Anna Petrakova

<blockquote><p align=justify>Anna Petrakova is trying to keep a clear head and a clear cell phone line these days.

The No. 4 scorer in Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball history will be among those tuned in to ESPN2 for the 11 a.m. start of today's WNBA Draft, and the team showing the most interest is the Connecticut Sun.

"The scout from the Sun called me yesterday and said there was a slight possibility they would take her in the third round," UL coach J. Kelley Hall said on Friday.

"Seattle and San Antonio both requested film on her earlier in the year, but Connecticut flew to Miami to see her when we beat Florida International down there.

"If they don't take her, he said they could invite her to camp, and that there would be only two or three others they would bring in for a chance to make it as free agents."

<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050416/SPORTS/504160316/1006">The rest of the story</a>

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com <!--

The WNBA Draft includes three rounds. Connecticut has the No. 8 pick in Round One, Round Two (No. 21 overall) and Round Three (No. 34 overall).

Sun coach Mike Thibault is not afraid of a youthful roster. He welcomed six new players last season, including No. 4 overall pick Lindsay Whalen, and marched to the East Division title with an 18-16 record.

Last year's draft also included Jessica Brungo, Ugo Oha and Candace Futrell.

"They definitely see Anna playing in the league," Hall said. "But her age (Petrakova turned 20 last December) is hurting her right now. They may want her to play in Europe for a couple of years, and they'll surely follow her progress over there."

The 6-foot-3 Petrakova became the 10th player in Cajun history to score 1,000 points during the 2004-2005 season, when she earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors for the second straight year and led the Cajuns to a first-ever Western Division title as well as the finals of the Sun Belt Tournament.

The Moscow, Russia, native finished her college career with 1,252 points, 774 rebounds (second all-time) and 188 blocked shots for the school record in that department. She had a UL-record 10 blocked shots last Dec. 13 against Prairie View A&M.

Petrakova, the Player of the Year in the Sun Belt as a junior, helped the Cajuns post a perfect 13-0 record at home last season.
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I would finally have a reason to tune in and watch some WNBA action.

I do believe if Anna gets drafted she would be only the second cajun ever drafted, i could be wrong?

Sorry to report that Anna was not drafted...she should get a shot as a free agent.

I Didnt Know That There Was Only 13 Teams. It Hard To Be In The Top 39 Picks. Good Luck However Anna.

Yes, best of luck Anna, from DaddyCajun and my wife and kids as we ALL loved watching you play for the Cajuns!! Do not ever give up and you'll make the WNBA, I promise, you are ALL THAT and MORE!!

Geaux Get em,
DaddyCajun! ..O..

Any update on Anna and where she might be playing?

Check out the story posted in this weeks Times of Acadiana. It doesn't talk about her future plans, but it is a very good story about her. :ms09:

#1##3#<blockquote><p align=justify><i>Anna Petrakova, born in Budapest, Hungary, and schooled in Moscow, became one of the best basketball players in the history of the University of Louisiana.</i>

For those who have never traveled to Leningrad in early spring, there’s a certain blue created when the February sky mixes with sunlight and ice drifting on the Neva.

It’s the color of Anna Petrakova’s eyes.

Blue ice.

That silvery gaze froze more than one opponent this season as the 6’3” senior led the University of Louisiana’s women’s basketball team to new heights. The Cajuns, coached by J. Kelley Hall, finished the 2004-05 campaign at 22-9, tying the school mark for the most wins ever in a single season. They were unbeaten at home, 13-0, where they have won 15 straight — the 12th longest streak among all Division 1 schools. The Cajuns won their first conference title in UL history when they claimed the Sun Belt West, won their first SBC postseason game and came within one game of winning the conference tournament and the accompanying NCAA Tournament slot.

Hall, in only his third season as head women’s basketball coach, is now second on the school’s all-time win list with 43 and was named Sun Belt Conference Co-Coach of the Year last season. Now being courted by several other universities, he is the first to say the success last season wouldn’t have happened without the 20 year-old Petrakova.

