Howdy,

Let’s try to be brief, today, shall we?

• Connecticut guard Katie Douglas played against Minnesota on Sunday with strep throat. She quipped that last Friday’s 75-54 home stinker against New York made her sick.

• The Sun preached defense all of training camp, and that’s been messy thus far as opponents have shot 47.7-percent against them.

That ain’t good.

“We’re still trying to get it,” Sun head coach Anne Donovan said. “We’re still trying to get where the help comes from and how consistent that help is. In particular, we’ve struggled with the middle ball screen with dribble penetration. My irritability today is we’re seeing that in practice. It remains an issue for us, but a lot of that is our younger players who are still trying to figure that out. So as the better (point guards) like (Minnesota’s) Lindsay Whalen attack down the middle, (Chicago’s Courtney) Vandersloot, they’re continuing to challenge something to tweak with us.

“If you want to be a good defensive team, then you better have effort and communication, and I have to say we have those two things. I feel confident that it’s going to come on.”

• Donovan started rookie Alyssa Thomas at forward and had Allison Hightower run the point against both Minnesota and Chicago in order to play a bigger lineup.

Point guard Alex Bentley played less than 23 minutes combined against Minnesota and Chicago. Fellow point Renee Montgomery played less than 21.

“I’m back-and-forth with the point guard position,” Donovan said. “Both of them continue to get looks, and we’re trying to figure that out.”

• Second-year center Kelsey Bone played sparingly during the two-game road trip. She logged over 12 minutes at Minnesota, followed by an awful time at Chicago. She missed all eight of her shots in a little over eight minutes against the Sky.

Note that Bone arrived in the final week of training camp because she was playing with Galatasaray in the Turkish Women’s Basketball League finals. The series went five full games with Galatasaray winning the title on May 5.

Donovan was away for most of the final week of training camp after her father passed on May 12, denying Bone time to learn her system from her new head coach.

“It’s been a struggle for Kelsey,” Donovan said. “I’m sure it’s a combination of coming out of Turkey and (winning) two championships and a lot of minutes, and now trying to come to us at the last second and make adjustments and know we’re counting on her. I think she’s a pleaser, so I think she wants to give us what we need from here. I think the more she tries, the more it kind of eludes her. She needs to settle in and settle down and she’ll be fine, but right now, in her sense of urgency, she’s pushing probably a little too hard.

“Knowing that we wanted to insert her in that starting lineup, it’s just taking her a little big longer to adjust.”

Thanks for later. More soon. Enjoy tonight's game.

Vaya con dios.