Don’t know if you noticed or cared, but the Washington Mystics are 2-0 for the first time in franchise history after defeating the Atlanta Dream at home yesterday, 77-71.

If the Mystics can compete for this year’s WNBA championship, they will have done so with a strong model for building and sustaining a WNBA franchise. Two players, Marissa Coleman and Crystal Langhorne, starred for the nearby Maryland Terrapins, and are the linchpins for much of the Mystics’ local marketing. They are two of six players on the roster to have played in the ACC, bringing more regional awareness and loyalty to the club than most other WNBA teams enjoy.

Despite the homegrown talent, the Mystics have posted just one winning season in the last six years since reaching the WNBA Finals in 2002. Coaches have changed over, star players have defected, and inconsistency has been their hallmark on the court and in the front office.

But this year appears to be different. Among the new faces are head coach Julie Plank, whom in the first two games appears to be a good game manager and personnel. After a terrible first quarter in which the Mystics shot just 3-for-18 and were down 22-8, Plank inserted Coleman, Matee Ajavon and Tasha Humphrey off the bench to spark a 30-point second quarter.

The front office has developed the formula for attention, and the 11,759 fans at yesterday’s game attest to the area’s continued interest women’s pro basketball. The talent and size are there, and a fresh face in coaching is there. To meld the three would mean a certain summertime championship run.

Technorati Tags: Crystal Langhorne, Julie Plank, Marissa Coleman, Washington Mystics

Angel McCoughtry, who became infamous for challenging Kara Lawson and requesting an audience with President Obama, went number one overall to the Atlanta Dream. B-More’s finest led her Louisville Cardinals to the national championship a few days ago, where they might have won the whole thing if not up against the ponytail buzzsaw that is UConn women’s basketball.

Picks two and three were Terps time, as Maryland-native Coleman went second to the hometown Washington Mystics, and Virginia native Kristi Toliver went midwest to the Chicago Sky. Not only were they solid picks, but they were also looking pretty fly at the draft, no?

Speaking of the draft, would it be bad taste to ask if the WNBA has any kind of pre-draft camp? It seems like right after the national championship, BAM! Players are getting drafted. Chauvinists are always complaining that its not a good quality of basketball, which is totally untrue. What is true is that many fans, male and female, don’t know anything about some of the best players in the league.

That’s beginning to change now, as women’s college basketball enjoys a growing television and media presence, but a pre-draft camp wouldn’t hurt their cause of raising awareness of star players.

Technorati Tags: Angel McCoughtry, Kristi Toliver, Marissa Coleman, Washington Mystics, WNBA Draft

He’s been injured

-Wiz G DeShawn Stevenson is out with a lower back issue that he said has been bothering him since training camp. Steveonson said an x-ray revealed a disk problem that in turn is causing him problems with his legs.

As someone who has had disc problems in the lower back and resulting surgery, I can tell you that prior to the surgery “problems with your legs” usually means you can’t feel them. Bulging discs that press against nerves pretty much put you out.

Forget lifting, running or jumping, you pretty much can’t sneeze or sleep without extreme discomfort.

To that point, it would’ve been nice if the Wizards let everybody know that the guy was trying to play through back problems. That would’ve saved him a lot of scorn in blogs and in the papers, and we probably would’ve lauded his heart for a couple of weeks knowing that he couldn’t feel his face or his legs.

Speedy recovery to the Locksmith.

Technorati Tags: DeShawn Stevenson, Washington Wizards

Change.

“Changes have to be made,” said forward Monique Currie, who scored seven points against Minnesota. “If you look at the teams who are in the playoffs, they have all-stars, they have veterans, they have leaders. You’ve got to bring players in that help this team. I think a lot of us can help with [parts], but we need to get better, we need to get better players. We need to make changes, and I’m pretty positive that’s going to happen in the offseason.”

Wow. One of the team’s best players advocating for some of her teammates to be shipped out? Those are some strong words. Maybe the interim coach Jessie Kenlaw can clean it up a little.

