As promised, I am following up on how Erin Phillips went from being a reserved player by WNBA standards to become an unrestricted free agent and what follows does not reflect well on the Connecticut Sun.

At a luncheon in Hartford before the Oklahoma/UConn game, Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault and general manager Chris Sienko addressed the situation and admitted it was mess up on their part allowing Phillips to sign with defending champion Seattle as an unrestricted free agent.

"We had to do that by Jan. 15," Sienko said. "We sent out a qualifying offer to Erin but we did not track it. it was a mistake on my office's part. Because it was untracked, we can't prove we sent it. By the collective bargaining agreement, it is (stipulated) that is had to be tracked. The players union (classified) her a free agent so we lost her rights."

Compounding matters is that the Sun sent the paperwork to the wrong address and by the time they attempted to rectify the sitation, it was after the Jan. 15 deadline and she was declared a free agent.

Let's be clear, there was never a chance of Phillips returning to the Sun but she could have been packaged with the Sun's second round pick to move up into the first round in what has been touted as a pretty strong draft.

The Sun is planning to head into training camp without counting on late arriving European players. Sandrine Gruda is still under contract while the Sun own the rights to Alba Torrens and Johannah Leedham but Thibault isn't expected any of them before July because of their European Championship commitments.

"The options are because we are in a different situation with the salary cap we can go into the season with 11 players whether she is here or not and we can have a player we can replace if she comes," Thibault said. "Last year we had an above .500 record before she came, DeMya (Walker) played well. We are assuming we are going to start the season with a healthy Asjha (Jones), Tina (Charles) will have been in a league for a year, we will everybody in training camp for the entire training camp. We are not going to be dependent on Sandrine Gruda.

"I haven't had any conversation with her in two months. My conversation the last time I had it with her is that she would not come until after European championships because She was going to devote her energy to helping France qualify for the Olympics. That was her first goal and she could play after that.

"Alba Torrens is kind of in the same situation that she is kind of in the same situation. The understanding I have is if we have a roster spot available when she is done with that. If we just keep somebody to hold that spot, we'll bring her in. If not, she will come the following year. But it is our decision. I have no problem with that."