MVP Tries Her Hand at Coaching

The day after Monday’s announcement in Phoenix that two-time WNBA most valuable player Cynthia Cooper would be the Mercury’s new coach, she was asked what made her think a great player can coach--with no prior experience.

“I’m in it to win it,” the former Houston Comet star said Tuesday.

“To be a great player, that requires the ability to perform to your maximum in any situation, and that requires putting in the hard work and hours that are necessary.

“It’s the same with coaching. It’s just hard work. My playing career has ended. Now this new chapter in my life begins and it will get all my energies.”

So, one famous Trojan, Cheryl Miller, resigns in Phoenix and is replaced by her old USC teammate, Cooper.

For those who followed the Mercury’s quest for a coach, Cooper dropped out of the sky.

The chief candidates were thought to be Mercury assistant Carrie Graf, former Detroit coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline, Indiana Fever assistant Anne Donovan, Houston assistant Kevin Cook and former Long Beach StingRay coach Maura McHugh.

But, after a series of quiet interviews with Suns-Mercury-Diamondbacks empire chief Jerry Colangelo, Mercury President Bryan Colangelo and Vice President Seth Sulka, Cooper was the one.

She inherits a team that doesn’t require major reconstruction. The Mercury was 20-12 last summer and made the playoffs. In Brandy Reed, Cooper inherits a WNBA superstar. Reed averaged 19 points in 2000, finishing third in league scoring. Cooper, in winning her second MVP award, was sixth at 17.7.

Cooper also inherits a 21-year-old center, 6-foot-8 Russian Maria Stepanova, many think can be the women’s game’s next great post player.

“Maria is a great post player waiting to happen,” Cooper said.

“I played against her in Europe when she was 16 or 17. I tried to get Van [Chancellor, the Comet coach] to draft her in Houston. I think I can help her become the player she wants to be.”

Cooper, the WNBA’s all-time scoring leader, after leading Houston to four consecutive titles, now finds herself assigned to knock off the Comets.

Many think she should still be playing for Houston. At 37, she was still at the top of her game and had missed only two games in four seasons.

But worn down by her fractious relationship with teammate Sheryl Swoopes and a beef or two with Chancellor, she announced her retirement after last season. At the time, few believed she was serious.

In one way, her timing couldn’t be better. This year’s April draft of college seniors will be the deepest as the WNBA moves into Year 5.

As Seattle Coach Lin Dunn put it, “I will get two starters out of this draft and so will some other teams.”

And the anticipated order may change significantly.

Last summer, 20-year-old Australian Lauren Jackson, a 6-6 center, was seen as a cinch first pick. But now WNBA coaches are hearing that her agent is steering her to Europe for her first pro season, for more than twice what she would earn in the WNBA. Also, the WNBA’s labor agreement with its players can be reopened after the season, and Jackson could then probably come in for the 2002 season at a higher salary.

That leaves Tennessee’s Tamika Catchings or Connecticut’s Svetlana Abrosimova as the likely first pick, and 6-5 Notre Dame senior Ruth Riley moving up quickly in the estimation of WNBA coaches. Georgia’s 5-10 twins, Kelly and Coco Miller, are also projected as first-rounders.

A WNBA assistant coach, who asked not to be identified, is busy scouting NCAA seniors and sees the first five picks this way: 1. Catchings, 2. Abrosimova, 3. Nikki Teasley, North Carolina, 4. Riley, 5. Camille Cooper, Purdue.

SPARKS FIRST TO OPEN

The Sparks, who released their 2001 schedule Tuesday, will play in the WNBA opener May 28 in an NBC game at Houston. They also will play 16 games at Staples Center, among them nine of their last 11. A July 30-Aug. 11 six-game homestand will be played at Staples.

The home opener is June 5, against Cleveland at the Forum.

THIS ‘N’ THAT

Nicole Kaczmarski, the Long Island guard who has left UCLA, has enrolled at Georgia. . . . Can Kathy Olivier, whose UCLA team is 1-12, make it through the season? Most likely, but after that it’s anyone’s guess. She’s in the second season of a six-year deal.

Marksmanship meter: Notre Dame sophomore Alicia Ratay is shooting 63.5%, 28 for 52, from the three-point line. The NCAA one-season record is 57.5%, by Fordham’s Heather Donlon in 1989-90. . . . Speaking of coaching experience, current WNBA players Jen Rizzotti of Houston and Dawn Staley of Charlotte had none when they were hired as college coaches. As of Tuesday, Rizzotti was 6-4 at Hartford and Staley 10-3 at Temple.