Kelly Faris, UConn's only incoming freshman, and Samarie Walker, one of four high school juniors to orally commit to UConn, are among 27 players who have accepted invitations to try out for the U.S. Under-19 national team. Walker is the only high school junior to accept an invite to the trials.

Former Trinity Catholic star Da'Shena Stevens, named the Big Eats Freshman of the Year after a brilliant rookie season at St. John's, will also be taking part in the trials from May 14-17 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Here's the complete list
LaSondra Barrett F 6-2 161 03/16/90 2012 Louisiana State Jackson, MS
Kelsey Bone C 6-5 210 12/31/91 2009 Dulles H.S. / #South Carolina Stafford, TX
Sarah Boothe C 6-5 212 07/08/90 2012 Stanford Gurnee, IL
Sydney Carter G 5-6 135 11/18/90 2012 Texas A&M DeSoto, TX
Layshia Clarendon G 5-10 135 05/02/91 2009 Cajon H.S. / #California San Bernadino, CA
Skylar Diggins G 5-10 145 08/02/90 2009 Washington H.S. / #Notre Dame South Bend, IN
Kelly Faris G 5-11 155 01/16/91 2009 Heritage Christian H.S. / #Conn. Plainfield, IN
Nikki Greene C 6-4 000 09/06/90 2009 Diboll H.S. / #Penn State Diboll, TX
Keisha Hampton F 6-2 170 02/22/90 2012 DePaul Philadelphia, PA
Tayler Hill G 5-10 159 10/23/90 2009 South H.S. / #Ohio State Minneapolis, MN
Shenise Johnson F 5-11 164 12/08/90 2012 Miami (FL) Henrietta, NY
Kierra Mallard C 6-2 193 06/20/90 2012 Texas Tech Dallas, TX
Lindsey Moore G 5-10 000 06/03/91 2009 Kentwood H.S. / #Nebraska Covington, WA
Atonye Nyingifa G/F 5-11 170 12/08/90 2012 UCLA Torrance, CA
Nnemkadi Ogwumike F 6-2 188 07/02/90 2012 Stanford Cypress, TX
Samantha Prahalis G 5-7 130 01/23/90 2012 Ohio State Dix Hills, NY
Ceira Ricketts G 5-9 143 02/22/90 2012 Arkansas Louisville, KY
Tierra Ruffin-Pratt G 5-11 170 04/11/91 2009 T.C. Williams H.S. / #UNC Alexandria, VA
Chay Shegog F/C 6-5 204 02/22/90 2012 North Carolina Stafford, VA
Andrea Smith G 5-8 146 07/19/90 2010 Gulf Coast C.C. Lakeland, FL
Taber Spani G 6-1 180 01/27/91 2009 Metro Academy / #Tennessee Lee's Summit, MO
Nikki Speed G 5-9 140 04/30/90 2012 Rutgers Pasadena, CA
Da'Shena Stevens F 6-1 170 09/25/90 2012 St. John's Stamford, CT
Markel Walker G 6-1 172 11/07/90 2009 Schenley H.S. / #UCLA Pittsburgh, PA
Samarie Walker F 6-1 170 09/15/92 2010 Chaminade-Julienne H.S. / *Conn. Dayton, OH
Destiny Williams F/C 6-3 181 09/20/91 2009 Benton Harbor H.S. / #Illinois Benton Harbor, MI
Shawnice Wilson C 6-6 235 08/08/90 2012 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA

Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Tiffany Hayes, who comprised 60 percent of the starting lineup for UConn's national championship team, are among 29 players who have accepted invitations to try out for the World University Games.

The trials will be held from May 14-17 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The list will be cut down at the end of the trials with the finalists being invited back to Colorado Springs on June 18 for training camp. The 12-player roster will be announced before the team leaves for Serbia on June 25.

The list of invitees for the Under-19 team is expected to be released later this week and as previously reported will include UConn incoming freshman Kelly Faris as well as former Trinity Catholic star Da'Shena Stevens, who edged out Hayes to win the Big East Freshman of the Year. Hayes missed out on the U-19 age cutoff by less than 3 1/2 months since you have to be born no earlier than Jan. 1, 1990 to be eligible for that team and she was born on Sept. 20, 1989.

