All five starters return, including senior center Adrianne Slaughter, conference defensive player of the year, and junior center Jennifer Henry, who combined with Slaughter to block 107 shots.
The 34-year-old center is a former defensive player of the year, a gifted passer, a decent three-point shooter and a savvy director of traffic.
A 'Make It Happen' Guy Brown is coach of the year, Iverson is player of the year, center Dikembe Mutombo is defensive player of the year and the swingman Aaron McKie is sixth man of the year.
Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, the best defensive player in the National Basketball Association the last two years, is suffering from a serious kidney disease and will miss the entire season receiving treatment, he and his doctors announced at a news conference in Miami yesterday.
Even before news broke that Fab Melo, Syracuse's star center and Big East Defensive Player of the Year, was ruled ineligible to play in the NCAA tournament, very few national experts were giving the Syracuse Orange any chance to win the national championship or even make it out of their bracket.
Detroit's defense is led by the All-Star center Ben Wallace, a two-time defensive player of the year, and by forwards Cliff Robinson and Corliss Williamson.
MARC GASOL IS TOP DEFENDER Grizzlies center Marc Gasol won his first N.B.A. defensive player of the year award after anchoring the league's stingiest defense.
There have been a number of articles written in regards to Los Angeles center DeAndre Jordan's stake in the defensive player of the year race.
Although the Scarlet Knights will lose center Hamday Ndiaye, the conference's defensive player of the year, their leading scorer, Mike Rosario, and Dane Miller, a unanimous pick for the conference all-rookie team, are due back.
It is most unlikely the Sixers would want to re-sign MacCulloch, a restricted free agent who was their second-round draft pick of 1999 and their backup center, after having already spent $70 million on a four-year deal to re-sign the starting center, Dikembe Mutombo, the four-time defensive player of the year.
"Adam fit our club perfectly — left-handed bat, balanced our line-up, high-energy guy, edge to him, plays the game the right way, good hitter, good defensive player both in center field and outstanding in the corner," Rizzo said.
