Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are ready to hit their old stomping grounds when the USA takes on UConn later this week.

Sue Bird, Lisa Leslie and Diana Taurasi, members of the USA Basketball Women's National Team, as well as USA head coach Anne Donovan took questions from members of the media Tuesday via a teleconference. They talked about a variety of subjects, including what Kim Mulkey was like as a player (Donovan), what it's going to be like to play at UConn again for the first time (Bird), returning to the court after childbirth (Leslie) and petitioning USA Basketball to have the team wear UConn jerseys when the USA plays Tennessee later this week (Taurasi). From the serious to the not so serious, we have posted the audio file for you to hear for yourself. Below are a few of the exerpts:

Anne Donovan, Seattle Storm
On playing in the college tour:
We’ve been spending so much time recently overseas that I think all of us are excited to be playing in the U.S. and have this domestic trip ahead of us. We are playing most of the top college teams, as you know, looking at our schedule. So we know that we are going to be facing some good competition. I think it’s just a great opportunity for fans in the U.S. to get to see our stars playing here in the U.S. against some of the top young stars that are in college currently.

On the return of Lisa Leslie:
(I'm) really excited to have Lisa back with us. I can’t even tell you how much she’s been missed in the national team program. Just obviously her talent and what she brings to the team both offensively and defensively. But her presence, and her leadership, and her experience and all those gold medals that she’s won. It’s just really great to have her back on the court with us.

Sue Bird, Seattle Storm, University of Connecticut '02
On playing in the college tour:
I think this college tour is going to be good for us. Obviously having Lisa back is great and will be a great addition. You know, we really have gained a lot of valuable experience. Not just experience against other teams, but experience as a group.

On returning to play at Connecticut:
Of course one of the stops is UConn. It’s my first time being back there in a very long time, so it will be great to see familiar faces, familiar buildings and familiar fans. I’m going obviously with Diana and Swin, and we have a lot of great memories there. So, I’m looking forward to being there and to playing there.

Lisa Leslie
What kind of process have you gone through to get back in shape and on the court?
The process? Well that’s a long story, but I guess the short version would be I worked out a little bit in my first trimester. In my second trimester, I was not able to work out at all. And then, my third trimester I was cleared to start doing light workouts. I had Lauren, and because she was breach I had a c-section. So I wasn’t allowed to workout for another six weeks. After that six weeks, I just started slowly, walking, running and then sprinting. So, basically I’ve just been listening to my body and taking it one step at a time.

Diana Taurasi
On what it means to play for the USA National Team:
With the national team, there’s no more prideful team to play for than the U.S. National Team. I got to enjoy it with coach Donovan, Sue and Lisa when we were in Athens and won the gold medal. The last four or five years for myself has been incredible. And to share it with people that have contributed so much to the game of basketball is really something special, and I appreciate that a lot.

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