Auriemma, Geno

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    Rebecca Lobo Helped Build the WNBA. Now She’s Seeing It Flourish.

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    Lobo, one of the W.N.B.A.’s first stars, will now be broadcasting perhaps the most anticipated postseason in league history.Rebecca Lobo’s shoelace was untied.If it were anyone else dressed in morning sweats, standing in line for mediocre coffee in a hotel lobby this month, the stray lace might have gone unnoticed. But in New York City, hours before her former team, the New York Liberty, was set to play just a few subway stops away at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, her fans couldn’t let it go.As Lobo waited for her caffeine fix, two different people cautiously reached up to tap the 6-foot-4 Lobo on the shoulder and let her know about the shoelace. Each time, she was grateful and gracious.“I’m like my own children — ignoring the good advice I’m getting,” she said with a smile.Lobo’s approachability belies the fact that, in the history of women’s basketball, she is royalty. At the University of Connecticut, she was the star of the 1995 team that won the first of the program’s 11 national championships. She was part of the United States’ gold-medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. And Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes were the first three players to sign with the Women’s National Basketball Association when it was founded in 1997.Now, more than 20 years since her playing days ended, Lobo, 50, again finds herself in the middle of a pivotal moment in the sport’s history. As the top analyst for ESPN’s W.N.B.A. coverage, she will be calling perhaps the most anticipated postseason the league has ever seen.“We’re on the ascent,” Lobo said of the sport in an interview.The W.N.B.A., whose playoffs began over the weekend, has been one of the hottest topics in sports for months. A star-studded rookie class, led by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, has generated unprecedented interest, shattering television ratings and game attendance records. That has also invited a wide range of commentary, from the informed to those approaching the game as though it had come out of nowhere.What sets Lobo apart from the hot takes of social media is her depth of knowledge. It’s difficult to get more institutionally aware than someone who has been with the W.N.B.A. since its founding.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      No. 1 South Carolina Gets a Statement Win Over No. 2 UConn

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      The Gamecocks dominated in the second half and gained only the second win in 11 games against Connecticut in the history of the two programs.In a matchup of the two highest-ranked teams in women’s basketball, the University of South Carolina overwhelmed the University of Connecticut in the fourth quarter for a 73-57 victory on Monday in the final of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.This was the first time a women’s competition had been part of the prestigious tournament, which has existed since 2011 for men.The decisive victory gave South Carolina a 2-9 record against UConn in the history of the programs, and it should preserve the Gamecocks’ No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 poll. To accommodate the high-profile matchup, the A.P. delayed its weekly poll update for just the second time ever.The rout also offers clues about how these two teams might fare later in the season, both during their next regular season game against each other — in Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 27 — and through the deep postseason runs both teams are expected to make toward the Final Four.Despite remarkable performances from the teams’ stars, the story of the game lay in its fundamentals: turnovers and offensive rebounds.The Huskies (3-1) went into halftime with a 3-point lead but could not generate any points from turnovers or offensive rebounds during the second half. The Gamecocks (6-0) forced 19 turnovers, capitalizing on them for 21 points.“We just took the shots they gave us,” South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley said on ESPN after the game.UConn’s sloppiness, uncharacteristic of the long-dominant program, is something that the team, particularly its young core, will have to work on.“We’ve got a long time before we go down there and play them again,” Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma told reporters after the game. “But right now, they’re better than us. We’re going to have to work really, really hard.”The Gamecocks, in contrast, played sharp and turned to their signature defense in the second half, allowing Connecticut to score just 3 points in the fourth quarter against tight man-to-man coverage.The junior forward Aliyah Boston nearly had a double-double in the first half, and ended the game with 22 points and 15 rebounds — the kind of performance that South Carolina is relying on her to deliver throughout the season.“It’s time for Aliyah Boston to be the dominant player she is,” Staley said.The guards Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson are the other two keys to the South Carolina offense. Cooke had 17 points worth of circus shots, while Henderson’s veteran savvy manifested in speedy transition baskets and a well-balanced stat line of 15 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals.Overall, the team showed its depth — and that it has ample room to grow. If, for example, the Gamecocks can get Kamilla Cardoso, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Syracuse, more involved in the paint, they might have an easy answer for a tough interior defense like Connecticut’s.This was the first big test of the season for the Huskies. UConn guard Paige Bueckers, the team’s leading scorer, delivered a number of showstopping baskets, and in the first half the Huskies’ ball movement looked nearly transcendent. That rhythm, though, disintegrated in the second half, when only Bueckers had more than one field goal.Connecticut will have plenty of shooters ready to help, though, once it reduces some of its more basic mistakes. The redshirt senior guard Evina Westbrook was the spark for the Connecticut offense early, and the team’s second leading scorer. With more opportunities, she might be able to lift some of the offensive load off Bueckers.Azzi Fudd, a highly regarded freshman, barely played Monday after scoring 18 points against the University of South Florida on Sunday, a decision Auriemma attributed to her inability to move within South Carolina’s stifling defense. With more time in college basketball’s big leagues, though, Fudd might become a consistent scoring threat.Connecticut needs to fix its flaws in the coming months if it wants to establish the kind of dominance that for more than decades has made it the foremost team in women’s college basketball.In Monday’s win, the Gamecocks didn’t reveal such shortcomings. The adjustments they needed could be handled during the game and not left for a future practice.The road to the Final Four won’t be easy for any team in the sport. But with this statement victory, South Carolina suggested that is firmly on course. More