She's Got Game
Candace Parker's got game. It's an all-around game that dominates women's college basketball.
She's 6'4" tall, and so gifted, she can play any position on the floor. She's also the main reason Tennessee's Lady Vols hope to repeat as national champs.
"Candace Parker is the best I've coached," said Pat Summit, Tennessee's womens basketball coach. "And the best I've seen."
Of all time?
"Of all time," she said.
Parker's electric. She plays above the rim.
She dunks. Seven times in her career, by far the women's NCAA record.
"She looks like a guy out there playing," said Jordan Howell, a University of Tennessee guard. "And I've always thought she plays like a guy."
In high school, she out-dunked the guys in one national competition … and out-played them in pick-up games.
"I always ended up coming there first time, and they wouldn't pick me first. They'd pick me last," Parker said. "And by the next time they'd pick me first."
And then there's the dunk heard 'round the arena - by the Tennessee mens team. In a pick-up game, one of their players was guarding Parker, and she dunked on him.
Once again, the girl had showed up the boys.
Who got dunked on, Strassmann asked.
"I wasn't there," said team member Chris Lofton. "It wasn't me."
That's all they would say.
"I would have fouled her. Or something. No," Lofton said.
But everyone now knows this woman can play.
Strassmann said to Parker: "My guess is that at pickup games you don't get picked last any more."
"No, I don't get picked last," she laughed.
Next month Parker's likely to get picked first again...in the WNBA draft.
