First off, you’ve probably already seen that the Storm made a roster move today, waiving rookie guard Brandie Hoskins. The move didn’t really surprise me. While Hoskins is fully recovered from the torn Achilles that kept her out last summer and was able to play overseas, she hasn’t yet returned to the kind of shape she was in before the injury. I suspect she’ll make a much better run at a roster next spring another year removed from her torn Achilles.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team fell to host China in the gold-medal game of the Good Luck Beijing Tournament Saturday. The U.S. trailed by seven, 79-72, with a little less than four minutes to play. They rallied back as close as two, with Storm forward Swin Cash playing a key role in the run. They had a chance to send the game to overtime in the closing seconds, but Lisa Leslie missed a potential tying three at the buzzer and China prevailed 84-81.

Cash had 13 points, four rebounds and three steals, shooting 6-of-10 from the field, as four of the five USA starters scored double-figures. However, China overcame the Americans’ interior advantage by shooting 50.3% from the field.

On Friday, the U.S. players had a chance to tour some of the sites around China, including the Great Wall and Tian’anmen Square. Check out the gallery on USA Basketball.com. Courtesy USA Basketball, here’s a photo of Cash and her partner, Chafie Fields.

In Russia, Spartak got off to a 1-0 lead in its best-of-three semifinals series with against Vologda-Сhevakata with an easy 100-70 win Saturday. Sue Bird led the way with 16 points, hitting four three-pointers and handing out five assists. Lauren Jackson had 17 points, seven boards and four assists. Spartak will go for the sweep Tuesday.

- Lastly, I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to a comment from Jim Quigg, a long-time member of the Storm’s practice squad, on a recent entry. Quigg likes what he’s seen so far playing against the Storm.

“Hello fellow Storm fans. I’m one of the practice guys. I gotta tell you that you have a lot to be excited about this season. Yo is so strong and such a powerful scorer. KG and Allie shoot the ball VERY well (Katie hit three 3s with me in her face today). A-Rob is a force. Sheryl is incredibly smart, sneaky, and positive. Kristen plays hard, and so do Shyra, Kim and Leah. Brian could throw darts and still have an outstanding team.”

It’s not the gold medal the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team has as a goal in 2008, but they will play for gold in the Good Luck Beijing Tournament.

On Thursday, the U.S. defeated host China 86-61. China had been the last undefeated team at 4-0. Both the U.S. and China finished at 4-1 and they will play each other again on Saturday for the gold medal. China was within four at 43-39 early in the second half, but the U.S. women followed with an 11-2 run and were never threatened thereafter.

The U.S. used its advantage in the paint, starting Sylvia Fowles and Lisa Leslie together up front and getting 46 points and 23 rebounds from the two players. Storm forward Swin Cash contributed five points and five boards, making two of her three shot attempts.

“We were just really excited to come into this game today and have the opportunity to play a China team that we know has improved so much over the years,” Cash said. “I felt that coming out in the first quarter our team really set the tempo. We were trying to be aggressive and establish our post players.”

One downside to the win: Lynx guard Lindsey Harding left early with a strained left knee at the end of the third quarter. Harding is coming back from a torn left ACL, so any trouble with the knee is a bit worrisome.

Here’s what I don’t get about this tournament. After beating the U.S. in their opener, the Australian Opals lost to China and then were upset by Oceanic rivals New Zealand Thursday to finish round-robin play at 3-2. That’s some inconsistency.

ISRAELI FINALS ALL EVEN

Tanisha Wright’s Raanana Hertzeliya team fell 86-65 to Elizur Ramla Thursday, tying the Israeli D1 Finals at one game apiece. Both teams have held home court so far in a 1-1-1-1-1 Finals format. Ramla was hot on offense, putting five players in double-figures and shooting 54.2% from the field.

Ramla focused its defensive attention on Wright, who attempted just seven shots. She still had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists but her teammates were unable to take full advantage of the attention paid to Wright.

Game 3 in the series will be played Monday with Raanana playing host. The series will go at least through Game 4 next Thursday.

