ISSUE 004

Welcome to another edition of the Women’s Basketball Roundup!

On tap in this edition of the WBB Roundup:

• 💪🏽Rebekah Gardner’s road to recovery

• 📈 NCAA rankings

• 🗓️Key WBB Dates

• 📝 Stories worth your time

Congratulations to the Canada Basketball Women’s 3×3 Team for taking gold at the FIBA Americup 2024 in Puerto Rico! The United States and Brazil took silver and bronze in the women’s tournament.

Paige Crozon (Canada) headlined the All-Tournament team alongside Brittney Sykes (United States) and Gabriella Soares (Brazil).

Speaking of our friends to the north, the WNBA announced the Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream will play in the first-ever international regular season game. Of course, the WNBA has been to Canada during the preseason, but this will mark the first league game during the season.

Roberta F. Rodrigues and Erica L. Ayala will discuss this on our next episode of Tempestade Talk this Wednesday at 5:00 PT.

The Road to Recovery

Making it back from an injury is always difficult. Making it back from an Achilles injury? Even more difficult. For Rebekah Gardner, she’s been fighting her way back to the court following an Achilles tear she suffered while playing in Spain. Shortly after the injury, she was traded to the Liberty from the Chicago Sky in exchange for second-round draft picks. While she didn’t play in 2024, she was with the team all season long and an active part of the team. As

In her blog, Overseas Uncut, Bek talked about her recovery and the grind of making it back to where she once was:

Gardner cited the examples of Breanna Stewart, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and Kelsey Plum as players who recovered from Achilles tears and returned to basketball. In August 2020, Stewart, Plum, and Durant talked about their Achilles journeys and their roads to recovery.

When Gardner returns in May, she’ll join a Liberty team with plenty of depth in the wing room. Although they no longer have Kayla Thornton on the team, they still have players like Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Leonie Fiebich on the roster. Their presence allows Gardner to take her time and not put too much pressure on herself as she adjusts to a new team and a new way of playing following her severe injury.

As we head into the new year and the next part of the WNBA off-season, Gardner’s journey will be something we continue to keep a close eye on.

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NCAA Associated Press Poll

Another week of exciting women’s college hoops means more movement in the AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll.

Notre Dame’s win over UConn bumped the Fighting Irish up five spots. However, UCLA remains at the top, followed by the Gamecocks. Cal cracks the list with a huge win over Stanford.

Former New York Liberty assistant coach Charmin Smith discussed the win:

AP Rankings (as of December 16):

1 UCLA

2 South Carolina (↑ 1)

3 Notre Dame (↑ 5)

4 UConn (↓2)

5 LSU (↓1)

6 Texas (↓)

7 USC (↓2)

8 Maryland (↓1)

9 Duke

10 Oklahoma

11 Ohio State

12 TCU

13 Kansas State

14 West Virginia (↑1)

15 Michigan State (↑2)

16 Kentucky

17 Georgia Tech (↑8)

18 Tennessee (↑1)

19 North Carolina (↓5)

20 Michigan

21 NC State (↑1)

22 Iowa (↓1)

23 California

24 Nebraska (↑1)

25 Ole Miss (↓3)

📚What We’re Reading:

At Black Rosie Media, we love to give flowers to other writers and creators in women’s basketball.

Here’s what we’re reading:

• Nikki Gionvanni’s poetry reflects Real America - Nylah Iqbal Muhammad, Shondaland

• Liberty star Jonquel Jones gets hero’s welcome in triumphant return to Bahamas - Madeline Kenney, New York Post

• WNBA is headed back to Edmonton in August! by Ben Pickman and Richard Deitsch

• Cal Bears get a massive win over Stanford by Nick Kranz

Interested in podcasts?

We have two live recordings this week, starting tonight at 7:00 PM ET with Gotta Get Up! A Podcast for New York Liberty fans!

On Wednesday at 5:00 PM PT, Roberta & Erica will record a live episode of Tempestade Talk: Your Local Eye on the Seattle Storm.