Feaster Named Kodak All-American; Senior One of the Nation's Ten Best

Someone forgot to tell Allison Feaster that basketball season was over. Although Harvard (23-5, 12-2 Ivy) ended its season two weeks ago with a loss to Final Four participant Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Feaster has continued to rack up perhaps the most notable individual honors of her illustrious career.

Over spring break, the Crimson's co-captain was named to the 1998 Kodak Division I Women's All-America Basketball Team, and she was selected as the 1998 Eastern College Athletic Conference/AmeriSuites Division I Women's Player of the Year. She is the first Ivy Leaguer ever to receive either distinction.

"I didn't expect [Kodak All-American]," Feaster said. "I never really thought I could actually get that. [ECAC Player of the Year] is a surprise, too. I appreciate the honor."

Being named to the Kodak All-America Team--which recognizes the nation's 10 best players--is widely regarded as the highest honor that a player can earn, short of National Player of the Year. The Kodak press release reads:

"The Kodak Team is the oldest and most prestigious of the women's honor squads, having been around since 1975. It is selected annually by those who know the women's game better than anyone else...Division I members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)."

Feaster's ECAC Player of the year award might be the more surprising, although by no means the more glamorous, of the two. With the University of Connecticut--home to one of the top women's basketball programs in the nation--as a member of the ECAC, Feaster beat out National Player of the Year finalist and UConn's all-time leading scorer Nykesha Sales for the honor.

Feaster also spent the week displaying the on-the-court ability that earned her those accolades. On Saturday she took part in the WBCA All-Star Three-Point Shootout and played in the WBCA Honda Senior All-Star Game in Kansas City.

Both events capped off a four-day celebration of the All-America Team during the WBCA National Convention at the Final Four. The WBCA also held a banquet in the players' honor at which Feaster was chosen by her fellow All-Americans to speak on their behalf.

"It was weird at first," Feaster said of the festivities. "I had never been in the company of those people before. I really started to feel a part of it all as the week progressed. [At the banquet] I just spoke about what Kodak All-American meant to me--going to a WBCA camp in the 10th grade and watching the video and thinking how I would never be on it. Now that's all different."

Feaster's latest achievements come on the heels of what is perhaps her greatest collegiate moment. On March 14 she led Harvard to college basketball's most historic tournament upset ever, a 71-67 victory over fifth-ranked Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The win represents the first time in the history of the men's or women's Tournament that a No. 16 seed has defeated a No. 1 seed, and Feaster led the Crimson with a 35-point, 13-rebound effort on national television. She followed that up with a 28-point, 10-board performance against Arkansas two days later, and the frenzy from agents, professional leagues and members of the media began almost immediately.

"A lot of people I encounter--and almost everyone at the Final Four--have seen that game [against Stanford]," Feaster said. "Things have really changed. Since we made the Tournament and since my eligibility is up, the calls have been pouring in. I'm not going crazy yet, but my privacy has gone down the drain."

Believe it or not, Feaster's phenomenal senior-year surge into stardom is not over. The WNBA Combine will be held in Chicago on April 16-18, and the ABL Combine is on April 26-28. The WNBA draft will take place on April 29 with the ABL draft following in May.

Players must sign with one professional league or the other, but they cannot sign with both. Feaster--who is currently in the process of hiring an agent--has not decided with which league she will sign, but she has announced that she will definitely pursue a professional basketball career.

Feaster was already offered a position as an equities analyst with Merrill Lynch, but the company has informed her that the job will still be available after she completes her basketball career, should she choose to follow that path. Feaster is expected to be a high draft pick in either the WNBA or the ABL--the latter has already informed Feaster that she need not attend its Combine.

Personal and team accolades, however, are nothing new for Feaster, a native of Chester, South Carolina who now resides in Houston, Texas. In high school Feaster led her team to the Class 4A State Championship as a junior, was a five-time All-State selection, twice earned South Carolina Player of the Year honors and was named a Parade All-American in her senior year after becoming South Carolina's all-time scoring leader, man or woman.

As a freshman at Harvard, Feaster was the unanimous choice for Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and she was a First Team All-Ivy and Second Team All-ECAC honoree as well. She also received Honorable Mention All-America honors, was selected to Basketball America's All-Freshman Team and ranked 16th in the nation in rebounding.

The following season Feaster was named a UPI Honorable Mention All-American and Ivy League Player of the Year. In her junior year she once again nabbed the Ancient Eight's Player of the Year award and Honorable Mention All-American, this time from Kodak, who also named her to its All-Region First Team.

Feaster finished her junior campaign as the only Division I player to rank in the top 15 nationally in both scoring (12th) and rebounding (14th). But she saved her most impressive accomplishments, and play, for her senior year.

Behind 12 30-point games and 20 double-doubles, Feaster finished the season with national rankings of first in scoring (28.5 points per game), 14th in rebounding (10.8 per game) and 16th in steals (3.3 per game). She became the first Ivy League player ever to win a national scoring title.

With her third consecutive Ivy League Player of the Year award, she also became the first Ivy athlete in any sport, male or female, to win Rookie of the Year as a freshman and Player of the Year in each of the next three seasons. She was chosen as a Kodak District 1 All-Region first teamer, an AP Honorable Mention All-American and a Women's Basketball News Service Second Team All-American.

Feaster also became the only woman, and second player, ever to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in Ivy League history. Her final statistics for the season are remarkable: 28.5 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 3.3 spg and 2.6 assists per game. Still, the modest and soft-spoken Feaster will remember her final season in a Harvard uniform for what she accomplished together with her teammates.

"Every year we have team goals, and every year we always seem to fall just a little short of those goals," Feaster said. "More than ever, this year we've been able to accomplish everything we wanted to do.

"Personally, I feel that based on the team's success, each of us has enjoyed our own degree of success, and the same is true of myself."

Joining Feaster on the Kodak All-America Team were Sales, Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings, Stanford's Kristin Folkl, N.C. State's Chasity Melvin, Florida's Muriel Page, Old Dominion's Ticha Penicheiro, North Carolina's Tracy Reid and Texas Tech's Alicia Thompson.