“People like Anna Petrakova don’t come along often,” says Hall. “I’ve been coaching for 23 years, and she was special. It was an honor and a privilege to coach her.”

On the court, Petrakova’s accomplishments were staggering for one so young. She became the 10th player in school history to score 1,000 points and finished her career with 1,252 points, good enough for 4th on the all-time list. She’s UL’s career leader in blocked shots and second in career rebounds, the only Cajun named to the All-Sun Belt first team and the first UL player ever named to the All-Tournament team.

“From the first day I ever worked her, I knew,” says Hall. “She’s a legitimate 6’3”, she can score down low or from 22 feet, dribble, you name it — most big kids lose mobility. Her work ethic is tremendous. Lots of ‘em want to just show up and play, and that’s not how it’s done. Real players are made through practice and hard work.”

Amazingly, Petrakova’s career numbers could have been even more impressive, but her freshman season under Nix was all but wasted. She appeared in just 15 games and played only 75 minutes in a 7-21 season that not even a future superstar could salvage.

How does a young woman born in Budapest and raised in Moscow end up in a basketball uniform in south Louisiana in the first place?

No one tells the story better than Petrakova, in a melodic Russian voice that copes surprisingly well with English syntax.

<center><p><a href="http://www.timesofacadiana.com/Default.asp?Page=16">The rest of the story</a>

By Patricia Gannon
Times of Acadiana
Contributing Writer <!--

“I was my father’s only hope,” she jokes, comfortably at ease in an office at the athletic complex. “My sister is 5’ 10” and the academic type. She didn’t like being pushed by coaches.”

What she doesn’t say is that her father, Victor, was a basketball star in Russia in his own right. A move to Moscow at the age of 2 set her up to be noticed by athletic talent scouts while still in primary school.

“Our school system is very different,” she explains. ”When I was 7 or 8 years old, coaches came into my class and made everyone stand up. I wasn’t really tall then, but they picked people they liked and asked, ‘Who wants to join?’

“I joined.”

From that moment, Petrakova’s days were predetermined. Education is separate from sports in Russia, so she attended Gloria Sports School in Moscow for basketball in addition to her regular schooling. After the seventh grade, her classes were scheduled in conjunction with those of her teammates, with all of them in the same class.

“My classes lasted from 8:30 to 1, then I had an hour break before my two-hour practice, and would get home on the Metro at 6:30. I was gone all day, and every summer went from camp to camp, where our parents would come visit us. I never really took a break. My season never ended.”

Tallest in her class by 10th grade, not only was she groomed to play basketball, but her father intended for her to play in America.

“He admired the way American system works. In Europe, after 18, you go professional, but education takes a back seat. You must choose,” she explains.

Petrakova’s sister, Marina, came to the United States as a foreign exchange student at the University of Idaho, met her future husband and subsequently moved to Baton Rouge. Making her own career move to Louisiana in order to attend school close to her sister seemed like an easy shot for Anna, but the obstacles quickly multiplied. She was ruled ineligible to play in an American high school because, even though she was still only 16 years old, she had technically graduated in Russia. Meanwhile, her visa stipulated she had to either attend school or go home.

Anna was too young for college and too qualified for her peers.

Petrakova attended one semester of high school in Baton Rouge simply to improve her new language, then passed her ACT and SAT in English. She also passed the TOEFL, an exam all foreign language students must take to register at an American university. But by that time, LSU was out of scholarships and recruiting offers. Fortunately for Petrakova, a friendly high school coach called UL’s women’s coach Gay Nix and invited her to watch Petrakova play against other high school girls in Baton Rouge.

“She found a scholarship,” smiles Petrakova.

Then came the culture shock.

“I wasn’t used to so much freedom. I remember wondering, ‘How come everyone drives?’ Cars are at a premium in Russia, and teenagers don’t have cars. And the amount of fast food-restaurants — how you eat out is amazing.

“My parents are strict. At 16, I had a bedtime, a phone limit, my grades checked. Here, I was on my own, no friends but my teammates. It was scary. Then practice and school started. I didn’t have to worry about my freedom long.”

