While We Were Away ...

Or "What we didn't post during the busy holiday season"
USA Men's Senior National Team: The Indianapolis Star looked back at the influence and impact the USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team had during the Olympics, while Yahoo! sports and the Orlando Sentinel placed the USA's golden run at No. 2 among the year's top 10 stories. As usually happens about this time of year, someone pulls a story 'idea' out of the filing cabinet and asserts that playing for your country during the summer will bring your numbers down the next season. Or you'll get injured. Or simply forget how to make a basket. Strange, though, that the story doesn't look at the number of injured or underproductive players overall in the NBA who sat around all summer not playing for their country.

USA Women's National Team: Katie Smith was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year (USA Today / Detroit Free Press /Detroit News) ... Yahoo! sports also listed the USA Basketball Women's National Team in the No. 2 spot among the top 10 stories of the year. It's also got Candace Parker at No. 1 and a slew of other USA players peppered throughout the list ... 2004 U.S. Olympic Team head coach Van Chancellor's LSU squad lost to 2000 U.S. Olympic Team assistant coach Geno Auriemma's UConn team, but he sees it as a positive and how can you not love that ... Candace Parker is given a nod by Rick Reilly writing about what he'd like to see in 2009 ...Parker was also given a nod by the Associated Press (as its Female Athlete of the Year), adding to her already award-filled year ... Lindsay Kagawa, agent to Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles and Diana Taurasi, among others, is profiled ... Sue Bird returned to UConn for a little hoops practice ... while her USA, UConn & Spartak teammate Diana Taurasi gave some time to the Arizona Republic during her mid-winter break from Russia's cold ... The Daily News takes a look at where Rebecca Lobo, a '96 Olympic gold medalist, is is doing now ... and talk about the way back machine, 1976 U.S. Olympic Team member, 1980 U.S. Olympic Team assistant and 1984 U.S. Olympic Team head coach Pat Summitt's influence spans the hoops world ...

Additional USA Basketball Players in the News: Ashley Paris is no longer in sister Courtney's shadow ...