The U.S. girls’s basketball nationwide crew is again in motion starting this weekend because the squad performs within the FIBA AmeriCup in Santiago, Chile.
Becoming a member of Staff USA and host Chile within the 10-team discipline are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
It’s the 18th version of the AmeriCup, a conventional 5-on-5 competitors that has existed since 1993. The video games are used as a qualifying occasion for the FIBA Ladies’s World Cup, which will probably be performed in Berlin, Germany in 2026.
Whereas the AmeriCup is a senior girls’s nationwide crew occasion, the WNBA doesn’t take a break throughout its play. And so, Staff USA — because of its luxurious of depth and expertise — typically sends a youthful, developmental crew to the event composed of faculty gamers. In 2023 for instance, the People gained a silver medal behind the play of Angel Reese, Lauren Betts and Deja Kelly. In 2021, they captured the gold with a squad powered by Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston and Elissa Cunane.
This yr’s crew is comparable in that it’s headlined by a number of the greatest stars in girls’s faculty basketball, together with Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson, TCU’s Olivia Miles and Madison Booker of Texas.
For Hidalgo and Miles, the event reunites the previous backcourt mates for the Combating Irish. It’s the primary time followers will see them collectively since a seemingly tense change in South Bend throughout a WNBA preseason recreation.
“This can be a enterprise journey,” Booker informed The Subsequent. “What’s on everyone’s thoughts right here is successful gold.”
Additionally on the roster are rising sophomore standouts like South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards and Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes, the latter of whom gained the USBWA Tamika Catchings Award as nationwide freshman of the yr this previous season. Blakes twice scored north of fifty factors in a pair of wins for the Commodores as a rookie.
The roster additionally options Iowa State standout Audi Crooks, Iowa senior Hannah Stuelke, Oklahoma All-American Raegan Beers, UCLA sharpshooter Gianna Kneepkens, USC’s Kennedy Smith and Michigan State’s Grace VanSlooten.
Whereas the People could have a younger crew, they’ll be going through off towards rosters made up of largely seasoned veterans who’ve expertise taking part in in Olympics, World Cups and different worldwide competitions. Chicago Sky heart Kamilla Cardoso and Indiana Fever heart Damiris Dantas, for instance, will play for Brazil. Canada’s crew — coached by Nell Fortner — will function a number of noteworthy present faculty gamers as effectively, together with Michigan’s Syla Swords and BYU’s Delaney Gibb, in addition to gamers who not too long ago wrapped up their collegiate eligibility like Gonzaga’s Yvonne Ejim.
Teaching Staff USA is Kara Lawson, who’s coming off her fifth season guiding the Duke Blue Devils. Duke gained the ACC Event and made the Elite Eight for the primary time since 2013 this previous season. Lawson, 44, has gained Olympic gold medals with Staff USA as a participant (2008), assistant coach (2024) and head coach of the 3×3 crew in 2021. Due to her mixture of expertise, resume and success, she may very well be a candidate to guide the senior nationwide crew at a premier occasion just like the Olympics sooner or later.
Oklahoma’s Jennie Baranczyk and Outdated Dominion’s DeLisha Milton-Jones are Lawson’s assistants for the event. Like Lawson, Milton-Jones gained an Olympic gold medal taking part in in 2008.
“We now have gamers which have nice versatility, which is essential. We now have gamers which can be nice rivals, which I like quite a bit as a attribute,” Lawson stated not too long ago by way of Zoom. “I believe our practices have been targeted. We’ve been having conversations about how tough it’s to win internationally, how onerous you need to play, and definitely how bodily the video games are going to be down there. We perceive we’re a university group going to play in an expert setting… We’re going to should play at the next degree bodily than we do on the NCAA degree.”
Staff USA is in Group B and can face Chile on June 28 to open the event. The People will then tackle Colombia (June 29), Puerto Rico (June 30) and Mexico (July 2). Video games might be watched on FIBA’s streaming service. The event will finish on Sunday, July 6.
