When Tonya Cardoza left after the 2007-08 season to become the head coach at Temple, the name for former UConn star Shea Ralph's name came up almost immediately. It seemed like a perfect fit as long as she was willing to leave her gig as an assistant coach at Pittsburgh.

She was and by all accounts, brought a different dimension to the UConn staff not accustomed to shifts in personnel.

Finding a replacement for Jamelle Elliott, who will be named the head coach at Cincinnati today, could be a different story. Logic would dictate that UConn would want to bring in a minority coach with none currently on the staff. The most obvious name to be thrown out there is Tamika (Williams) Raymond, a member of the 2000 and 2002 national championship teams at UConn. Raymond has had a successful stint at Ohio State before moving to Kansas this past season. The only problem with Raymond coming to UConn is it was the chance to find a job closer to her Texas-based husband which led her to leave Ohio State in the first place. Unless her husband's job situation has changed, I just don't see her being a viable candidate.

It is not written in stone that Elliott's replacement has to be a former UConn player. While I have no info AND I REPEAT "NO INFO" that their names have come up or will even be considered, I do have four names to throw out there.

The first is Connecticut Sun assistant coach Bernadette Mattox who has a rather impressive resume dating back to her days as an assistant coach on Kentucky's men's basketball team before becoming Kentucky's women's coach. Mattox has been on the staff of Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault since the franchise moved from Orlando in 2003 so she certainly knows Connecticut. However, her family is comfortably situated in Kentucky so I am not sure if she wants to uproot them but she would be a nice fit at UConn both in coaching ability and personality. She did coach against Auriemma in the 1999 Coaches vs. Cancer event at the Hartford Civic Center and almost led the Wildcats to an upset before UConn emerged with a 68-62 win.

Taking into consideration that UConn would preferably like to find somebody to coach the post players, I throw out the name of Minnesota Lynx assistant coach Jen Gillom. In 2008, Gillom's first in Minnesota, she earned rave reviews in the development of rookies Nicky Anosike and Charde Houston. She actually was able to get through more to Houston in one summer than Auriemma did in his four years coaching her at UConn. She is a first-place individual who would be a sensational recruiter.

It is no coincidence that the first two names are WNBA assistants since there was talk in the offseason that the WNBA was going to eliminate one of the paid assistant coaching positions in a cost-cutting move. That could still happen but not for the upcoming season. Still, if I were a WNBA assistant, I would be concerned enough to consider a move to a college staff.

Next is Tom Garrick, who stepped down as the head coach at Rhode Island after the season. As recently as last month Garrick was quoted as saying he would like to coach again. Garrick was 56-112 in five seasons at Rhode Island so it is fair to say the jury is still out but he is a former NBA player with New England ties and he has that working for him.

The last one is the only one to have worked with Auriemma. In 2001 when Auriemma was the head coach of the 2001 U.S. Junior National team, one of his assistant coaches was Willette White, who was the head coach at Northeastern at the time. More recently White had assistant coaching stints in the Pac-10 but she is not a part of Oregon's new staff under Paul Westhead. I have no recollection of ever hearing Auriemma mentioning White's name - either in a positive or negative light - and don't know his take on White but you always look for some sort of connection when it comes to filling a vacancy and there is one in this case.

Again, don't take these candidates as anything more than potential options, just one person's thoughts. This much I do know, the chance to join a staff coming off a 39-0 season and the program's sixth national title will be a golden opportunity for somebody. Using Auriemma's track record as a frame of reference, I would expect a first-rate coach and person to be joining the staff.

Stay tuned.

Notice I didn't even mention the one minority coach who led her team to three straight Final Fours. At some point former LSU coach Pokey Chatman will return to coach in the U.S. but considering the accusations that flew as she resigned in 2007, whoever hires Chatman will need to be prepared for significant amount of backlash. Chatman's 90-14 record as LSU's head coach (105-19 is you count her time as LSU's interim coach for an ill Sue Gunter in 2004) and it is clear she knows how to coach but allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships with her players makes her return to the college game a rather large question mark and a road I wonder UConn really wants to navigate.

Speaking of coaching facing accusations, I just noticed the story of Chaminade Julienne coach Marc Greenberg, who coached not only Tamika Raymond in high school but UConn commit Samarie Walker.

Greenberg has been arrested allegedly using the Internet for the exploitation of minors and his current Chaminade Julienne (Walker included) were interviewed at school by FBI officials and members of the Dayton, Ohio police department about the Greenberg's actions.