Baylor University's Brittney Griner outscored the entire Texas team in the first half as she led the Lady Bears to victory over the Lady Longhorns and in the process climbed to fifth place on the list of alltime scorers in ladies' college basketball history today, according to ESPN.
She passed legends such as USC's Cheryl Miller and Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw on the alltime scoring list in the process of leading the Lady Bears to the Big 12 Championship today for the third straight year.
With all her accomplishments the question has to be asked if she is the greatest basketball player in the history of women's college hoops?
Her laundry list of accomplishments is staggering. She is the only woman basketball player to block 700 shots. She is one of the few women players to become proficient at dunking the basketball over helpless opponents. Even double teams failed to stop her against UT today as she danced around and between Lady Longhorns to score at will.
She is only the eighth player in history to score 3,000 points in the women's game.
Possibly her most impressive accomplishment though was to lead the Baylor women's team to a perfect 40-0 record and a national championship last year. The Lady Bears defeated perennial powerhouse Notre Dame in the final game last year to claim Coach Kim Mulkey's second national championship at Baylor.
Possibly Mulkey's greatest recruiting accomplishment was persuading Griner to take her talents to the Waco campus along the Brazos River.
Griner was already considered the top lady's recruit in the nation when she was dominating play at Houston Nimitz High School. Already able to dunk a basketball, she caught the eye of every college coach in the nation.
Griner at 6-8 has a height advantage over most opponents. But what makes her special is her combination of agility and intelligence. She has already transformed the women's game with her brilliant play.
Mulkey, who was an All-American guard at Louisiana Tech, said she recognized Griner had such unique talents that she got the idea of having a male center teaching her prize pupil the finer points of the power game under the basket used in the men's game.
Griner, who was already considered a brilliant defensive player with her shot blocking, was smart enough to absorb all the tips from her male tutor and incorporate them into her offensive game.
She may be on the verge of revolutionizing the ladies' game with her unique style of play on offense and defense.
Her goal this year is to gain a second straight national championship for the Baylor ladies. That is a goal that seems possible as she has led her teammates to the No. l ranking this year with victories over dominant Connecticut and Notre Dame. Only an early season loss to Stanford has kept the Lady Bears from a second consecutive perfect season so far.
If Brittney Griner isn't the greatest women's college player ever, who is?
Anyone interested in receiving updates of National Places and Faces articles should click on the subscribe link above this article. My readers may also follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Google.
Comments