One of the most intriguing sidebars from my coverage of UConn's methodical march to the national title last season was the relationship between Sue Bird and Renee Montgomery.

One day at the end of an interview session, the irrepressible Montgomery mentioned that she is in contact with Bird on a regular basis. I never got around to writing the story. Bird being in Russia may have had something to do with that. Well, with Montgomery and Bird both being at the U.S. national team training camp, I was granted a reprieve so there will be a story in Sunday's edition of the Register about the common bond the two former Huskies share even though this week marked the first time they played on the same team.

I also spoke with former UConn star Asjha Jones on a variety of topics and will include some of those tid bits at some point in this blog. My last interview on Friday was with
Carol Callan, USA Basketball's women's national team director.

Among the highlights were Callan saying she was optimistic that the WNBA schedule in 2010 will end in time for there to be a national team training camp before the U.S. team heads to Czech Republic in September for the World Championships. She also said that playing exhibition games against college teams in 2010 was never the plan so the fact that the training camp will be held about a month before college teams can hold their first official practice is irrelevant. She said the hope is to schedule an exhibition game against another squad or squads competing in the World Championships is the goal. She said it's too early to think about setting up exhibition games with college teams in 2011.

Callan was fired up about the quality of play in the WNBA finals.

"We've all been talking about it, it's been so exciting to watch," Callan said.

Seeing the roles that U.S. national team core players Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter and Tamika Catchings "reinforces that we made the right decision (in making them among the eight core players).

Callan also said there is no rush to name the final assistant coach for the World Championship squad to go with head coach Geno Auriemma and assistants Doug Bruno and Jen Gillom.

DOTY HAS ONE CATCH
Kevin Doty, the twin brother of UConn's Caroline Doty, had a 14-yard reception on the Lafayette football team's first offensive play. However, he took a devastating hit from Yale's hard-hitting safety Larry Abare and needed to be helped off the field. I didn't notice if Doty was able to come back into the game. The visiting fans sit all the way across the field so I couldn't tell how many members of the Doty clan or if any of Doty's UConn teammates made it to the game but I would anticipate that Kevin Doty had a sizeable cheering section just knowing how tight knit the Doty family is.

Lafayette won 31-14.