2010 New York Liberty preview

Sense of urgency? It's hard to think of a bigger one than the one Anne Donovan has with the Liberty.

No matter what, it will be one and done for Donovan, who begins the Liberty season having already agreed to take over the Seton Hall basketball program. But this is no typical lame-duck situation. Everyone on the team agrees that no matter where their coach is going at the end of the season, the newly reconfigured Liberty has enough talent to aspire to a WNBA title.

"We will contend for it,'' said Donovan, whose team opens its season Sunday against the Chicago Sky at Madison Square Garden. "We have the kind of personnel coming in with championship experience that knows what it takes.''

After a disappointing and at times ugly 2009 campaign in which Donovan took over for coach Pat Coyle at midseason, the Liberty got lucky this past winter when three-time All-Star Cappie Pondexter demanded that the Phoenix Mercury trade her to New York.

Pondexter, the fourth-leading scorer in the league last season, is coming in as a two-guard but will play plenty at the point. She is the linchpin of the team makeover that also includes key newcomer Nicole Powell, the All-Star small forward whom the Liberty obtained in the dispersal draft. Powell, who made a league-leading 97.9 percent (94 of 96) of her free throws last season, won a league title with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005.

Other key new faces are 39-year-old All-Star center Taj McWilliams-Franklin, who was signed as a free agent, and guard Kalana Greene, the team's top draft pick out of Connecticut.

"It seldom happens that you can get a player like Cappie,'' Liberty general manager Carol Blazejowski said. "After last year, we needed a break like this and we got it."