Lynne Roberts, the Golden State Valkyries, and Paige Bueckers are joining the WNBA in the same season.
That just sank in.
I mentioned Bueckers because everyone should be jazzed about that.
Much bigger to me are the Valkyries, who are a local story; and Coach. I’ve read people referring to Coach as an unknown. It tracks — Utah reached the round of 16 two years ago, when that wasn’t as big a deal as it was one year ago. There’s a generation of women’s basketball fans to whom Coach Roberts is an unknown.
Then there’s a large group who’ll say: We’ve been in Roberts’ corner for 10 whole years!
Then there’s me.
I’m going to pick up some new readers. Hello, new readers. I was covering West Coast Conference women’s basketball in ’06, and a very good San Diego team visited the University of the Pacific in December. It coincided with a kids’ chess tournament on the Pacific campus (at which my students played).
Perfect, I thought. I can work at the chess tournament, watch San Diego crush the locals, and never have to see Stockton, Calif., again.
Pacific played well vs. San Diego. I could sense a story percolating, with their first-year head coach, freshman point guard. I never left, because the story unfolded slowly.
I thought 2024-25 could’ve been the year a Roberts team achieved a level befitting the end of the story. I thought these Utes might be the best team Roberts ever built, better than the round-of-16 team with Alissa Pili (WNBA Minnesota’s first-round draft pick this year).
The Utes looked hesitant in the second half vs. Weber State in game 2, but won by 40, anyway. At Northwestern two weeks ago, the Utes let a 14-point lead get away, where the (perceived) lack of confidence manifested as 27% shooting in the 4th.
Didn’t talk to Coach after the loss at Northwestern, but I reckon I would’ve asked if she’d had a meaningful conversation with the team. Maybe, because Utah beat McNeese St. by 68.
Coach didn’t take calls for days, and emerged in the press with a new job. The funny thing is that because she didn’t answer the phone for two games, I determined to go to Salt Lake for the homestand that begins tonight vs. St. Joseph’s, and talk to her there.
My first question is whether she went for the Golden State job, but they opted for Nakase (or settled for Nakase after Roberts passed).
Nakase trivia: Where was her last professuonal game in the US? It was the 2006 NWBL championship game, when Nakase’s San Diego Siege lost to Becky Hammon’s Colorado Chill, in Fort Collins, Colo. I was the only sportswriter there.
I got the news about Roberts from my friend Rebecca, a Liberty writer from Queens. Rebecca sees the potential for my feeling awkward about it. My seat at Valkyries games is in the fourth row behind the visitors’ bench — will I be wearing the jacket of the Founding Guard (inaugural season ticket holders) and rooting for the Sparks?
My chess teaching colleague wondered if Roberts gave the team the news before the Northwestern game. (I didn’t think she knew yet, and the Northwestern accident was an extension of the Weber St. uncertainty).
I’ll continue writing Utah. This team could be outstanding. They play together, sharing the ball and the highlight clips.