The U.S. ladies’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 Crew USA and host Chile within the 10-team subject are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
It’s the 18th version of the AmeriCup, a standard 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 ladies’s nationwide crew occasion, the WNBA doesn’t take a break throughout its play. And so, Crew USA — because of its luxurious of depth and expertise — usually sends a youthful, developmental crew to the event composed of faculty gamers. In 2023 for instance, the Individuals received 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 12 months’s crew is analogous in that it’s headlined by a few of the greatest stars in ladies’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 Preventing Irish. It’s the primary time followers will see them collectively since a seemingly tense alternate in South Bend throughout a WNBA preseason recreation.
“It is a enterprise journey,” Booker instructed The Subsequent. “What’s on all people’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 received the USBWA Tamika Catchings Award as nationwide freshman of the 12 months 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 Individuals can have a younger crew, they’ll be going through off in opposition to rosters made up of largely seasoned veterans who’ve expertise enjoying 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 nicely, together with Michigan’s Syla Swords and BYU’s Delaney Gibb, in addition to gamers who just lately wrapped up their collegiate eligibility like Gonzaga’s Yvonne Ejim.
Teaching Crew USA is Kara Lawson, who’s coming off her fifth season guiding the Duke Blue Devils. Duke received the ACC Match and made the Elite Eight for the primary time since 2013 this previous season. Lawson, 44, has received Olympic gold medals with Crew 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 could possibly be a candidate to steer the senior nationwide crew at a premier occasion just like the Olympics sooner or later.
Oklahoma’s Jennie Baranczyk and Previous Dominion’s DeLisha Milton-Jones are Lawson’s assistants for the event. Like Lawson, Milton-Jones received an Olympic gold medal enjoying in 2008.
“We’ve got gamers which have nice versatility, which is vital. We’ve got gamers which are nice opponents, which I like lots as a attribute,” Lawson stated just lately by way of Zoom. “I believe our practices have been targeted. We’ve been having conversations about how troublesome it’s to win internationally, how laborious you must 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 knowledgeable setting… We’re going to need to play at the next stage bodily than we do on the NCAA stage.”
Crew USA is in Group B and can face Chile on June 28 to open the event. The Individuals will then tackle Colombia (June 29), Puerto Rico (June 30) and Mexico (July 2). Video games may be watched on FIBA’s streaming service. The event will finish on Sunday, July 6.