Fortunately, I had more success making it to Colorado Springs than UConn recruit Samarie Walker did.

The only high school junior to accept an invitation to the Under-19 national team trials, Walker had all sorts of issues traveling. Assuming there were no further issues with connecting flights, Walker should be on site for both practice sessions tomorrow.

The scrimmages at the end of the U-19 and World University Games practices were relatively uneventful. That is normally the case as the players are still dealing with jet lag. Stanford rising sophomore Sarah Boothe had eight points in the U-19 scrimmage and clearly was the most aggressive offensive player. The player who caught my eye the most was DePaul's Keisha Hampton, who I had with five rebounds.

UConn incoming freshman Kelly Faris was pretty quiet while ex-Trinity Catholic star and reigning Big East Freshman of the Year Da'Shena Stevens had her moments. Faris lost an assist when her perfectly-delivered pass on a 2-on-1 was mishandled by Arkansas' Ceira Ricketts. Faris also displayed her spunk as she hustled back to force a turnover after she just threw the ball away. Stevens had a pair of rebounds and a sweet assist.

Faris, one of seven members of the 2008 Under-18 team to come back to try out for the U-19 team, had nothing but positive memories of her USA Basketball experiences last year.

"It is hard to pick out one thing," Faris said. "The whole experience, you hear people talk about it and although it is not the highest level like the Olympics, it is still a great experience that not many get to have. It is fun to play with the best players and get to know them off the court, going overseas and the whole environment is different.

"Having the experience helps but because I made the team last year doesn't mean I'm going to make the team this year. I know I still have to go out there and do everything I can. If I don't make it, I don't want it to be because I didn't hustle."

Faris will graduate from Heritage Christian a week from tomorrow and is hoping to be at UConn in time to enroll in the second summer session. She has already requested and been granted the No. 34 which she has worn for as long as she can remember.

Faris will be the focus of my report from day one of the trials which will run in Friday's edition of the Register especially her looking ahead to her freshman season at UConn.

Regretfully, I wasn't able to get as much as I would have liked to about Stevens in the story because of space constraints.

She did say she is not trying to get caught up in being the only Connecticut native at the trials and one of the few Connecticut kids invited to try out for a national team.

"I just want to play my game, not overdo anything and get to know all these players and put the work in so even if I don't make I can bring something back (to St. John's)," Stevens said. "When you play this game, you want to be at the top of the game and I think opportunity is great. Looking back and seeing how much I have grown as a player and see all the things I have worked on to get to this level, you get to see how far you have come."

I was still writing when the scrimmage for the World University Games began. I caught the tail end of the one where Maya Moore was on the White team and Tiffany Hayes was on the Blue squad. Tina Charles' group came up next and she had four points and two rebounds while playing alongside Stanford's Jayne Appel.