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Message: [QUOTE="CamrnCrz1974, post: 5298436, member: 1052"] From a non-UConn perspective ... What Diana Taurasi did in 2002-2003 might be the single greatest season accomplishment. UConn lost Bird, Cash, Jones, and Williams to graduation. UConn was incredibly reliant on talented but unproven freshman (Strother, Turner, Crockett, and Wolff) and solid role players but not elite in terms of overall individual talent, recruiting rankings, and high school accolades (Battle, Moore, Valleys, Conlon). Duke was rising, Tennessee was a power, and teams and the media thought UConn would have a down season. Taurasi averaged 17.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists during the 2002-2003 season -- and UConn only lost one game en route to the national championship Her stellar performance in the national championship game against Tennessee included 28 points on 8 of 15 shooting, sinking four 3-pointers. Her 28 points were the second-most ever scored in a national championship game at that time. Maya Moore might be the best all-around player (offense and defense) in UConn history. But she also played with Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery for two seasons and Charles for a third. Could Moore's 2010-2011 be used as a comparator? Possibly, but she still had Hayes, Hartley, and Dolson -- all three of whom are still WNBA starters 14 years after they played together at UConn. Most telling ... no player struck fear into opposing coaches' hearts more than Taurasi did during that 2002-2003 season. It did not matter if other teams were more talented or deeper on paper; opposing coaches feared Diana because of what she could do and what she could get her teammates to do. Remember ... [B][I]“We have Diana Taurasi and you don't”[/I][/B] Again, just some thoughts from a longtime poster ... [/QUOTE]

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