WASHINGTON, D.C.– Cheryl Reeve began their journey to the 2024 Olympics in Paris this weekend when she coached Team USA women to consecutive wins over Belgium and Puerto Rico in World Cup qualifying at the Arts and Entertainment Arena here.
It didn’t take long to see she was the right person to replace Dawn Staley.
Reeve, who was an assistant coach on both the 2016 and 2021 Olympic gold medal teams, has all the credentials needed to success. She has high basketball IQ, WNBA championship experience as the coach and general manager of the Minnesota Lynx, and a has a reputation as a teacher for a team that is going through a transitional phrase without long time stars Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Sylvia Fowles and Tina Charles, who will likely retire after another gold medal run.
The team that took the floor in D.C. this week does not have many proven international stars like Breanna Stewart, Brittany Griner, A’ja Wilson, who dominated Japan in the gold medal game in Tokyo. The roster included three 2021 Olympians — guards Ariel Akins, Jewel Lloyd and Chelsea Gray- and a group of new players who are trying to flesh out the 12-woman roster.
Given the fact they only had five days to prepare for qualifying and a short seven- month window before the 2022 World Cup in Sydney, Australia, the results were impressive.
On Friday night, Team USA defeated 2018 medalist Belgium and its international star Erika Meesseman from the Washington Mystics, 84-75, Then the next afternoon, they blew away Puerto Rico, 91-55, for their 71st straight international victory to lock up a spot in the 12-team championship tournament.
They should be the favorite to win gold again.
“This was a really good start,” Reeve said. “It’s like you think about how you’d want your first time to go – the start of a new quad, a new coach. I couldn’t have asked for anything more in terms of the way they approached it, their energy. Each time we got together, we wanted to improve upon something, and we did. So, this coach is really happy.”
The biggest questions revolve around who will provide the leadership missing from decorated veteran guards and teammates Taurasi and Bird, who won five Olympic gold medals with Team USA and which young stars will flesh out the roster.as backups
Reeve gave all of the six guard candidates– Akins, Chelsea Gray, Loyd, Kelsey Plum, Kelsey Mitchell and Allisha Gray–, a long look in one of the two games.
Plum a member of the Las Vegas Aces who played on Team USA’s Olympic gold medal 3 x 3 team, led the USA with 16 points against Belgium, shooting a perfect 5 for 5 from the field, including two three pointers, and 4 of 4 from the line. Chelsea Gray contributed 10 points and 8 assists. Against Puerto Rico, Akins had 14 points, Allisha Gary had 13, Kelsey MItchell had 10 and Lloyd scored 10 points of her points in the first quarter.
The USA shot over 50 percent in both games but the most impressive thing about their performances was their intense defensive pressure., which limited Meeseman’s touches in the first game while turning 17 Belgium turnovers in 21 points. Team USA was just as suffocating against a weaker Puerto Rico team, jumping to to a 33-8 lead and converting 19 Puerto Rican turnovers into 27 points.
“I thought we did follow the game plan pretty well,” Reeve said. “Defensively, I thought we were on point. Offensively, we got an awful lot of good looks that we just didn’t make. But what we did better in the third quarter was we started to grab some offensive rebounds for second chances. Overall, once we got through the second quarter, I thought the effort was there on our intentional parts of the game plan.”
It was nice to see Reeve finally get her shot after being a loyal solider on the 2016 and 2021 Olympic teams as an assistant to Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley. She continues a long line of Olympic coaches with local ties, having played for Washington Township, the Philadelphia Belles travel team and La Salle. Reeve started out as an assistant coach at her alma mater for two years and spent the next five as an assistant at George Washington, which appeared in four NCAA tournaments. She was head coach at Indiana State from 1995 through 2001 before getting her start in the WNBA with the Charlotte Sting in 2001 as an assistant to the late Anne Donovan before becoming head coach of the Seattle Storm in 2003, Detroit /Shock before being named head coach of the Lynx in 2010, where she earned her greatest glory, taking a 13-21 team with the worst offense in the league to a 27-7 record with players like Candace Wiggins, Seimone Augustus and Maya Moore and winning the first of four WNBA titles. She is one of the most respected coaches in the league and should be on a fast track to be selected to the Naismith Hall of Fame before her career is over.
Her outgoing personality and knowledge of the game made her a natural to step in for Staley, who stepped out of the international spotlight after Japan. “What I’ve learned with working with Cheryl and now getting to know her over several years is that you get Cheryl involved, you get all of her,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said. “She’s engaged. She’s committed and her passion and enthusiasm is contagious.”
