yes, but Super Bowl serviceable.

Same on the corners and in the kicking game. In the secondary, Fabian Washington and Domonique Foxworth, may not be as good as Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle at their best, but they are fast and have the ultimate hedge – Reed at free safety. Another question mark? Whether Steve Hauschka can hit field goals consistently after the team jettisoned the aging great kicker Matt Stover.

Capturing the franchise’s only championship after the 2000 season, that Ravens Super Bowl team also had its share of holes – with no proven commodity in a Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning under center, just the dink-and-dunk leadership of Trent Dilfer. But they took it to the house anyway, imperfections and all.

• More: Ravens team site, Sporting News NFL Top 100 list.

Riggo: Voice of Reason on Portis?

The Redskins are marching toward their 2009 season opener Sept. 13 with the New York Giants in the Meadowlands, and the two most productive running backs in franchise history, John Riggins and Clinton Portis, are stoking the flames. Riggins, the Hall of Famer who led the Redskins to the 1983 Super Bowl title, called out Portis as "a headache" who "has the team over a barrel," referring to Portis' favorable contract status and its adverse impact on the team's salary cap.

Not one to shy from dishing back criticism, Portis offered that Riggins surely was a great Redskins running back, but it was "not hard to be a great running back when you've got that talent all around you," referring to the legendary "Hogs" offensive line anchored by Russ Grimm and Joe Jacoby during Riggins' era.

The feuding only figures to get worse if the new season falls below Redskins fans' expectations. Many NFL sages are labeling the Skins as an 8-8 contender at best and long shot to make the playoffs competing from the rugged NFC East against the Giants, Eagles and Cowboys.

The backdrop for the Riggins-Portis row: Portis is on the cusp of going past Riggins as the franchise's all-time leading rusher. Riggins racked up 7,472 yards during his Skins career. Portis needs 1,370 yards, a solid season for a top running back, to knock Riggins from his perch. Both downplay the role of the record in the feud.

Riggins took Portis to task last Dec. 28 -- a season ending loss to San Francisco -- because Portis reportedly went to coach Jim Zorn and asked Zorn to game-plan to help him to finish the mediocre 2008 season with 1,500 yards; Portis was 13 yards short of that mark. Apparently incensed Portis would seek an individual accolade, Riggins branded Portis as a loser on his sports talk radio program.

Make no mistake, Portis thinks of himself with the best of them. But you can understand Portis' incredulity that Riggins is taking him on -- arguing that Riggins of all people "should know better than anybody what I go through as a running back" with nagging injuries and inconsistent O-line play.

Portis has a point. Riggins had his own issues back in the day. A great back coming out of Kansas to the New York Jets in 1971, Riggins morphed into one of the all-time greats with the Redskins. He may be a solid citizen today, but in his day, Riggins widely was known as, well, a flake.

Any Riggins complaints about Portis' contract status would fall short. Everyone knows owner Daniel Snyder has a reputation for overpaying his athletes, and Riggins conveniently is forgetting his own history when he targets Portis. It was none other than Riggins who sat out the 1980 NFL season over a contract dispute with the Skins, bolting from his team in the middle of training camp. It took a Joe Gibbs trip to Kansas to find the Mohawk-wearing, camouflage-outfitted, Bambi-hunting, beer guzzling Riggo and lure him back into the fold. Gibbs, by the way, was quoted as describing Riggins a "fruitcake" among other superlatives.

There is no denying the size of Portis ego -- or his gab. Such is not surprising with Portis coming from the "U." But give him some credit, too. Portis has been a solid pro -- despite lacking the success of a Riggins in the postseason. Portis showed great leadership and support for his teammates during the dark days in the Redskin locker room that followed the tragic death of safety Sean Taylor during the 2007 season.

So, Riggo, voice of reason, let it go. Take one for the team.

• More: Official NFL site, Hogs fan site and unofficial John Riggins site.

