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Before we ring in 2002, let's take one last look back at the storylines and highlights of 2001:
 Telling sign of the year: Oh, for heaven's sake. Like it wasn't enough for Note Dame to be trying to gain the No. 1 ranking by beating Connecticut for the first time. Like it wasn't enough the Irish had a sold-out house. On top of all that, Kelley Siemon had a broken hand and Ruth Riley a twisted ankle. We should have figured this was the year of the Irish when they still won big Jan. 15.
Stiles all her own: March was memorable for many reasons. On March 1, Jackie Stiles became the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader. Stiles, of Southwest Missouri State, capped her career as a four-year starter with 3,393 points. The previous record was 3,122 points by Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State (1985-89). On March 8, Stiles became the NCAA career scoring leader for all divisions. Stiles led the Lady Bears to the Final Four before a loss to Purdue in the national semifinals. As Nancy Lieberman said, "Every point she scored was a memorable moment."
 When good girls go bad: Wichita State coach Darryl Smith seemed a bit ticked when he was getting nothing but Jackie Stiles questions after his team's home loss to Southwest Missouri in late February. So when she broke the NCAA scoring record in her next game and SMS had 10,000 autographed pictures of her to give to fans, Jackie was asked by a mischievous reporter if she was going to send one to Coach Smith. Jackie is relentlessly nice, but even she couldn't resist. "I think my brother's going to leave one on his windshield," she said.
Feel good moment of the year: Stiles wasn't the only one honored on the night she broke the record. Megabucks SMS donor John Q. Hammons flew in Hoskins and her son, Daryl, from Mississippi to take part in the celebration. "I'll never forget this night," said Hoskins, who got the day's second-biggest ovation.
 If that's what you do to your friends, what the heck do you do to your enemies?: How can you call someone your best friend one day, then throw down a two-handed jam in her face the next? We don't know, but that's exactly what Michelle Snow did. With seven seconds left in Tennessee's 70-64 win over Vanderbilt and Snow's buddy Chantelle Anderson on Jan. 23, 2001, Snow became just the second women's player in NCAA history to dunk twice in a season.
The "Payback's a Bitch" award: Tennessee won its first two matchups with Vanderbilt last season, but the Commodores got the last word, upsetting then No. 1-ranked Tennessee 77-74 in the SEC tournament semifinals. While the Commodores ended a 14-game losing streak to Tennessee, they also handed the Lady Vols their first SEC tournament loss in 11 games.
|  | | Kelly Miller, left, and Coco Miller have moved on to the WNBA. |
First-team All-Kleenex: We love them. They're great competitors. But we lost count. In four years at Georgia, how many times did we see either Coco and/or Kelly Miller get misty-eyed? We know it had to happen in 2001 … at least once.
The "Foster Care" award: For the second straight year, one of Jim Foster's former assistants won the NCAA title. And after Geno Auriemma and UConn won it in 2000, and Muffet McGraw and Notre Dame took it in 2001, the Vanderbilt coach deserves some sort of consolation prize.
Quote of the year: There was an avalanche of injury weirdness at Texas. Including Asha Hill's broken jaw. At one point, when asked for an update on Hill, coach Jody Conradt said, "I figure until she can eat, they're not going to let her play basketball."
The "From Russia With Love" award: Remember when Russia was the "evil empire" and Afghans were the "freedom fighters?" Or that hilarious "joke" Reagan made about signing legislation to outlaw Russia? Wouldn't all the old Cold Warriors have just about croaked to watch the unbridled affection Connecticut fans poured on their favorite Russian, Svetlana Abrosimova, and her parents when she came out for senior night on crutches? Just for fun, how about if the Huskies have a promotion this season called
hug-a-former-East-German night?
Duck debacle: Actually, Oregon's seniors had their own version of that during senior night last season. Relations between many of the Ducks and coach Jody Runge seemed to have deteriorated to the point where "display hugs" were made mandatory. When the season was over the Berlin Wall, er, Runge's regime, fell.
A little too Sooner: Stanford found itself back in Oklahoma for the NCAA Tournament after a not-very-pleasant visit there in December. Let's just say the only thing most Stanford and Oklahoma fans might have in common is that cardinal/crimson color of their sweat shirts.
The road less traveled: At the Final Four, there was plenty of Indiana talk with two Hoosier State teams in the championship game. Teammate Niele Ivey and coach Muffet McGraw had some interesting comments when they visited Ruth Riley's hometown of Macy, Ind.:
Niele Ivey: "Scary? Yeah. It was way back in the cornfields."
Muffet McGraw: "We were driving and thought we were lost in the middle of nowhere. And then finally the house appeared."
Riley's own assessment of Macy: "It has a post office. And that's about it."
The "Samsonite" award: First, Nicole Kaczmarski left her New York home and headed west to Los Angeles to become a Bruin -- for one season. Then she decided to transfer to Georgia. Before she even suited up for the Lady Bulldogs, however, Kaczmarski packed up again and returned home. Her career stats? A Pac-10 All-Freshman Team selection, an 11.7 scoring average, and 29 games and two teams in three years.
ESPN analyst Nancy Lieberman, ESPN.com columnist Mechelle Voepel and ESPN.com women's basketball editor Melanie Jackson contributed to this report. Click here to e-mail the Dish with any story ideas, suggestions or feedback.
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