The Merury selected Kelly Mazzante with the No. 5 pick in the Dispersal Draft. (WNBAE Photos)

And don’t forget Raja and Leandro hitting the outside shot to open things up. 76 points at half time vs. Memphis on Martin Luther King Day was pretty special.

It was a good start for the Phoenix Mercury as well. We landed the #5 pick in the Dispersal Draft and selected a pretty good shooter in Kelly Mazzante. She is the all-time scoring leader in Big 10 history from her time at Penn State (male or female). That includes the likes of Chris Webber, Calbert Chaney, Magic Johnson, Steve Alford and our own Phoenix Suns player, Jalen Rose. None of them put up as many points as Kelly (2,919). And Phoenix got her to go along with Coach Paul Westhead's running game and our other great shooters.

I also had the chance over the holidays to see a few movies with my children, and the one that stood out the most was "Bobby." It was a powerful movie for us, not only because of the civil rights movement, the marches against Vietnam, equal rights for women, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and Bobby Kennedy, but my late husband, Hall of Fame Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale, was a main character in the movie which really impacted me and my children. Robert Kennedy talked about Don and his "shutout streak" in his speech at the Ambassador Hotel in LA, the night he was assassinated. On that night, Don broke a 40-year-old record, recording his sixth straight shutout, a record that still stands today. My kids and I kept expecting their Dad to show up on the big screen. It was pretty surreal for me to hear Don talked about so much in the movie, which was done so well. I strongly recommend it.

I also saw “Dream Girls.” I grew up a HUGE Motown fan. I would go to sleep at night listening to albums of Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, the Spinners, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson and the Jackson 5. I loved the movie. I also saw "Holiday" which was a fun “chick flick,” "A Night at the Museum" which the kids and I thought that was funny and the "Pursuit of Happyness." That movie definitely shows you there is hope no matter how things can look. A feel good movie.

Back to basketball… our Mercury players are doing well overseas. Cappie Pondexter, last year’s runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting, is in Turkey and continues to put up big numbers. She had 31 the other night. Diana Taurasi is in Russia playing with All-Stars Sue Bird and Tina Thompson; not a bad threesome. Penny Taylor, the MVP of the World Championships is in Italy, and Kristen Rasmussen is in Australia. Kamila Vodichkova is doing well with her rehab (MCL/ACL tear last season) in her home town in the Czech Republic, and everyone else on our roster is playing overseas.

That leaves us to the "young guns" in college, where Coach Westhead is hitting the pavement on the recruiting circuit with all the other WNBA coaches. Lots of young talent out there, and we will have to decipher who is a #1 pick. Still too early to tell. But whoever she is, she better be able to run like the Mercury and Suns.

How exciting was THAT?!

At least 20 plus scouts were in Anaheim to see #1 UCLA get a tough victory over Texas A&M, and a young USC squad come from behind, down big at halftime to George Washington, and pull out a victory.

There were some good guards to scout from the four teams, but the best part of the day was seeing Coach Wooden. It's always great to see the enthusiasm and excitement that Coach has watching the college game. He patiently signed autographs before the game, half time and between games. And at 96, his penmanship is impeccable!

I had a chance to sit and visit, while he had his coffee and his Krispy Kreme donut. I love talking not just basketball with “Papa,” but about his family and life in general. My brother David was a part of Papa's championship years in the ‘70s at UCLA and our family has been close to him and his family for a long time now. How blessed we are to still have him around.

Last night, I attended the "Ronnie Lott Impact Awards" dinner at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, California. I'm on the Board of Directors. The award is named after Ronnie Lott – the Hall of Famer who played at USC – and honors a college defensive player who has demonstrated strong character and made a great impact in their community. This is the third year of the award and we have donated over a quarter of a million dollars to charities.

Cal's cornerback Daymeion Donte Hughes was the recipient this year. Quinn Picock of Ohio State and Paul Posluszny of Penn State were the other two finalists. The first two winners were David Pollack of Georgia and DeMeco Ryans of Alabama.

Hall of Famer Frank Gifford was the featured speaker and spoke about his days growing up in California and going to USC. Which, he says his 16-yr-old son Cody would like to go to. A 6'3' QB that wants to follow in his Dad's footsteps.

Three Hall-of-Fame football coaches also had a Q&A about the state of the college game today and which one of their players who would have exemplified the" Lott Impact Award." Pat Dye of Auburn in the SEC and two Pac-10 Coaches, Terry Donahue of UCLA and ASU's Frank Kush. Coach Kush could still take anyone on today. He has so much fire and passion for the game.

But the highlight of the evening was when MC, USC/Ram-broadcaster Pat Haden introduced Lott’s “high school coach.” Haden said that the first two years the dinner featured Ronnie’s college coach (John Robinson) and pro coach (Bill Walsh) talking about his fierce competitiveness on the field and his character off the field. So this year, Ronnie's high school coach was invited to speak.

In runs this guy, with a two-day beard, curly hair, green visor with an eagle on it, grey sweatshirt with "Eisenhower Football," and those old stretchy college shorts that coaches always wore back in the ‘70s and ‘80s pulled up high -- thigh high! He ran into the black-tie affair, blowing his whistle and yelling, and to ALL of our delight, it was Will Ferrell, playing a "Ricky Bobby" type role from Talladega Nights. For the 20 minutes he performed, he was Coach "Jimmy Ricky" and he WAS FUNNY!

A USC grad himself (and there was a strong contingency of Trojan alumni, I might add), Ferrell brought the house down, referring to Ronnie as "Bubba" and only his “third best player” that he had ever coached.

We were not only delighted by Ferrell's ability to stay in character, the three Hall-of-Fame coaches and other impressive dignitaries, newly retired baseball player Tim Salmon (a Phoenix resident), but the young men that were nominated for this prestigious award. Our congratulations to Daymeion Donte Hughes for being awarded the third annual "Lott Impact Trophy" and making an impact in his community.

Hope everyone is ready for the holidays. My shopping starts today with my kids still in school. I'm off to shop for players for our Phoenix Mercury team, too. Hopefully Santa will see that the Mercury have been good this year and we will get the presents that are on our list? Happy Holidays to everyone.