September 1, 2009 Dear Lady Tiger Fans: It’s such an exciting time on our LSU campus. Our team has returned and school has started. The LSU campus is so special this time of the year with all the activity. Soccer and Volleyball are underway and Football is right around the corner. It’s been an active month for your Lady Tigers also. With the start of class comes conditioning (at 6 AM), strength training and 4 Player Workouts. Along with a full slate of classes and study hall it is a busy day for the team. What has impressed me so far is how they have gone about it all — with an enthusiastic attitude. You know, starting a game right really helps towards victory. So start-ing the school year off right will take a step in the right direction for a great season. As always, thanks for your support! Van

““People create success in their lives by focusing on today. It may sound trite, but today is the only time you have.

It’s too late for yesterday. And you can’t depend on tomorrow. That’s why today matters!”

-John Maxwell-

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LSU Lady Tigers

We want to be an organization dedicated entirely to supporting and promoting women’s basketball at Louisiana State University; giving the program its deserved recognition while working within a team framework to help the Lady Tigers grow to an even

higher level as women, students, and athletes. MIS

SION

STA

TEM

ENT

For more information on

becoming a member of one of

the fastest growing organizations in

Baton Rouge, call the women’s

basketball office at (225) 578-6643.

about inspiring children of the Ba-ton Rouge area to go to school while also looking to expand the ideas of the Lady Tigers’ annual “bookmark” honoring education game that brings in elementary and middle school students to the Maravich Center. “We want our players to get in-volved with the schools of East Ba-ton Rouge parish to motivate stu-dents about getting an education,” Chancellor said. “It was a privilege to meet with all of the principals yesterday and their reception to our program was outstanding. It was wonderful to visit with them and hear their insights. “I spoke to the principals about how important it is to make the dif-ference in the lives of a kid, one in-dividual at a time. As I look at what an education did for me, I would

CHANCELLOR SPEAKS TO EBR PRINCIPALS BATON ROUGE -- LSU women’s basketball head coach Van Chan-cellor addressed principals of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System about the values of educa-tion as the LSU Lady Tiger pro-gram began planning for a season-long initiative that will involve a col-laboration of the importance of get-ting an education and the game of basketball. Chancellor spoke to the group

want children to understand that regardless of your background, the one equalizer is an education. With that you have an opportunity to go out and better yourself and improve your life. We always put an empha-sis on athletics but athletics isn’t near as important as education and school is.” Chancellor’s talk to the principals was just an introductory phase to an “education appreciation initiative” that the Lady Tiger Basketball Pro-gram is undertaking this season. Each Lady Tiger will be adopted by an elementary school and spend time there each month working with students. Selected students will be involved with the Lady Tiger pro-gram in various ways and the pro-gram will conclude with a special “education appreciation” event at a Lady Tiger game.

Blogging has become all the craze in the coaching community. We spoke of Coach Starkey’s: http://hoopthoughts.blogspot.com last month. In fact, Coach Starkey has added a feature “The Lady Tiger Way,” where he periodically talks about what is going inside the Lady Tiger program — usually complete with photos. Last week Coach Starkey blogged about weights and the first player workout (with photos) and actually posted the workout the players utilized on that day — a great insiders look. Also, Lady Tiger alumnus Latasha Dorsey, an assistant coach at Western Kentucky, has started her own blog with great inside into coaching. To read Coach Dorsey’s blog, go to: http://coachdorsey.blogspot.com

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BILL LAIMBEER HEADED TO NBA’S TIMBERWOLVES AS AN ASSISTANT DETROIT - Former WNBA Coach Bill Laimbeer is heading back to the NBA. The former Detroit Pistons center, who coached the WNBA's Detroit Shock to three titles, will join Kurt Ram-bis' staff with the Minnesota Timber-wolves, a league source confirmed to ESPN. Former Kings coach Reggie Theus also will join Rambis' staff. Laimbeer's hiring was first reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Laim-beer, who has never coached in the NBA, resigned as the Shock's coach and general manager in June. Playing with the Pistons' "Bad Boys" teams in the late '80s, Laimbeer helped Detroit win back-to-back titles.

