{"id":63499,"date":"2012-08-03T08:19:30","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T12:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=63499"},"modified":"2012-08-06T09:52:45","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T13:52:45","slug":"espn-title-ix-coverage-highlights-uconn-women%e2%80%99s-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/08\/espn-title-ix-coverage-highlights-uconn-women%e2%80%99s-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Title IX Coverage Highlights UConn Women\u2019s Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Title<\/a>
Title IX Mosaic (Courtesy of ESPN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UConn women\u2019s basketball featured prominently in ESPN\u2019s coverage of the 40th anniversary of Title IX \u2013 the landmark education law that prohibits exclusion of benefits or participation in federally funded programs because of gender.<\/p>\n

In its three-month series of feature stories and special programming during the spring and earlier this summer, ESPN noted historic achievements by the women\u2019s basketball team and its student-athletes during the past four decades, and named Diana Taurasi \u201905 (CLAS) as one of the Top 40 Athletes of the Past 40 Years.<\/p>\n

Several current and former WNBA players who first rose to national prominence as members of the Huskies\u2019 seven national championship teams reflected on how they benefitted from Title IX legislation.<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca<\/a>
Rebecca Lobo visits the J. Robert Donnelly Husky Heritage Sports Museum at UConn. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTitle IX really impacted me because when the WNBA started it was a dream come true for so many women,\u201d said Rebecca Lobo \u201995 (CLAS), in one of a series of vignettes in which women athletes described how their lives were affected by Title IX. \u201cThe WNBA would not have come about without the success that had happened on the collegiate level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lobo, now an ESPN basketball analyst, helped lead the Huskies to their first NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Title in 1995 and was among the initial group of players in the WNBA. A member of the Women\u2019s Basketball Hall of Fame, she was also part of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Women\u2019s Basketball Team that won a gold medal and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

\"Six<\/a>
Six former Huskies and head coach Geno Auriemma are part of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Women's Basketball Team competing in London this month. From left: Asjha Jones, Swin Cash, Coach Auriemma, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, and Sue Bird. (Photo courtesy of USA Basketball)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The success of Huskies women\u2019s basketball is on display at the 2012 London Olympic Games this summer, led by Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma and six former Huskies \u2013 Sue Bird \u201902 (CLAS), Swin Cash \u201902 (CLAS), Tina Charles \u201910 (CLAS), Asjha Jones \u201902 (BUS), Maya Moore \u201911 (CLAS) and Taurasi.<\/p>\n

Taurasi, who won the Honda Award in 2003 and 2004 as the nation\u2019s top basketball player is a WNBA All-Star and won three NCAA titles in a UConn uniform. She is one of seven WNBA players on the Top 40 list. The list includes pioneers such as Nancy Lieberman and Ann Meyers Drysdale, who is serving as a basketball analyst for NBC during the London Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Kate Fagan, writing for espnW<\/em>, said \u201cThere\u2019s a bit of magic in how she plays, a sense of the moment, a bravado and unrestrained enthusiasm that has elevated Taurasi from top-shelf to one-of-a-kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nykesha Sales \u201998 (CLAS), a veteran of the WNBA who played for the Connecticut Sun, said in the \u201cTitle IX is Mine\u201d interviews, \u201cGrowing up, you don\u2019t really realize all the people who have paved the way for you to play basketball and have an education. We have the opportunity to really benefit from all the people that helped with Title IX.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cash, one of a select group of only seven women\u2019s basketball players to have won NCAA and WNBA championships and an Olympic gold medal (the others include Bird, Taurasi, and Kara Wolters \u201997 (CLAS)), said in her Title IX interview that the impact of the legislation is evidence for all to see.<\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/a>
Fans celebrate the women's basketball team's record-breaking performance at the XL Center. The Huskies\u2019 90-game winning streak from 2008 to 2010 was included in ESPN's 40-year timeline of 'Memorable Moments.' (Kenneth Best\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou look at the number of young girls now that are playing sports versus 40 years ago, even 20 years ago,\u201d said Cash, who is in London as part of the U.S. Olympic Team. \u201cThere are a lot more role models because of Title IX, which then brings younger girls to the table to want to experience sports. Because of the women that are out there today that started the movement with Title IX, on the backs of their hard work I am able to live out my dreams today and hopefully one day I\u2019ll have a little girl and she\u2019ll be able to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the other Title IX notes about the women\u2019s basketball team listed by ESPN:<\/p>\n

Sweet Streaks: <\/strong>The Huskies\u2019 90-game winning streak from 2008 to 2010, which was included among the 40-year timeline of \u201cMemorable Moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riveting Rivalries: <\/strong>The UConn-Tennessee battles that included seeing the Huskies beat the Volunteers in the NCAA finals four times.<\/p>\n

Rising Stars: <\/strong>Moriah Jefferson \u201916 (CLAS), a point guard from Texas who arrives in Storrs this fall is among the players to watch for the future.<\/p>\n

The ESPN Title IX coverage can be seen at http:\/\/search.espn.go.com\/title-ix\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESPN\u2019s three-month series on the landmark legislation included historic achievements by the team and its student-athletes during the past four decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":63386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-63499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 12:29:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63590,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63499\/revisions\/63590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/63386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63499"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=63499"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=63499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}