Parker named AP player of the Year; Summitt says best ever

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Candace Parker shoots over Texas A&M's Damitria Buchanon. The Tennessee Lady Vols defeated Texas A&M 53-45 in Oklahoma City, OK at the Ford Center Tuesday and advance to the Final Four in Tampa Florida where they will face LSU.

Last Lady Vol practice at home before leaving for Tampa and the Final Four

TAMPA, Fla. — Candace Parker’s legacy was in fine shape Saturday.

The Tennessee women’s basketball star collected The Associated Press national player of the year award and was named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and Kodak All-Americans team as part of the festivities surrounding the Women’s Final Four.

“I went into the season thinking she’s one of the best ever,’’ UT coach Pat Summitt said, Now that we’re approaching the end of her career … Parker is the best.”

Parker received 40 votes from the 50-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Maya Moore of Connecticut was second with five votes. Sylvia Fowles of LSU and Candice Wiggins of Stanford had two each and Crystal Langhorne of Maryland one.

About the only honor the 6-foot-5 forward didn’t receive was the State Farm Wade Trophy, which went to Wiggins.

It’s Parker’s left shoulder, which was dislocated twice in Tuesday’s Midwest Regional final against Texas A&M, that remains in question as the Lady Vols prepare to face LSU at approximately 9:30 tonight in the national semifinals.

“We’ve been doing rehab around the clock,’’ Parker said. “My shoulder feels strong. It’s getting better every day. And I’m happy we play the late game on Sunday because it gives us more time to rehab.”

Parker showed off a good range of motion in the locker room before the team’s open workout at the St. Pete Times Forum. During practice, she was judicious in the use of her left arm.

The rehabilitation work with Jenny Moshak, the Lady Vols assistant athletic director for sports medicine, took place around Parker’s schedule, which included the State Farm ceremony and an autograph session in the morning and the AP presentation in the afternoon.

“Any 15 minute segment we get, we do stim(ulation), ice, shoulder exercises, strengthening, things like that,” Parker said.

Former Lady Vol Kara Lawson, working here as an ESPN analyst, said she suffered a separated left shoulder in 2005 while playing for the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs. She sat out a week and then returned for the first round of the playoffs.

“I did not feel normal,’’ she said. “I wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t 100 percent.”

And Lawson wasn’t playing the same role with the Monarchs that Parker plays with UT. As Lawson noted, “She has to play great or they don’t win.”

LSU is wary of the circumstances and is bracing for the usual from Parker, who averaged 27 points in two games against the Lady Tigers this season.

“I don’t know how badly she’s hurt or what hurts her at this point,’’ Fowles said. “But I’m pretty sure she’s going to come out, she’s going to be fired up and be motivated and she’s going to play her game. We’re looking at it as if she’s 100 percent and she’s going to play well. That’s how we are taking things.”

The Lady Vols hope Fowles is right on the latter thought. But as UT assistant coach Dean Lockwood said, “It’s kind of wait and see.”