After a temporarily losing my mind for three hours Friday, sanity returned - and so did Lauren Jackson to my All-WNBA First Team. While I still prefer Alana Beard to Diana Taurasi - another big name I left off my ballot - I simply could not justify leaving off the league’s leading scorer and rebounder just because she had one lousy game against Detroit. So LJ moved to the First Team, Tina Thompson was demoted to the Second Team and Candice Dupree’s August slump merited a dismissal after all.

Now here are the rest of my individual award selections. At least I think so. No, I’m sure… really. Awards are listed in alphabetical order.

Coach of the Year: Tree Rollins, Washington

Rollins

I felt a lot better about this pick when I thought for sure the Mystics would make the playoffs. Nonetheless, the Mystics’ season appeared to be DOA when Rollins, an assistant coach, took over an 0-8 team from Richie Adubato. Under Rollins, the same roster went 16-10.

The former NBA center had zero margin for error when he took over a winless team nearly a quarter through the season, and he nearly pulled it off. A one-point loss to New York last Thursday ultimately cost the Mystics their postseason, but for them to be playing meaningful basketball until the last day of the regular season was remarkable.

Rollins adjusted the team’s schemes to his personnel, but more impressively changed the collective mind-set. Not only did the Mystics begin to believe they could win again, they became a gutsy, never-say-die group that handed Detroit a last-second defeat June 29 after the Shock were ahead by 16 in the second half. They competed the same way Sunday, winning at Connecticut on a broken play that became a 3-pointer dagger by Monique Currie with 0.1 seconds remaining. The Mystics should be a force in the East under Rollins in 2008.

San Antonio’s Dan Hughes deserves to be recognized for the Silver Stars’ turnaround, but as a GM for his off-season acquisitions of Becky Hammon and Ruth Riley rather than as head coach. Hughes made the unprecedented move of relinquishing head coaching duties to his assistant, Brian Agler - a move that has proven fortuitous for the West’s No. 2 seed - after Hughes missed several games following a surgical procedure. Kudos to Hughes for the selfless decision, but Rollins is still my guy.

Bill Laimbeer deserves a nod for guiding the Shock to the league’s best record, but the fact remains, he had the most stacked cupboard in the league when the season started. Everyone knew what his players were capable of, though it should not diminish the fact he got them to play up to that potential most of the time.

Defensive Player of the Year: Alana Beard, G, Washington

Beard

I knew Beard was among the leaders in steals - she finished fifth overall in total steals (64) - but I was not aware of her blocking prowess. The 5-foot-11 guard averaged 0.73 blocks per game, second behind Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi (1.1 bpg) among all guards. When you consider that only four guards in the WNBA average more than half a block per game, that 0.73 really stands out.

Would Catchings have earned my vote if she had stayed healthy at least a few more games? She missed the last third of the season - and she still finished third overall in total steals (66). She could pull off her third straight defensive player award and I wouldn’t disagree with it, but I’m sticking with Beard.

Most Improved Player Award: Janel McCarville, F, New York

McCarville

McCarville was a borderline nobody when the Liberty visited The Palace July 6. Harsh, but nonetheless true. She had a career average of 2.6 points her first two WNBA seasons. She was producing marginally more with the Liberty in 2007 before the All-Star break (5.6 ppg).

Then McCarville scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds to lead New York in an overtime victory over the Shock. It was only her fourth game of 2007 in double figures. She followed it up in her first game after the All-Star break with 17 points and nine rebounds, again at The Palace, this time against All-Star forward Cheryl Ford. But she’s not just doing it against Detroit anymore. Since the All-Star break, McCarville has averaged 15.9 points per game and scored in single digits just once. She was the league leader in field-goal percentage (54.6 percent) and among the top 20 in rebounds and blocks. With the Liberty’s season on the line Thursday in Washington, she was 6-for-6 from the floor in the first half and finished with a team-high 18 points. Now the Shock must account for her in a first-round playoff series. I guess she’s not a nobody anymore.

Rookie of the Year: Armintie Price, G, Chicago

Price

Price, who was drafted third overall, became the default choice of many observers when No. 1 pick Lindsey Harding’s season was ended in mid-July by an ACL tear. But even if Harding had finished out the year, I’m not sure I wouldn’t go with the Ole Miss alum.

Minnesota wasn’t exactly having a turnaround campaign - though that is by no means all on Harding’s shoulders - but Chicago more than doubled their inaugural win total with Price playing 26.8 minutes per game, the second most by a rookie.

This year’s rookie crop wasn’t considered very deep on Draft Day, so it’s not surprising there’s a dearth of intriguing candidates outside the No. 1 pick. (Anyone from last year’s All-Rookie Team would have been the recipient this season.) In the absence of flashy scoring, Price’s defensive substance stands alone. She’s first among rookies in rebounds (6.3 rpg) and steals (1.21 spg) while shooting 41.1 percent from the floor and dishing 3.1 assists per game, good for 20th in the league.

Bottom line, there’s not a lot of players - rookies, veterans or otherwise - who can defend and rebound that well and still be offensively efficient. If she averaged three more points per game - her 8.2 points per game is three shy of Harding’s rookie-leading 11.7 average - Price would win this award convincingly.

Sixth Woman of the Year: Plenette Pierson, Detroit

Pierson

It seems all the leading candidates for this award average 11 points - Chicago’s Jia Perkins (11.7), Indiana’s Tan White (10.8) Sacramento’s Kara Lawson (11.0) and Pierson (11.6) - and pretty much play a starter’s role at crunch time.

What makes Pierson rise above the stats has been her importance to the best team in the league. Pierson has been the Shock’s most dependable player from Opening Day, when she scored 22 points while her teammates couldn’t get anything going. She hasn’t missed a game, hasn’t pushed for a starting role and erased any fallout from Kara Braxton’s tumultuous season and Cheryl Ford’s injury troubles. On any other team, those developments would have crippled a team’s frontcourt production.

While Deanna Nolan is Detroit’s catalyst, Pierson has been the team’s MVP in 2007. Without her, all of the Shock’s frontcourt deficiencies would come to light and they’d be looking very hard at an early postseason exit. For a bench player to have that kind of impact on a playoff-bound team merits the award.