You are sitting across from Renee Montgomery, having lunch with her. But really, you are awash in Renee's memoirs. Now she's reminiscing about the hours leading to game time at Gampel Pavilion.

"Well," she said, "I guess since I'm out of there I can spill the beans. We weren't allowed to take naps (before games), but we did. When it was time to get up, I'd wake up and press 'play.'"

Imagine a groggy Renee, just up from her siesta.

Somewhere else in the apartment, roommate Kalana Greene still sleeps.

And then Renee Montgomery is singing.

Now Kalana is no longer sleeping.

But Renee is still singing.

"So exciting

The audience will stop and cheer

So delighting

It will run for fifty years

So exciting

The audience will stop and cheer

So delighting

It will run for fifty years!"

"Top of her lungs," Kalana said, recalling the old days, when asked earlier this season.

You may recognize Montgomery's ballad as "Spectacular Spectacular" from Moulin Rouge, which poor Kalana literally heard in her sleep.

So now you have a snippet of life around "NeNe" (Nay-Nay), the happiest person in America today. No, really. Wal-Mart could give Renee her first form of corporate sponsorship, replacing the yellow smiley face guy with her mug.

"I wake up happy every day," Montgomery was saying one day last week, eating what must be her favorite hangout inside Mohegan Sun: Geno's Fastbreak, where much of the fare is named after UConn greats. Indeed, if Geno ever concocts the Geno's Fastbreak version of a Happy Meal, it would surely be named The Renee Montgomery.

This is the second soiree for Renee in Connecticut, now the point guard for the Connecticut Sun, whose season opens Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Renee's lunch, a shrimp dish, is getting cold. That's because she has broken into song again. She can't just list her favorites from Moulin Rouge, which she played every day before home games. Instead, she sings or hums bits of "The Show Must Go On," "Your Song" (did you ever figure her for an Elton fan?) and "Roxanne."

Montgomery admitted she's yet to see the movie "48 Hours" with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. The first scene has Murphy, a convict named Reggie Hammond, coming to prison when Murphy is rocking out to "Roxanne" from his cell, driving Nolte insane. Good thing Montgomery hadn't seen it. More fodder to have awakened poor Kalana.

But this is Renee Danielle Montgomery, whose spasms of cheerfulness and complete magnetism were a reason Sun coach Mike Thibault even entertained the thought of trading Lindsay Whalen this offseason. In Whalen, Thibault traded a player who had become a de facto member of his family. In return, he got another young woman with all the qualities he'd want in a daughter.

*****

Renee ignites. Renee unites. She was the epicenter of UConn's sixth national championship team in 2009. And in the notable pantheon of UConn greats, no other ever earned a compliment such as the one Montgomery got from Tonya Cardoza, the coach at Temple, an assistant coach with the Huskies at the time.

"Renee is the center of everything that goes on," Cardoza was saying. "Once she realized what she could bring, she changed the dynamics of everybody's personality. She livened up everyone around her.

"Take Ketia (Swanier). The first few years she never said anything or did anything in front of everyone. Now, one time during the year, she was dancing. A lot of that is because of Renee."

Fancy that. She changed the dynamics of everybody's personality. Is there anything more positive and powerful a coach could say about a player?

Watching Montgomery interact with people is a lot like watching a sunset, or maybe the wind whisper through the trees. It's completely natural and leaves you feeling better for having experienced it.

During pregame introductions at UConn home games, the players would greet a different little kid with a high five as part of a promotion. All except Montgomery.

Renee hugged them.

Or there was the time she sat at her locker when a reporter knelt down to interview her. When the interview was over, the reporter stood up and began to walk away when Montgomery said, "By the way … I do," as if his kneel-down was some kind of marriage proposal.

The point of the anecdotes? Montgomery makes all the people around her - little kids she's never met, reporters, broadcasters, teammates, coaches - more comfortable. She's unforgettable, really, because she's so versed in a deeper sense of obligation to things greater than her own self-interest.

Make no mistake: Montgomery has self-interest. But she's learned that only by helping the people around her realize their dreams will hers follow.

Take, for example, the 2008 regional final in Greensboro. UConn hadn't been to the Final Four in 2004. Montgomery was part of two previous teams that went 0-for-2.