“As I look back, had I known some things that I know now, I’m not sure I would have accepted the position,” Kenlaw said, declining to elaborate on the specific reasons that would have led her to decline the promotion. “The thing I really regret are the losses.”

Whoa. How bad can it be that a person would’ve rejected an increase in pay, and a chance for upward mobility? Must be pretty bad up and down the bench when players and coaches are crying out for help.

And its easy to believe that every disparaging word is heart felt, because it’s hard to believe that this team appeared in the Eastern Conference finals just six years ago. The success of the Wizards don’t make things any easier for the ladies, who may have as loyal a fan base as there is in the league, but still have expectations to meet as competitors.

There is time for change in Washington, but unlike politics, it has to start from the top down. Beginning with the front office.

Technorati Tags: Washington Mystics

Like Carmelo Anthony, she came up in a not so nice part of Baltimore, and like Kevin Durant, she frequently comes back home to Maryland to provide inspiration for family and friends still working their way out of the struggle.

But unlike those two guys, stories like Vaughan’s are not frequently told.

Before she was 10 years old, Vaughn had learned how to duck and run away from drive-by shootings that ripped through young people’s conversations as they gathered on street corners. When she was 12, Vaughn saw a man shoot and kill a convenience store clerk. When her family moved from the Freedomway projects off Federal Street to North Montford Avenue, neighbors regularly broke into their house. Older kids chased and picked fights with Vaughn, her older sister Marian and younger brother Lloyd as they walked home from school.

Women’s basketball can’t be so boring that people don’t even want to recognize stories of hard work and tenacity within its sport, can it? These are the same stories we hear about all the time in the NBA and NCAA men’s basketball, so why don’t the ladies receive love at the same clip?

If you took the name Krystal Vaughan out of this story and replaced it with a name like Kevin Vickers, you would automatically pay more attention. People naturally identify with those who look like them and share common characteristics. But for those of us who grew up in areas like this, and have experienced trouble like this, every single child coming out of these conditions deserves our attention and adulation.

Especially our little sisters.

Technorati Tags: Krystal Vaughan, Washington Mystics

It seems like the Mystics and the Liberty are always the last two teams fighting for playoff position. And for the last two years, that position has been the final spot. To that end, I suggest we white out, rap battle, and lose feeling in our faces for Alana Beard and Co. much in the way we did for the Washington Wizards.

After all, the Mystics have actually beat out the Liberty for the final playoff spot. The Wiz kids have yet to vanquish Cleveland, and they may have ruined chances of ever doing it by riling the King Kong of the NBA with last year’s trash talk.

It’s not like we’re far off. The Mystics have always been among the league leaders in attendance, and they’ll be playing four games in the next week to make this happen.

We got hype for Caron Butler. Let’s do it for Coco Miller.

Technorati Tags: Alana Beard, Caron Butler, Coco Miller, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has spoken with WNBA reps on the possibility of bringing a franchise to Charm City, based on the prospect of a new arena being constructed in the downtown area. But the truth of the matter is that a WNBA franchise in Baltimore would be destined for failure.

While Dixon acknowledges that an NBA franchise would be hard to lure, stoking the flames of the WNBA coming to the city should burn everybody up. Unlike most WNBA cities, there is no NBA franchise in place to spurn initial interest in a women’s franchise. With the exception of the Baltimore Ravens, no other professional team draws the demographic that would easily transition over to women’s basketball.

Hell, they barely support the teams they like.

There’s just no good that can come of this. Building a new arena for anything other than an NBA franchise doesn’t make good for the city, and bringing a franchise destined to struggle wouldn’t be a good look for the league.

Technorati Tags: WNBA

But inconsistent play from one of their best veterans hasn’t helped a team where youth might be its biggest disadvantage.

