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WNBA Women's National Basketball Association

USA Women Complete Successful Spring Training With Perfect 13-0 Record

April 20, 2004 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) News Release


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 20, 2004) - The 2004 USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team capped a successful spring training schedule with an unblemished 13-0 record in its early preparations for Athens. Featuring three separate training sessions, the USA's competition ranged from national and professional club teams to the 2004 WBCA All-Star Team, with games played in six international arenas and four domestic cities. The three camps gave the coaching staff and USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team Committee a chance to see 10 U.S. candidates compete alongside the Senior National Team core group members in hope of securing one of the three remaining roster positions.

"When we started the spring tour, we were trying to meet three objectives," said USA and Houston Comets head coach Van Chancellor. "The first thing we wanted to do was to meet and evaluate our personnel, see the things they could and could not do, and try to determine who the three best players were to recommend to the (USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team) Committee. Number two, we wanted to evaluate the basketball part of what we could or could not do in regards to the plays we're going to run or what defenses we were going to run. The third thing we were trying to do was build some cohesiveness on our team, bring us together as a unit. I was very, very pleased with the fact that we accomplished all of our goals that we set out to try to accomplish with this tour.

"We had some players who played really, really well and that was good. We pretty much put in our game plan for the Olympics. It'll just be a matter of meeting up (again in August) to try and execute that. We played under pressure well, we beat some teams by a lot, we had some close games, we played against a mixture of teams from Asia, from Cuba, from Europe and saw all different styles of play, which I thought was very important."

Chancellor was assisted on the sidelines by Anne Donovan (Seattle Storm). The nine core group members of the 2004 USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team include Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Shannon Johnson (San Antonio Silver Stars), Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks), DeLisha Milton-Jones (Los Angeles Sparks), Katie Smith (Minnesota Lynx), Dawn Staley (Charlotte Sting), Sheryl Swoopes (Houston Comets) and Tina Thompson (Houston Comets). The nine internationally experienced athletes are expected to represent the United States at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The Olympics will be held August 13-29.

The 10 USA team candidates who joined the training at various stages included Swin Cash (Detroit Shock), Cheryl Ford (Detroit Shock), Deanna Nolan (Detroit Shock), Tari Phillips (New York Liberty), Ruth Riley (Detroit Shock), Tangela Smith (Sacramento Monarchs), Michelle Snow (Houston Comets), Diana Taurasi (University of Connecticut), Nikki Teasley (Los Angeles Sparks) and Natalie Williams (Indiana Fever).

The Americans were without the services of two-time World Champion and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Milton-Jones for all 13 games. She suffered a torn ACL in her right knee on Feb. 22 in Jacksonville, Fla., prior to the team departing for Cuba. Staley, head coach at Temple University (Pa.), advanced her Owls to the 2004 NCAA Tournament and joined the team's training on April 3, missing both the Cuba and European tours; while Leslie was unable to compete in Europe and Swoopes missed the final four contests in Europe due to prior commitments.

Overall, the United States closed its 13-game training with four players averaging in double figures, including Leslie (18.3 ppg.), Thompson (16.5 ppg.), Williams (12.5 ppg.) and Swoopes (10.7 ppg.). Leslie and Williams were the top two rebounders at 6.6 rpg. and 6.5 rpg., respectively. The USA's unselfish play was evidenced by no less than five players dishing out at least 3.0 assists a contest, including Johnson (4.6 apg.), Staley (4.0 apg.), Taurasi (4.0 apg.) Bird (3.7 apg.) and Swoopes (3.3 apg.).

As a team, the USA averaged 90.9 ppg., outscoring foes by 32.3 ppg., as the Americans' stifling defense held opponents to 58.6 ppg. Further, the U.S. shot 53.6 percent from the field and a respectable 42.6 from 3-point range, while limiting opponents to just 33.9 percent from the floor and 27.6 ppg., and outrebounded foes by a 17.6 rpg. margin (42.2 rpg. to 24.6 rpg.).

Following the WNBA season, the U.S. team will reconvene on Aug. 3 to complete their pre-Olympic training at sites to be announced.

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