You can watch Rachel Banham play against Maryland Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

Rachel Banham is the University of Minnesota super senior who has been raining three-pointers down on her opponents from way beyond the arc all season long. She’s been averaging 27.5 points a game this season, but didn’t really catch the women’s basketball world’s attention until her 60-point performance in double overtime keyed Minnesota’s 112-106 win over Northwestern Feb. 7. She followed that up with a 52-point game (in a losing effort) against Michigan State a few days later. This week, her 35 points helped the Gophers upset no. 5 Ohio State in overtime, though she fouled out before the overtime.

Following up those performances, WNBA star Elena Delle Donna praised Banham for her shooting prowess, (she shoots more than 40 percent from the three-point arc) especially given the fact that she’s not even 6-feet tall.
“I’ve relied on my height many times; when in doubt, I could often elevate and shoot over people,” Delle Donne told ESPN’s Mechell Voepel. “So Rachel has to have a different craftiness to her game to get through double- and triple-teams. That’s what’s really impressive about her.”

Kobe Bryant also weighed in on Banham’s game after she tweeted him on a lark, asking what he thought of her 60-point night. In his congratulatory tweet, he predicted she’d score 60 again. When asked by reporters the next day about his Twitter exchange with Banham, he praised her ability to create her own shot despite defenses keying in on her.

The sad thing is that, as exciting as she is, Banham won’t be able to showcase her game during the NCAA tournament, simply because Minnesota isn’t likely to make the tournament. The Gophers’ RPI ranking, which the NCAA uses to determine which “at-large” teams make it into the round of 64, puts Minnesota at #70 (though their win over the Buckeyes will move them up a few places, and a win against Maryland Sunday would as well). The RPI is calculated based on wins and losses at home and on the road, as well as the strength of a team’s and its opponents’ schedules. The only way Minnesota could assure itself a spot in the tournament is by winning its conference. (That’s why a team like Montana State will get its ticket punched, even though its RPI is 163). But Minnesota is fourth in the Big 10, behind Maryland, Michigan State and Ohio State, so the Gophers appear to be running out of time to earn an automatic bid.

Whether the Gophers make it to the big dance or not, Banham’s accomplishments will likely get a bigger showcase in the WNBA. Because of her recent success, (not to mention the shout-outs from Delle Donna and  Bryant), her stock is rising in the WNBA draft, which takes place on April 14 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.  One mock draft prognosticator has moved her up to number 3, behind UConn’s Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson, and right in front of UConn’s Morgan Tuck. The WNBA’s Connecticut Sun have the third and the fourth picks, and the Sun could certainly use a scorer.

Will Banham make an impact in the WNBA? Or will she be a marginal success like other collegiate super shooters such as Jackie Stiles and Cindy Blodgett? To be fair, Stiles, who scored more than 3,000 points for Missouri State University, was actually the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2002, but her career was cut short by injury. Blodgett, a UMaine grad, was drafted #6 in 1996, but she had difficulty mixing it up against bigger, taller guards during her four seasons in the WNBA.

Banham is only 5-9, but she may be more of a complete player than most traditional scoring machines. During her junior year, which was cut short by an ACL tear, WNBA scouts were citing her “combo guard skills,” her leadership ability and her assists to turnover stats as evidence that she is far from a one-dimensional player. Bonham did not play last year as she recovered from her ACL tear, but she has come back stronger than ever.

So for now, we’ll have to settle for YouTube highlights and a few appearances on ESPN2 between now and the end of the regular season. But it will be fun to see Banham test her mettle in the WNBA beginning next May.

When Allen Lessels was my sports editor at the Portland Press Herald many years ago, he was always challenging me to do stories outside my comfort zone. If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have called the Boston Celtics up in 1982 and asked for an interview with Red Auerbach. I certainly wouldn’t have been as persistent about getting Joan Benoit Samuelson to talk to me a week before she left for the Olympic Trials in 1984.

So when Allen emailed me and said, “you’d better bring your sneakers to the UNH Women’s Alumni Day,” I only hesitated for a few minutes before I found myself typing a reply that said:  “OK, I’ll play.”

