It's hard to comprehend that next weekend the UConn women's basketball team will hold its first official practice. It just seems like I returned from St. Louis after documenting the Huskies' run to a third perfect season and sixth national title.

A few items to report from my phone interview with Geno Auriemma on Sunday.

First, if he knows when the national championship banner is being unveiled, he is not saying. I asked him if it would happen during the "First Night" festivities on Oct. 16 or if they would wait until the season opener on Nov. 14 against Northeastern.

"I haven't really talked to anybody back there about that," Auriemma said. "I am sure we will have that decision soon but I haven't really thought that much about it. I'll let the marketing people decide that."

Speaking of First Night, here are some details about the annual fan fest. The doors open at 6 p.m. with the event expected to run from 7-8.

Auriemma had high praise for his U.S. national team assistant coach Jen Gillom even comparing her to Jamelle Elliott. Anybody who knows anything about the high esteem he holds Elliott, his former player and assistant coach who is going into her first season as the head coach at Cincinnati, should be impressed by the following quote.

"Jen's unbelievable, she reminds me a lot of Jamelle," Auriemma said. "She is high energy, high intensity, she was a great, great player and she things she's doing with some of our post players, I can see the results already. She is wonderful, she was like that as a player when I doing some ESPN games and she is like that here. I don't think there could have been a better choice."

The other assistant coach, DePaul's Doug Bruno, is one of Auriemma's closest friends so it goes without saying that Auriemma is thrilled to be working with him as well.

If space permits, the story I wrote on Auriemma's first training camp as the U.S. national team coach should appear in Tuesday's edition of the Register.