Athletes - Michelle Marciniak

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	Athletes - Michelle Marciniak

Michelle Marciniak (born October 29, 1973 in Macungie, Pennsylvania) is a former collegiate and professional basketball player, playing point guard in the WNBA. She is now an assistant coach of the women's basketball team at the University of South Carolina.

High School and college years

Marciniak was one of the top players of her high school era, being named by Parade Magazine as the 1991 National High School Player of the Year as a senior at Central Catholic High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She scored 3,025 points in high school, where her No. 23 jersey is retired.

After a year at Notre Dame, Marciniak became a leader of the dominant University of Tennessee Lady Vols women's basketball team under head coach Pat Summitt. She scored over 1,000 points and still is in Tennessee's top ten all-time in assists and three-pointers.

With Marciniak at the point, the Lady Vols won consecutive Southern Conference championships in 1995 and 1996. In the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Tennessee came in second to the Connecticut Huskies in 1995, then won it all in 1996. Marciniak was chosen the Final Four's Most Valuable Player. She graduated in 1996 with a degree in psychology.

Professional career

After three seasons in the American Basketball League, Marciniak was signed by the WNBA's expansion Portland Fire in 2000. She did not fare as well as she did in college, and was cut after one season. She signed with the Seattle Storm eight days later, endearing herself to Seattle fans before she even took a shot due to widely reported stories that she spent the intervening week living in her car.

More significant was her extremely hard-nosed play on the court, as a nationally televised throwdown with Los Angeles Sparks player Latasha Byears earned Marciniak a reputation as the Storm player that opponents least wished to foul. Byears intentionally threw a ball at Marciniak's face, and Marciniak charged the much larger and stronger Byears.

With the starting point guard position squarely in Sue Bird's hands, Marciniak retired after the Storm's 2002 season to become an assistant coach for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. She is also an occasional color analyst for WNBA and NCAA basketball games on ESPN Radio and other outlets.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Michelle Marciniak ]

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