The Storm announced Tuesday the signing of unrestricted free agent Le'coe Willingham, a starter on Phoenix's 2009 championship squad. Willingham, a 6-foot versatile post, averaged 10.0 points and 4.2 rebounds during the title run.

The six-year veteran (pictured right by The Arizona Republic) was available because of Phoenix's inability to manage mega salaries under the altered salary cap. The WNBA and union approved a $28,000 drop from last season, agreeing to a $775,000 cap this summer as a cost-cutting measure.

The original CBA called for an $827,000 cap this summer, which would have allowed the Mercury to sign stars Penny Taylor (unrestricted), Temeka Johnson (restricted), and Cappie Pondexter (restricted). The Mercury, which re-signed coach Corey Gaines this offseason, previously stated the aforementioned were a priority to retain and Taylor spoke of her intentions to re-sign with the team on overseas teammate Chasity Melvin's blog.

Phoenix's loss will certainly help Seattle. Willingham is a workhorse like F Camille Little who already told coach Brian Agler that she doesn't mind playing off the bench. Willingham started 61 of her 68 games in Phoenix the past two seasons, 2008 being the breakout year of her career.

Willingham, an Auburn alum who first signed with Connecticut in 2004 after going undrafted, averaged a career-best 10.1 points on 57 percent shooting in 2008. She also grabbed a career-best 5.9 boards.

"I enjoy doing the little things that don't always get noticed all the time," Willingham told the team via phone from Spain where she's currently playing. "I'm very passionate about what I do and I love basketball. I've been undersized all my life and I've adjusted to that. I bring toughness, I think."

But Willingham's addition starts the clock on centers Ashley Robinson and Suzy Batkovic-Brown's careers in Seattle. Batkovic-Brown, a newlywed, may not have returned anyway. The Australian suffered a knee injury last week, but a MRI didn't reveal any major damage.

She would like to start a family while Robinson, an unrestricted free agent, isn't nearly as productive as Willingham. A 6-foot-4 post who did not play overseas, Robinson averaged 0.5 points and 0.9 in 26 games last season. A Dallas native, she will represent the Storm at the NBA All-Star game this weekend, however, and should be invited to training camp if she doesn't sign with another WNBA team.

"We need to add one more post player, preferably a younger post player," said Agler in a team release. "And we'd like to add a player who can support us at the one and two positions."

Center Janell Burse is currently under contract and contemplating her future. Given the salaries, Agler has already stated he can't keep all of the post players. Especially since two-time MVP Lauren Jackson is expected to re-sign for a maximum deal and Burse makes near the max salary ($101,500).

In other WNBA free agent news, Minnesota star Seimone Augustus re-signed with the Lynx on Monday and Detroit All-Star Deanna Nolan's agent has intimated one of the league's most electric players will not return this summer.

Nolan's Russian team would like her to rest her nagging injuries. She did re-sign with the former Detroit Shock, but her camp is calling that moot since the team relocated to Tulsa.

Meanwhile former Sacramento PG Ticha Penicheiro signed with Los Angeles and teammate Kara Lawson signed with Connecticut.

G Dominique Canty re-signed with Chicago while C Ruth Riley re-upped with San Antonio.

Washington moved its planned event to recognize The National Girls and Women in Sports Day from Feb. 12 to March 7. The nation-wide celebration was Wednesday.

The UW marketing department is still working to secure sponsors and athletic partners, but hopes to hold sports and fitness clinics involving their coaches and athletes for about 200 area fifth-and sixth-graders.

The free clinics (held in the morning) would include sessions in golf, track & field, volleyball, gymnastics, nutrition, and fitness. Everyone who participates or volunteers would receive lunch and complimentary tickets to the women's basketball game against Oregon at 2 pm.

Meanwhile, Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman stopped by the Storm facilities on Thursday and talked to the organization about how sports influenced her life in lieu of NGWSD. You can hear that chat here.

