Women's college basketball preview: Penn State, Delaware, and Rutgers at top among local teams

Three Division I teams with large followings in this area - Penn State, Rutgers, and Delaware - continue to be in the national conversation in women's basketball. Penn State is ranked eighth and Delaware 11th in the Associated Press preseason poll. Rutgers could rejoin the top 25 early in the season.

Delaware senior Elena Delle Donne, likely to be among the top three picks in the next WNBA draft, was the nation's leading scorer last season. Lyme disease put her on the sideline for much of her sophomore season, and she recently disclosed that it had returned. But Delle Donne said she was determined to fight through any bouts of fatigue or aches.

Delaware is expected to blitz the Colonial Athletic Association again and also is a host school for first- and second-round NCAA games in March.

Penn State is picked to repeat as Big Ten champion. The Lions are led by Narberth's Maggie Lucas, a junior three-point specialist, and Alex Bentley, the conference's preseason player of the year.

Rutgers, which continues to make the NCAA field, is a bit older and returns Chelsea Lee, who missed last season with a shoulder injury.

Highly recruited Betnijah Laney, a Delaware native, should increase her production as a sophomore. Her mother, Yolanda, was an all-American when Scarlet Knights coach C. Vivian Stringer was at Cheyney.

Nationally, Baylor is everyone's choice to repeat its NCAA title with five starters, including senior sensation Britney Griner, returning from its record 40-0 run.

But perennial contender Connecticut is expected to challenge with four starters back plus graduate student Caroline Doty, a Germantown Academy graduate. The Huskies also feature Breanna Stewart, the national high school player of the year out of Syracuse, N.Y.

Others in the elite group are the usual crowd of Duke and Maryland of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Stanford of the Pac-12, and Notre Dame, the top rival of Connecticut in the Big East.

This could be the last year for the Irish in the conference if the school is allowed an early exit to the ACC.

For the first time since 1973-74, Tennessee opens a season without Pat Summitt as its head coach. Holly Warlick takes over for Summitt, who stepped down in April after a diagnosis of early-onset dementia last year.

On the local scene, it might seem that St. Joseph's will be rebuilding this season. Four Hawks starters, including shooting aces Katie Kuester and Michelle Baker and five letter-winners, are gone.

But with Temple getting younger and the other four local city teams - La Salle, Penn, Villanova, and Drexel - making mild progress, this might be the season St. Joseph's finds itself at the top of the crowd.

In fact, given the challenges of a difficult schedule, if the Hawks succeed, the NCAA tournament drought that began in 2001 might finally end.