It's certainly never boring when Geno Auriremma is accompanied at post-game press conferences by seniors Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley.

While it was enjoyable dealing with many of the recent seniors, players like Tina Charles, Tiffany Hayes, Kelly Faris and even the great Maya Moore didn't let their guard down in their dealings with the media as much as the engaging duo of Dolson and Hartley.

It fit with the easy-going personalities of the two seniors that they were serenade Auriemma with a chorus or three of Happy Birthday as Auriemma was being interviewed by ESPN after the 87-44 win over Prairie View in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"I didn't even know it is birthday," Dolson deadpanned at the post-game press conference. "It is always special to win on Coach's birthday. We've sung to him a few times so he should be a lucky man for that one. Thankfully we didn't make him skip around the arena tonight."

You would probably have to go back to when Diana Taurasi and Maria Conlon were seniors in 2004 to find a senior duo willing to have as much fun with their Hall of Fame coach publicly as Dolson and Hartley do on a regular season.

"It is just the experience that we have, playing for four years and we have played a lot so the experience of learning as we go, it is (important) to really lighten the mood when Coach is really getting on us," Hartley said. "I think it has worked out really well for us and we want to continue to keep doing that.

"Stef's more open with it, I am more (like that), if we are together. We enjoy playing the game and having fun. We just want to make sure everybody else is having fun too."

When UConn plays Saint Joseph's in the second round on Tuesday night (7 p.m., ESPN2), it will be the final home game for the two seniors.

Auriemma will certainly miss the contributions of Dolson and Hartley on the court as well as off of it.

"That is a big thing about having a good team, there might not be things that are more important," Auriemma said of how the seniors ease some of the pressure because of their personalities. "I can gauge in November or early December if we have a mature team or not by how it takes for us to take the team picture. When you are dealing with 12 year olds, it takes an hour to take the team photo because the guys won't shut up, they don't know when it is time to be serious and when it is time to screw around and other times it takes exactly 35 seconds for the team picture. For this particular group, since the beginning I have not seen them go overboard on anything or get down in the dumps about anything which is not easy to do for five months to stay on the same plane. A lot of that has to do with our seniors, they are like that. Stefanie Dolson has not had a bad day of practice in four years. There is not one day that she has come to practice and coaches say 'what is your problem?' Not once and I don't know if you know how hard that is."

HIGHLIGHT REEL PLAY DENIED
When Moriah Jefferson flipped the ball behind her back to teammate Breanna Stewart before crashing into the scorers' table, she was hoping that Stewart would finish off the magical play with a dunk.

Instead, Stewart was a recipient of a flagrant foul and only got a pair of free throws off Jefferson's alert hustle play.

"I was trying to get a steal and saw Stewie there, I just just threw it behind my back," Jefferson said. "I wished she would dunk it but she was being a baby and got fouled."

So there's not much to report regarding the UConn women's basketball program.

Let's see, starting point guard Caroline Doty will have her third surgery to repair the torn ACL in her left knee and Tina Charles, the program's all-time leading scorer and rebounder, will be officially named the WNBA's Rookie of the Year at a noon press conference.

As for other items, I did some snooping around yesterday regarding recruiting. Regarding the report on Peach State Hoops which lists highly-touted post player Elizabeth Williams' as considering Duke, Virginia and Tennessee with the possibility of taking visits to North Carolina and Penn State, I did reach out to her high school coach to confirm that she did indeed drop UConn from consideration. An e-mail was waiting for me when I got up this morning from Princess Anne HS coach Darnell Dozier stating "UConn is not on her short list."

While it is a little surprising that UConn would not have made her top five, considering the geography was very important to her it seemed like a reach to expect her to come to UConn. Whoever lands her will be getting one heck of a talent and from my brief dealings with her at the U-17 practice sessions, a very nice kid.

I spoke with Debra Walker, the godmother of UConn recruiting target Betnijah Laney yesterday, and she said that Laney's official visits will be finalized after she is finished with her home visits which run from Sept. 16-25. Walker said she will have home visits from Connecticut, Duke, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia and West Virginia.

I'm waiting to her back from Greg Stokes, the father of UConn recruiting target Kiah Stokes, but I have no reason to question the accuracy of an internet report that the 6-foot-3 forward/center from Marion, Iowa is down to UConn, Georgia and Tennessee. I guess the biggest surprise is that Maryland is no longer in the running because some of the early scuttlebutt regarding Stokes is that Maryland was going to be a major player. The info I have is that Stokes is planning to take an official visit the weekend of Oct. 15-17 and will be on hand for the First Night fan fest on Oct. 15 and the first practice the following morning.

In between dodging rain drops and watching tennis matches at the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, I have been doing a little bit of checking up on recruiting.

The dates to remember in terms of visits are Sept. 10-12 and Oct. 15-17.

As previously reported in this blog, Sara Hammond is planning to visit UConn during that first weekend I mentioned (actually from Sept. 9-11 according to her father) and the word I am hearing is that there's an outside chance that the two players who have already committed to UConn (Kalana Mosqueda-Lewis and Brianna Banks) may also come up that weekend. That is already a special time for UConn since rising senior Maya Moore (who in three days I can start referring to simply as senior since the fall session will be starting) as well as ex-Huskies Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery and Asjha Jones will be playing for the Geno Auriemma coach U.S. national team against Australia on Sept. 10 and Spain on Sept. 12 with both games at the XL Center in Hartford.

