The route Susan Moran took into university basketball
How her name is written: later Susan Lavin
Forward
Irish
Athlavia had no involvement with Susan Moran. She has not used this product, is not connected to it and has not endorsed it. Everything on this page about her is drawn from the published sources listed at the foot, and cited so you can read the originals. The sentences about what an association’s rules permit are ours; they are statements about a rulebook, they are marked as such where they appear, and they are not about her.
No photograph. Roster images belong to the universities and photographers who made them.
2 pages, all on en.wikipedia.org. Treat that as one source, not 2. The only site is Wikipedia — an encyclopaedia, not a primary record.
One of 110 routes documented, covering 108 women. See all of them.
The route
One institution on the record: Saint Joseph's University (Philadelphia), NCAA Division I. 74 of the 110 routes documented here include a stop on that row. The rows above and below are the frame of reference, not places she was.
Left to right is the order the sources place her stops in. It is not a time axis: 54 of the 181 stops recorded across this site carry a bare pair of dates and the rest are prose, so the years are printed as written, in the list below.
The rows are the NCAA’s own three divisions, plus two dashed rows for everything outside them. NAIA and U SPORTS are separate associations rather than a lower NCAA tier, and nothing in these records ranks them against it; the two-year colleges sit at the foot because a junior college is an institution players transfer on from, which the records do say. The shaded bar behind each row is how many of the 110 routes documented here include a stop at that level.
The institution on the record
Printed as written. The drawing above compresses these; this list does not, because every caveat in the research lives inside these sentences.
- 1
Saint Joseph's University (Philadelphia)
NCAA DINCAA Division I
Atlantic 10
1998-2002
What these levels are, and what money can exist at them
These are facts about rulebooks. They apply to everyone at that level, and none of them is a statement about her.
NCAA Division I
This association permits athletic scholarships. Whether any particular player received one, and how much of one, is not published.
Where she was before she left
Grew up in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath, later Tullamore, County Offaly; attended Sacred Heart Secondary School in Tullamore, leading the school to the national Under-19 Schools Cup and scoring 52 points in the 1998 final. She made her senior debut for Ireland at 16.
What happened, in the sources’ account
Moran went from Irish schools basketball to a Division I programme in Philadelphia in 1998. She became the university's all-time leading scorer, averaged 22.3 points a game in her final year (fourth-highest in the country), was Atlantic 10 Player of the Year in 2002, and had her number 10 jersey retired. She stayed in Philadelphia afterwards, first as a player and then in coaching.
What is known about money
Athletic scholarships are permitted at every level on this route. That is a fact about the rulebook, not about her.
No source we fetched states what she received, if anything.
6 of the 110 routes documented here have a source stating any financial term at all. The other 104 do not, and that is normal rather than a gap in the research: a university announces a signing as a roster addition, and what a player was offered stays between her and the programme. Read silence as silence.
No source states anything about money.
Copied without editing. Like the checking notes further down, some of these sentences are instructions to the person writing this page rather than statements about her.
No source we fetched mentions a scholarship or any financial arrangement at Saint Joseph's.
What happened since
With the New York Liberty in 2002, where she was placed on injured reserve; described as the first and only Irish-born player to hold a WNBA contract. Played professionally in Spain, Australia and New Zealand, winning MVP awards in the Australian and New Zealand leagues. Inducted into the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame (2009), the Saint Joseph's Athletic Hall of Fame (2010) and the Basketball Ireland Hall of Fame (2019). Coached at Saint Joseph's as assistant (2003-2012), associate head coach (2012-2018) and director of player development (2019 onwards).
No retrieval date is stored against these sources, so treat anything time-sensitive — a current club, a current roster — as needing a fresh check.
Athlavia’s note on this route
Everything above is drawn from the sources. This is our editorial judgement about why the route is worth showing, and it is the only opinion on this page.
The oldest example here and the one that shows the pathway is not new: an Irish schools player was recruited to a US Division I programme more than twenty-five years ago. It also shows what the pathway can turn into other than playing, since her long-term career has been in college coaching and player development at the same university she attended.
She is an outlier. Read her next to the junior-college and Division II routes rather than as the benchmark.
This set has not been through the balancing pass, so it may over-represent Division I.
What we could not confirm
These are the checking pass’s own notes, copied without editing. They address the person writing this page, which is why some are phrased as instructions. They are published because a list of what we removed is worth more than an assurance that we checked.
What the second pass removed or corrected
- CORRECTED. The previous draft said she was 'scouted by several American colleges and recruited by Saint Joseph's in 1998'. Nothing we retrieved states that. Her arrival in 1998 is documented; the scouting narrative is not. Drop it.
- CORRECTED. The previous draft said she was 'signed by the New York Liberty in 2002'. Wikipedia records her as with the Liberty in 2002 and placed on injured reserve. Do not imply she played WNBA games.
- CORRECTED. The 'as of 2025' qualifier on the only-Irish-born-WNBA-contract claim is not in the source. State it as the source does or not at all.
What is still unknown
- Both sources are Wikipedia and the second one is only a one-line mention. Corroborate with Saint Joseph's athletics or Basketball Ireland before publishing.
- She arrived in 1998. American recruiting rules, eligibility, transfer rules and the NIL landscape have changed substantially since. Do not present her route as a current template.
- Her results (conference Player of the Year, retired jersey, WNBA contract) are exceptional.
Researcher’s own rating: 78 out of 100. This is the checking agent’s self-assessment, not a measurement. Across the 110 records it runs from 62 to 93, so the source count above it tells you more.
Sources
2 pages fetched and re-checked. Found by one researcher and re-checked by a second whose instruction was to fetch every cited URL and delete whatever the page did not support.
| # | Title | Publisher | Site | Loaded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Susan Moran (basketball) | Wikipedia | en.wikipedia.org | Loaded and re-checked |
| 2 | Ireland women's national basketball team (notable players: Moran, Basketball Ireland Hall of Fame 2019, coach with Saint Joseph's Hawks) | Wikipedia | en.wikipedia.org | Loaded and re-checked |
These 2 pages come from 1 site, so some of them share one. The strip at the top of this page counts sites, not links.
Read this next to
Routes through the same sequence of levels (26 of the 108 women documented here)
The first 6 of 25, in alphabetical order.
- Alanna Smith — Australia · NCAA DI · 1 site
- Amanda Zahui B. — Sweden · NCAA DI · 1 site
- Anna Makurat — Poland · NCAA DI · 1 site
- Artemis Spanou — Greece · NCAA DI · 2 sites
- Blanca Millan — Spain · NCAA DI · 3 sites
- Bridget Carleton — Canada · NCAA DI · 2 sites
Other routes from Ireland
- Edel Thornton — Ireland · NCAA DI · 4 sites
Athlavia had no involvement with Susan Moran. We did not advise, represent or place her, and we do not know her.
This page describes a public sporting record: where she played, at what level, and what published sources say about that. It carries no photograph, no date of birth and no contact details, and we do not report anything about her health beyond what her own sources state and what the route requires.
If you are Susan Moran, or represent her, and want anything here corrected or this page removed, write to support@athlavia.com and we will act on it.
This set has not been through the balancing pass, so it may over-represent Division I.
110 routes, 44 countries, 32 through a junior or community college, 36 never played NCAA Division I — so you can see whether this record is typical of the set or unusual within it.