Alana Beard has been picking up all sorts of awards lately. First
there's the Senior CLASS award, given to the top male and female
seniors. Alana also was awarded the AP Player of the Year award. Best of all, Alana received
the Wade Trophy, the most prestigious award in women's college
basketball. Alana was also named to the Kodak All-America team for the
third straight year, an unprecedented feat for a Duke player. The Kodak
team is the oldest and most prestigious A-A team. Alana was also named a
first team USBWA All-America in addition to being the USBWA player of the
year. Here are the somewhat somber photos of the event. ESPN has a nice column on Alana's legacy, but I have never quite bought the
Dawkins-Beard comparison. Why? Because Duke under Coach G had already
established themselves as a national power before Beard got here--they
went to the national title game and had a Kodak All-America in Michele Van
Gorp. That's what probably attracted Alana to Duke--the chance to take a
good program to the next level, not the chance to completely rebuild a
program the way Dawkins did. A better Dawkins comparison for the women's
program would be Kira Orr, and a better Beard comparison might be Danny
Ferry. Still, what is true is that Alana brought Duke to unbelievable
new heights, put a lot of laundry in the rafters, and attracted thousands
of new fans and future recruits.
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