The availability of former UConn stars Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Diana Taurasi will be determined by how deep their teams go into the WNBA players. Bird and Cash play for Seattle, which holds a 1-0 lead on Los Angeles in the Western Conference semifinals while Taurasi's Phoenix Mercury squad won the first game against San Antonio. Seattle and Phoenix will go for the sweep in the best of three series on Saturday. If Seattle and Phoenix reach the Western Conference finals, the trio of former UConn teammates will have to miss the start of the U.S. training camp which starts on Sept. 3 since the WNBA's conference finals don't start until Sept. 2. However, with the conference finals ending no later than Sept. 8, only those players in the WNBA finals would be unavailable for the Connecticut portion of the training camp.

I was incorrect in reporting that visit will be an official one, it will be an unofficial visit but something tells me Sara Hammond, who the UConn staff really likes, will have a pretty good idea of where she will be headed to college when she returns home from her visit to UConn.

Kiah Stokes, another player very high on UConn's wish list, is looking to visit UConn in the Oct. 15-17 time frame which will be around the time UConn holds its "First Night" Fan Fest followed by its first real practice the following day. I'm not sure if Hammond, Elizabeth Williams and Betnijah Laney will be up that weekend as well but don't be surprised to see some of the players high up on UConn's wish list in the high school Class of 2012 make it up there in mid October.

Speaking of Charles, I received an e-mail from the WNBA and the Connecticut Sun of a major WNBA award being presented at Mohegan Sun Casino on Tuesday. Let's see, Charles was the rookie of the month for May, June, July and August, I wonder what major award will be presented on that day?

I figured it was time for a recruiting update so I reached out to Debra Walker, who is the godmother of Betnijah Laney and Eddie Hammond, the father of Sara Hammond.

The biggest news out of my two conversations is that Laney has cut her list of schools from nine to seven as she eliminated Cincinnati and Louisville. Laney, a 6-foot rising senior wing out of Smyrna (Del.) High.

When I spoke with Laney at the U.S. Under-17 practice session last month, Cincinnati and Louisville were on Laney's list along with UConn, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia and West Virginia.

The plan is for Laney to go through the process of chatting with coaches during upcoming home visits, narrow her list further and take her five official visits.

As for Hammond, a 6-foot-2 rising senior forward for Rockcastle County High in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky, she lists Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky, Louisville and UConn as her top schools with Notre Dame and Maryland also in the mix according to her father.

Hammond is planning to visit Louisville on Sept. 1 while Eddie Hammond said that UConn coach Geno Auriemma would like to have Sara up for a visit around the time that Auriemma will be coaching the U.S. in exhibitions against Australia and Spain on Sept. 10 and 12 respectively at the XL Center in Hartford. However, the Hammonds have yet to decide if they'll make it up to Connecticut that weekend.

The timing makes sense since Auriemma will be in the Czech Republic coaching the U.S. in the FIBA World Championships from Sept. 23-Oct. 3 and will have a training camp at a location yet to be announced from Sept. 13-22 so the official visits would need to be either done in the first two weekends of September or after Auriemma returns to Connecticut in early October.

UConn already has commitments from guard/forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis out of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif. and guard Brianna Banks, who plays for Northgate High in Newnan, Ga. Besides Hammond and Laney, other players on UConn's recruiting radar in the Class of 2011 include post players Elizabeth Williams and Kiah Stokes. With nine players on scholarship for next year, UConn could take as many as six players but I'd be surprised to see a class of more than four. If UConn can get a combination of either Williams or Stokes and either Hammond or Laney to go with Mosqueda-Lewis and Banks, the UConn staff would be rather delighted. It would also leave four available scholarships for a talent-rich Class of 2012.

UConn recruiting target Breanna Stewart, a 6-foot-3 forward/center from North Syracuse, N.Y., continues to show why many recruiting insiders consider her to be the top player in the class of rising high school juniors at the FIBA Under-17 World Championship for Women.

Stewart had 30 points on 13 of 15 shooting to go with seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and three blocks as the U.S. finished a perfect run through the preliminary round with a 133-71 win over Japan on Wednesday. Others on UConn's short list of sought after prospects who starred for the U.S. included Elizabeth Williams (16 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks), Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (14 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks), Morgan Tuck (10 points, seven rebounds) and Betnijah Laney (10 points).

The U.S. won Group A with a 5-0 record and earned a spot in Friday's quarterfinals. The U.S. will face Spain in the quarterfinals and barring the upset of the tournament, would advance to face either China or Russia in Saturday's semifinals.

UConn recruiting targets Morgan Tuck (11 points), Jewell Loyd (11 points, five rebounds) and Breanna Stewart (10 points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks) all scored in double figures as the U.S. defeated Turkey 84-55 on Tuesday to improve to 4-0 in Group A in the FIBA Under-17 World Championship for Women.

The U.S. used a balanced offense as six players scored between 8-11 points as it clinched the top seed out of Group A for the quarterfinals.

The eight players on UConn's recruiting radar on the U.S. team combined for 63 points, 28 rebounds, 8 steals and 6 blocks against Turkey.