SEATTLES JACKSON OUT WITH STRESS FRACTURE SEATTLE - The Seattle Storm today announced that Lauren Jackson is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in her back. Jackson underwent diagnostic tests that revealed a stress fracture in her back. A timetable for her return has yet to be determined. “Lauren has been playing with back pain for a couple of weeks,” said Storm Head Coach and Director of Player Personnel Brian Agler. “She will rest and work with our team physicians and trainers to rehabilitate her back. We are focused on preparing for the playoffs.” In her eighth WNBA season, Jack-son played and started in 26 games for the Storm, leading the team with 19.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. She is the daughter of LSU All-American Marie Jackson.

POSTELL DISMISSED FOR UK BASKETBALL TEAM LEXINGTON - Former Woodlands star Porsha Postell was dismissed from the University of Kentucky women’s bas-ketball team this week after violating team rules. According to her uncle James Rob-inson, who helped Postell in her recruit-ing process, The Journal News' West-chester/Putnam player of the year re-turned home to Greenburgh on Tues-day and will not attend Kentucky this season. "Woodlands High School and the University of Kentucky did everything possible to make Porsha's college ca-reer successful," Robinson said. "She just wasn't prepared for that experi-ence. She's going to move on to the next step." OKLAHOMA SELF-REPORTS NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma has re-ported a handful NCAA rules violations, mostly dealing with what the university describes as inadvertent phone calls or text messages by various coaches. The documents indicate assistant women's basketball coach Stacy Hans-meyer made impermissible calls to one prospect each, while head women's basketball coach Sherri Coale inadver-tently sent a prospect a text message.

LSU joined with the 11 other Southeastern Conference institutions today in the launch of the SEC Academic Network, a website (www.secacademicnetwork.com) designed to promote academic endeavors of SEC universities using ESPN360.com technology. “The SEC, through its relationship with ESPN, has provided LSU and its sis-ter institutions with a powerful vehicle for telling the great stories of our universi-ties,” said Dr. Michael Martin, LSU chancellor. “This new endeavor opens expo-sure opportunities for us that can reach parents and alumni across the nation and throughout the world.” “The SEC Academic Network offers each of our member institutions the op-portunity to gain exposure for academic programs through a partnership that has grown out of a traditionally athletics-related endeavor,” said LSU director of athletics Joe Alleva. “We are excited that the Academic Network will give us an opportunity to grow the LSU brand in a new and dynamic manner.”

Jackson’s mother played at LSU.

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Favorite food: Homemade Seafood Pasta Favorite desert: Key Lime Pie Favorite class: Animal Science Favorite NBA player: Steve Nash All-time favorite Lady Tiger basketball player: Allison Hightower Two non-basketball talents: I can write with both hands...I can draw and paint. What are you majoring in and why: Veterinary Science. I love animals and want to help them.. Name the Lady Tiger that would be the best President of the USA: Nicci (Andrea Kelly) - smart and negotiable with a strong foundation. Name 3 things that made LSU special/different during your recruitment: 1. Academics (strong Vet school) 2. Legacy (of past teams) 3. Team Chemistry

SEIMONE HARD AT WORK — IN THE TRAINING ROOM While we all know that Seimone is playing in the WNBA for Minnesota and that she suffered an ACL injury early in the season. We thought we would led you know where she is now — in the rehab process. Five days a week for 90 min-utes she grimaces, sweats and stays focused on the one thing that drives her through the rehabilitation process: returning to the game with a vengeance. In a Minnesota newspaper last week she stated: “Yes, today was very hard. (Physical therapist Kristi Meyer) added some hard things for me to do, some more bending-type things. Every day I have been gaining some strength and flexibility, which hasn't happened in a little while.” When asked if she had thoughts of giving up she replied: No way. You never give up, but there have been days where I have felt really weak, like you can't do what you used to do. (She begins crying.) It is tough when you are used to doing things at a high level, and you just can't. I am a competitive person, and it is such a mentally challenging thing because I want to get back to that high level of com-peting.”