Kalana Greene Proud Of Tina Charles

Kalana Greene and Tina Charles forged a close friendship at UConn. And they’ve become even tighter in the two seasons they’ve been teammates with the Connecticut Sun.

So Greene got a big kick from watching Charles – and five other former UConn players – help lead the USA to a gold medal at the London Games.

“Its kind of cool to see guys you know so well out there representing your country, knowing how much they mean to so many people,” Greene said Monday. “And seeing Maya Moore and Tina playing together again was kind of weird, now that they are on different teams [in the WNBA]. Seeing Tina, Asjha Jones, Dee [Diana Taurasi] and Tamika Catching and Candace Parker [both of Tennessee] on the floor together was weird, too.”

Greene said she talked to Charles almost every day during the London Games.

“The time difference was weird [five hours]. I’d be getting home and she would be playing or practicing or sleeping or whatever,” Greene said. “I talked to Asjha, too. But Tina and I would just talk about a whole lot of nothing. No basketball, no Olympics, for Conneticut Sun. Just girl talk.

“But I will say this. The one thing about her is that she is never satisfied. Now that the Olympics are over, she will refocus on the goal, the task at hand [winning the WNBA title]. She always wants more. You look at her and assume that she’s done it all, she is so amazing, you don’t know how much higher she can go. But in reality, she is thinking I can always get better, always help my team more. And she is very humble about it.”

Greene also enjoyed watching Geno Auriemma coach six of his former players.

“I knew he would make adjustments [after trailing Australia at the half of the semifinals],” Greene said. “He may be content to let things play out in the first half, but you knew something was coming at the half. I know he sometimes asks players how they feel. But there are other times when he just says ‘screw it’ and tells them what they are going to do, when they are going to do it and it works. That is what makes him so great. He trusts his players [advice]. And they trust him to know what is best and then buy into it.

“But I would see some plays [USA ran] and say, “I know that play. I ran it for 5 years after timeouts.”