Here's a breakdown of how the players being recruited by UConn fared today and are doing in the tournament.

Jordan Adams 5 points vs. Turkey; averaging 1.8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Betnijah Laney 9 points against Turkey; averaging 7.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 18 steals
Jewell Loyd 11 points, five rebounds, two steals against Turkey; averaging 9.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.3 steals
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis 5 points, 6 rebounds vs. Turkey; averaging 9.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2 steals
Imani Stafford 4 points, 3 rebounds against Turkey; averaging 3.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1 steal
Breanna Stewart 10 points, five rebounds, two steals, two blocks on Tuesday; averaging 10.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 2.3 blocks
Morgan Tuck 11 points, three rebounds on Tuesday; averaging 8 points, 4.5 rebounds
Elizabeth Williams 8 points, 4 rebounds vs. Turkey; averaging 13 points and 8.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 1.3 blocks

The U.S. wraps up preliminary round play on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. against Japan. The quarterfinals begin on Friday. The opponent will be determined in large part by Wednesday's Spain/China game. If Spain loses, it would get the No. 4 seed out of Group B and draw the U.S. If Spain wins there will be a three-way tie for second with Spain, China and the loser of the Australia/Belgium each finishing 3-2 and a tiebreaker would be needed to decide the order of finish.

Sara Hammond, a versatile 6-foot-2 rising senior forward at Rockcastle County High in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky, was offered a scholarship by UConn coach Geno Auriemma on Friday.

Jarrad Parmley, Hammond's coach for the Kentucky Premier AAU program, confirmed that Auriemma made the scholarship offer as the team returned from the Battle in the Boro in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

"He called her and said he'd like for her to play (at UConn)," Parmley said. "Obviously, she was pretty excited."

Hammond, a lefty who Parmley said can play both on the perimeter and in the post, had a quadruple-double with 18 points, 17 rebounds, 12 blocks and 10 steals in a Jan. 29 win over Pulaski County. She had an impressive performance at the Deep South Classic in April and has been on UConn's radar in the last couple of months.

"She's very unselfish and what the coaches like the most about her is her consistency," Parmley said. "She can hit the 3-pointer and can put the ball on the floor and go by people. She is a very well-rounded player."

Parmley said that Hammond had been in the process of narrowing down her list of schools with Louisville being the frontrunner with Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky also very much in the mix. He also said that was "before Friday." Notre Dame has also been pursuing her. Parmley said that Hammond's plan as he understood it was to visit her top schools before making a decision but with UConn in the mix, that could - and likely will - change.

"I know she would like to go up to UConn for a visit," Parmley said.

Kentucky Premier is entered in the Girls' Showtime National Championship in Indianapolis from July 23-25 and the FILA National Championships in Suwanee, Georgia from July 28-31 which will give college coaches more chances to evaluate her game. When she returns home, she will likely set up some campus visits.

With just nine players on scholarship following the graduation of Maya Moore and Lorin Dixon in 2011, UConn can take as many as six players in the next recruiting class. The Huskies already have commitments from guards Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif. and Brianna Banks out of Northgate High in Newnan, Ga. Besides Hammond, UConn has offered scholarships to post players Elizabeth Williams, currently the leading scorer and rebounder on the U.S. Under-17 national team and a star at Princess Anne HS in Virginia Beach and Kiah Stokes from Linn-Mar High in Marion, Iowa as well as Smyrna (Delaware) High wing Betnijah Laney.

Hammond's recruitment could easily follow that of current UConn rising sophomore Kelly Faris. UConn appeared to get serious about Faris well into the process and there was talk that the Huskies would be too late to get in the mix with Faris. Obviously, as much of the recruiting gossip tends to be, the information was incorrect as Faris committed to the Huskies over teams closer to her Indiana home. While it's too early to determine whether Hammond will become a teammate of Faris' at UConn, it was clear in speaking with Parmley that UConn is in game with Hammond.

I found this video of Hammond on youtube featuring game action and an interview with her courtesy of sports anchor Derek Forrest from WYMT in Lexington, Kentucky.

Four UConn recruiting targets scored in double figures as the United States defeated host France 70-45 in its first game in the FIBA Under-17 World Championship for Women on Friday at the L'Amphitheatre in Rodez.

Breanna Stewart of North Syracuse, N.Y. had 13 points, seven rebounds and four blocks and Elizabeth Williams of Virginia Beach, Va. had 12 points, 11 rebounds and three steals. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, one of two rising high school seniors who has committed to UConn, had 10 points, five rebounds and two of the U.S. team's five 3-pointers while Betnijah Laney has 10 points and two steals. Former UConn recruiting target Ariel Massengale also had 10 points for the U.S., which outscored France 39-17 in the second half.

The U.S. continues pool play on Saturday with an 11:30 a.m. game against Russia. Russia opened with a 93-68 win over Japan behind Ksenia Tikhonenko's 22 points and 16 rebounds.

At some point (probably when I shake off the Monday doldrums and listen to my interviews with Geno Auriemma, Australia national team coach Carrie Graf and Carol Callan of USA Basketball) I'll get around to recapping a week's worth of USA Basketball coverage. In the meantime I thought I'd provide people with the most memorable and witty quotes of the week

"I met you mom and your dad, they are so nice. What, where you adopted?"