Lieberman, who's going to be the first woman to head coach a pro men's team in November, is in Seattle to guest coach a few practices this week for her adopted middle-school team.

It seems unfathomable. Nine weeks ago, doctors told Washington SG Sara Mosiman she probably wouldn't play basketball again this season, needing surgery to prevent her right shin fracture from fully breaking.

Thursday night she's probable to play against Arizona State (13-7, 5-4 Pac-10). Although Mosiman, a 5-foot-9 senior, has only participated in a shoot-around with the team since December, according to a release on UW's site, her addition could boost the Huskies (9-10, 4-5) to an improbable win. Mosiman needs work condition-wise and would only see limited minutes, however.

"I felt really good to do it for myself," Mosiman (pictured right) told the school's web site. She had successful surgery to have a rod placed in her leg on Dec. 16. "I had a lot of people telling me I wasn't going to play. The rehab put that back in my hands and it was good to do it for myself and shut out the voices. Coming back this early is an extra perk."

Mosiman altered her surgical procedure, suffering from shin splints in her left leg in 2007. The change allowed her to begin rehabilitation sooner and her initial goal was to return for "Senior Day" on March 7 against Oregon.

Interning in sports broadcasting, Mosiman knew her career would end with college hoops. Like teammate Sami Whitcomb, Mosiman is uninterested in pursuing a pro career overseas and wants to finish playing with classmates Whitcomb and Laura McLellan. Lydia Young and Christina Rozier also will graduate from the program, but transferred to UW last season.

Mosiman last played on Dec. 4, averaging 7.5 points. She can create her own shot offensively and was one of the team's better defenders. Yet, even with her healthy in the past, UW hasn't defeated ASU on the road since 2001.

Washington snapped a 10-game losing streak to ASU at home in January.

The Sun Devils have won five of their past six games and are on a four-game win streak.

The Women's Sports Foundation in Washington (the other one) is celebrating the 24th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Wednesday. The blog Women Talk Sports did its part by compiling this slideshow of women doing their athletic thing.

See if you can spot the locals in the pictures and please submit your own favorite picture to add to the slideshow by e-mailing me at jevans@seattletimes.com. I'll be sure to pass them on to the site.

Since it's the "offseason" for the Storm, they did not plan anything to celebrate the day. Seattle University made announcements during the men's game on Saturday while Washington State held a free developmental clinic for grade schoolers in January that included food, a question and answer session and autographs by select student-athletes.

Washington, which has been on the road the past two weeks, is expected to honor the event on Feb. 12, but hasn't finalized its plans.

UPDATE: On the WNBA side, president Donna Orender had this blog posted on the league's site this afternoon while the NY Liberty asked a few players how sports changed their lives.

Enjoy the pictures:

Washington sophomore Kristi Kingma returned to practice Tuesday. The shooting guard has been out since Jan. 23 with a mild concussion.

Kingma (pictured right by UW) said she suffered a concussion at Jackson High, so she really wanted to be precautious with this one. The current injury occurred in the waning seconds of the four-point UCLA loss and Kingma was hurried to the emergency room after the game. There, swelling on her brain was revealed in examinations.

"(The opponent) turned and set a screen and I got caught between a shoulder and a head," Kingma recalled. "But today is my first day back at practice and I'm excited."

Kingma missed her team's 76-70 overtime win at Washington State on Friday. Yet, in addition to healing her concussion, Kingma was able to rest her nagging ankles.

UW's second-leading scorer (9.4), she'll be in the starting lineup when Washington travels to play Arizona State and Arizona. Washington (9-10, 4-5 Pac-10) swept the desert schools earlier this season, a first at home since 2003.

"We have a great opportunity ahead of us to make a statement," said Kingma of her team, which is tied with Oregon for sixth in the conference. "Anytime you can get road wins it's huge, especially in this conference where there's not much separating the first and last-placed teams."

