Monday WNBA links: Maya Moore's MVP credentials, WNBA All-Star voting, and Katie Smith contemplating retirement

This past weekend featured nine WNBA games with a few surprising results.

However, having already discussed many of those elsewhere (in our "WNBA Scores" section and with the help of SB Nation's Bright Side of the Sun) we'll focus on some of the games we missed and throw in a random link that applies to how all basketball fans think about the game.

• The Chicago Sky found themselves down 16-2 early in their game against the Atlanta Dream yesterday and spent the game trying to dig themselves out of a hole. During that first quarter and most of the game, former Sky player Le'coe Willingham was guarding star rookie Elena Delle Donne and held her to 1-for-4 shooting. But the Dream's quickness as a unit to collapse on Delle Donne when she got into the paint was key to holding her to 36.8% for the game. Read more >>>
• Mike Brown of the Tulsa World recapped the Tulsa Shock's fourth overtime loss of the young season yesterday, this time to the Phoenix Mercury. Gary Kloppenburg's post-game quote sums up the Shock's season thus far: “I’m running out of speeches for overtime losses,” head coach Gary Kloppenburg said. “But I’d rather be in these where kind of games where you have a chance to win than losing by 10 or 12 points." Read more >>>
• Lynn Jacobsen writes that Maya Moore had an off night in the Minnesota Lynx's 83-74 win over the Tulsa Shock on Friday night, but teammate Rebekkah Brunson stepped up with a team-high 19 points to go with a game-high 13 rebounds. On a night when Tulsa only shot 38%, the Lynx simply overwhelmed them. Read more >>>
• It's early, but it's All-Star voting time. Voting began yesterday and the game itself is on July 27. Please think deeply about this and vote responsibly. Vote here >>>
• Rich Winter of the Panic Button blog laid out Maya Moore's MVP credentials, highlighting her impressive scoring efficiency numbers: "The numbers are just impossible to argue. Moore is shooting 46 percent from the field, 57 percent from distance, and is close to 90 percent accuracy from the charity stripe." Read more >>>
• Jim Fuller of the New Haven Register wrote about California Golden Bears alum Ashley Walker's long journey back to a WNBA roster. Since being drafted in 2009, Walker has played no more than 13 games in a season due to injuries and the roster limitations of the league. Having made the Connecticut Sun roster this season - and leading the team in offensive rebounding (16.88% offensive rebounding percentage, albeit in limited minutes) - Walker is just hoping to stick around for a bit longer than she has in the past. Read more >>>
• John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant looked at the early going of Connecticut Sun rookie Kelly Faris who has been forced to endure playing for a losing team thus far this season after four years of winning with the Connecticut Huskies. Howeverm compared to other rookies, Faris is getting her chances to contribute with the Sun nursing injuries. Read more >>>
• Jim Massie of the Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday that 39-year-old Katie Smith is "pretty sure" that this will be her last season, though she hasn't officially announced it. The article concludes by describing the impressive defensive work that Smith did on Atlanta Dream star Angel McCoughtry last week. Read more >>>
• Scott Walsh of the Courier Mail reported after the Indiana Fever visited the White House on Friday that Erin Phillips has now met Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, and now President Barack Obama. She says Obama tops the list. Read more >>>
• Michael Lee of the Washington Post caught up with Muthu Alagappan, who authored a paper for the 2012 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that redefined the standard taxonomy of positions in terms of style of play. The paper itself was interesting if you haven't read it previously, but it's worth noting that the idea that traditional "point guard" to "center" positions are antiquated has been around for a while - it's one of the first things that I found fascinating about the WNBA. What distinguishes this paper is the level of analytical rigor it brought to the discussion. Read more >>>

The new positions of basketball: Muthu Alagappan at TEDxSpokane

As usual, there are probably more links floating around the web that haven't been listed here. Feel free to drop them in the comments, create a fan shot, or write up a fan post if you have extended thoughts about something related to women's basketball.