McKeon promoted to associate coach

GW women’s basketball coach Joe McKeown announced June 17 that assistant coach Margaret McKeon will serve as associate head coach.

McKeon, 31, is entering her fourth season with GW. Besides her duties with on-the-floor coaching, she is also the team’s recruiting coordinator and assists with scouting and game preparation. A guard when she played in college for St. John’s University, McKeon also works closely with GW’s backcourt players.

Before coming to GW prior to the 1995-96 season, McKeon was the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the women’s basketball program at the University of Houston. She also has been an assistant coach with Arizona State University and was the head coach of the Amateur Athletic Union in New York.

Abraham cut from WNBA team

Former GW basketball star Tajama Abraham was cut from the WNBA’s Detroit Shock June 10 as it pared down its roster to 11 players.

Forward Mae Ola Bartona and guard Tara Williams also were cut by Detroit to meet the league rule for maximum number of players.

Abraham, GW’s all-time leading scorer, was picked up by Detroit in the WNBA’s expansion draft in February and started in the team’s first exhibition game.

“With Tajama, she had played so well for about three weeks,” head coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline told The Detroit Free Press. “Then last week, she struggled. I think she hit the wall.”

Abraham graduated from GW in 1997 with the school records for career points (2,134) and blocks (326). She played in the WNBA’s first season last year as a member of the Sacramento Monarchs.

Seven-footer signed by GW

Albert Roma, a seven-foot center from Winchendon School in Winchendon, Mass., has signed a letter of intent to join the men’s basketball program at GW, according to the GW’s Office of Sports Information.

At 7-0 and 240 pounds, Roma will be the largest player on GW’s squad next season with the graduation of the 7-1 Alexander Koul.

-Dustin Gouker