I caught up with Tina Charles after she received the 2011 Role Model of the Year from the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce

Among the topics was another on-court UConn reunion as the Connecticut Sun's starting lineup in Thursday's exhibition game against the Chinese national team were former Huskies Asjha Jones, Kalana Greene, Renee Montgomery and Charles. It was the first time that Greene, Montgomery and Charles were on the court together in a game situation since helping Connecticut win the 2009 national title.

"It felt like we were right back at UConn so the chemistry was there," Charles said.
"It was a lot of fun. We have a lot of work to do but we will be good this season."

I asked Charles which of the newcomers were the most impressive and she immediately mentioned Danielle McCray's name.

During Charles' speech on Friday, she had a pretty funny story regarding being thrown out of practice drills for missing a layup.

"There would be times that I would miss a layup and he’d kick me off the court," Charles said. "There would be times when I would miss a layup and go to the side basket."

Charles was very gracious in stating what the Role Model of the Year Award, which counts UConn products Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Rebecca Lobo, Kevin Ollie and Emeka Okafor among its previous recipients, means to her.

"Every time I receive an accolade, I remember how far I have come, what it means and how blessed I am to be here," Charles said.

Since Charles had to get to practice and Auriemma had a flight to catch so he could make it down to the Big East meetings, time with them after the event was brief.

One topic brought up with Auriemma was the recently-completed national team training camp.

"Some kids kind of solidified what we thought, some players that we hadn’t seen before played their way into consideration and some players didn’t look as good as you thought they were going to look or had looked in the past," Auriemma said.

One name which came up as a player who impressed Auriemma was Chicago Sky rookie guard Courtney Vandersloot. I'm not sure if Vandersloot is going to make the cut for next year's Olympic team but finding a point guard to groom as former UConn star Sue Bird's eventual replacement must be pretty high up on the U.S. program's wish list. Perhaps Vandersloot could be that person.