By Jen A. Miller<\/p>\n
After just about any Seton Hall women\u2019s basketball game, when both teams are in the locker room and the court has been cleared, you might still see one player on the sidelines, mugging for pictures and signing autographs, mostly with young girls.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Lauren Park-Lane, Seton Hall\u2019s point guard, who has become a BIG EAST star. Her best advice to young fans? \u201cDon\u2019t allow people to tell you what you
\ncan and cannot do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Park-Lane grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and played high-school basketball at the Sanford School. She led the team to a state title in her senior year and was also a four-time all-state selection and 2019 Delaware Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
But she kept being overlooked by college basketball coaches. She\u2019s 5\u20193\u201d tall, and all her teammates (and most opponents) were over 6 feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very frustrating,\u201d she said, as her friends\u2019 kept getting offers from NCAA Division 1 schools. Her parents helped her stay on an even keel. \u201cThey kept pushing me and telling me that it\u2019ll come.\u201d<\/p>\n
But no matter what other schools thought, Seton Hall saw her potential. Associate head coach Lauren DeFalco, a former guard herself, saw Park-Lane play in a summer league, and immediately called head coach Tony Bozzella. \u201cAfter five or six calls with Lauren, we really felt comfortable with her to come in and be a contributor to our program,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know how big a contributor she would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park-Lane, now a co-captain of the team, is a playmaker. She\u2019s broken all of Seton Hall\u2019s assist
\nrecords, including single-game assists (18), single-season assists (260) and career assists with nearly 700. For the 2021-22 season, she was the national leader in total assists. She\u2019s also strong from the free-throw line and has a high 3-point shot percentage. She has scored over 1,900 points and finished last season only 20 points behind Seton Hall\u2019s all-time scoring record. In a February game against DePaul, she racked up 39 points, breaking
\na school record.<\/p>\n
In addition to leading Seton Hall to the National Final of the Women\u2019s National Invitation Tournament in 2021-22, she\u2019s collected armfuls of accolades including: the 2023 John R. Wooden Award Watch List and three straight First Team All-BIG EAST selections. She was also a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award in 2023, one
\nof just five players nationwide to receive such an honor.<\/p>\n
Bozzella notes that she uses her stature to her advantage. Point guards should be quick like Park-Lane, and her height makes her harder to defend since her opponents are constantly looking down and bending over. \u201cOur system of play really opens up the floor and allows a guard to use her quickness and her speed,
\nwhich Lauren does,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone wants height.
\nWe want skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park-Lane has one more year of eligibility, and eventually she wants to go pro. \u201cI just love basketball and want to make improvements to my game and see how good I can get because I know I can always get better,\u201d she said. \u201cI just want to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bozzella hopes that she\u2019ll end up coaching with him one day. \u201cYes, she\u2019s going to be able to teach them basketball and teach them how to shoot. But I don\u2019t have a lot of people I can hire who would have an impact on human beings that Lauren\u2019s going to have on people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jen A. Miller is the author of Running: A Love Story <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After just about any Seton Hall women\u2019s basketball game, when both teams are in the locker room and the court has been cleared, you might still see one player on the sidelines, mugging for pictures and signing autographs, mostly with young girls.<\/p>\n