Eight months after the Storm lost to the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of last year’s WNBA Playoffs, it’s time to get going again. This afternoon’s media day will kick off our coverage of Storm training camp. Look for a full-on multimedia assault from storm.wnba.com starting not long after media day wraps up at 4:00 p.m.

I know everybody’s anxious to hear more on Ashley Robinson’s status, so we’ll update that as soon as we see her in camp or don’t. (UPDATE: It’s official. Robinson will be back with the Storm.)

While we wait for that, let’s quickly head overseas.

In Russia, Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson had to work harder in Game 2 but Spartak downed a pesky Kursk Dynamo squad 80-74 to sweep their quarterfinal playoff series and advance to a matchup with either Vologda-Chevakata or BC Moscow in the semifinals. Bird, who has picked up her scoring lately, led Spartak with 15 points and handed out five assists. Jackson added 12 boards. The other series is going to a decisive Game 3 on Tuesday before Superleague action continues with the semifinals.

Katie Gearlds‘ Athinaikos squad dropped its finale to Paghiakos 79-67 yesterday despite 12 points from Gearlds, but I don’t think anything was on the line in that game. Athinaikos had no ability to move up into second place and still won a three-way tie for third in the league at 17-9. There is no playoff play in the Greek League, so Gearlds is headed back to Seattle and should be practicing with the team later this week.

Lastly, let’s go to China for more action in the Good Luck Beijing Tournament. On Sunday, the U.S. beat Cuba 92-60. Swin Cash was one of five U.S. players in double-figures in that game, scoring 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting and adding five rebounds. Sylvia Fowles paced the USA with 25 points and 18 rebounds (look out, WNBA!).

Early this morning our time, the U.S. got its second straight win by a 92-56 margin over South Korea. Cash, who started her third straight game, had a balanced line of six points, four boards, four assists and two blocks. One-time Storm forward Jung Sun-Min scored 13 points for Korea.

Apologies in advance for the bad pun, but this weekend is the calm before the Storm, so to speak. Training camp officially begins tomorrow, but that traditionally means a team meeting/dinner before Monday’s media day and first practice, which is not open to the media. (Traditionally, the weekend before training camp does not include hail, but I guess all the better for the Storm.)

Still, plenty of Storm players are making news overseas. Let’s start in Israel, where Tanisha Wright and Raanana Hertzliya completed a comeback from down 2-0 in their series with Maccabi Ramat Hen to win 3-2 and advance to the Israeli Finals. Wright played passer in Game 5, handing out 12 assists to go with 11 points and five steals in a 98-84 win. Wright’s passing was contagious; Raanana had 29 assists on 35 baskets as a team.

In the Finals, Raanana will face Elizur Ramla. Game 1 is Monday. The series could end as soon as April 28 with a sweep. I believe the longest it could go would be the Monday after that, May 5. From the Storm’s perspective, let’s root for a Raanana sweep.

In Russia, Spartak has opened the Superleague Playoffs, defeating overmatched Kursk Dynamo 96-57 in Game 1 of their best-of-three series. With the outcome in no doubt, Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson played just seven minutes apiece. Jackson had eight points on 3-of-4 shooting in her brief run, while Bird handed out two assists.

Moving east to China, the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team dropped its opener in the Good Luck Beijing Tournament, falling 74-60 to Australia. The U.S. led to the final quarter but was outscored 26-10 in the period. Swin Cash had seven points and four rebounds as a starter for the USA, which struggled to find a rhythm from downtown, shooting 2-of-19 on threes. Vets Lisa Leslie (17) and Katie Smith (14) were the only U.S. players to score double-figures. A couple of former Storm players, Tully Bevilaqua and Suzy Batkovic, started for the Opals.

Lots of recent events to catch up on, so let’s not waste any time.

We start in Russia, where the Cup of Russia was contested last week, Superleague teams taking a break from regular-season play. Spartak finished third, defeating Kursk Dynamo 75-62 in the quarterfinals before falling to CSKA Moscow 71-62 in the semis. Spartak rallied to take third by beating Moscow Dynamo 83-70. CSKA Moscow went on to defeat UMMC Ekaterinburg for the championship. Sue Bird was arguably Spartak’s most consistent performer, averaging 13.3 points and 5.0 assists in the three games. Lauren Jackson averaged 8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds.

