Happy New Year!!!!!

The BasketCases (and Petey, of course) wish all of our readers a very happy, healthy . . . and sparkling New Year!

However, before we close the book on 2010, we thought we'd pass along a few recent odds and ends about some people of interest:

Angela Taylor. Yesterday, former (and best ever) Mystics GM Angela Taylor officially launched her new sports marketing and consulting firm, NetWorks Sports. She also announced one of her firm's first major projects: working with former Stanford star and WNBA player Candice Wiggins on Candice's new business venture, The Candice Wiggins Overseas Experience.

Next October, in the first of what is expected to be an annual "experience," Candice will host a 50-person tour of some of the major cities in Spain, mixing visits to the traditional tourist sites with culture . . . and some basketball! Candice has played in Spain, so she brings to the experience a special familiarity with the country. During the tour, the lucky 50 fan-tourists will have the opportunity to see one of the best teams in Europe, Ros Casares, play in beautiful Valencia. Pricing and other details are here. It sounds very exciting (and very tempting to the BCs, who definitely love both travel and basketball). We certainly hope to be able join Candice on one of her trips! We wish Angela and Candice all the best with their new ventures in the new year!

Kristi Toliver. While we're on the subject of travel, former Maryland star and WNBA player Kristi Toliver has just agreed to join the Turkish team, Samsun, and will be playing in Turkey this winter.

Laura Harper. Unfortunately, Kristi's former Maryland teammate, Laura Harper, has had to cancel her own plans to play overseas. Harp had been recuperating from the knee injury that kept her out of the WNBA last season, but recently needed to undergo microfracture surgery on her knee. She's on crutches right now, and will be for a few more weeks; after that she will need several months of additional rehab. So in the new year, we wish Harp a full and speedy recovery. We hope to see her playing again when the WNBA season rolls around this summer. (And, of course, all the best to Kristi in Turkey.)

Crystal Langhorne. As Kristi heads to Eurasia, Maryland and Mystics star Crystal Langhorne has just returned from a very successful few months playing for UMMC in Ekaterinburg, Russia (in case you're wondering, Ekat is located just west of Siberia). Lang is planning to stay stateside in the new year, working out and getting ready for the upcoming WNBA season.

Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood. Last but not least, we have some news about another former Maryland Terrapin, Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood. Sa'de, we learned recently, has now embarked on a career in coaching. The BCs were delighted to learn that Sa'de (whose college playing career was plagued by injuries) is now the girls' basketball coach at Mission Bay High School in San Diego. We think those young athletes are lucky to have her, and we hope that Sa'de has a long and successful career as a coach.

Undoubtedly there's much more news out there, but it's time for the BCs to sign off for 2010. . . Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful, happy, healthy, successful and sparkling 2011!