Hardy getting her shot in WNBA
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
With the WNBA season getting started this Saturday, things are getting tense for two-time CIAA Player of the Year, Allyson Hardy of Bowie State. The 5-6 dynamo guard from Germantown, Md. who finished her Bowie State career with a school-record 2,107 points, is making her bid in the preseason to make the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks' squad, one of the elite teams in the league. "I'm just trying to go hard," said Hardy by telephone Tuesday while heading to lunch before an afternoon practice session in Los Angeles. Final cuts will be made on Friday, May 20.
She is trying to break in with a Sparks squad that includes WNBA stars
Lisa Leslie, Mwadi Mabeka, Tamecka Dixon and Nikki Teasley and has
added former Washington Mystics star Chamique Holdsclaw, who came to
them via a trade in March. She is rooming with Holdsclaw during the preseason.
Hardy says because of their star-studded payroll, the Sparks may not keep as many players as other WNBA squads who usually have 11 active players and two on the inactive list.
"You just never know," Hardy said, while noting that the team had signed two additional players who would be joining the camp Tuesday. "The players really haven't talked about it. Whether I'm going to be here or not be here, I don't know. But I do know that it's a business."
Hardy was signed as a free agent following her the final year of an outstanding career at Bowie State. This season she averaged 22.8 points per game, second best in the conference and sixth best in NCAA Div. II basketball, while shooting 44% from the field and 86.4% from the free throw line.
She made a distinct impression on former Sparks' head coach Michael Cooper who was present when she tossed in 50 points in a CIAA Tournament first round game in 2004 . Cooper has since moved on to a position in the NBA with the Denver Nuggets. Henry Bibby is the Sparks' new coach.
Playing sparingly at both point guard and shooting guard, she has seen action in all three of the Sparks' preseason games averaging about five minutes per game. She has made two of five field goal attempts.
"They kind of look at me as a defensive specialist," said Hardy of the way the team is using her in the preseason. "They put me on players and say 'Allison, we need a stop.' They like me for my defense." She says she also gets to play other positions in practice, including power forward, because she knows all the plays.
"It's been great, exciting, stressful
and a lot of hard work," she said while
noting that because of her hectic schedule she's only seen one thing in LA despite
being there for a month. She said she's also meeting a lot of people and players
who make reference to her black college roots. 
"It's been really amazing because with all the players we have here, people come up to me and talk about their connection to Bowie State and black colleges."
In a touching show of support, players from the Johnson C. Smith women's basketball team and head coach Vanessa Taylor were in attendance Thursday at a preseason game in Charlotte vs. The Charlotte Sting. Her former foes held up signs reading 'JCSU Supports Allyson Hardy, Bowie State 2001-2005' and 'Go #3 Allyson Hardy'. Hardy played four minutes in the game, a 66-61 Sting victory.
After the game, Hardy came running out of the locker room elated to see those who came to support her.
Hardy is attempting to become the first black college player to make it in the WNBA since Howard center Andrea Gardner was drafted by the Utah Starzz in the 2002 WNBA draft and played that season for the Starzz. That team is now the San Antonio Silver Starzz. Gardner is currently playing overseas.
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.