Episode 6 - ft. Dawn Staley

Bob Rathbun (0:07)

Hi, everybody, and welcome to this week's edition of A Trophy Life. I'm your host, Bob Rathbun, and on this week's edition, we've got a great guest lined up for you. Can't wait for you all to hear from Dawn Staley, the head coach of the number one women's college basketball team in the country, the South Carolina Gamecocks, and she is the head coach of our national team, Team USA. The women will be looking for a seventh consecutive gold in Tokyo next summer. We'll talk about that and the rise of women's college basketball. All that coming up with Dawn Staley in just a bit. We want to begin, of course, with our citizen news and notes of the week. And on Tuesday, the Atlanta Tip-Off Club announced the five finalists competing for the Jersey Mike's Naismith National Boys and Girls High School Coach of the Year honors. The five finalists for each award represent high schools from across the country. And the winners of the Jersey Mike's Naismith High School Boys and Girls Coach of the Year awards will be announced on March the 9th. You can check it all out online at naismithtrophy.com. As we dive into this week's news and notes, I want to give Alabama's Herbert Jones a round of applause. Alabama beat LSU last weekend 88-82, but it was the Coliseum crowd's remembrance of what Jones did in that game that they will long remember. He is a left-hander. He broke his left wrist, so he started the game with a cast on his surgically repaired left wrist.

Then he went out and grabbed 17 rebounds in this game.

And with a minute 37 left, had to go to the foul line. Now remember, he's a left-hander, had to shoot two big foul shots with the game on the line. He uses his non-dominant right hand, hits two free throws, and Alabama beat LSU. Congratulations to Herbert Jones of the Crimson Tide. It was a rough weekend in the top 25 LSU was one of eight top 25 teams that went down to defeat last weekend. Louisville in that number. They fell on the road to two unranked teams at Georgia Tech and at Clemson. Big win for the Tigers. That win over Louisville last Saturday was the second this season for Clemson over a top five team. The Tigers beat number three Duke back in January, and it marks the first time that Clemson has knocked off two top five teams in the same season since 1979-1980.

The Maryland Terrapins trailed by seven, with seven 25 remaining, then went on a 14 nothing run, and they beat Michigan State 67 to 60 So it's a two team race now between Maryland and Penn State for the Big Ten crown, and Maryland seems like a lock for a two seed in the NCAA tournament. It's probably about time we start paying attention to San Diego State. They are now number four in the country, are 26 and They wrapped up the Mountain West last weekend. There are currently two teams in the top 10 in Ken Pom's adjusted offensive efficiency and adjusted defensive efficiency. They are the Duke Blue Devils and the San Diego State Aztecs.

Want to remind everybody about a big showdown in men's college basketball coming on Saturday. And that is the Kansas Baylor game. Now these teams met at Allen Field House over a month ago and Baylor won that game and won it big. Now the return match, it is going to be probably if Baylor wins for the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament. Should be quite a match.

On the women's side, Monday night, number eight UCLA rallied to beat number 15 Oregon State in overtime, 83-74. The Bruins were down by 14 in the third quarter in that game. Oregon State now has to go to Stanford, number four Stanford on Friday.

And the Beavers are in the middle of a four game road trip, two last weekend, two this weekend. It's their longest road trip in 10 years. In the Pac-12 and UConn's record streak of top five appearances in the AP Women's Basketball poll is now over. The Huskies fell to sixth on Monday, ending a run of 253 consecutive weeks as one of the teams in the first five in the top 25 That streak dated back to February 5th of 2007 The longest current streak is now held by number one, South Carolina, at 11 consecutive weeks. And that leads us in to our guest this week.

This week's A Trophy Life is presented by the Boland Group. From next generation telecommunication systems to reliable power transmission, distribution, substations and beyond, they provide comprehensive solutions for commercial, governmental and industrial entities. They pride themselves on the ability to manage the engineering, procurement and construction phases of each project, while maintaining an in-depth and detailed involvement in every aspect of their client's needs. The Boland Group is your best choice for strategic infrastructure solutions, and Atlanta Tip-Off Club board member and former University of Kentucky Basketball All-America Jack Goose-Gibbons is there to help you.