U.S. and UConn coach Geno Auriemma to Australian star Lauren Jackson before the U.S./Australia scrimmage on Sunday. Jackson responded with a playful jab to Auriemma's stomach.

"I wasn't nervous. I just felt like I took a nap. Thanks for the anesthetic, I went to sleep and when I woke up it (the surgery) was over."

Connecticut Sun coach Anete Jekabsone-Zogota on the recent surgery on her right knee.

"Yeah, blame the (lack of a warmup), that's what I am going with,"

former UConn star Sue Bird on her early exit from the 3-point shooting contest at Saturday's all-star game.

"I didn't get to watch them too much, there isn't CPTV in the South but I remembering going to the Final Four in Atlanta and watching them practice,"

UConn rising senior Maya Moore when I asked her if she idolized Diana Taurasi when she was at UConn.

"D (Diana Taurasi) said she'd give her $100 if she took a 3 so knucklehead took two of them and I yanked her,"

Auriemma on Tina Charles' two attempted and failed 3-pointers in Saturday's all-star game.

"They are taught sharing, they understand the game, they understand that sharing the ball is what makes this game so beautiful. It is just a common understanding that the whole is more important than the individual. That's as succinct as I can say what Connecticut is all about,"

DePaul head coach and U.S. national team assistant coach Doug Bruno when I asked him if players from the 2000-2002 era of UConn women's basketball and the more recent group have similar approaches to basketball.

"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,"

Angel McCoughtry on what prompted her to send a thank you card to Auriemma after the national team camp in the spring.

"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,"

Moore on her impressions of the five incoming freshmen at UConn.

"We are pretty cool on and off the court. I guess we are both pretty playful so we can play together and nobody gets mad or anything,"

UConn recruiting target Betnijah Laney on her on-court chemistry with UConn commit Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.

"I am so happy with the decision I made and now I get to recruit people to come over with me. Just how hard I saw that everybody worked and how they were on the same page. They all wanted to same thing. They all had the same goals, they all worked hard. It wasn't like a team, it was like a family. I am huge on family and once I saw that, I said 'boom, that is where I want to be. I want to go to UConn'"

Mosqueda-Lewis, reflecting on her decision to commit to UConn in October.

"They can think that but I haven't decided to go anywhere,"

UConn recruiting target Breanna Stewart on the rumors that she'll commit to UConn once she receives a scholarship offer.

"UConn is a great program, they are undefeated two years (in a row) so I don't know who wouldn't want to go there. They are the best team in the country right now,"

one of the five members of rising high school juniors on UConn's recruiting radar I interviewed on Tuesday at the Flint Hill School (sorry, but you'll have to wait until my story on those five players runs in the paper since that quote and the person who said will be idenitified.

The XL Center will host two exhibition games in September. On Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. the U.S. national team will play Australia and on Sept. 12 at a time yet to be announced, the U.S. will play Spain. Tickets will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Spain and Australia will play at 2 p.m. on Sept. 11 at the University of Hartford.

Tickets will be available online at www.ticketmaster.com, through Ticketmaster charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and in person at the XL Center box office. Ticket prices range from $10-75.

The U.S. will also hold a training camp beginning Sept. 3 although since the WNBA playoffs will still be going on, the availability of players will be determined by when their WNBA teams are eliminated. No site has been announced for the training camp.

At the risk of a little self promotion, I wanted to mention that my story about UConn commit Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ran in today's paper. Look for the accompanying video I did to be put up on the website shortly.

Speaking of videos, I would like to thank those people who checked out the videos I took of UConn recruiting targets Elizabeth Williams and Betnijah Laney. They are the fifth and sixth most viewed viedos even though they have been up less than a week and the videos ahead of them have been on the website for months. That should help my cause when I pitch future trips to catch up with UConn recruits.

A little scheduling update, I checked around a bit to see if I could confirm some dates other than the ones previously reported (Baylor on Nov. 16, Sacred Heart on Dec. 5, Holy Cross on Nov. 14) and I was able to confirm that the game at Pacific will be on Dec. 28 at 10 p.m. It will be part of a two-game California swing with a game at Stanford to follow. It's likely that one of those two games could be for win No. 88 in a row, matching the Division I men's basketball record set by UCLA in the 1970s.

The first of my stories off the U.S. Under-17 national team practice sessions at Flint Hill School ran in today's Register. The focus was on Elizabeth Williams and Betnijah Laney, two of the top uncommitted rising high school seniors on UConn's recruiting radar. There is also video of an interview with Williams as well as an interview and action of Laney hitting a jumper. The stories on Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and the players from the Class of 2012 on UConn's recruiting wish list will be running soon.

Speaking of the U-17 team, the first of three tune-ups for the FIBA U-17 World Championship for Women will be Friday when the U.S. faces Canada in Alagon, Spain. Exhibitions against Australia on Saturday and Spain on Sunday will follow before the team heads by bus to France for the tournament.

The chance to meet up with an old friend brought me to the D.C. area earlier this week and while I was there, I decided to make my way over the Flint Hill School for Monday's evening and Tuesday's morning U.S. Under-17 national team practice.

