Morgan Tuck wanted so much to be taking the court alongside UConn teammates Moriah Jefferson and Breanna Stewart this summer.

The versatile Tuck would have been a good fit for the talented U.S. team taking part in the Pan Am Games next month but it didn't take much prodding for her to err on the side of caution.

After undergoing multiple procedures on her knees, Tuck was able to play in all 39 games during the 2014-15 season. Perhaps she would have been healthy after taking part in trials, practices and games with the U.S. this summer but she simply didn't want to take any unnecessary risks so there will be no USA Basketball duty for Tuck this summer.

"I really wanted to play," said Tuck on Monday while working at Geno Auriemma's annual Golf Fore The Kids tournament at the Hartford Golf Club. "They didn't have a team for me last year so I was really looking forward to this year. The positive is to get more time at home, I get to see my family and I get to rest my body which I think is good.

"I have a lot of time to spend in the gym, get some shots up and work on my ball handling so I am just going to try to improve my skill set."

Part of her time away from UConn was spent in Grand Rapids, Michigan as she worked at a basketball camp with her sister Taylor, a recent University of Illinois graduate.

"It was my mom's high school reunion," Tuck said. "We went and one of the guys does camps and things like that for the community and we kind of took over one of his camps. They had a clinic in the morning and we kind of taught basic basketball, encourage those people in that part of Grand Rapids because it is not the best part so we are trying to bring same positivity, show them that this is where we started out, we used to live here and you can be successful and play at highest level."

Having spent some time in Grand Rapids before moving to Bolingbrook, Illinois and now with her parents living in Virginia, I asked Tuck how many hometowns she has. She joked that she has been to Virginia so infrequently that she is not ready to call that a hometown just yet.

Tuck was part of a star-studded three-member recruiting class when she came in with Moriah Jefferson and Breanna Stewart so she is a perfect person to ask about the current freshman class of De'Janae Boykin, Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson.

"They are really good and work hard so I think they will be successful here," Tuck said. "They are handling it well. When they come in, they don't know what to expect. They have never had to do some of the things we are going. I think the summer is kind of a good buffer where it kind of gets you in a little. you see what we are about, how hard we work and how we are supposed to conduct ourselves. I think the summer is a good way to dip your foot in and I think they are handling it well. They are fitting right in. Of course they have their freshman mistakes where you have to teach them what to do."