The third most tenured player for the Mystics, Nakia Sanford has not lived up to the expectations she created with her 11 ppg and 7 rpg breakout season last year. Granted, she is 32 years old, and post players break down far faster than guards, but something has to come out of the paint better than 6.4 ppg and 5.9 rpg for the Mystics to contend.

And you can’t blame it all on Sanford – the Mystics’ roster features eight players with three years experience or less, and only three players with more than five seasons on their WNBA resumes.

Make no mistake, if the roster stays intact for the next two years, they will probably be a championship contender. You could make an argument for the Connecticut Sun, who feature six rookies, but talk to me come playoff time when they, and likely the Mystics, are looking up at ageless wonders like the Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks.

Technorati Tags: Connecticut Sun, Los Angeles Sparks, Nakia Sanford, Washington Mystics

So are we used to women playing above the rim now?

It’s still news because it doesn’t happen everyday, and it’s still exciting because some people think anything remotely close to men’s basketball makes women’s basketball worth watching.

There’s no shortage on preaching about how the WNBA should be viewed as quality basketball, but there is a shortage of converts to that gospel. Men won’t watch, and the league doesn’t do a good job of marketing its players’ stories to its predominantly female fan base.

And dunking won’t provide the long-term investment into why fans should stay tuned for more.

I like the WNBA, and hope that fans catch onto the great product and personalities the league enjoys. But for all that Candace Parker has brought to women’s basketball, dunking is the one great thing we already expect.

Technorati Tags: Candace Parker, WNBA

Times have changed for both institutions. Simmons has burned himself out to the point of being a mockery of himself and becoming an easy target for Rick Reilly, and the WNBA is still plugging away with its short range jumpers and layups.

And the funny thing is that these days, Simmons would kill for the juice the WNBA now enjoys. The talent level has transitioned from middle-aged free agents known only to basketball enthusiasts, to college superstars plucked from ESPN broadcasts and the attention of casual sports fans.

Attendance rose for all WNBA franchises except four last season, and for a league featuring athletes without major endorsement deals or the benefit of the billion-dollar farm system that is present for men’s college basketball, that’s a pretty good sign.

And they might not be that far off. Candace Parker has been to the WNBA what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and LeBron James were upon their entrance to the NBA. As a direct result, WNBA jersey sales have increased, games are selling out across the league, and traffic on the league’s web portal has drastically jumped.

But like Bill Simmons, the one thing holding the league back from even more success is an unwillingness to reinvent themselves. Sure, you can package Simmons on a Podcast, E:60, or any other venue, but he’s still going to be the same cat trying to get love off of pop culture references you haven’t thought about in years, and a long-winded willingness to write in the same voice that you talk to your boys in.

The WNBA won’t let go of the "We get no respect because we’re women," kick.

Every year, the league’s marketing campaign revolves around the best of the women’s suffrage movement. Every time you see a great player sarcastically calling you out for thinking WNBA games on on par with rec league games, chiding you for thinking women are afraid of contact on the court, or smirking at you for thinking the games are boring, you get the sense that Susan B. Anthony herself would think that its all a little over the top.

It’s okay. Everyone does not like the WNBA, just like everyone does not like the NBA. Some people are just sexist jerks. Some people are racist, and some people just don’t like basketball. You can’t win em’ all, so there’s no great value in structuring appeals that speak directly to the most degrading perspectives in and around sports.

We just watched a  2008 NBA Finals Game 3 that offered up a poorer total shooting percentage than a drunken dorm room Halo tournament. In comparison of regular season, home-court shooting percentages, the WNBA and the NBA are hovering in 40 percent land.

Now is it really that much better watching men miss six shots out of 10 then women? Not really; we’ve just had a lot more years and plenty more marketed back stories to appreciate men not being able to shoot.

Chill, WNBA. We’re not out to end the league. We’re not even out to ignore it. Old habits are hard to break, but you just gotta appreciate the cracks.

Besides, what you all are selling is a lot more addictive than Simmons’ product these days.