There is no way of accurately estimating how many times that Texas assistant coach George Washington would snare rebounds and dutifully feed the ball back to UConn junior point guard Moriah Jefferson when both of them were members of the powerhouse DFW Elite AAU program.

While Washington wasn't always directly involved in coaching the team Jefferson was on, the two of them developed enough of a teacher/student relationship that Jefferson's parents still regularly communicate with him.

"She is a reflection of them," Washington said before the Longhorn's practice at Times Union Arena. "She has always had a positive outlook on everything, when things don't go her she just gets back in the gym, she doesn't pout about stuff and say 'I can't do it.' She just gets back in the gym.

"She is a different type of kid because she was always in the gym. She was always looking to get in whatever was a weakness in her game and she is a complete gym rat. She trained with boys all the time. The guy who worked with her always would come in and there would be a group of guys who trained really hard and she was always in there and she gave them all they could handle."

Jefferson is fully aware that Washington and the other coaches in the DFW Elite have played a huge role in her now being considered among the best guards in women's collegiate basketball.

"He was around all the time during the summers," Jefferson said. "We used to work out and hang out together so I have a really good relationship with George.

They were in Houston and we were in Dallas so sometimes he wasn't there but when he was, he gave me pointers.

Jefferson struggled during her freshman season but the fact that she has developed into an All-American candidate is not a surprise to Washington.

"I didn't expect anything different," Washington said. "Coaching the team in the summer, being on the bench and on those teams it is same Moriah that I am used to. Her first year in college, it was kind of a freshman adjustment but she is giving everybody exactly what I expected from her."