The good news is that the elbow injury suffered by Connecticut Sun center Chante Black does not appear to be a season-ending one. The bad news is that the Sun will be without its tallest player when the Atlanta Dream, which headed into today's game against Chicago second in the WNBA in rebounding and rebounding margin, comes to the Mohegan Sun on Saturday.

According to team officials, Black suffered a moderate sprain of her left elbow during Sunday's victory over San Antonio. She is not expected to play on Saturday against Atlanta. Her condition will be evaluated following that game by team
physician Ammar Anbari.

Black was injured in the third quarter of a 71-58 Connecticut victory when
she tried to brace herself while falling after colliding with a San Antonio player. She scored a career-high 11 points and her eight rebounds was one shy of her career high. Black started the first six games of the season. She was averaging 4.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.5 blocks for the 3-3 Sun. Veteran Tamika Whitmore, who started 33 games for Connecticut last season, is a likely choice to replace Black in the starting lineup.

With Amber Holt still sidelined with a hand injury, the Sun will only have nine healthy players until either Black or Holt are cleared to play. Following Saturday's game two players will need to be let go as Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and Sandrine Gruda are expected to report to the team before the Sun plays its next game on July 2 at Indiana. It is safe to say that neither Black nor Holt are being considered as possibilities to hit the waiver wire.

There have been no lack of news to report since UConn cut down the nets in St. Louis following the program's sixth national championship.

But in my mind, one of the most intriguing moves was the Big East's decision to end the annual home-and-home series between UConn and Rutgers. Now Notre Dame will be the conference opponent to face UConn twice during the regular season. The UConn/Rutgers has certainly been good for the Big East (most of the time) but obviously those entrusted in the future of the league view Notre Dame as the latest challenger to UConn's Big East dominance. There was a time when the Fighting Irish managed to find itself on equal footing with the Huskies. Back in the 2000-01 season Notre Dame defeated UConn 92-76 at home and after losing a thriller in the Big East tournament final to the Huskies, Notre Dame won the rubber match with a stirring rally in the national semifinals.

Despite wins in 2004 and 2005 over UConn, the Fighting Irish were never able to build on creating a true rivalry with the Huskies. With the teams playing twice now, maybe that will change.

When the San Antonio Silver Stars were in town, I took the opportunity to sit down with its starting center Ruth Riley, the star of that 2000-01 Notre Dame team.

"It is a great matchup," Riley said. "In college basketball, you live for the great matchups. Just a lot of fun and great competition and a lot of history between the two teams. I am sure the girls will be were excited to play in those games and it is great for your home crowd to see UConn play both at Notre Dame and here as well.

"We are going to have a good team. I think Coach (Muffet McGraw) has had to deal with some injuries, that is tough when you lose two girls to ACLs in the same year. With those girls coming back and (national high school player of the year Skylar Diggins) coming in, they are going to be exciting to watch. I wish them the best."

Despite her busy schedule in the WNBA and playing professionally overseas, Riley tries to keep tabs on her alma mater.

"Well I still talk to Niele (Ivey, the starting point guard on Notre Dame's national championship team), she is an assistant coach (at Notre Dame). Also, I am from Indiana so when I go home to see my family I am only an hour away from Notre Dame so I am able to stay in touch."

I asked Riley of her best memories from the UConn/Notre Dame games, prefacing the request with a "other than obviously winning the national championship."

Here's what she had to say.

"Without a doubt winning at home senior year and that assured that we got our first No. 1 ranking and that was the landmark with how we are able to play together as a team."

SELECT COMPANY
While having three teammates on the U.S. squad heading to the World University Games is an impressive achievement, UConn's trio of Tina Charles, Tiffany Hayes and Maya Moore have some company.

Here's a list of trios from the same schools playing together in the World University Games

Wayland Baptist 1973: Janice Beach, Brenda Moeller and Cherri Rapp.
North Carolina State 1979: Genia Beasley, Debbie Groover and Ginger Rouse.
Tennessee 1983: Shelia Collins, Lea Henry and Mary Ostrowski
Southern Caifornia 1987: Karon Howell, Monica Lamb and Rhonda Windham
Auburn 1991: Ruthie Bolton, Linda Godby and Carolyn Jones.

Charles, Hayes and Moore become the foruth, fifth and sixth UConn players to play for the U.S. in the World University Games.

Kerry Bascom was the first in 1991
Kara Wolters was on the 1995 squad and also made the 1997 team as did Nykesha Sales. All three are still in the U.S. record book.

