Women's basketball links: preseason NCAA Player of the Year candidates, UConn, and Black Girls Rock

The beginning of the women's basketball season is fast approaching and there are plenty of storylines to follow as everyone has high expectations.

The following are a few links covering the top NCAA teams as well as a few WNBA tidbits and random semi-related news.

• espnW takes a look at whether Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike is the choice for preseason Player of the Year. While said yes, Mechelle Voepel disagreed. Read more >>>

• The AP previewed Notre Dame's season and coach Muffet McGraw suggests that Kayla McBride should be considered a candidate for Player of the Year. Read more >>>

• Graham Hays of espnW profiled Notre Dame's Kayla McBride and offered a little insight into her offseason training regimen: "To ready herself for more minutes this season, McBride spent the offseason running mile upon mile to tone her body and improve her stamina. To prepare for handling the ball, she spent hours in the gym, both in Erie and South Bend, working on ball handling and playing against guys to deal with the bumps and bruises that even the new rules interpretations in college basketball are unlikely to eliminate." Read more >>>

• Steve Jones of the Courier-Journal writes that Louisville is expecting people to be coming after them this season after their underdog run to the 2013 NCAA Tournament's title game. Coach Jeff Walz is most excited about their depth and "ability to throw a lot of different combinations on the floor right now." Read more >>>

• Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gave his take on the nation's top ten teams and five players to watch, which included a player we haven't talked about much yet this season: Meighan Simmons. Thankfully, we have SB Nation's Rocky Top Talk to do the talking about Simmons in the network. Read more >>>

• Jim Fuller of the New Haven Register profiled the relationship between UConn seniors Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley, which dates back to their days in AAU ball. Fuller reports that both coach Geno Auriemma and point guard Bria Hartley describe Dolson as a player who is important to directing the team on defense. Read more >>>

• Roger Cleveland of the Republican American provides a video preview of UConn's season with images from last season's team. The video opens acknowledging and then shooting down the notion that UConn's dominance comes due to a lack of competitiveness in women's basketball. Read more >>>

• Darren Heitner of the Sports Agent Blog briefly summarizes Elena Delle Donne's signing with the Wasserman Media Group, which represents Brittney Griner, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird in the WNBA and Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook in the NBA among others. Read more >>>

• On Sunday night, BET hosted its annual Black Girls Rock awards show, during which Skylar Diggins co-presented award to Venus Williams. MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry had a great segment on her show on Sunday morning describing the significance of the show as well as the importance of black female representation in music. Watch the video >>>
  

  Also, #BlackGirlsRock is replaying tomorrow at 6pm CT on BET.

  — Make Her Way (@MakeHerWay) November 5, 2013

• Tim Keown of ESPN wrote about the larger meaning of the situation going on with Richie Incognito, Jonathan Martin, and the Miami Dolphins yesterday describing how the problem is not solely the behavior of Incognito but the leadership and (hypermasculine) culture of the NFL that breeds the behavior. SB Nation has a full storystream with updates on the situation, but the reason I brought it up here is because at least two women's basketball coaches tweeted about it yesterday. Perhaps not so coincidentally, they're also two coaches who have been involved - and shared a player involved - in advocating for inclusive locker rooms. Read more >>>

The more I read about Incognito, the more I appreciate the human beings in our locker room. The best teams respect one another.

— Lindsay Gottlieb (@CalCoachG) November 4, 2013

There is no excuse for racism, bigotry, bullying in any locker room!

— Lin Dunn (@coachlindunn) November 5, 2013

Obviously there are other links out there around the web, so feel free to drop them in the comments below or create fanshot to post them on the site. For any longer commentary you have on something to do with women's basketball, feel free to create a fanpost.