Here's the list of candidates for the World University Games team

USA WOMENS WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES TEAM TRIALS ROSTER
NAME POS HGT WGT DOB YOG SCHOOOL HOMETOWN
Danielle Adams G 6-1 215 02/19/89 2009 Jefferson College Kansas City, MO
Jayne Appel F 6-4 210 05/14/88 2010 Stanford Pleasant Hill, CA
Jessica Breland F 6-3 164 02/23/88 2010 North Carolina Kelford, NC
Doreena Campbell G 5-9 142 07/03/89 2011 UCLA Alexandria, VA
Tina Charles C 6-3 193 12/05/88 2010 Connecticut Jamaica, NY
Alysha Clark F 5-10 162 07/07/87 2010 Middle Tennessee State Mt. Juliet, TN
Cetera DeGraffenreid G 5-5 140 12/05/88 2011 North Carolina Cullowhee, NC
Dawn Evans G 5-7 135 06/30/89 2011 James Madison Clarksville, TN
Tyra Grant G 5-11 166 08/27/88 2010 Penn State Youngstown, OH
Alexis Gray-Lawson G 5-8 160 04/21/87 2010 California Oakland, CA
Whitney Hand G 6-1 165 08/16/89 2012 Oklahoma Fort Worth, TX
Tiffany Hayes G 5-11 140 09/20/89 2012 Connecticut Lakeland, FL
Allison Hightower G/F 5-11 144 04/06/88 2010 LSU Arlington, TX
Ashley Houts G 5-6 144 12/31/87 2010 Georgia Trenton, GA
Ify Ibekwe F 6-2 158 10/05/89 2011 Arizona Carson, CA
Amy Jaeschke F 6-5 225 04/26/89 2011 Northwestern Wilmette, IL
Jantel Lavender C 6-4 210 11/11/88 2011 Ohio State Cleveland, OH
Danielle McCray G/F 5-11 169 10/08/87 2010 Kansas Olathe, KS
Jacinta Monroe F/C 6-5 166 09/04/88 2010 Florida State Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Maya Moore F 6-0 170 06/11/89 2011 Connecticut Lawrenceville, GA
Kayla Pedersen G/F 6-4 195 04/14/89 2011 Stanford Fountain Hills, AZ
Ta'Shia Phillips C 6-6 225 01/24/89 2011 Xavier Indianapolis, IN
Jeanette Pohlen G 5-11 168 05/02/89 2011 Stanford Brea, CA
Epiphanny Prince G 5-9 160 01/11/88 2011 Rutgers Brooklyn, NY
Alex Rack G 5-4 140 09/15/88 2010 Mississippi State Franklin, LA
Danielle Robinson G 5-8 130 05/10/89 2011 Oklahoma San Jose, CA
Carolyn Swords C 6-6 220 07/19/89 2011 Boston College Sudbury, MA
Courtney Vandersloot G 5-8 135 02/08/89 2011 Gonzaga Kent, WA
Natasha Vital G 5-8 145 06/09/88 2010 California Stockton, CA
Head Coach: Charli Turner Thorne, Arizona State
Assistant Coach: Suzy Merchant, Michigan State
Assistant Coach: Julie Rousseau, Pepperdine


MORE COACHING VACANCY THOUGHTS
One item that I found fascinating but was unable to get into my story on the hiring of Jamelle Elliott as the new women's basketball coach at Cincinnati is that she often spoke with fellow long-time UConn assistant coach Tonya Cardoza about the time when they would leave UConn to take over their own programs. They often dreamed of leaving at the same time but Cardoza said they never wanted to do that or anything that would hurt the UConn program. It's probably not a coincidence that Elliott was in the running for at least three jobs (Fairfield, Penn State and George Washington) between the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons but with Cardoza landing the gig at Temple in the last offseason, Elliott was not actively pursuing any job openings during that time. That little tid bit speaks to the quality of character possessed by both Cardoza and Elliott and I expect Elliott's replacement will be of similar ilk.