I'll save most of the good stuff - especially regarding recruiting - for the three stories I wrote on the train ride back from D.C. yesterday but thought I would at least provide a scouting report on what I saw. It should be noted that the majority of the drills were spent focusing on defense and how to best utilize playing off screens so it is probably not the most accurate gauge of the offensive potential of the players I saw but I will proceed anyways. Naturally my attention was focused on the eight players on UConn's recruiting radar so the other four players will not be included in my report.

CLASS OF 2011

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis: The first player from the class of rising high school seniors, Mosqueda-Lewis is as good as advertised offensively. While she seemingly has unlimited range on her jumper, it is her ability to score off the dribble that impressed me to most. There is a video that will go with my story on Kaleena that displays that. The fact that she is willing to take the ball into the lane and can score in so many ways once she is in there makes her more than just a one-dimensional shooter. The only thing more impressive than her array of offensive moves is her personality. She is a fun-loving, mercurial kid. She's similar to Diana Taurasi, another California sensation who did pretty well for herself at UConn but doesn't seem to have as hard an edge to her as Taurasi. Personality wise, I would think she'd fall closer to a Kalana Greene than Taurasi but on the court, I see no reason why she couldn't become the latest in a long line of impact offensive players to suit up for UConn. It should be noted that she was in a group of four players watching a drill and when the drill ended with a basket, she was singled out by U.S. U-17 coach Barbara Nelson for applauding the basket and the other three players needed to do five pushups as punishment. She was also encouraging on her teammates as they were in between wind sprints before Tuesday's practice.

Betnijah Laney: Another player who can create her own shot off the dribble, Laney has a silky smooth offensive game. But she first caught my eye with her defense. On the first day of drills the team was struggling during a defensive drill until Laney had steals on back to back possessions. It was just what her teammates needed to bounce back from a rough start to practice. A recruiting source said that the UConn coaches like Laney as much if not more for her personality as for her game and I can see why. She is clearly a leader on the court as she was one of more vocal players out on the court and like Mosqueda-Lewis, has a persona that draws people to her. It was evident to me that she has developed a close bond with Mosqueda-Lewis. After Laney made one play on Monday, an exuberant Mosqueda-Lewis lept into Laney's arms. That doesn't mean that she'll land at UConn because I've been to USA Basketball trials and practices before and often times the closest bonds can be formed on players on different college teams. However, if my eyes did not deceive me, I could have sworn that the lefty was shooting right-handed during free-throw drills.

Elizabeth Williams: I did not get back on the UConn beat until Tina Charles was starting her freshman year at UConn but if I had seen Charles in action in the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, I have a hunch her skill set would have reminded me quite a bit of Williams. Like many of her teammates, she got off to a slow start when practice began on Monday but on Tuesday, she was a dominant inside force. In one stretch, she blocked a Breanna Stewart shot, made a tough catch in the post and hit a layup and then swatted away a Bria Smith shot in the lane. Williams spent as much time at the high post and while she is pretty much unstoppable in the low blocks, she looks comfortable away from the basket as well.

CLASS OF 2012
Jordan Adams/Morgan Tuck: I grouped them together because I was impressed by many of the same qualities. Tuck was the author of the sweet pass for a backdoor layup to a cutting Stewart (which I was able to capture on video) while both she and Adams are extremely cerebral players. I hate to use the term a "UConn type of player" because it infers that players who don't go to UConn don't know how to think the game and that is simply not the case. But I could see Adams and/or Tuck fitting in quite nicely at any of the elite schools - UConn included. Neither player found their offensive groove when I was there but as I mentioned, it was hard for any of the players not named Mosqueda-Lewis or Laney to get going offensively with the focus on defense.

Breanna Stewart: I absolutely love her game. She's the type of kid who can dominate a game without taking a shot. Although not built exactly the same, I see a lot of Kelsey Griffin in Stewart especially the aggressive way she goes after rebounds. Stewart, like Griffin, also understands how the game is supposed to be played and can score with either her left or right hand inside. Her passing was exquisite especially when she was on the low blocks. I see her as being more of a power forward than a true center at the next level but certainly is not afraid to go inside.

Imani Stafford: Not only is she 6-foot-7 but she has an impressive wingspan. I do think she is not as refined offensively as fellow posts like Williams and Stewart and didn't make as much of an impact defensively as I think she could considering her height and wingspan but I saw flashes of the potential that will earn her plenty of attention from coaches at the big-time programs.

Jewell Loyd: A late addition to the U-17 team, Loyd is a speedy lead guard who at times was playing too fast. I chalked some of that up to the fact that she was added to the team late and is still getting used to her teammates. I've been out to Colorado Springs for national team trials each year from 2006-09 and have found that point guards have a hard time standing out especially on the younger teams. That was definitely that case this week as neither Loyd nor former UConn recruiting target Ariel Massengale seemed to be comfortable. I did see Loyd hit a couple of perimeter jumpers so I can see the potential.

Now a few parting thoughts. First, no commitments will be coming out of this group any time in the near future. Second, there's no truth to the rumor that Tennessee coach Pat Summitt believes UConn gained a recruiting advantage because the nickname of the Flint Hill School is the Huskies and finally, if UConn gets commitments from Williams and Laney to go with Mosqueda-Lewis and guard Brianna Banks, UConn coach Geno Auriemma will have to answer more questions whether his team's dominance is bad for the sport of women's basketball.