Photos: Portis, NFL.com, Riggins, johnriggins44.com

Rookie Pitchers Giving Orioles Hope

Chugging frightfully toward a possible 100-loss season, the Baltimore Orioles somehow showed up on national television Saturday in those throw-back Negro League uniforms, topping the playoff-contending Texas Rangers 5-4 on Fox's Game of the Week.

Major League Baseball fans know diamond-ball in the Baltimore-Washington market is bad this year and has been that way for too many seasons to want to count. With 26 games to go in the 2009 season, the Orioles, and the region's other MLB franchise, are sitting on 81 and 90 losses, respectively.

But for the Orioles on Saturday on Fox, baby-face rookie lefty Brian Matusz gave fans a glimpse of what could be -- though not forgetting a wretched streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons. Competing in the brutal American League East against the always big-payroll Yankees and Red Sox, along with the steady play of the Tampa Bay Rays over the past couple of seasons, the 22-year-old Matusz outpitched Rangers' veteran Kevin Millwood for seven innings to offer a peek into what could be an improving prognosis for the Birds of Baltimore.

Despite the team bottoming out in the won-loss department again since the All-Star break (15-33 so far), fans here at least can be comforted that maybe, just maybe, the Orioles are moving in the right direction to back up that their last World Series won in 1983 with Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray as the anchors.

Matusz, the fourth overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, and fellow rookies, righties Chris Tillman, 21, Brad Bergesen, 23, David Hernandez, 23, and Jason Berken, 25, are taking some hard knocks in the Orioles rotation while upping expectations for the future.

Add to them the 2009 fifth overall pick in 19-year-old right-hander Matt Hobgood, switch hitting catcher Matt Wieters, 23, the fifth pick in the 2007 draft, outfielders Adam Jones, 24, and Nick Markakis, 25, along with more deep talent Orioles President Andy MacPhail is nurturing on the farm, and there is reason for Baltimore to believe again.

With yesterday's outing, Matusz ran his season's record to 4-2 with a 5.26 ERA, winning three of his last four starts. Matusz had gone 7-0 with a 1.55 ERA in eight starts for the Orioles' Bowie, MD Double-A affiliate before being called up. The kid simply can pitch and is unflappable as he adjusts to big-league hitters, is how they describe him so far.

Tillman, acquired in the February 2008 deal with Jones that sent lefty Erik Bedard to Seattle, is 1-3 ERA with a 4.66 ERA; Hernandez sits at 4-6 and a 4.54 ERA; Berken, who has pitched the second most innings on the club is 4-11, 6.07; and, before being injured, Bergesen was the team's top pitcher at 7-5 with a 3.43 ERA in 19 starts.

You look at the numbers and think it's another of baseball's many "hope springs eternal" stories. Maybe so. But Baltimore has some history on its side in developing top-flight big league pitchers. These names ring a bell? Palmer, McGregor, Musina, McNally.

When he came up to the big leagues in 1965 as a 20-year-old rookie, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer finished the year 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA. The very next year -- the season the Orioles stunned the Los Angeles Dodgers with Koufax and Drysdale in a four-game World Series sweep -- Palmer raised his win total to 15. Lefty Scotty McGregor won three games for the Orioles during the 1976 and 1977 seasons, then pushed that to 15 games at age 24 in 1978. Similar with Musina, who went 4-5 in his opening Oriole campaign at age 22 in 1991, then skyrocketed to 18-5 with a 2.54 ERA the next season.

More history: Going back to 1970, the Orioles put up three 20-game winners (Dave McNally, 24-9, Mike Cuellar, 24-8, and Palmer, 20-10) and then four (adding Pat Dobson) in 1971.

Surely, this is a day and age in baseball where fewer starting pitchers win 20 games because of the expanded roles of relief specialists. But the Orioles could be setting themselves up nicely for the future -- a still proud franchise with three world titles since 1966 (Cubs, Indians have none). A Murray-like bat in the cleanup spot will help, as will a veteran starter to lead the young pitchers on the field.

Spring training 2010 won't come soon enough.

Photo: Orioles rookie Brian Matusz
Courtesy: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com

The Melo Brand: Giving Back

Carmelo Anthony seems to be living the good life these days.