Tia Jackson (pictured right by AP) won't be doing any coffee ads anytime soon. The Washington women's basketball coach was so amped on her signature venti caramel iced coffee that her heartbeat started racing during the team's six-point overtime win at Washington State on Friday.

Evaluated after the game, doctors advised Jackson to stay off coffee for a while and rest. She was cleared for practice Monday, but spent the weekend drinking fluids and not doing anything work-related late Sunday.

Jackson, who was diagnosed with severe nausea and exhaustion, said she began to feel lightheaded about five minutes into the game and really struggled in the second half when she became overheated. Assistant coaches Judy Spoelstra and Frank Applin had to prop up Jackson on the sideline at times. Normally the head coach stands and shouts direction to her team.

"There were moments that were like a blur," said Jackson, who hasn't experience the racing heart before but isn't worried going forward. "There were probably just a couple moments in the second half that were the worst where my assistants had to catch me. In overtime I felt OK until the end."

Despite senior Sami Whitcomb scoring a career-high 32 points on 10 of 17 shooting from the field, the Huskies needed senior guard Christina Rozier to score six of UW's 8-2 run in the final minute to seal the game.

Rozier started in place of sophomore guard Kristi Kingma, who's the team's second-leading scorer (9.4). She suffered a mild concussion in a four-point loss to UCLA on Jan. 23.

Kingma was cleared to participate in some drills Monday. It's too soon to know if she'll rejoin the starting lineup for this week's road trip to Arizona and Arizona State, however.

"She's day to day," Jackson said. "Hopefully we'll get some good news (Tuesday)."

For the first time in nearly five years, Gonzaga cracked the top-25 Associated Press poll, landing at No. 24. The Zags, who've won the past five West Coast Conference titles, have been defeating conference foes by an average of 33.6 points this season.

Gonzaga (18-4, 7-0 WCC) benefited from there being a bevy of upsets, including a dozen loses to unranked teams this past weekend. The juggling between schools not named Connecticut or Stanford, cleared room for an impressive Zags squad that one scribe said is "just one big post from advancing far in the NCAA tournament."

Yet, the big-time post Gonzaga does have in senior Heather Bowman is solid. Bowman is undersized at 6-foot-2, yet became the WCC and school's all-time scoring leader. The latter she reached in Saturday's 93-53 win against San Francisco. Bowman needed five points to surpass Tammy Tibbles' 22-year-old mark and finished with 11 for 2,018 all-time.

In a visit to Gonzaga's practice on Friday, coach Kelly Graves and his players talked about how their games are basically big practice runs for the postseason. Interestingly, Sports Illustrated columnist Phil Taylor wrote a column this week about UConn being bad for women's basketball because of their dominance.

While I don't agree with the premise -- dominance just makes everyone else work harder -- I do find it interesting how teams like UConn stay motivated when their conference isn't a challenge. The Huskies have been ranked No. 1 for a record 37 consecutive weeks.

Gonzaga is no UConn. Or even a No. 2 Stanford or No. 4 Nebraska, for that matter. But all four could roll through their conference play undefeated, waiting for the NCAA tourney for a real push.

So, how do you stay motivated?

"We know that we're targeted in every game," said Zags point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who's been sporting a summer blond look since December. "That's motivation for us. We know we have the ability to beat these teams by 20-points or plus, but we know on every given night, they are going to give us their best shot. Since our seniors have been here, they haven't had that undefeated season. That's something we're striving for."

The Zags were last ranked in March 2005 when the team spent two weeks in the polls. Since then, they've won their first tourney game against Xaiver in the opening round last year and have developed two star players in Vandersloot and Bowman. A third in senior Vivian Frieson has added aggressiveness and is a good ball-handler when Vandersloot is pressured.

"It can be hard for us to get up," Frieson said. "But one thing that really helps us is we're not playing for that game or for next week. We're playing for March. We really want to work on things and get better and polished for when it comes down to that NCAA tournament."

