When TEAM USA basketball arrived in Sydney for the women’s World Cup in basketball, program was considered a work in progress.
The adminstration was iin transition with Briana Weiss replacing long time director Carol Calin. Cheryl Reeve, an accomplished coach with the WNBA Minnestora Lynx, became the new coach, replacing Hall of Famer Dawn Staley. The Diana Taurasi-Sue Bird era was over, 6-9 Brittany Griner was unavailable, Five members of the team, including starters Aja Wilson and Kelsey Plum from the WNBA Las Vegas Aces– arrived two games late because the finals ran long.
No problem.
The gap between the Americans and the rest of the world has become greater than ever. Team USA struck gold for a fourth straight year, defeating a much improved China, 83-61 in the championship game. The US has now won 30 straight games in World Cup compettion. I always thought the 2016 Olympic team was the strongest team ever to represent this county in international competition. But this team might be more dominant in terms of margin of victory where 20 point goals were the norm. Given the fact the championship game drew a crowd of 16,000 at the Superdome, it might have been fun to see the US play home team Australia, with its 6-5 Hall of Famer Lauren Jackson, who came out of retirement for this event. But the Aussies, who were in the opposite bracket, never reached the final, losing to a Chinese team without its star guard Li Meng, 61-59, in the semis. .
The 6-5, 26 year old Wilson and Plum each scored 17 points in the gold medal game and Wilson, the WNBA MVP, was selected tournament MVP. She showed no effectts of jet lag after she arrived, averaging 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds while dominating China in the grouip and medal games.
Veteran forward Breanna Stewart, the most versatile player in the world, joined Wilson on the All Star 5 along with towering 6-10 Han Xu of Chinan, Canada’s Bridget Carleton and Australia’s Stephanie Talbot.
“Given all the changes, I think a lot of people thought this was the year to beat the US,” American coach Cheryl Reeve said. “But this streak is special to us. I wanted to make sure this journey was fun. What happens sometimes is that when you have this to win, it takes some of the fun out of it.”
Reeve, a veteran WNBA coach who is a future Hall of Famer, was the perfect choice to coach this team. She is players coach with an exceptional basketball IQ who was grounded enough to integrate new stars and got them to play exceptional team defense.
“We came here on a mission, a business trip,” Wilson said. “Getting used to Cheryl’s system was big for us, and we ddi wel. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, but I feel blessed to be in this situation. I came with a goal. It’s like a stepping stone and we plant seeds for the next generation.”
China medaled for the first time since 1994 and the stands at the Superdome were filled with fans from that country. This is a team with multiple stars. Center Li Yueru led China with 19 points and eight rebounds, her best game of the tournament. the chinese have come a long way since 2018, when Australia dominated them by 40 points in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in the Canaries.