Allen, who covers UNH sports these days, had heard that I’d declined the invitation to play when assistant UNH coach Kelsey Hogan invited people via email a few weeks earlier. I told Kelsey I’d be there for lunch and would attend the UNH women’s game that afternoon, but that I couldn’t play in the alumnae game that morning. Although I play 3-3 half court basketball twice a week, the last time I ventured south to connect with other basketball alumnae was probably 8-10 years ago. I hadn’t run full court, except for an occasional layup drill with my high school freshmen, for several years. I had visions of me gasping for air after two times down the court. The thought of going up against women who’d graduated from college only 2-3 years ago also seemed a little silly, if not downright dangerous.

Tip off at the Alumni Day game. It was great to be on the floor of Lundholm Gynmasium again!

Tip off at the Alumni Day game. It was great to be on the floor of Lundholm Gynmasium again!

I ended up more than happy that I played. I connected with some older alumnae from the early ’80s (whom I’d gotten to know the year I taught at UNH). And I guess you could say I held my own in the game (though I was grateful for my help-side defenders on more than one occasion).

The highlight of the day, though, was meeting a woman who played ball at UNH in 1949 (no, she didn’t play in the alumnae game). Phyllis Martin, from Newport, NH, majored in physical education and until a couple of years ago was still skiing down Mt. Sunapee near her hometown. She still rides her bike every day and remembers clearly the games she played at New Hampshire Hall way back when.

According to Kelsey Hogan, this year’s Alumni Day garnered the largest turnout ever (more than 30 women came for some or all of the day). That Phyllis and I were two of them is a testament to the bond that playing basketball creates among women of all ages. It’s a bond that keeps us coming back, even if we need a little  push out of our comfort zones.

Junior Sophie Brunner

While UConn continues to beat up on East Coast teams, the PAC-12 is proving to be the place where women’s college basketball games are routinely fun to watch.  Case in point was Sunday night’s battle between Arizona State and Stanford. The Sun Devils, ranked 9th overall, won the game in overtime, 63-61, on a buzzer beater by junior Sophie Brunner.

The Sun Devils hung on in the fourth quarter as they saw a 17-point lead evaporate. Their survival is a testament to their toughness inside. With Brunner, the ESPN player of the week in mid-January, anchoring the defense, Arizona State outrebounded Stanford 47-30.

But Stanford is anchored by a great junior class, which seems to be coming of age before our eyes. When the fourth quarter began, the Cardinal was losing by a healthy margin, 49-36. It looked like a repeat of Stanford’s 49-31 loss to Arizona State in early January.

Juniors Erica McCall, Briana Roberson, and Karli Samuelson  apparently missed that memo. McCall is the little sister of Phoenix Mercury starter Dewanna Bonner, and she was heavily recruited by UConn as a high school senior. She scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half and rejected four shots to help Stanford get back into it.  Roberson hit back to back threes late in the fourth quarter when Stanford went on a 13-2 run. The Cardinal got its first lead of the game, 55-54, and closed out regulation with a 3-pointer by Samuelson, who had another one in overtime and four overall.

The overtime went back and forth, where Stanford was hurt by two missed free throws. It came down to the final seconds, and the 6-1 Brunner, who played a lot of center last year, planted herself squarely in the middle of the key, asking for the ball. Somehow, senior point guard Elisha Davis bounced a pass between defenders. Brunner scooped it up, turned, and shot a fade-away jumper as time expired for the win.

“That’s her money shot,” said AZ coach Charlie Turner-Thorne.

“I don’t know how (Elisha) made that pass,” said Brunner after the game. “Kudos to her.”

The win helped Arizona State keep pace with Oregon State, ranked #8, atop the PAC-12 standings. Stanford has four losses in the PAC-12 and likely has no shot at a conference title. But the Cardinal is ranked #13 overall and their comeback proved they are still a team to be reckoned with … and a PAC-12 team that is still a lot of fun to watch.