It should come as little shock that UConn's Maya Moore and Tina Charles were selected to the preseason Associated Press All-American team.

Moore, the reigning consensus national player, was an unanimous pick after a brilliant sophomore season when she averaged 19.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.5 blocks.

Charles, the most outstanding player in the 2009 Final Four, averaged 16.5 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks as a junior.

Moore and Charles were joined on the first team by Stanford's Jayne Appel, Monica Wright of Virginia and Jantel Lavender of Ohio State.

This is the first time two teammates were preseason AP All-Americans since UConn's Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph were so honored in 2000. Considering that neither Abrosimova nor Ralph were able to finish the season because of foot and knee injuries respectively, I am sure the UConn faithful is hoping this is one bit of history that is not repeated.

For the sake of full disclosure, this is my first year as a voter in the AP poll and my picks were Moore, Charles, Appel, Wright and LSU's Allison Hightower.

UConn plays its first exhibition game on Thursday against the College of Saint Rose. The game will start at 7:35 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion.

DRAFT LOTTERY SET FOR THURSDAY
Speaking of Charles and Appel, the winner of Thursday's WNBA draft lottery will get the chance to pick between the two gifted post players.

The Sacramento Monarchs have a 42 percent chance of getting the top pick. Minnesota, which owns both its pick and New York's lottery selection, have 42.8 percent of picking first while Connecticut and Chicago each have a 7.6 percent opportunity of securing the top pick.

Here's the portion of the release which mentions how the lottery will be conducted.

WNBA officials and a representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will conduct the Draft Lottery in New York City. The lottery will establish the first five picks of the draft. The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third round is determined by inverse order of the teams' respective regular-season records.

Fourteen balls numbered 1-14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed. Four balls will then be drawn to the top to determine a four-digit combination. The team that has been assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The four balls will then be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second and third picks.

There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. One thousand of those combinations will be assigned to the five non-playoff teams based on their order of finish in the 2009 regular season. The remaining combination will be unassigned. If the one unassigned combination is drawn, the balls will be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated until an assigned combination is drawn.

Following are the number of chances for teams in the WNBA Draft Lottery:
2010 WNBA LOTTERY TEAMS
Team Record Chances (out of 1,000)
1. Sacramento 12-22 420
2. Minnesota (from New York) 13-21 261
3. Minnesota 14-20 167
4. Connecticut 16-18 76
5. Chicago 16-18 76

Following is the remaining order for the first round as determined by overall records from 2009:

REMAINING ORDER FOR FIRST ROUND
Team Record
6. San Antonio 15-19
7. Washington 16-18
8. Tulsa 18-16
9. Los Angeles 18-16
10. Atlanta 18-16
11. Seattle 20-14
12. Indiana 22-12
13. Los Angeles (from Phoenix) 23-11