COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– The next cycle for selection of the United States u16 FIBA Americas team started last Thursday night with 133 athletes showing up to make the team. The final 12 athletes selected will represent the USA in the FIBA Americas in Buenos Aires, Argentina from June 7-12.

Two non-gold performances in the 2015 FIFBA America u16 (bronze) and the 2016 FIBA u17 World Championships (silver) have been the only blemishes in an otherwise dominate effort in FIBA basketball on the men/boys and women’s side. There was a ton of discussion and quiet dissent after the last cycle produced less than the traditional gold medal performances.

What makes this year the most important in the entire history of USAB girls basketball is the need to turn around the “process” and select the best team possible – not a high school travel team, not a summer travel team – an international team ready to perform and beat the likes of France, Australia, China and a mix of Brazil, Canada, Russia and Germany.

This hasn’t happened in quite a while.  Ok, why?

Simple – a down cycle of talent, a committee who have never built teams. No one wants negativity but it was simply a failure to have input from people who knew talent, built travel teams (which means look for the best), select for chemistry and evaluated talent around the country. The USAB u16 coaches got handed a bad team (in my opinion), one that had a lack of scoring and specifically inside play.  Shooting was at a premium and it was a dribble drive push to the basket summer travel team basketball. The USA lost to a tough Brazil team to be left out of the finals for the first time.

The shock of this loss reverberated about summer basketball with aggressive and angry know-nothing parents looking to blame everyone for their child’s heartbreak. Losing isn’t fun but when you wear the USA shield everyone gets up for you.

Last year it was thrust upon the USAB Committee to try and address the team, chemistry and performance by changing out half the team and selecting new players – in my mind a better team than the u16’s. The USAB u17 squad that played in Spain last summer had better athletes, better skill position players but still lacked cohesive elements. Regardless, this team could have a shot at gold.

The USA u17 team played some tough gutsy games and reached the finals only to get hammered by Australia in the finals to grab silver. It had the pieces, it had the talent, it lacked time together. Angry parents and people always blame coaching but forget – you’re playing with what you’re given. The exact statement I made to people right before the Brazil game one year before.

If this is the process – what changes now?  Simply – this is the next quadrennial (4 year Olympic cycle) where USAB changes people who are on various selection committees. And with this comes a new USAB Youth Girls selection committee that has more experience than any other for as long as I’ve been watching this process. In the end, the task befalling this new committee is “Team Building” like never before – who plays well with whom.

To go with this change is also a new group of exciting new young players in the class of 2020 and 2021 to compete with some leftover 2019’s from last year’s selection process.  There’s enough talent here to simply win the FIBA Americas that starts in two weeks. The major issue is to select as many players from the 133 who can project to face the world with experience and chemistry at the 2018 u17 World Championships.

In previous years, the reason the USAB teams dominated is their ability to have a depth of scoring talent – the stars of their travel team and sometimes high school programs. When one player stopped scoring, another went in and took it over within the team framework. This was apparent the most at the 2010 u17 World Championships in France. Everyone was a threat from their respective travel teams.

The talent pool for USAB over the past few years has been down as the cycle of USA talent was on the down swing. The last three years of summer basketball was not the best. Even the vaunted Nike GEYBL was down in talent regardless of what other competitors think they had. This was the best and it was down. It was just the talent cycle.

It was youth events like the EGBAA Games, Rights of Passage, Rising Blue Star and NYGHoops that stepped in with a younger identification process to help create the Blue Star 30 group. The result was players coming to this year’s USAB trials with more chemistry and growth that showed this spring at the various April NCAA Observation events, especially the Nike Boo Williams GEYBL.

The result? A lot of players now at the USAB trials ready to make their name and this team.

When the u16 Trials started on Thursday evening with basic drills and skill work the two groups got acclimated to the elevation and to the format. After this evening, I sat down and marked off the players I thought would make it to “last day” – the cut before they narrow it down to the final 12 plus 3. With the Friday morning, afternoon and evening games finished I added a few more names to the mix. Unlike the last few years where the “invited” list was not deep and the “apply” group was weak with at least 20-30 “how did they get here” names, this year it is dynamic with just a few bad numbers.

Just to set the record straight – I do not pick or influence the team unlike some crazed parents want to believe because of their daughter’s failure to play up to their parents acclaim and look for scape goats. I watch and make my selection, my guess as to what the Committee will pick. Sometimes it’s right on, in recent years way off by them – not me.

For the past two cycles its’ been the lack of a super point guard, not a travel team guard, a guard who will run the team like a star year in year out and win like a Sue Bird. This year the best is one of the youngest Blue Star Report’s top 2021 talent, point guard Azzi Fudd (Falls Church, VA), who is scary skilled and efficient with the ball and shot. This is the best young lead guard I’ve seen in years at the USAB trials. But one player doesn’t “make” a team. The need to find that next one or two lead guards is important in an era where few can shoot, run a team without the dribble drive after the second pass. These three, Zia Cooke (Toledo, OH), Celeste Taylor (Valley Stream, NY) and Nyah Green (Allen, TX) impress me greatly with their speed and skills.

What also makes this cycle better is the depth of shooters. It’s critical to have big shooters which is what it takes to win internationally. I’ve seen Katie Smith and Tina Thompson win USAB Olympic games with their shooting. You need people to just go make shots. Leading the pack is Blue Star Reports top 2020 player, 6-1 Sydney Parrish (Fishers, IN) along with 6-0 Maddie Burke (Doylestown, PA) and 2016 u17 6-2 holdover Sammatha Brunelle (Ruckersville, VA).

The post and forward positions are harder to chase this year as the overall height of this camp is smaller due to impact of the dribble drive high school game pushing height to volleyball. This makes finding the right mix of height and athletic skill important.

There’s several players here who could make the squad at this spot depending on team play over the next few days. A number of players who looked “ok” in drills got serious playing in the Friday evening session. For me, the most dominate center in HS right now is 6-3 big post Aliyah Boston (Worcester, MA). There’s also a slew of other younger 2020’s bigs in 6-4 Natalija Marshall (Forest Hills, NY), 6-3 Kylee Watson (Linwood, NJ), 6-5 Cameron Brink (Beaverton, OR) and 6-2 Jayla Kelly (Chesterfield, MO) to go with 2019’s 6-5 Ashten Prechtel (Colorado Springs, CO) and 6-5 River Baldwin (Andalusia, AL).

The other spots to fill will be how to address the forward position. There are at least 12 players who could make an impact and make the team at this position depending on how they play during Saturday games. Three of my favorites are 6-2 Diamond Miller (Somerset, NJ), 6-2, Fran Belibi (Centennial, CO) and 6-1 Treasure Hunt (Chattanooga, TN).

There are a number of other players who impressed last night during competition, especially most of the Blue Star 30 players here including three 2021’s, 6-1 Ally Van Timmerman (Allendale, MI), 6-0 Greta Kampschroeder (Naperville, IL) and 5-11 Taylor Bigby (North Las Vegas, NV).

Regardless of how they played up until last night, tomorrow and Sunday represent a bigger battle, one with the altitude and fatigue. Saturday should be where separation happens for the better players here as cuts begin. The teams will get more competitive and scoring skills become very important.  Now it’s up to this new USAB Selection Committee to not just pick the best players but to pick the right players this time. We can accept nothing less than the gold roster from them.