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Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
Six former Olympians will likely be on the roster for the U.S. crew that may participate within the FIBA Ladies’s Basketball World Cup qualifying match in Washington, D.C., starting Thursday and ending Saturday.
USA Basketball completed a coaching camp over the weekend within the nation’s capital, after which the 12-member crew was named. It consists of Ariel Atkins (Washington Mystics), Chelsea Gray (Las Vegas Aces) and Jewell Loyd (Seattle Storm), who have been on the gold-winning 5-on-5 crew at Tokyo, and Stefanie Dolson (New York Liberty), Allisha Gray (Dallas Wings) and Kelsey Plum (Aces), who have been on the 3-on-3 crew that gained gold.
The opposite gamers on the roster are Natasha Howard (Liberty), Brionna Jones (Connecticut Sun), Kayla McBride (Minnesota Lynx) and Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana Fever), who all have prior USA Basketball sport expertise, and first-time U.S. crew members Dearica Hamby (Aces) and Alyssa Thomas (Solar).
The pinnacle coach is that they Lynx’s Cheryl Reeve, who was an assistant in 5-on-5 on the Tokyo Video games.
The US has already certified for the FIBA World Cup by advantage of successful Olympic gold. However the People nonetheless play within the qualifying match, as it’s a good aggressive occasion to assist put together for the World Cup, which runs Sept. 22-Oct. 1 in Australia.
The qualifying match will likely be performed on the Mystics’ Leisure and Sports activities Area. Puerto Rico will play Belgium on Thursday, the USA faces Belgium on Friday and the People face Puerto Rico on Saturday.
A few of the extra acquainted names from USA Basketball competitions over the previous a number of years, such at five-time Olympians Sue Bird (Storm) and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and four-time Olympians Tina Charles (Mercury) and Sylvia Fowles (Lynx), are nonetheless competing within the WNBA however possible won’t play once more for the nationwide crew.
Fowles has mentioned this will likely be her final WNBA season, and Chook mentioned it is possible it will likely be her final, too. Different gamers reminiscent of Elena Delle Donne (Mystics), Angel McCoughtry (Lynx) and Breanna Stewart (Storm) took half within the coaching camp however weren’t accessible for the match, as they’re coming back from accidents that saved them out all (Delle Donne, McCoughtry) or half (Stewart) of the WNBA season final 12 months.
Gamers reminiscent of Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson and Phoenix’s Brittney Griner will not play within the qualifying match however are more likely to make the roster for the World Cup.
