Phi Slamma Jamma

1. Tara VanDerveer, head coach, Stanford (I almost choked on the S word) women's basketball team won her 800th game last night when her team tattooed USF 100-45. Think about that, for a sec. 800 W's in the victory column spanning a 30 year career. And most of those years spent toiling away in the Pac 10 conference; yes, there are always door mats, but in Division 1 ball, there really are no gimmes. The irony of the 800th win was that it came against a team coached by 2 former players, Jeniffer Azzi and Katy Steding, who were members of VanDerveer's 1st Stanford recruiting class. Lost in the hoopla, but not forgotten, are the two national titles and the numerous final four appearance of Stanford under VanDerveer. Blunt and outspoken, once blasting guard play at a press conference, VanDerveer has coached some of the best....Azzi, Starbird, Wideman, Wiggins, and Appel. But then Vanderveer knows guard play; in the mid 70's she was a starting guard at IU for 3 years. Think, maybe, some of that great school's basketball tradition rubbed off on her there?

2. UCONN. The women's basketball team busted John Wooden's record of 88 straight victories last week. Not impressed by girl play? So what, you say? Well just because men are ballers doesn't mean women can't ball too. Ok, so maybe it's small ball. But, even the late John Wooden recognized it. He said women play the game beneath the net, the way it's supposed to be played. Men play impulsively above the net. Geno Auriemma, the UCONN coach (you either love him or hate him) joking with President Obama who called to congratulate the team, said that the team hadn't lost since he took office. The last team to beat UCONN was Stanford in 2008. On Dec 30th, both teams meet in Palo Alto. Get your popcorn ready. It's going to be a brawl.

3. El Presidente. In a devastating one-two combination, which could be labelled: 'The empire strikes back' President Obama delivered the repeal of the 'Don't ask, Don't Tell,' policy and the signing of the Russian Nuclear Arms Treaty in a phi slamma jamma shattering of the back board just weeks after gagging on the extension of the tax cuts for the upper middle class and the wealthy. Basking in the after-glow, the President and his family are in the islands for the holidays; you can take the girls and boys out of the islands...but you can't take the islands out of them. Shaka bro.