,UConn incoming freshmen Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley were among 16 finalists selected for the U.S. Under-18 national team after three days of trials at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. UConn freshman to be Samarie Walker did not make the cut which could aid Walker in the long run as she can return to UConn to continue getting treatment on her knee.

UConn recruiting targets Ally Malott, Malina Howard and Diamond DeShields also made the cut.

The 16 finalists will remain in Colorado for training and four players will be cut by June 14 with that 12-member squad representing the U.S. at the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Women being held from June 23-27 in Colorado Springs.

UConn commit Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis along with UConn recruiting targets Betnijah Laney, Elizabeth Williams, Breanna Stewart, Jordan Adams, Imani Stafford and Morgan Tuck were selected to the U-17 national team. The squad will play in the U17 World Championship July 16-25 in Rodez and Toulouse, France.

Kiah Stokes, on a short list of post players UConn is looking at in the current crop of rising high school seniors, was selected to represent the U.S. in the World Youth Olympic Games, a 3 on 3 tournament. The team will make a stop in Springfield, Mass. from Aug. 6-9 for training before leaving for the event in Singapore.

USA Basketball has released the names of the 36 players who have accepted invitations to try out for the U.S. Under-17 national team.

UConn commit Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis is predictably on the list as are UConn recruiting targets Elizabeth Williams, Kiah Stokes, Breanna Stewart and Betnijah Laney, who were all members of the inaugural U.S. Under-16 national team in 2009.

Not on the list are guard Brianna Banks, who along with Mosqueda-Lewis, is the only high school junior to orally commit to UConn and Hillhouse sophomore Bria Holmes.

The team trials will take place from June 8-11 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
with the 2010 USA Women’s U17 World Championship and Youth Olympic Games teams will be announced on June 11. The players will remain in Colorado Springs for training through June 15.

The U17 World Championship team will reassemble in Washington, D.C., for training July 5-7 before heading overseas for exhibition games in Spain and then the world championships in France. The USA Women’s Youth Olympic Games Team will reassemble on Aug. 5 and train through Aug. 10 before departing for Singapore.

Look for the invitees to the U-18 national team camp to be announced shortly.

These are hectic times in Geno Auriemma's life.

Fresh off guiding UConn to its second straight undefeated season and seventh national title, Auriemma only had a couple of days to unwind before preparing to run a training camp with the U.S. senior national team. The camp opened on Sunday night at Gampel Pavilion and will end with a scrimmage on April 18.

"There are a lot of things that I have to do at Connecticut between now and next October and I am lucky that our staff is going to able to help me do that and there is a lot that I have to do for USA Basketball including win a world championship," Auriemma said. "Right now my main focus between now and the start of preseason practice on Oct. 15 is to win a world championship and everything I do this summer between now and then is going to be geared towards that.

"As soon as I am done with that, just kind of turn the switch and get ready for UConn basketball again in October. I have always been pretty good about that, just kind of picking things up and putting them on the shelf and then coming back to them when I need them and go onto the next thing. The first couple of days were tough, Wednesday/Thursday were not easy after we won because of the intensity level of what happened. I feel good, I feel better now than I did Wednesday, I was shot on Wednesday."

Auriemma's next public act as UConn's head coach will come at the April 18 parade in Hartford but behind the scene he will be coordinating his staff's game plan for the NCAA evaluation period which runs from Friday-April 20.

"This coming week there is practice for the national team, the young guys - the college guys - are coming in midway through the week, I have some recruiting to do, we have the parade, the scrimmage," Auriemma said. "It's probably good that we cram all that in because my Sunday night, Monday morning I know I am done and I can really kind of step back and observe the whole thing and see where it is. I am kind of looking forward to next Monday, it will really be the first time that I don't really have anything looming except the Kentucky Derby."

Auriemma said he won't be going out on the road as associate head coach Chris Dailey and assistant coaches Marissa Moseley and Shea Ralph will be the ones making the rounds.

"I am going to miss it, it is this coming weekend. All the coaches will be gone and I'll be here," Auriemma said. "We are involved with some really good players and we have an opportunity to get further involved."

NCAA rules prohibits Auriemma from discussing individual recruits but the Huskies have received commitments from Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, a highly-decorated 6-foot wing out of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., and Brianna Banks, a 5-foot-10 guard out of Northgate High in Newnan, Ga. UConn is expected to focus its recruiting efforts on landing a post player or two with Elizabeth Williams out of Virginia Beach, Va., Kiah Stokes of Marion, Iowa and Ally Malott out of Middletown, Ohio at the top of the list. UConn has previously offered scholarships to two other perimeter players (Delaware wing Betnijah Laney and California wing Bonnie Samuelson).

One player not on UConn's radar is Kelsey Bone. A recruiting source told me that UConn is not interested in the 6-foot-5 Texas native who recently announced she was leaving South Carolina despite being named the Southeastern Conference's Newcomer of the Year by the Associated Press. UConn pursued Bone out of Dulles High in Sugar Land, Tex. but the Huskies were not a finalist for Bone's services.