Bascom's 58.8 3-point percentage in 1991 in a mark for U.S. players that still stands. Wolters' 13 blocked shots is a U.S. record and her five blocks in an Aug. 21, 1997 game against Latvia tied Cindy Brown's mark set in 1985. She also set a record with a 70.7 field-goal percentage in 1997 which was broken by Sylvia Fowles in 2005. Sales had 32 points in an Aug. 29, 1997 game against Cuba, the third highest for a U.S. player in the event and her field-goal percentage of 68.2 is fifth in the U.S. record books.

Since Hayes just completed her freshman year, she could make the WUG squad again following her junior season. Wolters is the only other UConn player to accomplish that feat.

UConn teammates Tina Charles, Tiffany Hayes and Maya Moore were all named to the 12-member U.S. squad which will be competing in the World University Games next month in Belgrade, Serbia.

They were among the original 14 candidates named among the 27 who accepted invitations to try out for the team last month. When Stanford's Jayne Appel underwent knee surgery, she removed her name from contention but Boston College's Carolyn Swords and Amy Jaeschke of Northwestern were added to list of players invited back to training camp.

On Monday, the team was announced. Swords and Jaeschke were cut (which is not all that surprising since they would have made the original list had they impressed the committee that much and they have some tough odds going against a talent pool full of talented post players). Oklahoma's Whitney Hand was the only player originally invited back to make the cut. According to Oklahoma's official website, Hand had a family emergency and left the U.S. Olympic Training Center on Monday to return home.

It was also interesting that four other players (Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen of Stanford, Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson and Jacinta Monroe of Florida State) who will play against UConn in the upcoming regular season also made the squad. The other members of the team are Jantel Lavender of Ohio State, Alexis Gray-Lawson of California, Georgia's Ashley Houts, Danielle McCray of Kansas and Xavier's Ta'Shia Phillips. The team will remain in Colorado Springs until Thursday before leaving for Serbia.

University of Georgia gymnast Courtney Kupets was named Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year or Honda Broderick Cup, beating out four other finalists including former UConn guard Renee Montgomery.

Kupets won the all-around, bars, beam and floor exercise events at the NCAA championships to lead Georgia to its fifth straight NCAA title.

Even before the question was raised at the post-game press conference, Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault thought it best to be proactive.

So he let the media know that he had nothing concrete to report on the status of rookie center Chante Black who injured her left elbow in the third quarter of Sunday's win over San Antonio.

Thibault said Black would have x-rays taken tonight with an MRI set for tomorrow. Expect an update on her status at some point tomorrow afternoon.

The fact that Black was sitting comfortably in the locker room after the game, fielding questions from reporters seems to indicate it is not that serious but since I have no medical background, I will wait until I let the experts do their jobs before I further update Black's status.

"I just wanted to shut up from screaming as fast as I could," Black said. "You just don't know what is going on exactly, you just know that you are hurt and want to know what it is. I don't know but I am sure it will turn out for the best."

Black, who scored in double figures for the first time in her young WNBA career, had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Thibault said the timetable has not changed for European stars Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and Sandrine Gruda. Thibault said they should arrive in between Saturday's home game against Atlanta and a July 2 contest at Indiana. What that means is that Saturday's game will be the final one with the current roster and Thibault will have some tough choices to make as he will need to cut two players when Jekabsone-Zogota and Gruda report to camp. The play of Kiesha Brown and Tan White, both picked up on waivers, will make his decision all the more difficult. It was not a good sign that former UConn star Barbara Turner passed up open jumpers for most of the game while Brown and White were more assertive.

The visiting San Antonio Silver Stars suddenly are running a bit short of guards.

With All-Star Becky Hammon not joining the team for a few more days because of her obligations playing for Russia in the EuroBasket Championships and Vickie Johnson missed her second straight game because of the death of her brother, San Antonio knew it would be short-handed like it was in Friday's loss at New York. Now word is that Shanna Crossley will miss the game with an injured knee.

The Silver Stars have six guards on its roster and three will be out of action. Helen Darling and Edwige Lawson-Wade will start in the backcourt with Belinda Snell the only reserve guard available.

"As a team, you are used to that at some point during the season being down (players) because of injuries or circumstances with a death in the family but as a team you just pick each other up," said Ruth Riley, San Antonio's starting center. "I think that is our strength, our chemistry and our ability to play together so we our going to our best.

"We are excited we have another game coming up (after a loss to New York), obviously we had a lot of mistakes so hopefully we can go out today and execute our game plan."

I will have more from Riley on the subject of UConn and Notre Dame playing twice in the upcoming season either later today or tomorrow.