Women's College Basketball

Former UCLA, Cal State Fullerton and Team USA women's basketball coach Billie Moore died Wednesday at the age of 79.

According to ESPN's M.A. Voepel, Moore had been in hospice care at her California home because of cancer.

After playing basketball and softball in her youth, Moore's first big break in coaching came at Southern Illinois University where she served as an assistant women's basketball coach before becoming the head women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton in 1969.

Moore led Cal State Fullerton to a national championship in her first season there and went on to the Final Four of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament in 1972 and 1975 as well.

Her success at Cal State Fullerton led to Moore being named the head coach of the United States women's basketball team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

In the debut of women's basketball at the Olympics, the Americans won a silver medal, losing 112-77 to the Soviet Union in the gold medal game.

The Olympic run catapulted Moore to the head coaching job for the women's basketball team at UCLA, and she once again experienced instant success, as the Bruins won the AIAW championship in her first season in 1977-78.

The AIAW tournament was the precursor to the NCAA women's basketball tournament, which became the preeminent tournament in women's college basketball in 1982.

With titles at Cal State Fullerton and UCLA, Moore became the first coach to lead two different schools to national championships in the history of major women's college basketball.

Moore also took UCLA to the Final Four in 1979 and had five more tourney appearances during her time at the school. Moore coached at UCLA from 1977 to 1993 and posted a 296-181 record, making her the winningest head coach in the history of UCLA women's basketball.

When adding in her time at Cal State Fullerton, Moore compiled a record of 436-196 as a college head coach.

Moore was recognized for her massive accomplishments in women's basketball in 1999 when she was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tennessee Volunteers starting center Tamari Key had her senior season cut short after some unfortunate news on Thursday.

According to ESPN's Alexa Philippou, Tennessee announced that Key will miss the remainder of the season after blood clots were discovered in her lungs.

The school announced that Key is expected to make a full recovery. Per Philippou, she "will receive care under the guidance of the University of Tennessee Medical Center and Tennessee athletics team physicians."

A four-year starter for the Lady Vols, Key entered the 2022-23 season as a preseason All-SEC first-team selection and a member of the Naismith Trophy watch list. She averaged 10.5 points and 8.1 rebounds as a junior and was named a semifinalist for defensive player of the year as well as a finalist for the Lisa Leslie Award, which is given to the nation's best center.

Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper expressed her thoughts in a statement:

"My sole concern right now is that Tamari continues to get the medical care and guidance she needs and begins the gradual process of healing and returning to full strength. This is much bigger than basketball. We are so grateful that this medical condition was caught. Our entire program will be right beside Tamari during this process and welcomes prayers and positive thoughts from Lady Vol Nation and beyond."

Key's absence is another blow to a Tennessee team that entered the year with high aspirations. The Lady Vols entered the year ranked in the Top Five but has since fallen out of the poll after starting out with a 5-5 record. Leading scorer Rickea Jackson is also out indefinitely because of what Harper called a "coach's decision."

The Lady Vols have two games at home against unranked teams before a crucial nonconference showdown at No. 2 Stanford on Dec. 18.

The University of Texas women's basketball team will host an exhibition against DePaul on Saturday with all ticket proceeds going to the Uvalde School District's efforts to build a new school in wake of May's mass shooting at Robb Elementary.

"Sometimes you feel helpless wanting to help somebody," Texas coach Vic Schaefer said, per Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press. "I felt like this might be an opportunity for us as a university, as an athletic department and my program, to really reach out."

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed when Salvador Ramos opened fire using an AR-15-style rifle at Robb Elementary. It was the third-deadliest school shooting in United States history.

Schaefer also plans to donate $1,000 for every 1,000 fans who attend the game. He said he's hoping for at least 10,000 tickets.

"I'm really begging and pleading for our community to come out, to do as much as we can to be a part of helping them rebuild and heal," Schaefer said.

City officials made the decision to permanently close Robb Elementary and demolish the school in the aftermath of the shooting. A memorial park is scheduled to be built in the school's place.

The current goal is to have a new school built and ready to open by October 2024.

Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark were unanimous selections Tuesday for the 2022-23 Associated Press preseason women's basketball All-American team, per Doug Feinberg of the AP.

Stanford's Haley Jones, Iowa State's Ashley Joens, Virginia Tech's Elizabeth Kitley and DePaul's Aneesah Morrow were also selected.

Boston was last year's AP Player of the Year. She averaged 16.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game and helped South Carolina win the national championship. With Boston returning, the Gamecocks were the unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the country last week.