CASH DISPENSES ADVICE
Swin Cash knows a thing or two about being part of a five-member freshman class, coning into UConn in 1998 along with Sue Bird, Asjha Jones, Tamika Williams and Keirsten Walters so I asked her if she had any advice for UConn's five-member incoming freshman class.

"Don't name themselves," Cash said with a laugh as she recalled how her class named themselves the TASSK Force. "Have a lot of energy. You are going to make a heck a lot of mistakes but if you go hard, going hard will win you a heck of a lot more games than you think. That is my advice.

"I remember asking Coach (Auriemma) 'why am I starting (as a freshman)?' I came in and Tamika (Williams) was the No. 1 ranked (high school) player in the country, we had Asjha (Jones), Stacy (Hansmeyer), Paige (Sauer) and I am just a skinny little kid and nobody from my neighborhood thought I'd be playing a lot of minutes let alone starting on the team. I think it was the high level he expected us to play, the energy we needed out there."

NO SURGERY FOR APPEL
Former Stanford star Jayne Appel was at the training camp but her injured ankle and foot will keep her from taking part. Appel said she is probably a couple of weeks away from being able to get back on the court but no surgery will be needed. She is not rushing back to be ready in time for the start of training camp with the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars on April 26, determined not to be back until she is 100 percent so she doesn't reaggravate her injuries.

There will be more from my interview with Appel in the next day or two.

UConn incoming freshman Bria Hartley, a 5-foot-10 senior guard at North Babylon High, has been named the Gatorade New York Player of the Year for the second straight year.

Hartley, had five triple-doubles and averaged 27 points per game as a senior, is now a finalist for the Gatorade National Player of the Year.
Hartley was a finalist for the McDonald’s and Naismith national player of the year award which both went to Stanford signee and former UConn recruiting target Chiney Ogwumike.

Hartley had a career-high 51 points but her North Babylon team lost to Sachem East in the New York Suffolk AA championship game on Mar. 4. Hartley will be competing in the McDonald’s All-American Game on Mar. 31 in Columbus, Ohio and the WBCA All-American Game on Apr. 3 in San Antonio, Tex.

Norwich Free Academy’s Kastine Evans, who is headed to Kentucky in the fall, was named Connecticut’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
A trio of juniors on UConn’s recruiting radar (Betnijah Laney of Smyrna, Del., Kiah Stokes of Marion, Iowa and Elizabeth Williams of Virginia Beach, Va.) were winners of the Delaware, Iowa and Virginia awards.

I spend a lot of time on the "who" part of recruiting, updating the results of kids coming to UConn and do what I can to stay on top of the players the UConn staff is interested in. But I thought it would be a good time to trying to answer the "why" part of recruiting.

Every year I get the e-mails. Why aren't they looking at players A, B and C, they are rated higher than the ones UConn is currently recruiting. My answer is always the same, the only recruiting service I concern myself with is the one run by Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey.

After Sunday's win over Georgetown, Auriemma addressed the subject of what he looks for when he is in attendance at a high school game. I think the quotes give a pretty good indication that character is more important to Auriemma than characters.

"I just watched a couple of high school games in the last couple weeks," Auriemma said. "So I go around the country and I watch the games. Player A doesn't talk to any of her teammates, they don't talk to her. They win and they win big but you could tell this kid does not have a great relationship with her teammates. Then you watch Team B and this kid is the best player and every kid on their team is like (celebrating with them) and they are interacting so you make a little bit of a rash judgment 'that kid there is unselfish, wants to win and all her teammates like her even though she is a first-team All-American. That kid right there, that kid doesn't get along with her teammates for whatever reason.'

"Once talent is equal, you try to look for those kinds of things that may separate one kid from another. Sometimes you are right, sometimes you are wrong. fortunately for us, we have been right more times than we have been wrong. We've been wrong a couple of times."

Please save your time and don't e-mail me asking who he was talking about. I don't get my kicks piling on 16 and 17 year old kids. The fact is that Auriemma and his staff like Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (who has already committed), Betnijah Laney, Kiah Stokes and Bonnie Samuelson because they have all been offered scholarships but as far as whose attitude turns Geno or his coaches off, you'll need to find another place to get that sort of info.

ALL-STAR GAME TOMORROW
Former UConn star Diana Taurasi will be starting for the Rest of the World squad in Tuesday's EuroLeague All-Star Game at Gdynia, Poland while Connecticut Sun teammates Sandrine Gruda and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota will play for Europe. The game will tip at 7 p.m. in Gdynia which, if my math is correct, is 1 p.m. in Connecticut.

A recruiting source confirmed that Kiah Stokes, a 6-foot-3 junior center at Linn-Mar High in Marion, Iowa has been offered a scholarship by UConn.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma went to see Stokes play earlier in this week and although he is precluded from speaking directly to Stokes, the source indicated that he made it clear to Stokes when she took her unofficial visit to UConn last month that a scholarship offer could be forthcoming assuming Auriemma liked what he saw when he took in one of Stokes' high school games. Obviously that is the case meaning that UConn has offered California stars Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Bonnie Samuelson as well as Stokes and gifted Delaware high star Betnijah Laney among the current group of high school juniors.

The source also indicated that Auriemma is planning to catch another highly touted junior post player next week when he goes to see Elizabeth Williams out of Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach, Va. in action.