Looking ahead, there are less than two weeks and three games remaining in the Superleague regular season, which wraps up April 6. It’s April 11, however, that is the big date forthcoming on the Spartak calendar. That’s when they’ll take on Ekaterinburg in Brno, Czech Republic for the Euroleague Final Four, with the Euroleague championship set for two days later.

Brno is the hometown of Gambrinus Brno, the archrival for Janell Burse’s USK Praha squad, and the two teams faced off today in Prague. Despite 20 points and nine rebounds from Burse, who shot 8-of-16 from the field, USK fell 65-58. Teammate Lindsay Whalen shot just 2-of-11 from the field. Brno has won all four head-to-head matchups this season (two during the regular season, two during the current double round-robin playoff-type competition, which involves four teams) – all four defeats USK has suffered in Czech play. Last year, Burse blogged about USK defeating Brno for the first time ever in the club’s history. USK has one last game left in the double round-robin, Friday against Karlovy Vary.

In Poland, Shyra Ely’s Finepharm AZS KK Jelenia Góra squad fell 70-61 to Cukierki Odra Brzeg today. Ely had 19 points and a game-high 14 rebounds in the loss. In 10 games since joining the team midseason, she has averaged 10.3 points and 8.9 rebounds.

Katie Gearlds scored 15 points, including three three-pointers, but it wasn’t enough as her Athinaikos squad lost 74-66 to Panathinaikos Sunday in a contest that had to be very confusing to broadcast. Gearlds added four rebounds, playing all 40 minutes. With four weeks left in the regular season, Athinaikos is in a three-way tie for third place in the Greek A1 league.

The Italian A1 league last played Saturday, when Doneeka Lewis scored 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting but her Fiera di Roma Pomezia squad fell 87-62 to Famila Schio. Elsewhere, Adia Barnes had 13 points and Astou Ndiaye-Diatta 12 in Phard Napoli’s 73-62 loss to Lavezzini Parma. Next Sunday will be the last weekend of the regular season. At 17-8, Napoli is in fourth place while Fiera di Roma is in 12th.

In Israel, the D1 league is preparing for postseason action. At 16-5, Tanisha Wright’s Ranaana Hertzliya won a tie-breaker with Electra Ramat Hasharon for first place and will have home-court advantage in a best-of-three series with Maccabi Ramat Hen. Ranaana Hertzliya will host games next Monday and April 7, with Ramat Hen hosting a game April 10.

Wright finished as the league’s leading assister at 6.2 apg, fifth in the league in scoring at 21.5 ppg, second in steals at 3.2 spg and fourth in three-point percentage (46.7%).

Competing the blog we started last week, the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team completed its training in Spain Thursday by taking on Spanish side Perfumerías Avenida. The U.S. rallied from a seven-point deficit going into the fourth quarter to force overtime and ultimately prevailed, 69-66, in the extra session. In 13 minutes of action, Storm forward Swin Cash contributed two points and two rebounds.

The NCAA Tournament tipped off over the weekend, and with the Sweet Sixteen set, I hope your bracket looks better than mine does. The right side is in terrific shape – I got all eight Sweet Sixteen teams correct over there, but just half of the eight teams on the other side of the bracket (the one- and two-seeds, natch). With Cal getting upset at the buzzer by George Washington, Kate Paye at Stanford is the only member of the Storm Coaching Network still alive in the tournament, though there are still plenty of alma maters, including favorites UConn and Tennessee.

In Australia, Jackson is now featured in a TV commercial for RADD (Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drink Driving).

“It is really upsetting and painful for those involved, and the friends and family,” Jackson told the Herald Sun, citing experience with those she knew growing up in Albury killed in crashes. “It made me think twice. I can’t even have one drink and drive.

“I am too paranoid to do that. I couldn’t risk me, my family, my friends or anybody else on the road. I just couldn’t live with myself.”