Picking a USA Basketball Team

Picking a USA Women’s Age Group Basketball Team

I’ve been to quite a few USA Basketball Team selections over the past 10 years. The last three years I have seen selections for the 2010 USA 17U team for France, the 2011 USA 16U team for Mexico and 2011 USA 19U team for Chile. The 17U and 19U were World Championships. I went global and attended both WC events. This year the 17U FIBA World Championship is in Amsterdam while the 18U heads to Puerto Rico for a FIBA Zone crown. Throw in the 2010 FIBA 3X3 Youth Games in Singapore. This is a lot of basketball, a lot of selections.

Being one of the very few to attend all of these international events (WC, YG) you get an eye for what it takes. This didn’t happen over night. Back in 1984 I took a Select Team (picked) over to compete in China before the turnover of Hong Kong. In the late 90’s and into the 00’s I then shifted gears and took a number of teams overseas to France and Russia both Select and Travel. During that time I got to see the shift in youth female basketball from cursory to intense. It wasn’t overnight and it still isn’t complete. 

If a USA Team of any kind wanted to win you needed a team of highly competitive athletes with swagger and skills. The normal travel team or college team breakdown by position wasn’t enough. You needed three positions filled with great players: point guard, big shooting wings, tall-huge posts. These were the keys to beating the typical European National team. Over the past decade the shift around the globe for female basketball has changed away from a USA power post game to a FIBA-Euro style of a 1-in, 4-out, or all 5 out. You can now see this in NBA play and even US college basketball.  With height at a premium this style fits for a lot of teams here and overseas. The advent of the dribble-drive made that even deadlier and we saw that in 2004 Athens Olympics.

Regardless of the change in style which now demands more defensive intensity and athleticism you still need those three important cogs, a PG, a shooter and a dominate post, each in numbers. The formula hasn’t changed, the game to play with them has. The world is catching up with the USA squads. Last year in Chile the USA suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of a Canadian 19U team which featured a number of players who attended HS and College in the USA. Eventually the USA team won the 19U FIBA Championship but it wasn’t a walk through. Team USA won this prestige FIBA World youth event which is the equivalent of an Olympic gold medal for the Senior Teams. After 19U there is not another WC level event for women at this scale.  This is why the team selections in Colorado Springs this May and last year are crucial – it’s our future.

Watching the two teams compete a week ago, mostly the 17U, there are a number of issues and problems with how the process works. This is not a criticism of the USAB staff or administrators as they are working for their Membership similar to the NCAA. It is the membership that sets these wheels in motion. The USAB staff does a great job preparing and taking care of those who wear the USA emblem.  My concern is the Committees.

The various USAB Committees have the responsibility to set the parameters of who coaches, teaches and prepares our USA Teams. For the 16U/17U level the Committee comprises of three parts, AAU, HS Federation and Prior Athlete. For the 19U team it is comprised of NCAA and Affiliated College Coaches. Is this the best? Is this the fairest? Is this the most efficient?  Good questions that get a lot of people taking various stances how this system works. The USAB Staff does the administration of these groups, not the selection.

Watching the 17U participants work out over the course of three days even I had a hard time coming up with a Team selection as in the past. Two years ago I was able to pick out the team down to almost the last person. This year, it was brutal as players failed to separate themselves from their competition. Last year the 19U team comprised of most of the 18U team and 17U team before that with few changes.

On Saturday night, right before the 17U team selection I picked out four locks (DeShields, Russell, Reimer and White)  I felt DeShields, Caldwell, Allen, Harper were good for guards, Calhoun, Davis, Gray and Greenwell for shooters, Dummer and Tucker as small forward-big wings. That left a bag of forwards with Reimer as done but a fight between Mavunga, McCall, Umeri, Chidom and Cooper. I really liked Drummer, Turner and James as sleeper choices. This 18-players number, not the exact names, was close to the 17 one I tweeted on Thursday night. Come Sunday morning the 17U Team selections were a huge surprise as half of the 16U team did not make the jump up. There were six new members, six cuts. This was something not done before. 

