Last season, Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale's daughter, Chandler, had a 5x7 photo of Duke's Alana Beard on her bedroom dresser.

	THE BEARD FILE
	Duke's Alana Beard is our preseason favorite. Honors and highlights: In 2001-02, named Kodak All-American, AP first-team All-American, ESPN The Magazine shooting guard of the year, runner-up for AP Player of the Year behind Sue Bird, NCAA East Region MVP, ACC Player of the Year, first-team All-ACC, Naismith finalist, All-ACC defensive team and All-ACC tournament team; also set Duke single-season records for points (694), field goals made (275) and steals (114) in leading Devils to the Final Four; has scored double-figures in 61 of 65 career games.

Never mind that Duke and Oklahoma would wind up clashing in the national semifinals. Beard was simply one of Chandler's favorite players.

From where we sit, that's not a bad choice. After all, if you're going to have a favorite, she might as well be the best, and that's exactly what Beard is. The 5-foot-11 junior guard/forward, who already has been named to preseason All-America teams by ESPN.com and the Associated Press, now can add one more accolade to her résumé: ESPN.com's 2002-03 preseason national player of the year.

As ESPN analyst Nancy Lieberman puts it, "Beard can score, rebound, pass, post you, take you off the bounce, you name it. She's the complete package."

Indeed. Beard scored 694 points last season, which is the highest single-season total in school history and broke a 17-year-old record. In leading Duke to the Final Four, she became the third-fastest player in ACC history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

In last season's ACC rankings, Beard was first in scoring (19.8), field-goal percentage (.572) and steals (3.26), and ranked second in assists (4.40), sixth in free-throw percentage (.753), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.66) and tied for 10th in rebounding (6.1).

More than anything, Beard has a great basketball mentality and work ethic. There's nothing she can't do, and every year she has improved some facet of her game. After shooting just 18 percent from 3-point range as a freshman, for example, she improved that number to 37.9 percent last season.

Beard can do it all and one can only imagine her getting better at shooting, at her decision-making and at coming up bigger in crunch time. In the end, she'll fulfill every expectation coach Gail Goestenkors might have of her.

ESPN's Nancy Lieberman, ESPN.com columnist Mechelle Voepel and Melanie Jackson, who oversees ESPN.com's women's college basketball coverage, contributed to the selection process.