TAURASI IS NEVER SATISFIED.Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer Diana Taurasi Diana Lurena Taurasi (born June 11, 1982 in Chino, California) is a professional basketball player who plays for the Phoenix Mercury in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). is playing a game of one -upmanship. Against herself. First, she led the University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut is the State of Connecticut's land-grant university. It was founded in 1881 and serves more than 27,000 students on its six campuses, including more than 9,000 graduate students in multiple programs. UConn's main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut. to back-to-back national championships. Then, she was the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft The WNBA Draft is an annual draft held by the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) through which WNBA teams can select new players from a talent pool of college and professional women's basketball players. The first WNBA draft was held in 1997. by the Phoenix Mercury and enjoyed an impressive rookie season. Now she'll try to top that by helping lead the U.S to a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games. ``I'm looking forward to it,'' Taurasi said. ``I think I can stay at a high level. A lot of it's mental. How you handle it mentally really affects how you play and how you treat different situations.'' Taurasi is part of an experienced U.S. team that is trying to hold on its No. 1 world ranking winning the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The U.S. is 36-0 in major world competitions over the past eight years. Three members remain from the 1995-96 national team that went 60-0 - Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes and the Sparks' Lisa Leslie. Returners from the 2000 gold-medal team include Yolanda Griffith and Katie Smith. The newcomers are Taurasi, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tamika Catchings, Shannon Johnson and Tina Thompson. The coach is Van Chancellor, who led the Houston Comets to four WNBA WNBA Women's National Basketball Association WNBA World Ninepin Bowling Association WNBA Wannabe Nasty Boys Association WNBA Women's National Book Association, Inc. WNBA Warszawski Nurt Basketu Amatorskiego titles. Taurasi joined her national teammates just one week after leading Connecticut to its second consecutive NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association title last March. Much like the men, the women's dominance is no longer a certainty in the Olympics. The U.S. is favored to win its third consecutive gold medal, but fierce competition will come from Russia, which played the U.S. tough in the 1998 and 2002 FIBA FIBA Fédération Internationale de Basketball (International Basketball Federation) FIBA Florida International Bankers Association FIBA Fédération Internationale de Boxe Amateur FIBA Financial Institution Benefit Association, Inc. World Championship gold-medal games and won the 2003 European Championship. Australia, which won the silver medal in the 2000 Games and the bronze in 1996, has talent, depth and a star in 2003 WNBA MVP (Multimedia Video Processor) A high-speed DSP chip from Texas Instruments, introduced in 1994. Officially introduced as the TMS320C80, it combines RISC technology with the functionality of four DSPs on one chip. Lauren Jackson. ``All the teams in Athens will be challenging,'' Griffith said. ``I can't pinpoint just one or two teams because everybody's going to be coming after us because we won the gold in '96 and 2000. We need to come out and not be too cocky, but go out and play as a team. Vincent Bonsignore, (818) 713-3612 vincent.bonsignore(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): box Box: WOMEN'S BASKETBALL |
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