The Rochester paper profiles Olympia Scott-Richardson, who plays for the Sting and coaches at William Smith College. Which brings to mind another serious issue which may well cause some controversy over the coming months.

In addition to the proposals regarding club basketball that I described earlier this week, the WBCA's Committee on Recruiting and Access has also proposed to:

Prohibit a women's basketball coach from being employed... in any capacity by any professional women's basketball league team...; further, prohibit a women's basketball coach from serving as announcer or commentator for any women's professional basketball league broadcast.

The rationale given for proposal 2004-130 is that coaches who also work in the WNBA gain a "significant recruiting advantage over those coaches who do not have the same opportunity."

The rationale refers to WNBA "general managers." It refers, in other words, to Pat Summitt. But the rule as written would seem to apply to WNBA players as well -- people like Katie Smith, Dawn Staley, and Scott-Richardson who coach college in the offseason.

If this recommendation is passed by the NCAA, the implications would be huge for those people. Coach Summitt would have to give up her consulting gig with the Mystics. All of these players would have to decide whether to quit their coaching job or retire from playing pro ball.

I am not sure what to think of this one. I understand the WBCA's rationale. The dual-role situations create some appearance of unfair advantage. Dawn Staley probably didn't help matters when she said that Fatima Maddox would "increase her chances" of playing in the W by going to Temple because of Dawn's pro "connections."

On the other hand, pro players' salaries are low enough that, at some point, they need to have other careers. Preventing them from getting started with that while they're still playing seems harsh.

UPDATE: as Steve notes, the proposal actually wouldn't affect Katie Smith, who is an unpaid student assistant at OSU.