NCAA Women / Final Four -- Starbird Nerd At Heart, Star On Court

CINCINNATI - When one first sees or meets Stanford All-America guard Kate Starbird, the reaction is pretty much universal. As in, no, it can't be.

Stanford point guard Jamila Wideman, for one, was shocked when she first met the gangly, rail-thin athlete at a high-school all-star game four years ago.

"She introduced herself and said, `Hi, I'm Kate Starbird,' " Wideman said. "I said, `No you're not.' She didn't look the part."

The unassuming, self-deprecating Starbird is used to it by now.

With a slight frame, old-fashioned knee pads, flopping ponytail and matchstick legs, she carries just 150 pounds on a 6-foot-2 frame. "The curse of genetics," she said.

But she can play. Starbird has averaged 21 points in propelling Stanford to its third straight Final Four.

Player-of-the-year honors keep rolling in. Last week, it was the Naismith Award. Last night, similar honors came from The Sporting News.

UCLA Coach Kathy Olivier saw a tape of her twisting reverse layup that gave her a school-record 44 points against USC last year and said, "It was scary. It was a Jordan-like move."

Starbird shakes off the praise with what has become an oft-quoted line: "I'm just a nerd."

A computer-science major with a 3.3 average, she indeed has a T-shirt that reads, "I'm a Nerd."

She is as proud of producing a computer pinball game as she is of her basketball accomplishments, which are expected to lead to a bidding war between the two pro leagues once the Final Four is over.

A native of Tacoma, she was a prep All-American at Lakes High School, and set the Washington state career scoring record with 2,753 points. But she never dreamed of what would follow.

"I really didn't think I would be a star," she said. "I was just hoping to get a Stanford education."

With a career shooting percentage of more than 50 percent and a three-point percentage near 40 percent, Starbird has become Stanford's all-time leading scorer (nearly 2,200 points and counting) and has become so famous that she cannot walk across campus without getting stopped several times.

No wonder she sometimes wears a T-shirt that says "Stanford swimming."

"My best disguise," she said.

Yet, she appears to be the most regular person one could meet.

She drives a cream-colored 1984 Chevrolet Camaro ("It never starts," teammate Vanessa Nygaard said) notable for its dusty dashboard and lack of a back seat.

Reporters have written countless stories trying to unlock the mystery of Starbird.

There is her goofy-looking jump shot, which is more of a shot put than a real shot. As a little girl she wasn't strong enough to shoot the ball 10 feet high, so she just heaved it toward the hoop. She has not changed her style, and coaches have not been foolish enough to tinker with it.

"I thought she would fit in with our system, because she's such a great open-court player, and we run a lot," Coach Tara VanDerveer said.

"I never saw her play in person, but I saw her on two videotapes," she said. "Based on that, we offered her a scholarship. I could see she knew how to get the ball in the basket, and that's something that you can't teach. You either have it or you don't."

While she can kill teams and change entire games with her three-point shots, Starbird is at her best on the transition game when she flies down court, all arms and legs and flying hair. She dribbles behind her back and weaves through traffic with a deft precision that often brings fans out of their seats.

"Kate's our Jerry Rice," VanDerveer said. "He scores a touchdown, puts the ball down and goes about his business. That's her game too - she'd rather play it than talk about it. Being the center of attention is the last thing on her mind."

Starbird's surname leads some to call her "Scorebird," but to her teammates she is simply "Bird." And she cringes at "Kate the Great," which some have tagged her.

The female Michael Jordan does not pretend to be, well, Michael Jordan. Among the flood of e-mail she receives has been from men writing to say, "I could beat you one-on-one."

Said Starbird, "They're probably right. If they're bigger than I am, I'm sure they could."

So far, no one has stepped forward.

UConn's Wolters, Auriemma honored

CINCINNATI - Kara Wolters and Geno Auriemma, the key figures in their team's 33-1 season, combined for a Connecticut sweep today of the top individual awards in women's college basketball from The Associated Press.

Wolters, a 6-foot-7 senior who averaged 17 points a game, was voted the national player of the year, the third straight season that award has gone to a Connecticut standout. Auriemma was honored as coach of the year for the second time in three seasons.