In a season when on-court performances were well below the standards in women’s basketball in Colorado, performances in the classroom deserved kudos.
Colorado and Colorado State produced academic All- Americans this season, and other players were recognized on other all-academic teams.
CU’s Jackie McFarland (3.97 grade-point average in accounting) and CSU’s Lindsay Thomas (3.99 in English and social work), both starters and major contributors, were named to the ESPN The Magazine All-America second team.
Ann Strother (3.33 psychology), a former Highlands Ranch star who is a senior starter for No. 7 UConn, was named to the magazine’s third team.
McFarland, the only sophomore named to ESPN’s All- America teams, was one of three Buffs named to the all-academic Big 12 first team, joining senior teammates Whitney Law and Tami Garnett.
At Northern Colorado, four players were named to the Division I independent all-academic team: juniors Heather Barbour and Bailey Dillon and seniors Melanie Drangmeister and Danielle Hagen, all business majors.
Footnotes
Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp didn’t get a lot of sympathy from Courtney Paris and ninth-ranked Oklahoma in the last home game of her legendary career Wednesday night, but she got some kind words from Sooners coach Sherri Coale before the game.
“From my eyes as a peer, she represents all that’s good about this game,” Coale said. “And when I think about Marsha, I think she does the right things.”
Like CU’s Ceal Barry, who retired last year, Sharp plans to retire from coaching but continue working in some capacity in the school’s athletic department.
Coale, by the way, counts herself among those who are less than enthused about the NCAA Tournament selections being moved from “Selection Sunday” to “Selection Monday,” with one additional, poetic reason: What really gripes her “is the absence of alliteration.”
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