At Thursday's practice, UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey and assistant coach Shea Ralph were not in attendance. Dailey was scheduled to take in the New York Section IX AA semifinal as UConn incoming freshman Stefanie Dolson's Minisink Valley squad played Warwick High. Ralph headed out to SUNY-Farmingdale to see UConn incoming freshman Bria Hartley in action. Hartley's North Babylon team is playing Sachem East in the Suffolk AA championship game tonight at 7:30 p.m.

With starting point guard Caroline Doty being held out of the second half of Monday's practice - which happens to be the portion the media was able to sit in on - because the medical staff thought it was be a good idea to give her surgically-repaired knee a break and Lorin Dixon also playing sparingly when I was out there, it was pretty interesting to see what the UConn coaching staff had up its sleeve.

Kelly Faris looked really comfortable at the point, more at ease with the ball than at any other time I have seen her play or practice this season. Kalana Greene also spent some time with the ball in her hands at the top of the key. Tiffany Hayes was the last of the trio to run the offense during the final drill of the day leading me to believe that the staff believes Hayes is better served playing on the wing.

I spoke to Tiffany after practice about a few topics including the reunion with her former AAU teammates April Sykes, Chelsey Lee and Erica Wheeler, who all play for Rutgers as well as the peaks and valleys she has endured shooting the ball as a sophomore. In the last eight games she has scored in double figures three tiimes but scored two of fewer points four times.

"It has been more up and down than I would like but I continue to work on that, work on my shot daily," Hayes said. "I was hitting them today in practice so hopefully that rubs off and I am able to hit them in the game."

Hayes said she has noticed a big difference in the way opposing teams play her this season after her impressive performance in the 2009 NCAA tournament.

"I hear teams all the time when we play them this year say 'shooter, shooter.' Last year I did not hear that once until maybe the (NCAA) tournament," Hayes said. "In the past, I would hear 'you've got No. 3.' This year I hear more of 'shooter, shooter.' I am glad I am getting a lot more respect this year, I just have to step up and knock down the shots."

Just an update that the Feb. 13 St. John's game at Gampel Pavilion, which I reported a while back could very well be a sellout, has not yet sold out. Before that game, Tina Charles will be inducted into the Huskies of Honor. Just a reminder to those interested in such things that the "Senior Night" festivities will be held at the XL Center for the second straight season. Kalana Greene, Charles, Meghan Gardler, Kaili McLaren and Jacquie Fernandes will be honored before the Feb. 27 game against Georgetown.

Not certain if any recruits will be on hand tomorrow night but I feel pretty confident in reporting that Betnijah Laney out of Smyrna (Del.) High will not be in attendance. The 6-foot Laney who is being heavily - and I do mean heavily - recruited by both Rutgers and UConn and her Smyrna team has a home game against Polytech HS.

On a day when senior center Tina Charles found out she was the first UConn player to be named the Big East Player of the Week in consecutive weeks since Diana Taurasi in January of 2003, the subject went a little deeper than any individual accolades.

Charles spoke not only of her two-credit internship at the Bergin Correctional Institute which will begin later this month but of an emotional trip to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford on Monday morning.

Charles admitted that if she wasn't in position for a career as a professional basketball player wasn't in her future, she would like to be a probation officer. The internship will give her a chance to see if that is something up her alley.

"I am definitely looking forward to (following around) the parole officer, shadowing him and (see) what prisoners go through," Charles said. "I did orientation (at the facility). It was different, it was surprising because a lot of them knew who I was and they wanted to have extra protection with me because it is open, it is not restricted. A lot of them were saying hi to me and things like that."

This morning from about 9-11:30 a.m., Charles and her teammates visited patients at the hospital which is something that always tugs are her heartstrings because some of the patients are struggling for their lives.

"It shows that we are blessed, being healthy and being able to play this sport and not to take anything for granted," Charles said. "Just the children seeing our faces and the young adults, it just made their day. We brought them our game day posters and they were really interacting with us and it really made the families happy.

"It is really difficult, I am the most emotional person on the team, we watch a movie and I start crying so I had tears in my eyes just giving out toys around Christmas time (during the team's visit to a local Salvation Army) but it's hard but just the fact that we are able to put a smile on somebody's face by signing an autograph or anything little by that ...

BUCK IFFY
UConn redshirt freshman Heather Buck missed practice because of the sprained left ankle she suffered in Saturday's win over North Carolina and her status for Wednesday's game against Marquette is up in the air.

"She didn't practice (Monday) and not sure she is going to practice tomorrow," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "We'll see. If she doesn't do either, she'll be limited for Wednesday. It is nothing serious, it is just a sprained ankle."

NO OFFER FOR MASSENGALE, YET
A recruiting source said that UConn did not offer a scholarship offer to highly-touted Bolingbrook (Ill.) High junior guard Ariel Massengale, who was in attendance at Saturday's UConn/North Carolina game.

The source said nothing is imminent with Massengale, who figures to take her time during the process although it figures to be yet another recruiting battle between UConn and Tennessee for Massengale's services.

UConn has offered scholarships to juniors Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (the only member of the current high school junior class to commit to the Huskies), Bentijah Laney and Bonnie Samuelson.