There has been speculation (including right here on this blog) that the next UConn assistant will be an African-American since UConn has no black coaches on its staff. While that it not a certainty as UConn will look to hire the best candidate, I got to wondering how many other top programs have all-white coaching staffs. I checked on the staffs of the 25 teams in the final Associated Press poll of the season and found that only Oklahoma, South Dakota State and Kansas State had a staff with no black coaches.

AURIEMMA HONORED
Auriemma will receive the Winged Foot Award on Thursday evening at the New York Athletic Club for leading the Huskies to the 2009 national championship. North Carolina men's basketball coach Roy Williams will also be honored after coaching the Tar Heels to the men's Division I title.
It will be the fifth time Auriemma will receive the Winged Foot Award which first began honoring the coach of the women's Division I national championship team in 1999.

In recent years, the state of Ohio has been very kind of the UConn women's basketball program.

Dating back to landing highly-touted Tamika Williams out of Dayton, the Huskies have been able to pluck some of the top talent out of the state.

A quick breakdown of 1,000-point scorers in UConn history shows that Ohio is tied for third behind Pennsylvania and Connecticut for having the most members of the 1,000-point club.

Pennsylvania 5 (Swin Cash, Wendy Davis, Leigh Curl, Meghan Pattyson, Ashley Battle)
Connecticut 4 (Nykesha Sales, Jen Rizzotti, Cathy Bochain, Laura Lishness)
Ohio 3 (Barbara Turner, Tamika Williams, Mel Thomas)
Massachusetts 3 (Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, Carla Berube).

Not only did UConn land Turner, Brittany Hunter and Thomas out of Ohio but have a commitment from Samarie Walker, considered by many as the high school junior in the state of Ohio and recently began to show interest in another of the state's top players - Natasha Howard.

Ironically, Jamelle Elliott played a significant role in UConn's recruiting success in the midwest and now she is the head coach at Cincinnati where she places a high priority in enticing Ohio's top players to remain within the state boundries.

"I am aware, being at Connecticut for so long, how much talent is in the state of Ohio," Elliott said. "One of my top priorities is to make sure of hopefully make sure that some of the talent that is in the state of Ohio is going to stay here in the state and will want to join the family here at the University of Cincinnati."

That hasn't been the case in recent years. Using one internet recruiting base as a guide, only one of the top five players in Ohio (Ohio State commit Emilie Harmon) has chosen to remain in state among the incoming freshmen as Mikaela Reuf is going to Stanford, Karisma Penn is headed to Illinois, Kendall Hackney will play at Southern California and Alexis Rogers has signed with Duke. The story was the same last year as the top four rated players from Ohio (Amber Gray/Tennessee, Cierra Bravard/Florida State, Shany Selby/Duke, Ayana Dunning/LSU) left the state.

If a top-notch recruiter like Elliott can go in and change Cincinnati's fortunes, it would stand to reason that the prospects of powerhouses like UConn and Tennessee landing the top players from Ohio will become a little more challenging.

"Ohio is a big basketball state, especially on the women's side," Turner said. "They love women's basketball and if they can bring success to Cincinnati it will be amazing energy because they have Ohio State there and they support their women's team really well and Jamelle can get some of the same support and will be able to attract those Ohio kids."

Before UConn played at Cincinnati in January, I asked UConn coach Geno Auriemma to pinpoint the secret for his success recruiting in Ohio.

"I think the No. 1 reason is that there is just so many of them in that state," Auriemma said. "There may be more players in Ohio than any other state in the country because girls' basketball is really good and it is really important in Ohio so you've got this tremendous depth of talent and then you get kind of lucky that it is the right kinds of kids in Ohio who have seen others have success and they want to be a part of it. From some areas of the country, kids are unwilling to leave. You talk about the midwest, you can get those kids to come east. There are certain places where people will want to go to school regardless of where they live. The South is hard, it is not as easy to get kids from coming down south but Ohio has so many good players."

Turner raved about Elliott's ability to communicate with players and believes she will turn the Cincinnati program around.

