Colorado Springs – The first open USA Basketball trials in three years opened Friday evening at the US Olympic Training Center with 40 athletes vying for a spot on the U17 team that will compete at the FIBA World Championships in Debrecen, Hungary this July.
It’s a new day with a return of parent spectators, media and evaluators allow in view the trails since 2019. Everyone is familiar with the Covid shutdown of 2020 and the limited players only 2021 USAB u16 team selection. This year, it’s the u17s and those 10 members of the 2021 USA Women’s U16 National Team that defeated Canada 118-45 for the gold medal at the 2021 FIBA Women’s U16 Americas Championship are here.
Returning are: KK Arnold, Madison Booker, Jaloni Cambridge, Breya Cunningham, Jaydn Donovan, Kendall Dudley, Delaney Thomas, Juju Watkins, Jada Williams and Olivia Olson. Not returning are 6-5 Margaret Mendelson who opted for the USA Volleyball National team and Grace Slaughter.
That leaves 10 spots open for the other 30 candidates. Other players return from last year’s U16 trials are: Zoe Brooks, Joyce Edwards, Milaysia Fulwiley, Mary Ashley Groot, Taliyah Parker, and Aubrey Shaw. That makes 13 Blue Star 30s returning (9 National team, four returners) from last year.
What’s also different is the “management” of USA Basketball as they start the covid-delayed Quadrennial (three years to Paris ’24) with a new men’s national team director Sean Ford and women’s national team director Briana Weiss plus a new Head of Communications Renee Felton and manager Justin Trujillo. This is the biggest change in staff since I started covering USAB events in the 1980s.
Another departure from the past is this year’s Media protocols that limited viewing to only one evening session. That means only 2 hours of “viewing-evaluating play” and interviews for the Media. In the past Media was able to attend all sessions. A shifting covid landscape made this year’s rules more stringent. It’s better than no attendance as in 2021.
With only two hours to “view” the players and knowing who’s returning along with the Blue Star 30 players, it was easy to get a fast sense of who’s on point and who’s trying to figure this out. This year’s trials started off with the typical drills and jumped into team play. Each group with 8 to a roster paired off and played in a rotational basis. By the third session the dominance of the returners was evident. A handful of those trying to grab a spot also shinned.
What is left for the next few days of viewing will be to see separation from the group into who’s the top tier (vying for a spot) and those who will add this to their resume. Don’t feel bad as everyone here is getting (or had already committed) to a big time D1 scholarship.
Right now, after just the first session, the 9 of the 10 returning players looked good (KK Arnold sat out the evening session due to a medial issue). If there’s any change out in the roster from last year, at most it could be 2 players, meaning that four spots could be open for contention. It was obvious the returners has the swag and confidence on being seasons international players.
I saw back and just kept notes on performance and play. Missing shots, bad passes and poor decisions are what makes you slide into the lower tier. The other issue is scoring on similar high-level talented players who don’t have the luxury of their travel team coach and players helping them be who they are. It was obvious that some players had trouble scoring, not playing. Again, this is about separation and who can get it done. You are competing without any subjective help or influencer opinions. This is the crucible.
What’s open? A need for a post and maybe a forward to take Mendelson and Slaughter’s spots. Blanca Thomas (6-5, ’24, NC) and Sienna Betts (6-4, ’25, CO) looked strong on opening night along with multi-positional Joyce Edwards (6-3, ’24, NC). Everyone is expecting 2021 U18 USAB 3X3 gold medalist Mikaylah Williams (6-1, ’23, LA) to be a lock for the team. That means one post or cutting a returner as of now.
Other players who impressed me on first night were Sunaja Agara (6-2, ’23, MN), Riley Nelson (6-1, ’23, MD) and Aaliyah Crump (6-1, ’25, MN). The slots for point guard line is crowded and highly experienced with Arnold, Cambridge and J.Williams, pushing against talented Leah Harmon (5-6, ’24, MD), Fulwiley (5-9, ’23, SC) and Hannah Hidalgo (5-7, ’23, NJ). This is no doubt the very talented guard pool. And think of Katie Fiso (5-9, ’23, WA) and Aaliyah Chavez (5-8, ’25, TX) were invited and here?
The best part of the evening was the matchup of Juju Watkins and Mikaylah Williams who are both considered 1-2 in the class of 2023. Both players went at each other and scored. It’s without doubt that these two will rise through the USAB pipeline for glory in ’28 or ’32. Right now, I am a Juju fan based on one aspect that the women’s game lacks – the ability to go “get a shot.” That means, in boys parlance, go one-on-one, pull up and get your shot off. That’s a talent that is lacking even in higher level women’s basketball as it’s mostly screens for shots or drives. Ms. Williams is no slouch either and it (who’s one) comes down to how you like your players cooked. The beauty is that USAB has two the rest of the world doesn’t have.
JuJu Watkins 39 (left), Sienna Betts 41 (center) and Mikaylah Williams 39 (right) look at rebound options during first day of USAB U17 trials
NOTES: The FIBA u17 World Championships will be July 9-17 in Debrecen, Hungary. If you plan to go, expect either flying into Budapest and taking a train or car down to Debrecen. Those players who make the team won’t be at any early summer travel basketball events as the team will have Camp June 25-30 (with Alternates) and team leaving early for Europe to play preliminary games and get acclimated to the time change. All the games will be on FIBA’s YouTube channel.
When looking over the “invitee” list it’s obvious where many of the names came from and how they got here. Surprising that players like FIso, Chavez, Grace Knox (6-1, ’25, NV), Zakiyah Johnson, (6-0, ’25, KY) and Sahara Williams (5-11, ’23, IA) should have been here. These five players would have given everyone here, even most of the returning u16 members’ trouble.