"I don’t think all the awards define who she is but also puts her in a position of she's in a more relaxed mode because she accomplished those things," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said of Boston. "She's still in a place of hunger."

Clark will be a top contender for individual awards this season as one of the top scorers in the country.

The guard averaged 27.0 points per game last season, adding 8.0 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.5 steals. She enters her junior season having already scored 1,662 points, and she is certain to break plenty of records before she leaves school.

Like Boston and Clark, Jones was a first-team All-American last year. The guard averaged 13.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.1 blocks per game and will help the Cardinal remain top contenders after they fell in the Final Four.

Joens, a senior, averaged 20.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game for Iowa State last season, shooting 37.6 percent from three-point range.

Kitley is a force down low for Virginia Tech, averaging 18.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. The senior scored 42 points in her final game last year, a first-round NCAA tournament loss to Florida Gulf Coast.

Morrow is the only sophomore on the first team after turning heads last year with 21.9 points, 13.8 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. She had a double-double in 24 of her final 25 games as a freshman.

After earning second-team All-American honors last year, Morrow has a chance to be a star.

Fresh off winning a national championship, players for the South Carolina women's basketball team can make $25,000 each for the 2022-23 season through a name, image and likeness deal.

According to a release from NOCAP Sports, the deal was orchestrated by South Carolina NIL collective Garnet Trust and NOCAP Sports and is funded by former South Carolina State Rep. Bakari Sellers and a group of prominent alumni.

Sellers issued a statement about the deal included in the release:

"The South Carolina community and alumni network are proud to support the reigning national champs as they continue to build the best program in the country. NIL has created an awesome opportunity for these athletes to earn what they have always deserved, and we are excited to continue to support this team for years to come."

As part of the deal, individual members of the team will be responsible for "various deliverables that involve community appearances, social media engagement, sponsored interviews, and other marketing and communications endeavors."

A website has also been set up by Garnet Trust that allows fans to sign up for a membership and receive special perks, including messages from Gamecocks student-athletes in Trust-sponsored interviews, the opportunity to submit questions for athlete interviews and a monthly newsletter featuring a message from one of the athletes.

Per Emily Adams of the Greenville News, the total value of the NIL deal for all 13 players on South Carolina's roster is approximately $325,000.

Aliyah Boston, the reigning Naismith Women's College Player of the Year, and Zia Cooke were already poised to cash in on their talent. Boston has multiple NIL deals in the bag, including with Crocs, Under Armour and Octagon Basketball.

Cooke has deals with H&R Block and Bojangles.

South Carolina won its second national title last season. Head coach Dawn Staley led her team to a 35-2 overall record, an SEC regular-season championship and a 64-49 victory over Connecticut in the NCAA tournament championship game.

LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey declined to address Brittney Griner's ongoing wrongful detention in Russia.

During a media conference Monday, a reporter referenced Mulkey's general silence on Griner's plight while asking the coach for her thoughts.

"And you won't," Mulkey responded.

Chloe Jackson and Queen Egbo, who played under Mulkey at Baylor, didn't take kindly to the comment:

Griner is perhaps the greatest player to feature for Mulkey during her Hall of Fame coaching career. The former Baylor star was a two-time winner of the Wade Trophy and helped guide the Bears to a national championship in 2012.

Griner is second all-time in program history in points (3,283), third in rebounds (1,305) and first in blocks (748).

However, her relationship with her alma mater remained strained for years.

The Phoenix Mercury star, who's gay, told ESPN in 2013 that Mulkey and other Baylor assistants told players not to divulge their sexuality.

"It was a recruiting thing," she said. "The coaches thought that if it seemed like they condoned it, people wouldn't let their kids come play for Baylor."

Kate Fagan, who worked for ESPN at the time and helped with the story, claimed in May 2021 on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (via Insider's Meredith Cash) that Mulkey "believed that I had forced Brittney Griner to say this." Fagan went on to allege Mulkey spoke to her superiors and attempted to get her fired.

Griner later reflected in her 2014 memoir how Baylor's wider institutional stance on homosexuality made her feel less than and that "no matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn't erase all the pain I felt there."

In conjunction with Coming Out Day in 2021, Griner spoke with ESPN's Josh Weinfuss and again alluded to her difficulty at Baylor. She said she "wasn't giving everybody my whole authentic self" and didn't fully come out to herself until she left the school and entered the pro ranks.

With Mulkey no longer at Baylor and Nicki Collen now coaching the Bears, there was some hope the school would begin to formally honor Griner's contributions.

