This year's signing period is missing a couple of familiar faces

Usually, women's college basketball is like a Disney movie, starring Connecticut or Tennessee as Snow White and everyone else as a dwarf. Such has been the magnitude of the two programs' dominance in the sport. So imagine the unmitigated shock and awe that, coming down the recruiting homestretch, the Huskies and Lady Vols are nowhere to be found.

What in the name of Geno and Pat is going on? Nothing unexpected, actually. After two straight years of gorging on the country's top prospects, Connecticut and Tennessee have neither the scholarships nor the playing time to compete for a mythical national recruiting title.

Two streaks will therefore go bye-bye: two straight No. 1 signing classes for Pat Summitt, and three straight years signing ESPN HoopGurlz's No. 1 prospect for Geno Auriemma. With the NCAA's early signing period less than two weeks away, those previously rock-solid investments could give way to a real Bear market. FULL STORY

The National Prep Player of the Year Suddenly Ditches Basketball. Why?

NEWARK, Del. On a Wednesday afternoon in September, Elena Delle Donne is in the gym, surrounded by teammates in matching gray T-shirts. She is working hard, eyes focused on a ball that is flying around the court.

But this is not where the 6-foot-5 Delle Donne, once known as "the female LeBron James," expected to be. She is not at the University of Connecticut, trying to adapt the basketball skills she carefully honed over years of practice. She stunned the women's basketball community this year when she abruptly left summer classes after two days and again when she gave up her scholarship in late August. FULL STORY