We Can Now Forget About Women's Basketball For Several Months

There are going to be some angry PR people in sports media land. The Storm have one big off-season story, who they will draft. That draft is today. But the Huskies completely stole their thunder by announcing picking their new women's coach. Weird...anyway, here's the scoop, courtesy of the Times.

Story 1: The Huskies' new coach is Tia Jackson (at right), formerly an assistant at Duke.

Jackson, a 1995 graduate of Iowa where she played for coach C. Vivian Stringer, has been an assistant at Duke for the past two seasons working for Gail Goestenkors. Goestenkors was named the coach at Texas earlier Tuesday.

Jackson, who turns 35 on April 21, spent five years as an assistant at UCLA and one at Stanford in becoming labeled as "one of the top recruiters in the nation,'' according to the Duke media guide. Jackson is not considered a top candidate to replace Goestenkors, according to Durham-area media reports.

The Huskies' former coach, June Daugherty, was fired after the season because attendance wen t in the tank. Perhaps announcing the hiring on the same day as the Storm pick is part of UW AD Todd Turner's plan to make the Husky women the pre-eminent women's team in the city again. Mind you, no announcement came today, just "insiders" saying that Jackson's been chosen.

Story 2: The Storm drafted Katie Gearlds, from Purdue.

Gearlds, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, averaged 19.1 points and shot 39 percent from three-point range this season for the Boilermakers.

Gearlds was chosen with the Storm's first-round pick, the seventh overall. The Storm also has the 33rd overall pick, in the third round.

Gearlds had 31 points in Purdue's 88-64 win over Washington earlier this season.