"I think her strength is how she relates to the players," Turner said. "She was that coach you would go to and talk to her about any problems or issues that you had and you would get her honest opinion on anything. I think that is what I enjoy the most of being able to play for her. She is at a school like Connecticut and has coached under somebody like Coach Auriemma for (12) years and there is no better experience than that to walk into a head coaching job after working for Coach Auriemma for such a long time."

Turner is currently in Houston working with former NBA star John Lucas. She credits her work with Lucas in the offseason last year in helping her make the transition from undersized WNBA forward to effective perimeter player. Now she wants to take the next step.

"Coming off the season I had last year, I am looking to get better that is why I am down here with John just putting in my time," Turner said. "I'm working on more of the same stuff, just fine tuning it. I'm trying to become a better perimeter player, making myself more comfortable playing out on the perimeter. That is really all I can work on, being more explosive is the obvious thing."

MEA CULPA
A mind is a mysterious thing. I can remember complete conversations I had 10 years ago, I can remember the birthday (April 26) of a girl I went to college with but I have not heard from or seen in more than 15 years but I can't remember that Temple lost to Florida in the first round of the NCAA tournament in March.

If anybody read my story on Elliott's hiring in Wednesday's edition of the Register, I mentioned that Tonya Cardoza's Temple team lost to UConn in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Of course it never happened. That was the matchup people were looking forward to - except those in Gainesville, Florida as the Gators beat Temple in the NCAA opening round in Gampel Pavilion before losing to UConn in the second round. I appreciate the reader who informed me of this error. I despise making factual errors in my stories and pride myself in my accuracy but sometimes mistakes happen. I have already sent in a correction which should run in tomorrow's paper.

It became official when former UConn assistant coach Jamelle Elliott walked into the Fifth Third Arena Tuesday afternoon and was officially introduced as the new women's basketball coach at Cincinnati.

Elliott had two goals at the press conference. The first was to maintain her composure and not break down when asked about her last 12 seasons on UConn coach Geno Auriemma's staff or the four years as a UConn player before heading into the coaching profession. The second was not to confuse the words Connecticut and Cincinnati in her first session with the Cincinnati media. She responded perfectly on the latter but failed miserably in holding back the tears when looking back at her time at UConn.

"Every time I talked about the relationship I had with him, I got kind of filled up (with tears)," Elliott said. "That just goes to shows how much he meant to me and how much I am going to miss him."

Auriemma flew in to be in attendance at the press conference, something that made Elliott even more emotional.

"I spent half my life there. Everybody there prepared me for this moment," Elliott said. "I want to make them proud and I am not going to disappoint them."

Elliott spent the last 17 seasons at UConn, four as a player becoming just the second Husky to finish her career with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, then was a graduate assistant in the UConn business office before beginning a 12-year run as an assistant coach at her alma mater.

She replaces J. Kelley Hall who was fired after Cincinnati finished 15th and 16th in the Big East in his two seasosn and becomes the second assistant coach to leave for a Division I job in the last two seasons. Tonya Cardoza led Temple to the NCAA tournament in her first season before losing to UConn in the second round at Gampel Pavilion.

"I heard about from somebody else other than Jamelle and I let her know that I wasn't happy about that," Cardoza said with a laugh. "I spoke with her and said I heard she was a candidate for the job. She said they had offered her the job and was thinking about taking it. I'm really happy for her, it is a great opportunity and it is something I know she has wanted for a while."

It won't be easy. Cincinnati was on the verge of setting a Big East record for fewest points in a half before a Kayla Roudebush 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds of the first half allowed the Bearcats to avoid that distinction. The Bearcats do return three starters including Roudebush, the team's leading scorer for the last two seasons.

Elliott will look to put together a staff quickly. Former UConn star and Cincinnati native Mel Thomas will not be a part of it. Elliott said she would love to have made Thomas a graduate assistant but that Thomas still has dreams of playing overseas and giving professional basketball a chance. She plans to meet with Tari Cummings, the only remaining assistant coach and director of basketball operations Tomeka Brown to decide if there are places for them on her first staff. She said she would like to have at least one assistant coach with collegiate head coaching experience but other than that spoke in general terms about the makeup of her staff.

Elliott said keeping more of the Ohio high school stars in the state is a priority of hers.

