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Message: [QUOTE="ocoandasoc, post: 2557265, member: 3032"] I've already posted about my favorite UConn WCBB player (Ann Strother), but I've been interested in the comments by others about prominent non-UConn players. So I thought I'd add my favorite in that category as well. She played high school ball in the town next to mine in NJ, and college ball not far from where I started college. Her name is Carol “Blaze” Blazejowski and she dominated the sport in the mid and late 70's. She was only 5”10” but had a great jump shot. At Montclair State College she was a three-year All-American and won the inaugural Wade Trophy in 1978. She led the nation in scoring in her junior and senior years with a 39 points per game average – and this when there was no three-point shot! She also averaged 10+ rebounds per game. She set a Madison Square Garden record with 52 points in a game in '78 and took MSC to the Final Four. She led the U.S. team to Silver Medal in the '79 World University Games and the Gold Medal in both the Pan Am Games and the World Championships that year (the first U.S. championship in more than two decades!) and was the U.S. team's leading scorer. She also helped the U.S. earn the Gold Medal at the Jones Cup Tournament in Taiwan. She was named to the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but the U.S. wound up boycotting the Olympics. In 1980 Blaze received the most lucrative contract – $150,000, a lot of money four decades ago – in the history of women's basketball from the NJ Gems. But a year later the league went out of business. Blaze forged a career on the business side of basketball and later became the General Manager and then President of the WNBA New York Liberty. She is enshrined in both the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville and the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. Few remember that she played a game at Gampel Pavilion in the early 90's. It was a barnstorming team playing pre-season exhibition games with college teams and they took on the Huskies. My daughter was playing AAU ball at the time and I was able to take her to the game and introduce her to Blaze, who was very generous with her time, advice and encouragement. [MEDIA=youtube]m5qp6pBmMaQ[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach