Free Throw & News
Interested in writing first-hand articles about Lady
Vol Basketball games you attended? Maybe you had a
unique experience during a game and would like to share
it with others? If so and you would like to have your
article published on MyLadyVols.com, contact us and
include your name, date of the event and any information
you care to provide in your article regarding the event
or game.
We also welcome photos from the events which we will
include with your article or publish separately.
Former Lady Vol Candace Parker
wins WNBA MVP, rookie of the year
Oct. 3, 2008
SAN ANTONIO (AP) --
Candace Parker received the WNBA's most valuable
player award Friday, becoming the first player to win
the award along with the rookie of the year honors. The
Los Angeles star was
unanimously selected rookie of the year.
The awards capped a big run for
Parker, who was college player of the year last season
for national champion
Tennessee. Parker also was a
member of the gold-medal winning U.S. team in the Beijing Olympics.
Parker edged
Connecticut's Lindsay Whalen and
Seattle's Sue Bird in the MVP
race.
"You know, Coach (Michael) Cooper set
this goal for me early on, and I looked at him like he
was crazy," Parker said. "He's like, 'We're going to win
the rookie of the year, and you're going to win a
championship and you're going to win the MVP.' I just
looked at him like, 'That's what you expect of me
already?'"
Parker, the top overall draft pick
this year, averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds. She
had a high of 40 points and grabbed 10 or more rebounds
in 17 games. She led the league in double-doubles with
17, led the league in rebounding and led rookies in
scoring, blocks (2.3 bpg) and minutes (33.6 mpg).
In the playoffs,
Los Angeles beat Seattle in the Western Conference semifinals before losing
to San Antonio
in the conference finals.
The all-rookie
team, selected by league coaches, included Parker,
Minnesota's Candice Wiggins and
Nicky Anosike, Chicago's Sylvia
Fowles, Houston's Matee Ajavon and Connecticut's Amber
Holt. Ajavon and Holt tied for the fifth spot on the
team.
Newest Coach Daedra Charles-Furlow
Daedra Charles-Furlow
graduated with the
University of Tennessee's
class of 1991 with outstanding accomplishments as a
student-athlete. She led the Lady Vols basketball team
in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots in both 1990
and 1991 seasons. Even though the 6'3" center played
only three seasons after redshirting her freshman year,
she accomplished more than many players who had four
seasons of playing time.
In her time,
Charles-Furlow was the seventh-ranked career scorer with
1,495 points, was sixth in rebounding with 858 boards
and second in blocked shots with 97 rejects in her
college career. In 1991, Charles-Furlow was UT's nominee
for the Woody Hayes Award as the nation's most
outstanding Student-Athlete. She was a key contributor
to the 1988-1989 NCAA Championship team. She was the
first
Tennessee
or SEC player to receive the most prestigious award in
women's collegiate basketball in 1991, the Margaret Wade
Trophy.
Charles-Furlow was a KODAK
All-American in both 1990 and 1991. Also in 1991, she
was Southeastern Conference Woman Athlete of the Year
and a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association
and Basketball Weekly's All-America Teams. In 1991, she
was named to the All-Tournament teams at the NCAA Final
Four, Mideast Regional and SEC Championships. She was
awarded with the 1990-1991 NCAA Championship team's MVP,
Coaches' Award, and Best Rebounder. When she graduated
in August 1991, finishing in four years despite having
been admitted as an NCAA proposition 48 student, she had
a degree in child and family studies.
The Lady Vol standout was one of only
five to have her number (32) retired, along with Holly
Warlick, Bridgette Gordon, Chamique Holdsclaw, and
Tamika Catchings.
After college, Charles-Furlow played
basketball professionally overseas in Italy, Japan,
Turkey and France from
1991-1996. In her first season after leaving UT,
Charles-Furlow helped her Como,
Italy, team to the
Italian championship. Her second season of international
play brought another team championship, this time for
her Japanese squad. In her final international season,
she helped her Turkey
club to a league title before returning to the United States and was the eighth
overall pick of the Los Angeles Sparks in the 1997 WNBA
Elite Draft.
Chalres-Furlow was a member of the
1992 U.S. Olympic team that won a bronze
medal at the Barcelona Olympics, and a member of three
U.S. National teams: 1989, 1992, and 1994.
Charles-Furlow
began her coaching career where she attended high
school, St. Martin
dePorres
High School,
while she worked as a supervisor at Don Bosco Hall,
Inc., for abused, neglected and delinquent juvenile
males. From 2003 to 2006, Charles-Furlow was an
assistant coach at the
University
of Detroit Mercy.
While at UDM, she served as recruiting coordinator and
academic counselor for the Titans, in addition to her
coaching duties.
She spent the
last two seasons as an assistant under Nell Fortner with
Auburn
University's
women's basketball program. In 2007-08, Charles-Furlow
helped lead the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament
appearance since 2004. She helped develop DeWanna Bonner
into one of the most versatile players in the country,
as Bonner could play four different positions. In
2007-08, Bonner earned honorable mention All-American by
the WBCA and State Farm, as well as First Team All-SEC
and AP First Team All-SEC.
In 2001,
Charles-Furlow was one of nine inductees into the
inaugural class of the Tennessee Lady Vol Athletic Hall
of Fame. In June of 2007, she was among six inductees
into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
On May 7, 2008, Lady Vol Head Coach
Pat Summitt announced the hiring of Daedra Charles-Furlow
as an assistant coach to fill the position left open by
Nikki Caldwell.
Daedra Charles-Furlow is married to
Anthony P. Furlow and has an eight-year-old son,
Anthonee. In her free time, Charles-Furlow enjoys
spending time with her family and elderly people. She
continues to mentor young people and volunteer,
character traits she developed during her playing career
at Tennessee. She was also a
member of Alpha Kappa Alpha while a student-athlete at Tennessee.
DAEDRA CHARLES-FURLOW'S
PLAYING AND COACHING RÉSUMÉ
|
SCHOOL
|
YEARS
|
OVERALL RECORD
|
|
at
Tennessee
|
1988-89
|
35-2
|
|
(as a player)
|
1989-90
|
27-6
|
|
|
1990-91
|
30-5
|
|
at Detroit-Mercy
|
2003-04
|
15-14
|
|
(as an assistant)
|
2004-05
|
9-20
|
|
|
2005-06
|
11-17
|
|
at
Auburn
|
2006-07
|
21-13
|
|
(as an assistant)
|
2007-08
|
20-12
|
|
TOTALS
|
8 years
|
168-89 (.654)
|
|