In the midst of my telephone interview with Renee Montgomery this afternoon, the former UConn star had a hard time holding in the laughter. It was not from my latest line of questioning but some good-natured ribbing from former Maryland star Crystal Langhorne.

Langhorne was one of the non-UConn products having some fun at the expense of Montgomery, one of six former or current Huskies at the first U.S. national team training camp being run by UConn coach Geno Auriemma.

"She said everybody else just stands there looking and all of us know what is about to happen and they look confused," Montgomery said with a laugh. "That's a quote from Crystal Langhorne. I try to explain everything, there are a lot of plays being thrown out and I already know the names and what they are and try to help as much as I can."

"Seeing as how we have been doing a lot of UConn stuff or should I say everything UConn, it’s simple for me to play in the system because I’ve been playing in the system for four years. That has been a comfort to me, just knowing what Coach wants to be run. It’s a lot of the same stuff, the same concepts. Coach is going to be Coach so I kind of know what he wants and know how he likes to have the offense run."

Montgomery and the other UConn products (Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Tina Charles and Maya Moore) at the training camp in Washington, D.C. have been happy to serve as translators and also make it clear that nobody is safe from Auriemma's legendary caustic wit.

"I feel like the old wise person because you know what he wants, what is going to make him mad and what is OK," Jones said. "You just help out everybody else who hasn’t had the pleasure of playing for him, when he tells you to do something he wants it exactly the way he said it. There is not a lot of mixing it up. He is pretty particular, he does things for a reason."

Candace Parker arrived at training camp on Friday, bringing the number of attendees who can practice to 14. Of the 23 originally invited, Tamika Catchings, Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter and Ebony Hoffman are still playing in the WNBA finals, Jayne Appel, Seimone Augustus, Alana Beard, Kara Lawson and Lindsay Whalen are injured and can not practice.

An official with USA Basketball said there is no minimum or maximum number of players they will bring to Russia for three international friendlies. The quartet of players vying for the WNBA title will not be there and UConn's Maya Moore won't be able to go because of a conflict with her school work. The other 12 players could all be a part of the trip but if any of them have lingering injury issues, it is possible the number could be smaller than that.

Speaking of UConn products, former Duke star Alana Beard had some praise for the two active UConn players.

"Tina Charles. I’ve never seen her play and I’m very impressed by her," Beard said in a story on the USA Basketball site. "As a big girl she’s very agile and in control of everything that she does. She impresses me a lot. And then Maya Moore, I’ve really never gotten the chance to see her play either. Both of them are very impressive to me in what they can do. They’re very poised, considering they are among a lot of older, experienced players. "