Cash is in
Former All-American inducted into Hall of Fame; ex-Sun Whalen also gets call
MINNEAPOLIS — As the UConn women’s basketball team was preparing to play for a 12th national championship, one of their illustrious alums was invited to join basketball’s ultimate circle of honor.
Swin Cash, an All-American who helped the Huskies win national championships in 2000 and 2002, was elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame. Joining her in the Hall’s Class of ‘22 is Lindsay Whalen, who played for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun from 2004-09.
Cash, 42, has had a long career in basketball after her playing days ended and is now vice president of basketball operations and team development for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans. After helping the Huskies to an historic 39-0 season in 2002, Cash played 15 seasons in the WNBA, winning two championships with Detroit and one with Minnesota. She also played on two Olympic gold medal teams, in 2004 and 2012. At UConn, Cash scored 1,583 points and in 2006 was among the first group inducted into the Huskies of Honor.
“I don’t know that she said I’m going to be in the Hall of Fame someday, but I know that everything she’s ever wanted, she’s gotten it,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Now she’s got what she deserves.”
Whalen, 39, now the coach at the University of Minnesota, played 197 games for the Sun, averaging 11.6 points and 4.9 assists.
“She actually was my favorite point guard,” said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who was on the Olympic team staff when Whalen played for USA Basketball. “I like how she’s wired. I like the fact that she’s so inquisitive. She’s a Hall of Famer, but
the questions that she asks, the cerebral part, she needed to have a true understanding of what our coaching staff needed, and she was unafraid to ask the questions. That is why she’s going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
Former NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway, as well as coaches George Karl, Bob Huggins and Marianne Stanley and long-time NBA official Hugh Evans are also part of the class.
The new Hall of Famers will be enshrined Sept. 9-10.
When Cash played for UConn, Auriemma called her “Swin Cash, Inc.,” because of her drive to succeed in other walks of life. She has been successful in business as well as in building a career as an NBA executive.
“The committee voting Swin Cash into the Hall of Fame might have been the easiest vote they’ll ever have in all of women’s basketball history,” Auriemma said. “And these voters never saw her in high school. I’ve never coached anybody who has been more relentless in pursuit of what she wants than Swin, and I don’t mean just in basketball. I mean, this woman is a relentless human being. When she sets her mind on getting something, she gets it.
“She had her hands in so many things. She got involved in so many things. She’s such a grinder at life. It’s not even shocking that she’s working in the front office of an NBA team. She probably wants to own an NBA team or probably wants to own the WNBA. Who knows?”