Not only did Petrakova have to learn a new basketball language (“Rim, glass, backboard, I had to put them all down in writing”), she had to learn a new game. European basketball is a game of finesse, where players are less aggressive than their American counterparts, who value pressure, speed, and above all, physicality.

“I had to catch up in the weight room,” laughs Petrakova, pushing up her sleeves to show off evidence of her latest skirmishes and scratches. “At first I was offended at an elbow in the back. I’d get pushed, and I’d whine. Sometimes I still do.”

But rougher than basketball for Petrakova was being on her own away from her family, having to learn to react and communicate in a different culture with no one to cushion the adjustment. Not only did people play fast, they talked fast, with a speed and casualness Petrakova’s formal English lessons didn’t quite cover.

“It was aggravating,” she says. “Sometimes I felt left out or not smart enough. I have — no, I hate — to ask people to repeat things. I really had a hard time with ‘What’s up?’ I would give a day’s worth of details.”

“Not smart enough” isn’t exactly how others characterize Petrakova, who’s majoring in business systems analysis and technology and carried a 3.5 GPA into the spring semester.

“She’s smart on the court,” says Tobie Buford, a freshman point guard for the Cajuns and Petrakova’s roommate on the road. “She sees things that are going on. And even though a lot of players would keep it to themselves, she doesn’t.”

Nor has Petrakova’s keen eye and concentration gone unnoticed by her opponents, most of whom have little recourse except to double-team her. Buford remembers the time a rival team accidentally left its scouting report behind in the locker room.

“It said, ‘Stop Anna. Don’t let her touch the ball.,’” she remembers.

Senior guard Bernette Tolston knows exactly how single-minded Petrakova can be.

“When you look over at her on the court, she’s very intense. There was a game at the beginning of this season where we were down by 20 points, and we were really just trying to close the gap a little. But then we took the lead, and Anna got very emotional. You know, there was just something in the way she said, ‘We’re not going to lose this game.’ And we didn’t.”

“I think she’s the best I’ve ever seen at UL,” says Robert Lee, head coach of the men’s team, which won the Sun Belt Tournament before losing to Final Four participant Louisville in this year’s NCAA tournament. “She’s a great player and has all the right goals in mind.”

Petrakova says she’s practiced one-on-one with Tiras Wade, the leading scorer for the men’s team, to improve her game and because she enjoys it. There’s an unmistakable gleam in her eye as she describes the time the pair shot three-pointers together.

“We contested. How should I say it? We were very competitive. He will never speak to me again if I tell this,” she laughs, trying unsuccessfully to dodge the obvious question. “I beat him.”

“Anna’s a very caring person,” claims Buford. “She doesn’t want to let anyone down, like she doesn’t want anyone mad at her.”

In December, teammates and coaches will say a bittersweet good-bye to Petrakova as she graduates and returns to Europe to play, her eligibility prematurely used up at an age when most players are only sophomores. It’s the one thing she would change if she could do it all over again — the playing right off the bat, jumping right in, not taking her time.

“I would have gotten red-shirted my first year,” she says frankly.

But she’ll be back.

“She’s still very young yet, in basketball terms,” says Hall. “Even if she has to work in Europe a couple of years, she will be a pro. I really believe she’ll be in the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association).”

Patricia Gannon is a freelance writer living in Lafayette. To comment on this article, e-mail timesedit@timesofacadiana.com. Read the story online on our Web site www.timesofacadiana.com.
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Did Anna Petrakova ever make it to the WNBA. If not, why is she not playing. She is the greatest Lady Cajun hoopster since Kim Perrot to play ball for the Cajuns.

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Originally Posted by gorcajun

Rosalynn, thanks for honoring the one WNBA player this university has had.

However, it is SAD that a university does not have the foresight to properly honor a true star.

Yet, it is even sadder that someone has to out-of-pocket expense the memorial. This reminds me of the Yvette Girouard day of Regional Tournament games.

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