With Indiana and Phoenix winning the third and deciding game in the WNBA's Eastern and Western Conference finals, three former UConn players will be in the finals.

Diana Taurasi, who led Phoenix to the 2007 WNBA title, will be joined by Ketia Swanier while Jessica Moore is a member of the Indiana squad. It also means that for the sixth time in the last seven years, an ex-Husky will be a member of the WNBA championship team.

The streak began in 2003 when Swin Cash was a member of Detroit's title-winning team. The next year Sue Bird and Seattle were WNBA champions. Sacramento, the 2005 champs, had no UConn players. In 2006, Cash and Detroit won again. Taurasi and Kelly Schumacher were Phoenix's 2007 team and last year Schumacher won her second title, this time with Detroit.

Here's the breakdown of UConn players in the WNBA finals
1997: Rebecca Lobo and New York lost in championship game
1998: no UConn players in finals
1999: Jen Rizzotti and Kara Wolters were on victorious Houston team. Lobo was a member of New York squad but was injured.
2000: Rizzotti and Houston won again. Lobo was again injured and could not play for New York.
2001: no UConn players in finals
2002: no UConn players in finals
2003: Swin Cash and Detroit win title
2004: Sue Bird and Seattle win championship, Asjha Jones and Nykesha Sales played for Eastern Conference champion Connecticut
2005: Jones and Sales members of Eastern Conference champ Connecticut
2006: Cash and Detroit win second title
2007: Diana Taurasi and Kelly Schumacher members of Phoenix's championship team, Cash played for Eastern Conference champion Detroit
2008: Schumacher wins her second straight title, this one with Detroit.

The results of the conference finals means that Indiana's Tamika Catchings and the Phoenix duo of Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter will not be able to take part in the U.S. Senior National team training camp which starts Wednesday in Washington, D.C. It will be the first training camp with UConn's Geno Auriemma as the U.S. head coach.

Phoenix's win also brought an end to the career of future Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie, one of the faces of the WNBA since its inception in 1997. Leslie held court in the press conference after her Los Angeles team was eliminated and acted with the grace and dignity becoming of her place in the world of women's basketball.

Former UConn star Diana Taurasi was the top vote-getter and a member of the All-WNBA first team.

Taurasi, the league's leading scorer, picked up 201 points, 22 ahead of Seattle's Lauren Jackson. Indiana's Tamika Catchings, Cappie Pondexter of Phoenix and San Antonio's Becky Hammon were also first-team selections.

The Los Angeles duo of Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker, San Antonio's Sophia Young, Indiana's Katie Douglas and Detroit's Deanna Nolan were second-team picks.

There will be a conference call tomorrow where USA Basketball will announce the players who figure to form the nucleus of the 2012 Olympic team. The key word here is "figure."

The bottom line is the powers that be in USA Basketball want to hold a training camp somewhere between the end of the WNBA season and the time where the players head overseas and tomorrow's announcement will be a beginning of that process.

Expect many familiar names including ex-UConn stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi to top the list. However bear in mind that in 2006, 26 players appeared in games for the U.S. Senior National Team. None were named Lisa Leslie, who started all eight games in the 2008 Olympics. Of the top eight scorers on the team in 2006, only four were members of the Olympic squad two years later. What I'm trying to say is that the best players in 2009 and 2010 may not be the best players when the Olympic team takes the court in London in 2012. Exhibit A is Cappie Pondexter. The former Rutgers star was 23rd in minutes played in 22nd in points scored with the national team in 2006 but played a key, if a bit of an understated, role on the Olympic squad two years later.

The program has to start preparing for the 2010 World Championships at some point and that is what tomorrow afternoon's call (including UConn and U.S. Senior National team coach Geno Auriemma, USA Basketball executive director Jim Tooley and
women’s national team director Carol Callan and select national-team players) is about.

Auriemma didn't win six national titles by taking unnecessary risks with the health of his players so don't look for reigning national collegiate player of the year Maya Moore to be on the initial list nor should she be. Moore's time on the national team will come, whether that comes in 2010, 2011 or 2012 still remains to be seen. Her priorities should be on making sure she is 100 percent physically heading into her junior season and trust me, that is what she has been focusing on since returning to campus after not playing in the World University Games because of a sprained knee.

With Bird, Taurasi, Fowles (the leading scorer on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team who played 25 minutes in two games with the squad in 2006), Candace Parker, Cappie Pondexter, Tamika Catchings and Seimone Augustus (who is currently sidelined with a knee injury which should keep her off the court for the national team training camp in the fall), the core players the U.S. will be calling on in the quest for another run at Olympic gold are among the best players in the world. The challenge will be meshing some new blood with the impressive nucleus of returning players.

My first question is can I really call one day with no games the "All-Star break?"

Well, that is the deal with the WNBA this year since the schedule was already put together before the All-Star game details were finalized.

There are three games on July 23, although fortunately two of the three are held on the East Coast. After the July 25 All-Star game, there will be two games the following day as Phoenix plays at New York and Sacramento playing at Washington.

Now back to the all-star game, I wonder how many of the 10 players voted into the starting lineup will actually be able to play.

Sylvia Fowles, the starting center for the Eastern Conference, missed Chicago's last game with a shoulder injury. Lisa Leslie, the Western Conference's starting center, has missed the last seven games with a sprained right knee while Seattle forward Lauren Jackson, voted as one of the West's starting forwards, didn't even make the trip to Sacramento because of a strained Achilles tendon.

It should be an interesting weekend at Mohegan Sun Arena.

A COACH NO MORE?
When the Connecticut media caught up with Brittany Hunter during the NCAA tournament, the former UConn forward/center made it clear that coaching was not a part of her future plans. I guess she wasn't kidding as her name no longer appears among head coach Tonya Cardoza's assistants on the Temple website.

IS 11 ENOUGH?
The Indiana Fever brings its 11-game winning streak into Mohegan Sun Arena Sunday for a 3 p.m. game. A win will allow the Fever to equal Connecticut's 12-game streak in 2006 for the second longest in WNBA history behind Los Angeles' 18 straight wins in 2001.