There will be a conference call tomorrow where USA Basketball will announce the players who figure to form the nucleus of the 2012 Olympic team. The key word here is "figure."

The bottom line is the powers that be in USA Basketball want to hold a training camp somewhere between the end of the WNBA season and the time where the players head overseas and tomorrow's announcement will be a beginning of that process.

Expect many familiar names including ex-UConn stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi to top the list. However bear in mind that in 2006, 26 players appeared in games for the U.S. Senior National Team. None were named Lisa Leslie, who started all eight games in the 2008 Olympics. Of the top eight scorers on the team in 2006, only four were members of the Olympic squad two years later. What I'm trying to say is that the best players in 2009 and 2010 may not be the best players when the Olympic team takes the court in London in 2012. Exhibit A is Cappie Pondexter. The former Rutgers star was 23rd in minutes played in 22nd in points scored with the national team in 2006 but played a key, if a bit of an understated, role on the Olympic squad two years later.

The program has to start preparing for the 2010 World Championships at some point and that is what tomorrow afternoon's call (including UConn and U.S. Senior National team coach Geno Auriemma, USA Basketball executive director Jim Tooley and
women’s national team director Carol Callan and select national-team players) is about.

Auriemma didn't win six national titles by taking unnecessary risks with the health of his players so don't look for reigning national collegiate player of the year Maya Moore to be on the initial list nor should she be. Moore's time on the national team will come, whether that comes in 2010, 2011 or 2012 still remains to be seen. Her priorities should be on making sure she is 100 percent physically heading into her junior season and trust me, that is what she has been focusing on since returning to campus after not playing in the World University Games because of a sprained knee.

With Bird, Taurasi, Fowles (the leading scorer on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team who played 25 minutes in two games with the squad in 2006), Candace Parker, Cappie Pondexter, Tamika Catchings and Seimone Augustus (who is currently sidelined with a knee injury which should keep her off the court for the national team training camp in the fall), the core players the U.S. will be calling on in the quest for another run at Olympic gold are among the best players in the world. The challenge will be meshing some new blood with the impressive nucleus of returning players.