"I am aware, being at Connecticut for so long, how much talent is in the state of Ohio," Elliott said. "One of my top priorities is to make sure of hopefully make sure that some of the talent that is in the state of Ohio is going to stay here in the state and will want to join the family here at the University of Cincinnati."

UConn moved quickly to bring in Shea Ralph when Cardoza left a year ago and don't be surprised if they act quickly again.

Elliott met with the UConn players on Monday and admitted it was extremely emotional speaking with rising senior post players Tina Charles and Kaili McLaren who she worked with every day in practice but they knew this was a good opportunity for her and they were more happy for her than they were saddened by her departure.

Cardoza mentioned that she would love to start a series with Cincinnati so she could play against her close friend and that if they could have dropped a game, Temple could very well have been coming to UConn to play in the three-game WBCA Classic. She is looking to either the 2010-11 or 2011-12 seasons to set up a game against UConn. Elliott was a little overwhelmed with so many other things that future non-conference opponents were pretty far down on her radar screen but did say she could see Cincinnati and Temple playing each other down the road.

The press conference announcing former UConn assistant coach Jamelle Elliott as the new coach at Cincinnati will be airing live on the Cincinnati website.

I'll have to say the biggest challenge ahead of Elliott won't actually be winning games it will be changing the culture in the program and the program's visibility. By my count, 13 of Cincinnati's home games last season drew fewer than 500 fans.

Her first order of business will be putting together a staff quickly so they can hit the ground running by the time coaches are allowed to go back on the road in July. Tari Cummings is the only assistant coach still listed on the team roster while the bio of director of basketball operations Tomeka Brown also has her bio still up on the website. The Bearcats do return three of their four top scorers from last season including leading scorer Kahla Roudebush so Elliott may not have too much work to do to turn around Cincinnati's on-court fortunes.

If I were Elliott (luckily for her I am not) my first call would go to former Georgetown head coach Pat Knapp, recently let go at Pennsylvania. Knapp is a close friend of UConn coach Geno Auriemma's and certainly knows the Big East thanks to his 18-year stint with the Hoyas and being that Elliott is a native of Washington, D.C., it could be a decent fit. Sure, Knapp is a bit quirky like the time when he opted not to get on the team bus after a particularly poor effort by his team at Gampel Pavilion and chose to get a cab to take him to Hartford. Anybody who has ever been in Storrs can attest to how difficult that could be. Have you ever seen a taxi in Storrs? Me neither. Naturally, it would not be a shock if Elliott placed a call to former UConn star Mel Thomas, a Cincinnati native. Something tells me that the competitor in Thomas wants to at least see if she can make the Seattle Storm first before she decides to give coaching a try but the chance to get a job in her hometown on the staff of one of her former college coaches could be pretty enticing. Next, I would look to get a staff member with ties to the Ohio high school scene since I would think keeping some of the in-state prospects in state would be a major priority.

When Tonya Cardoza left after the 2007-08 season to become the head coach at Temple, the name for former UConn star Shea Ralph's name came up almost immediately. It seemed like a perfect fit as long as she was willing to leave her gig as an assistant coach at Pittsburgh.

She was and by all accounts, brought a different dimension to the UConn staff not accustomed to shifts in personnel.

Finding a replacement for Jamelle Elliott, who will be named the head coach at Cincinnati today, could be a different story. Logic would dictate that UConn would want to bring in a minority coach with none currently on the staff. The most obvious name to be thrown out there is Tamika (Williams) Raymond, a member of the 2000 and 2002 national championship teams at UConn. Raymond has had a successful stint at Ohio State before moving to Kansas this past season. The only problem with Raymond coming to UConn is it was the chance to find a job closer to her Texas-based husband which led her to leave Ohio State in the first place. Unless her husband's job situation has changed, I just don't see her being a viable candidate.

It is not written in stone that Elliott's replacement has to be a former UConn player. While I have no info AND I REPEAT "NO INFO" that their names have come up or will even be considered, I do have four names to throw out there.

