A USC Team That Matches Up With Best

Thanks to the increased number of high school players and college underclassmen who make the jump to the NBA, today’s top NCAA teams are generally considered inferior to the championship teams from 20 years ago.

But in women’s basketball, the assumption is a little different. Many believe teams are better now because of the development of the WNBA and the lack of early departures.

Rhonda Windham, starting point guard on USC’s 1983 and 1984 NCAA championship teams that featured Cheryl Miller, Cynthia Cooper (1984 only) and the McGee twins, Pam and Paula, disagrees.

“There’s more overall talent in college, but we had a specific team in a special situation,” said Windham, director of the Nike L.A. Showcase, a summer league for female high school and college players. “We had a top player in every position.... We were an exciting team that ran the floor and had a lot of fun when we played.

“It’s always hard to compare eras, but I think if we had to play this year’s championship team, it would be an extremely competitive game, but we would have had too many weapons.”

Miller vs. Taurasi: Comparing Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi with Miller, Windham said: “Taurasi is a great player, but when they call her the best ever, I can’t say that. Cheryl did it all and with style.... The same stuff she did 20 years ago, everyone does now.”

Trivia time: Who was the first high school basketball player to play on a U.S. national team?

NBA in Africa: In September, basketball Hall of Famer Alex English will be among a contingent of coaches and players going to Johannesburg, South Africa, to participate in the outreach program Basketball Without Borders, involving the NBA and the International Basketball Federation. English expects the camp, which will bring together 100 African players age 16 to 20, to have an NBA feel.

“We had a guy that looked like Carmelo Anthony,” English told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I think he was from Mozambique. There was a kid who looked just like Dale Davis. You can tell they’ve been watching the NBA, because the guy who looked like Carmelo had his hair braided and he wore the headband.”

New England cheap: From Michael Felger of the Boston Herald: “The Patriots may have won two Super Bowls while selflessly espousing the team concept, but that doesn’t mean the players don’t want to get paid.... The Pats find themselves fighting the perception, in the locker room and around the league, that they aren’t willing to pay market rates. Put another way, some players think the Pats are cheap.”

Trivia answer: Former UCLA All-American Ann Meyers played on the U.S. national team in 1974 as a Sonora High senior.

And finally: Tom Reed of the Akron Beacon Journal on 14-year-old Freddy Adu’s Major League Soccer debut for D.C. United in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over San Jose: “The last time an RFK Stadium crowd got so charged up for a substitute wearing No. 9, Redskin quarterback Sonny Jurgensen was coming off the bench to relieve an injured Billy Kilmer.”