STAR STUDDED: Storm C Janell Burse was selected to represent the "Rest of the World" in the EuroLeague All-Star game on March 9 in Poland. Phoenix G Diana Taurasi, the WNBA's reigning MVP, also was voted a starter. Storm PG Sue Bird was not on the original ballot due to her late arrival to overseas play.

MARKETING CHANGE?: I'm a little twisted in my opinion on this one. It's expected that Minnesota will alter its marketing plan to hype G Lindsay Whalen. The fans there have coveted her since she left Minnesota a star. But Seimone Augustus is, in my opinion, the star of that team. So, is it racial if Augustus is dropped off the marketing plan? Or is that faulting Whalen for happening to be white and from Minnesota? Discuss.

DOTTED LINE: WNBA Players and teams can begin signing contracts Monday. Announcements are expected to trickle out this week and look for Storm PF Lauren Jackson to re-up with Seattle. The team also is reportedly talking to fellow Australian PG Erin Phillips, who is a reserved player for Connecticut. The Sun would have to release her and might since Connecticut is reportedly coveting Kara Lawson to complement trade acquisition Renee Montgomery.

Meanwhile Phoenix will have trouble keeping its championship roster. And the Mercury are supposedly in talks of playing an exhibition game in Korea. Don't know how that's possible when the league cut two teams, two roster spots, and one assistant coach slot in the past two years due to the "economy," but that's the word.

POW: UCLA F Markel Walker became the second freshman of the season named Pac-10 Player of the Week. Walker averaged 16.5 points and 12.0 rebounds in helping the Bruins sweep the Oregon schools. UCLA (14-6, 7-2 Pac-10) moved into a tie with USC (13-7, 7-2) for second in the conference.

TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Do they play a basketball game between rounds of the Frisbee Dog World Championship?" Posted on Jan. 30 at 3:55 p.m. via @grahamhays.

MIAMI ICE: Rozier, the Miami native, turned it on for Washington to get them the win. With Kingma out of the lineup, UW needed a secondary outside option. Rozier scored six of UW's final 8-2 spurt to seal the win and push the Apple Cup streak to 29 games. She finished with eight points and nine rebounds overall. Argens had 12 points and 11 boards. It was a sloppy game with 46 combined turnovers, but really entertaining in the end. Possibly a little too entertaining as Jackson was so exhausted she couldn't talk to media. She didn't even look my way as she walked out of the arena to board the team bus. Jackson was evaluated by WSU team doctors and diagnosed with severe nausea and exhaustion. Assistant coach Judy Spoelstra handled the postgame duties and said Jackson's condition isn't too alarming.

BUILDING BLOCKS: WSU lost 76-70 in overtime, but you can tell there's something forming in the Palouse. The attendance was 2,064 -- almost double the normal draw. Moore was erratic, but made big plays late to help her team with 15 points, four assists, four steals, and five turnovers. Cook led with 17 points. The Zzu Cru were a fun bunch of hecklers and it'll take a lot for UW to keep the streak going. "I love this game," Whitcomb said. "This atmosphere -- it's never been like this before."

SLAMMIN' SAMI: Whitcomb, who has played with four fouls since the 12:54 mark, is Washington's offense tonight. She has a career-high 32. Scored tied at 68 points apiece with 2:00 left.

OT: UW should not be going into overtime with WSU. They are the more veteran team and made those seasoned plays down the stretch, but ultimately McLellan fell asleep inside and freshman Moore whipped a pass to Katie Madison for the tying score. Whitcomb and teammates missed shots in the final 8.6 seconds and we're in overtime with the score tied at 62 apiece.

WHITCOMB BACK: Whitcomb re-entered the game. WSU is triple teaming her. She made two FTs to pull UW within 60-59 with one minutes remaining.

WHITCOMB HURT?: Whitcomb has left the game and is getting her leg worked on by trainers. UW is down 60-57 with 1:32 remaining. Whitcomb has 25 points and tied Giuliana Mendiola on the career three-point list (162). Whitcomb made two tonight.