A $15.7 million NBA contract for 2009-2010 ... Addresses in Denver and Los Angeles ... Appearance in the 2009 Western Conference finals ... Starter for the USA’s gold-medal winning team at the Beijing Olympics ... Celebrity regular at music award programs ... High-profile DJ girlfriend, LaLa Vazquez.

For the man who always will be "Melo" to his adopted hometown of Baltimore, Anthony is Baltimore through and through. What you saw as an urban teenager you still see shades of publicly today at 25 – like the ball cap on the side of the head (with the nylon scarf beneath), the long Ts or hoodie with baggie jeans, the Timberlands. Melo still talks Baltimore – the short, clipped sentences with that familiar side-winding, hard city drawl. Call it the Melo brand. The difference between now and then -- the millions of dollars his brand commands.

Melo is a Baltimore favorite son -- one who seems to have withstood "Baltimore-like challenges" to his image. You know the incidents: punching out Mardy Collins of the Knicks and getting a 15-game NBA suspension (they play hard ball on Baltimore’s blacktops and alleyways); finding his mug in the infamous "Stop Snitchin’ " DVD warning that cooperation with Baltimore cops is a no-no (it’s what they do to survive on the street here); arrests for marijuana and DUI (play ball all day, chill at night, that’s Baltimore).

For Brooklyn, NY-born Anthony of Puerto Rican descent, all of it distinguishes him, yet serves as the foundation that has him as one of the NBA’s upper echelon, signature players today (with Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Garnett and Dwight Howard). Don’t forget, the score-from-anywhere Melo led Syracuse to the national title as a freshman – something his aforementioned peers will never enjoy. No wonder Duke's Coach K showed respect for his game during the Olympics. His Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim described him during that 2003 championship season as "by far, the best player in college basketball. It wasn’t even close."

Despite some hits, the Melo brand is thriving. A big part of it is giving back to Baltimore. Giving back to a town like Baltimore is what you do – like Anthony's sponsorship of boys and girls AAU basketball teams under the banner of Team Melo.

Anthony breezed back home Sept. 3 to do more giving back – taking part in a three-day series of fund-raisers to help needy city kids, surely remembering he once was in their boat in difficult West Baltimore. Anthony's father died when he was a toddler, and it was basketball that gave him a way out. Throughout the week there would be a session at the city's Carmelo Anthony Center to reward hundreds of kids with coveted school supplies, celebrity bowling, a Baltimore afterparty and charity softball game to raise funds.

Anthony's Los Angeles-based Carmelo Anthony Foundation, with its mission "to invest in programs, leaders and community organizations that empower and provide opportunity for underserved kids and families," indeed is reaching back across the country to home.

Carmelo Anthony

Photo: http://www.carmelocares.org

The WNBA and Baltimore's Angel

Baltimore's Angel McCoughtry

Photo: WNBA.com

With its playoffs set to start Sept. 16, the WNBA is closing out season No. 13, eliciting thoughts, at least here, of the '70s pop group the Bee Gees and "Stayin' Alive."

Yes, the WNBA is still alive -- when some skeptics earlier had predicted a short life span. Still enticing fans into arenas, showing up from time to time on national television and providing a playing platform for the best women’s basketball players in the world.

But when talking WNBA, finding a starting point for conversation is tough for some. The season lasts just over three months during summer, gobbled up by fervent attention to Major League Baseball, NFL training camps and Tiger Woods. No mention hardly on sports talk radio, scant media coverage (sometimes you can’t find the standings in the paper) and limited overall fanfare. Beyond a supposedly core cadre of fans, the women’s professional basketball league seems largely unappealing and invisible.

But still alive, and that has to be a good thing for women’s sports. Many associated with the WNBA contend the league is starting to find its long-term footing.

From this column, in finding a place to talk WNBA, let’s start with Angel, Marissa and Kristi and go from there. That's Angel McCoughtry, Marissa Coleman and Kristi Tolliver, three fairly well known players from the Baltimore and Washington women’s sports scene. Remarkably, all three went 1-2-3 in the 2009 WNBA draft.