Last December, the seven-time WNBA All-Star told ESPN's M.A. Voepel she hopes to have her jersey retired, calling it "something I would definitely cherish and love." She also addressed her relationship—or lack thereof—with Mulkey.

"It's something I thought maybe we could have talked about," Griner said. "But it wasn't, really ... not with open ears, probably from both sides, from me or her. We're probably two strong-headed individuals. So it's tough. But I definitely wish Kim well. I know LSU got a good coach. So I'm happy for her."

Voepel also reached out to Mulkey, who said "she will always be grateful for what Griner did at the school."

The WNBA will have to wait a little longer for the arrival of Paige Bueckers.

The UConn women's basketball star told reporters Thursday that she will return to the Huskies for the 2023-24 season and will not declare for the WNBA draft. She will be sidelined the entire 2022-23 campaign after tearing her ACL this summer.

"I’m not leaving … I will be playing college basketball again," Bueckers said.

UConn announced Aug. 3 that Bueckers tore the ACL in her left knee in a pickup basketball game. She underwent successful surgery to repair the ailment Aug. 9 and has already begun rehab.

It's no surprise that Bueckers intends to return to the Huskies for another season. She told Bleacher Report in a June interview that her goal for the 2022-23 campaign was to win a national championship.

"National championship, that's it," Bueckers said when asked what would make a successful 2022-23 season. "I don't think you're going to get a different answer out of me. Getting to the Final Four my freshman year and the national championship last year, the only thing left to do is win it. So that's the goal."

Winning a national title would be the icing on the cake for Bueckers, and she'll have another opportunity to do that in 2023-24. After that, she'll have her sights set on the WNBA and winning a title with whichever team drafts her.

Bueckers emerged as a college hoops star in 2020-21 as a freshman out of Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota. She averaged 20.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.3 steals in 29 games while shooting 52.4 percent from the floor and 46.4 percent from deep.

The Huskies reached the Final Four when Bueckers was a freshman, and she went on to win the 2021 Wooden Award, 2021 Naismith Trophy and 2021 AP Player of the Year.

The 20-year-old was limited to just 17 games during the 2021-22 season due to a knee injury, which required surgery. She returned for the final two games of the regular season before helping the Huskies reach the NCAA tournament championship game, where they were defeated by South Carolina.

Bueckers averaged 14.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 54.4 percent from the floor and 35.3 percent from beyond the arc as a sophomore.

The Huskies will look to reach the national title game again this year, but it will be much more difficult to do without Bueckers.

The 2023 WNBA draft will feature the likes of Aliyah Boston—who was named Naismith College Player of the Year, Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player last season—in addition to Haley Jones, Tamari Key, Ashley Owusu and Ayoka Lee.

Former Texas Tech women's basketball head coach Marlene Stollings has reached a settlement with the school following a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.

Per USA Today's Josh Peters, the settlement came after Stollings and the university filed a joint motion to settle on Wednesday and a judge dismissed the case on Thursday.

Stollings filed a lawsuit against the school and athletic director Kirby Hocutt in October 2020, two months after she was fired by the program. She said the firing was due to "discriminatory biases against female coaches" and also accused the school of fraudulent inducement, fraud, breach of contract and defamation.

Texas Tech announced Stollings' firing on Aug. 6, 2020, one day after USA Today's Jori Epstein and Daniel Libit published a report with allegations of abuse and a toxic culture during her two seasons with the program.

In the report, multiple Red Raiders players said Stollings and the coaching staff would call players "disgusting," "trash," "fat pig," "grossly out of shape" and "grossly disproportional."

Three international players told Epstein and Libit they were targeted by coaches and ridiculed over their English language skills.

One of the players, Marcella Lamark, who is from Brazil, said Stollings called her "dangerous" to teammates and gave her instructions to eat and train in isolation.

According to Peter, Stollings argued in her lawsuit against the school that "two internal reviews conducted by the school before the investigation was published cleared her of the allegations."

Peter noted Stollings was under contract through March 2024 at the time of her dismissal.

Stollings was hired by Texas Tech on April 9, 2018. She took the job after resigning from the University of Minnesota, where she spent four seasons as head coach.

The 47-year-old Stollings went 32-28 overall at Texas Tech (11-25 in the Big 12). She didn't make the NCAA tournament with the Red Raiders. She has a 164-117 career record in 10 seasons as a head coach with four different programs.

Krista Gerlich replaced Stollings as head coach at Texas Tech. She is 21-34 overall in two seasons with the program.