As you can imagine, most of my attention in my time at the USA Basketball team trials in Colorado Springs last week was focused on current UConn players Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Tiffany Hayes as well as incoming freshman Kelly Faris. But I did some interviews with a look towards the future.

I had a nice sit down with UConn commit Samarie Walker (OK, she was sitting and I was standing since she had a grueling journey en route from her Dayton, Ohio home). Most of our conversation have been documented in previous blog entries.

The first interview I conducted was with Court Coach Russ Davis, who happens to be the AAU coach of UConn commit Lauren Engeln. I also had a nice chat with Stanford rising sophomore Nneka Ogwumike with much of the interview having to do with her younger sister Chiney who is most definitely on UConn's recruiting radar. Since Chiney was invited to last year's 18-and-under trials, I was certain Chiney (pronounced Che-Nay) would be in Colorado Springs. However, if she received an invite and declined, that was news to her big sis.

Nneka made it clear that the sisters are not a package deal. Nneka would love to see Chiney at Stanford but is not putting any pressure on her to choose the Cardinal.

"I know as much as you do, I am not trying to sway her one way or another," Nneka said. "I am just letting her do her thing, when she has questions about the recruiting process I let her know 'this is what they did for me.' Other than that, the decision is solely up to her. She asks me questions but I am never pressuring her or badgering her to do anything."

I asked Nneka to describe Chiney's game.

"I have centralized my game inside and tried to work on it," Nneka said. "She started working around the paint earlier than I did which has definitely improved her game in the sense that she is not limited to one thing. There are several different things you can do at different positions, how to be a post with ball handling skills and I think that is one of her biggest assets."

Now to my interview with Russ Davis, he has been involved with the California girls' basketball scene for more than a few years and sees similarities in Lauren Engeln's love for basketball to another California product who played a little ball at UConn.

"I have been around a long time so I remember Diana (Taurasi) when she was playing in the sixth grade on," Davis said. "She is not Diana, nobody is Diana but she loves the game and plays like her. One of my favorite Diana stories is Diana was a counselor one year at Nike All-American Camp in Indianapolis and she was up for an ESPY. They wanted her to go to Vegas for the ESPY awards and she didn't want to go because she wanted to stay back with the high school girls and play in the pick-up games with all the other counselors. She is just a rare breed. Lauren is the same way as far as that. I am not comparing them (as players), I am comparing their love of the game and how much time they put in, how they will try to find a pick-up game or play wherever they can."

Davis coaches Engeln on the Cal Swish Black team which also includes fellow promising high school juniors Cassie Harberts and Lyndsay Sherbert. He utilizes Englen at a number of positions on the court.

"The biggest thing with Lauren is if you watch her play, you can tell that she is a basketball player," Davis said. "She is a long and lanky and in the last three months she has done the personal training and really worked on her strength too. I am really happy with her latest because she is crashing the boards, going to the hole strong. She can play multiple positions, we play her at the 1 (point guard), 2 (shooting guard), 3 (small forward). She is a big guard, she can guard bigger people, she is long, athletic and she is a girl who just plays basketball all day long. She doesn't do anything particularly flashy, she is one of those types who will work with her high school team and practice two hours, will go with a personal trainer for an hour and then come to practice and shoot for two hours. She does that every day, she just wants to be the best she can be. She wants to play against the best so it became an easy decision for her where she wanted to go."

Davis was on vacation in Hawaii in August when UConn coach Geno Auriemma reached out to him inquiring about Englen's recruiting situation. When Davis told him she was still wide open, Auriemma used the next NCAA-mandated viewing period as a chance to jump on a plane, fly across the country to see Engeln play before flying home the next morning.

"That's when I knew he was really interested," Davis said. "It was just a matter of Lauren believing and wanting it. That is a big-time commitment and she wanted that. When she went on the visit, met the players, saw the coaches, it became pretty evident to me that was where she was going to go. Once they offered, it was just a matter of her crossing the t's, dotting the i's and making sure it was a done deal.

"She wants to play against the best and she wants to be the best, if that in Connecticut, if that is in San Diego, if that is in Alaska, that is what she wants to do. It doesn't really matter where it is at, that is what she wants. She went with her family out to the Final Four to watch them, watched them win a championship and that made them even more excited."

When July hits, Engeln and her Cal Swish Black teammates will be rather busy playing in the End of the Oregon Trail Tournament from July 5-9, the Swish Summer Shootout in California on July 10 before heading to Chicago for the Nike Summer Showcase. From July 21-25, they will be in Nashville, Tenn. for the Music City Madness event. The hectic schedule will end with participation in the Nike Nationals from July 28-31 in Augusta, Ga.

A few housekeeping items from the announcement of the 28 finalists for the World University Games and Under-19 teams.

Stanford leads the way the five representatives as Jayne Appel, Kayla Pedersen and Jeanette Pohlen are among the 14 WUG finalists while Ogwumike and Sarah Boothe made the cut for the U-19 squad.

UConn is next with Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Tiffany Hayes being invited back for the World University Games' team training camp and incoming freshman is still in the mix for the U-19 squad. Cal and Ohio State with one player on each squad are the only other schools with multiple representatives.

The Pac-10 tops all conference with seven candidates followed by the Big East's six and five SEC players being named finalists.

There have been just five colleges to have three teammates on the same World University Games team (not including 2003 when a team of Big 12 All-Stars and in 2007 when North Carolina-Charlotte represented the U.S. at the World University Games). Stanford and UConn currently have three players in contention although two of the 14 players will need to be cut before the team leaves for the World University Games.

Here are the trios who accomplished the feat
Wayland Baptist 1973 (Janice Beach, Brenda Moeller, Cherri Rapp)
North Carolina State 1979 (Genia Beasley, Debbie Groover, Ginger Rouse)
Tennesee 1983 (Shelia Collins, Lea Henry, Mary Ostowski)
Southern California 1987 (Karon Howell, Monica Lamb, Rhonda Windham)
Auburn 1991 (Ruthie Bolton, Linda Godby, Carolyn Jones)

Three UConn players have played for the U.S. in the World University Games. Kerry Bascom was a member of the 1991 championship team, Kara Wolters played in the 1995 and 1997 events while Nykesha Sales was a teammate of Wolters on the 1997 championship team.

An interesting note is that Bascom still owns the U.S. mark with a 58.8 3-point percentage in the event, Wolters holds the U.S. record with 13 blocked shots in 1997 and her 70.7 field-goal percentage that year was the standard until Sylvia Fowles broke it in 2005. Sales' 32 points against Cuba in 1997 is the third highest scoring game for a U.S. player in the WUG (Ruthie Bolton had 40 against Romania in 1991 and Katrina McClain 38 against the People's Republic of Korea in 1985).

With that, let's call it a wrap in terms of coverage from my trip to Colorado. Now my focus turns to tomorrow's Connecticut Sun media day.