The 17U team selected was Allen, Harper, DeShields, Davis, Greenwell, Reimer, McCall, Chidom, Turner, Russell and James. I did not have Washington.

No Caldwell*, Calhoun, Canada*, all ‘14s and Umeri*.  Gray, Drummer, Tucker*, Mavunga*, Cooper and White* all were invited to the 18s later in the day on Sunday. Those with a * were on the 16U Gold Medal team last year.

The baffling question was who made / didn’t make it and why?

The first variables to contend with were play, shooting, conditioning and reputation.  These are the normal things a seasoned person looks at. No matter what, you have to run the floor and hit your shots. Conditioning here is key as these athletes are playing at altitude which sneaks up on you as you play.  That fast break or get back on D seems harder as the day gets long.

That last variable – reputation – is a very big factor as each selector, media rep, fan and parent have a different view of what it means and how much it plays when you are off or having a bad session or day.

Right off a number of players with big time reps did not play well at all. The outstanding player at the 17s was one: Diamond DeShields (Norcross, GA). She put on a show hitting shots, getting rebounds, playing defense in typical un-Diamond-like fashion. When you are this talented, athletic it takes internal discipline to come and play every play almost to the point where you have to fight off unknown unselfishness.  This time Diamond came to play and it was simple to see why she is the No. 1 player in the class of 2013.  After this, take a step down and you have No. 2 Mercedes Russell (Springfield, OR) and No. 3 Taya Reimer (Fishers, IN).  These three were locks by the end of the second day.

The rest of the 17U team was up for grabs. In the past this Youth Committee selected veteran players. This time they went against the grain and selected mostly 2013’s and dropped the 2014 guard line of Recee Caldwell (San Antonio, TX) and Jordin Canada (Los Angeles, CA) and ’14 post Jatarie White (Charlotte, NC).  The only 2014 selected was first timer Breanna Turner (Pearland, TX) who came back from last year’s cut more defined and more intense.

The three rep players who did not show well were three returning 16U team players: Jannah Tucker (Randallstown, MD), Rebecca Greenwell (Owensboro, KY) and Kaela Davis (Suwanee, GA).  Tucker fighting a chest cold missed shots and was up and down. Greenwell who had a great Boo Williams tournament was not herself nursing a knee issue and looked tired while Davis played hard but missed most of the shots across all sessions she took.  It was hard to watch these great players not be themselves.

In the end, Davis and Greenwell made the 17U team after playing on the young USA 3X3 team in Rimini Italy last fall with guard Linnae Harper (Chicago, IL) and Reimer. Tucker was among six moved to the 18U tryouts with LaJahna Drummer (Inglewood, CA),  Alisha Gray (Sandersville, GA), Stephanie Mavunga (Indianapolis, IN), Kendall Cooper (Carson, CA). White and Drummer were the 2014s moved to the 18s too.

Was this the best 17u team? I can not tell as this is a dangerous ploy putting almost a new team together for a FIBA World Championship. The bulk of the team is experienced. The talent is mostly born ‘95s to match the competition. It is a quicker, guard team more like a Euro-style team. If there were any surprises, it was post Kai James (West Palm Beach, FL) who made the team despite being winded by the altitude.  She was a monster inside, especially in the half court where it works with a 1-4 out offense.  She was a pick for the future as was Turner (2014).

With the 17U team selected it was now time for the 18U team with the new additional to compete for a roster spot on the Americas Zone 18U championships Aug 15-19 in Puerto Rico.  Coach Katie Meier (U. of Miami) and staff had 25 players to choose from including 10 from the 2013 class. Add the six 17U carryovers and this made 16 out of 25 players to choose for the 18U team.

The top player here were USAB Female Athlete of the Year, Breanna Stewart (North Syracuse, NY) along with fellow 19U FIBA Worlds gold medal winning teammates Morgan Tuck (Boilingbrook, IL – UConn) and and Imani Stafford (Los Angeles, CA – Texas). There were a few 2012 players here who played with Stewart and Tuck at the McDonald’s All-America game while other stayed home due to conflicts with their freshman college summer training sessions.  This option by ‘12s to skip this left the door open for a number of 2013s to make the team.