"You know why it was important?" she said. "I was a junior. But it was the seniors who kept hearing they'd be the only senior class (in many years) not to go to the Final Four. We had to get there for them. Mel Thomas is one of the hardest workers ever. Brittany Hunter was on one leg. Let's win it for them."

And she said it earnestly and honestly, exactly the way she'd been taught by her parents and had many of the lessons reinforced at UConn.

Associate head coach Chris Dailey once said, "Renee has a gift. I don't think there has been a day when she's not been happy. The more I get to know her, the harder it's going to be to let her go."

*****

A year ago today, Montgomery was in training camp with the Minnesota Lynx. The rest of her life began. It wasn't long before Renee had a question.

"This is the WNBA?" she thought.

Sure wasn't like UConn. For one thing, players had opinions. Montgomery was taught - by mom and dad and then Geno and CD - that sometimes, it's best to keep them to yourself. For another, Montgomery experienced more losing in one summer (20 games) than she had through four years of high school and college combined.

"In college, things like cuts, trades and coaching changes don't happen," Montgomery said. "It took me a while. I'll never view this game as a business. But when stuff happens, I really had to think, 'it really is a business.'"

Plus, she discovered that there really is a difference in playing at UConn and at many other outposts.

"In the weight room, if you're supposed to do 15 reps, you do 15 reps. I guess I'm just a trained machine," she said. "Some people were just doing 12 and thought it was OK. That wouldn't even cross my mind."

Even with the Sun, Montgomery admitted, she was among the last to leave a postgame lifting session last Tuesday after matinee with Atlanta. The assignment was five repetitions of 30 abdominal exercises. Montgomery and Tina Charles were the last ones to leave.

Still, Montgomery is thrilled - beyond that, even - to be back in Connecticut.

"You know when I realized it again?" she said. "Last year when we played the Sun here. One of the first things I realized is that the Sun had a sixth man. The crowd was great and it's not like that in other arenas. We lost and I still remember thinking how much fun it was to play that game because of the fans. We had a good fan base in Minnesota, but it's not like Connecticut."

After Montgomery learned of the trade, she talked to Charles, who didn't immediately connect the dots. Charles thought she might be the first pick, which suddenly belonged to the Sun. Charles and Montgomery often spoke about a reunion in the WNBA, probably with the Lynx. Charles started yelling joyfully into the other end of the phone when she realized she wouldn't just reconnect with "NeNe," but she'd do so in Connecticut.

"When you're playing in college, the WNBA is always in the back of your mind, but you try not to think about it," Montgomery said. "You can't help it sometimes. I was glad to be there for Tina when she'd wonder how, say, you go about picking an agent and that stuff you don't usually think about."

*****

Go ahead. Google the name "Renee." The only name that comes up before Renee Montgomery is actress Renee Zellweger. Not bad being, perhaps, the second most famous Renee out there. And in Connecticut, Montgomery has reached the exalted status of instant recognition through a first name. UConn fans know "Renee" as they know "Svet" and "Shea."

No longer is she identified as Alexis Hornbuckle's high school teammate or Sue Bird's successor. She's Renee. Enough said.

And she's all grown up now, a vibrant woman of 23. Her mom and dad, Bertlela and Ron, will be in Neon Uncasville for Saturday's game. She's a burgeoning color commentator on ESPN women's basketball broadcasts. And she shares her observations about life on Twitter (@da20one). That's where she's revealed to her 4,418 followers a developing relationship with Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.

"He's my bestis," Renee said, inventing something of a new word to describe their relationship. "When you think 'boyfriend' you think talking with each other all day, every day. But we can go two weeks without talking and when we talk again, it's like we haven't missed a beat."

Renee admits to owning more Ravens gear now than UConn gear. Somehow, though, you get the idea all is forgiven in Connecticut, even if Rice is a Rutgers guy.

And this is the story of the happiest person in America. She gets paid to play a game, sings a lot, brings people together and has a "bestis" who plays pro football.

"You know what I might try next?" she said. "Acting. I might try it in the offseason. You know. Commercials. Skits. That kind of thing. I like to try everything."

m.dimauro@theday.com