So soon we forget: McCoughtry of Baltimore took her University of Louisville team to the NCAA women’s title game, losing in April to Connecticut. Coleman and Tolliver rate as two of the greatest women’s players to come out of the University of Maryland, winning the national title for the Terps as freshman. Those are some deep credentials for young women who grew into professionals playing out of this area, but the trio probably could walk along streets of places like Omaha, Peoria or Fort Lauderdale and not get a notice.

That’s an issue with the WNBA – recognition -- except perhaps for the likes of Candace Parker, the new face of the league, veteran champion Lisa Leslie or the dynamic Diana Taurasi. Who but die-hard WNBA fans have heard of Cappie Pondexter, Katie Douglas, Deanna Nolan or Sylvia Fowles?

But the lack of general awareness notwithstanding, McCoughtry of the Atlanta Dream, Coleman of the Washington Mystics and Tolliver of the Chicago Sky should give WNBA aficionados from Baltimore-Washington a boost of good feeling. All three have their clubs within earshot of the playoffs as the season winds down.

The exploits of Maryland grads Coleman, a 6-1 guard/forward from Cheltenham, MD, named the 2009 ACC tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and the 5-7 big-shot point guard Tolliver of Harrisonburg, VA (remember the pressure three she drained at the end of regulation in the 2006 title game vs. Duke) are well chronicled because NCAA women’s basketball seems a better play than the WNBA.

But for those from Baltimore, the 6-1 McCoughtry is the one. Up and coming girl players owe her. Baltimore’s rep is one of a gritty, blue-collar town. It also is a basketball town – contemporaries Carmelo Anthony, Rudy Gay and Juan Dixon and former greats Marvin Webster, Reggie Williams, Muggsy Bogues, Reggie Lewis and David Wingate, just to drop some names.

McCoughtry, the WNBA’s adidas Rookie of the Month for July and odds on favorite for Rookie-of-the-Year, fits the Baltimore mold. Now 23, it was evident from watching her come up the ranks of AAU ball under Wardell Selby and the Baltimore Cougars and high school under coach Jerome Shelton and St. Francis Academy that she arguably is the best girl player to come out of Baltimore. She showed it at Louisville and now in the WNBA, scoring 12.4 a game as a rookie.

Even as a kid, McCoughtry could do everything on the floor. Most importantly, she "just never loses." And that same intense, intimidating non-plused Baltimore scowl (Maryland-area AAU and Baltimore IAAM A Conference coaches know it well) rightfully has moved to the WNBA. How could a player whose high school gym was across the street from Baltimore's maximum security penitentiary not be good?

Yet, McCoughtry, Coleman and Tolliver, as 2009’s top draft choices, hardly will be the salvation of a league that has seen up-and-down attendance over the years while trying to stay relevant to TV-watching fans and attract and keep sponsors and advertisers. NBA Commissioner David Stern, the WNBA’s financial "godfather," remains optimistic, hailing the league’s progress this season and pointing to possible future expansion.

If only the WNBA can figure out how to present itself on TV. Not just surviving, but thriving will depend on it. Maybe receiving its first television rights fee deal earlier this season through 2016 with ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will help. The multi-million deal should provide cash for the 13 WNBA teams to pay bills, though whether the average player salary of $55,000 would rise was in question. But TV is the key because more fans, of course, can watch from home than go to the arena. If TV ratings are there, advertisers will joyfully buy in.

But the question for the WNBA is whether the product can be as exciting from the tube than from the arena and get people talking. Starting from 10-under through high school and college, the girls game is fun, especially watching courtside in gyms. Of course, no slam dunks, few behind-the-back passes and a pace of play that is slow-motion-like compared to boys -- but still a good game that is focused on effort, emotion and fundamentals. In fact, the WNBA describes itself admirably as "a unique global sports property combining competition, sportsmanship, and entertainment value with its status as an icon for social change, achievement and diversity.

Excellent, but that just doesn’t come across watching the game on TV. Hopefully, it will someday.