Maya Moore couldn't help but unleash a bit of a chuckle when she thinks about the rude awakening the group of incoming freshmen have been contending with this summer at UConn.

Like she did during the summer before her freshman season with the Huskies, Moore could barely contain her enthusiasm to take part in pick-up games at UConn. That was before the reality set in that playing basketball was only a small part of the indoctrination to being a member of the powerful UConn program.

Coming full circle, Moore remembers how the three healthy incoming freshmen (Stefanie Dolson, Lauren Engeln and Bria Hartley) bounded up and down the court with seemingly endless energy in the first day or two after their arrival. But before long even making their way up and down the court became a bit more challenging after grueling weight training sessions.

"We are just in our summer workout routine with strength and conditioning, lifting, running, playing pick-up (games) almost every night," Moore said before taking part in the first practice of the four-day U.S. senior national team training camp at Connecticut College on Thursday. "We are looking good. First when the freshmen got here before they experienced our strength and conditioning workouts, they were looking good in pick-up. It's a little tough now that they are coming from the workouts but I can see a good core of what they are. I am excited, I see the potential there."

GIVING THANKS
On one of his television shows last season, Geno Auriemma was engaged with bantering with his U.S. senior national team assistant coach Doug Bruno when Auriemma asked Bruno if he could guess which player sent him a thank you note after the conclusion of the U.S. national team training camp in Connecticut in the spring. Without hesitation, Bruno replied "Angel McCoughtry."

Auriemma was pretty stunned to receive the greeting from McCoughtry, who was a fierce rival of UConn's during her time at Louisville and earlier in her career had enough of a sour disposition on the court to draw boos from the UConn faithful during the Big East tournament.

In between conducting interviews for an upcoming ode to all things UConn women's basketball on Thursday, I couldn't help but break from my interviews of past and current UConn greats to ask McCoughtry about sending the note to thanks to Auriemma.

"When I was in college, I would never have done that so I figured that now that I am out of college, I might as well be nice," said McCoughtry with a sly grin as Sylvia Fowles, sitting a couple feet away, burst into laughter. "Just thanks for everything. Sometimes you just have to show your thanks and show your appreciation. It goes a long way."