Ex-Lady Rebels coach remembers former teammate Anne Donovan

Seattle Storm fans stand during a moment of silence honoring former team coach Anne Donovan before a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun Friday, June 15, 2018, in Seattle. Donovan died Wednesday, June 13, 2018, of heart failure. She was 56. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Former UNLV women's basketball coach Regina Miller. (File, Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Connecticut Sun head coach Anne Donovan watches play during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the New York Liberty, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015, in Uncasville, Conn. New York won 80-66. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2015, file photo, Connecticut Sun head coach Anne Donovan is shown during the second half of a WNBA basketball game in Uncasville, Conn. Donovan has stepped down as the head coach of The Connecticut Sun after three losing seasons. Donovan, who took over in 2013 after the Sun fired Mike Thibault, was a combined 38-64 at Connecticut and never made the playoffs. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

Seattle Storm fans applaud in front of a poster they brought to the game of former team coach Anne Donovan in the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun Friday, June 15, 2018, in Seattle. Donovan died Wednesday, June 13, 2018, of heart failure. She was 56. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

She was waiting for her Louie salad at King’s Fish House in Green Valley when Regina Miller said she never had her shot blocked by Anne Donovan in practice when they were teammates at Old Dominion.

This was a bit of a revelation, given Donovan stood 6 feet 8 inches tall and Miller, the longtime Las Vegas resident and former Lady Rebels coach, stood almost a foot shorter during the Lady Monarchs’ halcyon days.

“We were like the Connecticut of present day,” said Miller, a junior college transfer who averaged 9.8 and 13.1 points in her two ODU seasons and must have had a high-arcing jump shot.

Donovan and Miller stayed friends long after they were teammates, until Wednesday when Anne Donovan died of heart failure in North Carolina at age 56.

Donovan and Miller were coached by Marianne Stanley, now an assistant with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. Miller was watching the Mystics on TV when the announcers spoke of Donovan’s stunning death.

“Just a great person, a positive person — positive energy,” said Miller, who spent 23 seasons as head coach — six at Western Illinois, 10 at UNLV, seven at Illinois-Chicago — while Donovan had a Hall of Fame career as a player and coach.

“I was there when she won her first WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm in 2004,” Miller said.

Miller was a junior when Donovan was a senior and ODU hosted the second NCAA Tournament Final Four for women in Norfolk, Virginia. The fourth-ranked Lady Monarchs lost 71-55 to nemesis Louisiana Tech, which also was like present day UConn.

Regina Miller said she still can see Anne Donovan blocking shots, keeping the ball alive by tipping it to herself and starting the ODU fast break by outletting passes with pace and accuracy.

But more than that, “She was a beautiful soul gone way too soon,” Miller said.

Grin and bear it

The WNBA’s Aces are playing more like sixes and sevens during their Las Vegas baptism. But at least their media guy, John Maxwell, has a sense of humor.

Here is the preamble of the official Aces’ news release:

“Congratulations. If you are reading this, it means you have made the wise decision to attend and cover a Las Vegas Aces basketball game. Odds are you are a member of one of the most prestigious media outlets in the nation, and a talented print, radio or television personality. You also may have just wandered into the media room, accidentally, and picked this up.”

It helps to have a sense of humor when you’re 3-8 and in last place in the Western Conference.

Cup check

Now that it has been surgically detached from Alex Ovechkin’s hip, the Stanley Cup will return to Las Vegas for Wednesday’s NHL Awards show. It will be on display at the Hard Rock Hotel (along with the other hockey trophies) from noon to 2 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday.

In case one is wondering, when Ovi fell asleep with the Cup after drinking too much Stoli from it, Phil Pritchard from the Hockey Hall of Fame wasn’t sitting in a chair at his bedside to safeguard it.

“We dropped it off at Alex’s place around 12:30 a.m. and picked it up by 8 a.m.,” wrote the Keeper of the Cup in a text message.

0:03

— You might remember Manny Legace as a goalie of some renown for the Las Vegas Thunder of the old International Hockey League. You might not recall that his was one of the names misspelled on the Stanley Cup. Manny’s surname was spelled “Lagace” when he played for the Detroit Red Wings, but it since has been corrected by an engraver with a steady hand.

— Though I think it disingenuous to use photos of old American Basketball Association stalwarts such as Julius Erving, Artis Gilmore, Moses Malone, Rick Barry and Connie Hawkins to promote a loosely organized league of basketball vagabonds that is borrowing the letters, there’s an “expansion” team in the “new” ABA called the Henderson Hawks, who have a website. You can check it out here: hendersonhawks.com.

— The suspensions of Lights FC technical director — technical director being a title once held by Aces coach Bill Laimbeer when he was with the Pistons (121 career T’s) — Jose Luis Sanchez Sola is starting to get wearisome. But it still was pretty cool when he invited Lights fans to a downtown pub for free beers that he made team owner Brett Lashbrook pay for.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.