I left after the 18U trials on second day morning session right after the 17U team was selected. I had a chance to see the final 31 players over two days and walked away with a clear perspective of what could be the final 18U team.  I was halfway close with the obvious picks of Stewart, Tuck, Stafford.  Lexi Brown (’13, Suwanne, GA – Maryland), Alexis Prince (’12, Orlando, FL – Baylor), Bashara Graves (’12, Clarksville, TN – Tenn), Michaela Mabrey (’12, Holmdel, NJ – Notre Dame) and Brittney Sykes (’12, Newark, NJ – Syracuse) played strong enough to make this team. This left four spots open to competition. I felt that Tyler Scaife (’13, Little Rock, AR), Ieshia Small (’13, Miami, FL), Candace Agee (’12, Victorville, GA – Penn St.) and Moriah Jefferson (’12, Glenn Heights, TX) played strong enough to grab a spot along with 17U players Tucker, Drummer and White.  Seven players, four spots.

I learned later on from Mark Lewis that the 18U team selected was Stewart, Tuck, Stafford, Brown, Prince, Graves, Mabrey, Sykes as expected. The next four were Jefferson, Tucker plus two 17U holdover surprises, Kendall Cooper (’13, Carson, CA) and Allisha Gray (’13, Sandersville, GA). The breakdown was four 2013s and eight 2012’s for Coach Meier.

I concluded the committee would take Agee for height and also White (who shockingly didn’t make either team). I thought the play of Sykes and Mabrey made Gray’s choice iffy. I also thought Drummer ‘14, Scaife ‘13 and ’13 Small had great sessions while I was there but their class/grade might have hurt them.

Looking back at both team selections both the Youth and College USAB Committees had tough choices to make. These tryouts were overloaded with 2013 players who were good enough to be here but didn’t compete enough to make their selections easy except for DeShields (play), Russell (height) and Reimer (play).  I was surprised to see White not make the 17s and then even more when she failed to make the 18s. The 17U team has a lot of unproven talent while the 18U has proven talent and a lot of team chemistry. 

The 17U team will face some interesting competition in Europe when they head out in August to Italy and then Amsterdam. Team USA won’t face some of the well known names of France, Russia or China at this youth event as these teams failed in their respective Zone qualifiers. I am curious to see if these teams match up to the quality of the powerful 17U teams on display in France in 2010. Look for Australia, Spain and Turkey in Pool B to be factors. The USA 17U team should walk through Pool A.

The 18U team will face no level of competition as Breanna Stewart heads her fifth USA team as one of the top age-group players in the world in this Americas Zone championship. The bigger vision will be what the pool of players from both 17U and 18U will be around for next year’s 19U FIBA Worlds July 18-28, 2013 in Czech Republic and Lithuania?  At least four of the players from this 24 group are locks. The rest should come from those who are in Puerto Rico and players who distinguish themselves in college their freshman year provided there are the right age.

The number of really good 2014’s will give the USA 16U team in 2013 an edge as they compete again in the 16U Americas Zone championships. This will mean we should have player from 2014 dominating this team when selected next year.  Seven born 1996 players attended this year’s tryouts with the majority playing very well. Look for Turner, Caldwell, McKenzie Calvert (Schertz, TX), Sierra Calhoun (Brooklyn, NY), Lynee Belton (Clinton, MD) and Drummer to dominate next year’s 16U tryouts.

For those trying to follow the FIBA and USAB calendar should add the 2^nd FIBA 3×3 Youth World Championships to be held in Seville, Spain this coming September. All four members from last year’s event in Italy are available but it’s not know if this roster will change as the selection process by FIBA and USAB hasn’t been declared.

Over the next three months it will be a hunting expedition to find the next batch of 2014s and 2015s that will represent the USA banner in full and half court competitions.  It will also be interesting to see who does these selections as both Youth and College Committees go off after serving four years of this Quadrennial (Olympic Year – four years). It will be up to the members of USAB to figure out if they can find the right people to continue the excellence of USA Basketball and pick the right teams.