COUGS UP: The place is going nuts after Perkins nailed a three-pointer with 2:56 remaining the game to give WSU a 58-57 lead.

SHOTS ANYONE?: We're in FG scoring drought so I bring you a new drinking game you could either start now or later if you dare replay this game. Take a shot every time a jumpball is called. UW up 49-45 as the drought breaks with 8:50 remaining in the game.

FOUL TROUBLE: Whitcomb collected her fourth foul and is on the bench with UW up 44-41 with 12:43 remaining in the game. WSU could really take advantage and do by collecting a turnover and scoring off a shot by Moore. Cougs increasing the defensive pressure.

COOK FINE: Cook re-entered the game and made a short jumper to give her team a 37-36 lead with 15:31 left in matchup.

JACKET OFF: Jackson is more chilled on the bench than usual. She took the jacket to her pantsuit off and isn't standing as much.

COOK OUT?: Cook is out of the game after a hard tussle for a loose rebound. There's a wheelchair in the visitor's tunnel. No word on any injuries. She's still on the bench. UW regained the lead on two made FTs by Argens, 36-34 with 17:44 remaining. The buckets capped a 7-0 run.

HALFTIME: Very staccato start to this rivalry. A mini spurt of flashy plays by the Cougs gave WSU a 34-29 lead headed into the break. A three-pointer by Cook and fastbreak layin off a UW steal by Perkins were the highlights. WSU has five steals in the half and is led by Cooks 12 points. UW is shooting a solid 46.2 percent, but has 15 turnovers. Whitcomb, who nailed a three late to keep Washington in the game, leads with 11. Argens and Rogers have six points apiece. Rozier has five boards. There have been seven ties and four lead changes.

TOUCHY?: Guess the officials aren't taking any junk tonight. They called a technical on Rogers with 1:49 remaining in the half when the player only slightly bounced the ball hard after a jumpball was called. WSU missed the ensuing FT, so it doesn't matter, yet. Cougs up 27-26 with 1:02 on the clock. UPDATE: Rogers added a little verbiage to that ball tap, so the tech is deserving.

PICK EM': Gonzaga has an off night, defeating Santa Clara for its 12 consecutive home win. Some of the team drove down to support friends on both rosters, including F Vivian Frieson (Garfield High). She knows the WSU roster the best, but had trouble picking a winner in the rivarly when pressed. "June's cool, I like her. That's my deciding factor. I'm picking Washington State because of June." Score still tied (16) with 7:25 remaining in the opening half.

NO LOVE: This is an aggressive game. Washington is getting outworked, though, as the Cougs grab offensive boards and lure the Dawgs into fouls. For some reason, Jackson took Rogers out of the game. She and along with Argens were the best options in the paint. McLellan appears to be trying to hard to start, picking up fouls and missing close shots. Perkins is pumped beyond belief. I think it works for her game, so go head. Score tied at 14 apiece with 11:30 remaining.

Pride and a 28-game win streak are on the line for Washington tonight. The Huskies are on a four-game losing streak, but it doesn't matter because the opponent is Washington State.

UW has owned WSU since 1995. There's plenty of tangled alliances and storylines, like UW coach Tia Jackson replacing WSU coach June Daugherty in 2007. Yet, there's really nothing you can say about this matchup that hasn't been covered before.

One twist is Washington will play without second-leading scorer Kristi Kingma (mild concussion). Jackson started senior Christina Rozier in her place.

So, lets get to it with your starting lineups:

HUSKIES
F Sami Whitcomb
F Mackenzie Argens
C Regina Rogers
G Sarah Morton
G Christina Rozier

COUGARS
F Jazmine Perkins
F Rosie Tarnowski
C Carly Noyes
G KiKi Moore
G April Cook

Tonight's officials are Melissa Barlow, Cathi Cornell, and Rick Showers.