The first is Connecticut Sun assistant coach Bernadette Mattox who has a rather impressive resume dating back to her days as an assistant coach on Kentucky's men's basketball team before becoming Kentucky's women's coach. Mattox has been on the staff of Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault since the franchise moved from Orlando in 2003 so she certainly knows Connecticut. However, her family is comfortably situated in Kentucky so I am not sure if she wants to uproot them but she would be a nice fit at UConn both in coaching ability and personality. She did coach against Auriemma in the 1999 Coaches vs. Cancer event at the Hartford Civic Center and almost led the Wildcats to an upset before UConn emerged with a 68-62 win.

Taking into consideration that UConn would preferably like to find somebody to coach the post players, I throw out the name of Minnesota Lynx assistant coach Jen Gillom. In 2008, Gillom's first in Minnesota, she earned rave reviews in the development of rookies Nicky Anosike and Charde Houston. She actually was able to get through more to Houston in one summer than Auriemma did in his four years coaching her at UConn. She is a first-place individual who would be a sensational recruiter.

It is no coincidence that the first two names are WNBA assistants since there was talk in the offseason that the WNBA was going to eliminate one of the paid assistant coaching positions in a cost-cutting move. That could still happen but not for the upcoming season. Still, if I were a WNBA assistant, I would be concerned enough to consider a move to a college staff.

Next is Tom Garrick, who stepped down as the head coach at Rhode Island after the season. As recently as last month Garrick was quoted as saying he would like to coach again. Garrick was 56-112 in five seasons at Rhode Island so it is fair to say the jury is still out but he is a former NBA player with New England ties and he has that working for him.

The last one is the only one to have worked with Auriemma. In 2001 when Auriemma was the head coach of the 2001 U.S. Junior National team, one of his assistant coaches was Willette White, who was the head coach at Northeastern at the time. More recently White had assistant coaching stints in the Pac-10 but she is not a part of Oregon's new staff under Paul Westhead. I have no recollection of ever hearing Auriemma mentioning White's name - either in a positive or negative light - and don't know his take on White but you always look for some sort of connection when it comes to filling a vacancy and there is one in this case.

Again, don't take these candidates as anything more than potential options, just one person's thoughts. This much I do know, the chance to join a staff coming off a 39-0 season and the program's sixth national title will be a golden opportunity for somebody. Using Auriemma's track record as a frame of reference, I would expect a first-rate coach and person to be joining the staff.

Stay tuned.

Notice I didn't even mention the one minority coach who led her team to three straight Final Fours. At some point former LSU coach Pokey Chatman will return to coach in the U.S. but considering the accusations that flew as she resigned in 2007, whoever hires Chatman will need to be prepared for significant amount of backlash. Chatman's 90-14 record as LSU's head coach (105-19 is you count her time as LSU's interim coach for an ill Sue Gunter in 2004) and it is clear she knows how to coach but allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships with her players makes her return to the college game a rather large question mark and a road I wonder UConn really wants to navigate.

Speaking of coaching facing accusations, I just noticed the story of Chaminade Julienne coach Marc Greenberg, who coached not only Tamika Raymond in high school but UConn commit Samarie Walker.

Greenberg has been arrested allegedly using the Internet for the exploitation of minors and his current Chaminade Julienne (Walker included) were interviewed at school by FBI officials and members of the Dayton, Ohio police department about the Greenberg's actions.

Jamelle Elliott, a mainstay of the UConn women's basketball program since she arrived on campus in 1992, has been named the new women's basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati according to a source close to the search.

The hiring will become official at a 4 p.m. press conference on Tuesday the Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati.

Elliott, who graduated from UConn in 1996 after leading the Huskies to Final Four appearances in her junior and senior seasons highlighted by a 35-0 record and the first of six national championships for UConn in the 1994-95 season.

Generally considered to be one of the top recruiters in the nation, Elliott has worked with UConn's post players during her career and is credited for the development of players like Jessica Moore, Kelly Schumacher and most recently Tina Charles and Kaili McLaren.

Elliott was in the running for the Penn State job two years ago which went to former Notre Dame assistant Coquese Washington.

She is the second staff member to leave to take a Division I head job in the last two years as Tonya Cardoza just finished her first season as Temple's head coach.

There is no word on a possible replacement for Elliott at this time.