– Dawn Staley Set To Coach Her First USA Basketball Game –

March 28, 2006 • Colorado Springs, Colorado

Young Guns Seimone Augustus (clockwise from upper left), Sylvia Fowles, Jessica Davenport and Cappie Pondexter will get their first taste of the USA Basketball women's senior level competition in April. (Photos: Elio Castoria, USA Basketball)

USA Basketball has invited four college All-Americans, including Louisiana State University's Seimone Augustus (Baton Rouge, La.) and Sylvia Fowles (Miami, Fla.), Ohio State University's Jessica Davenport (Columbus, Ohio) and Rutgers University's (N.J.) Cappie Pondexter (Chicago, Ill.), to train alongside Olympic gold medalists and WNBA standouts in USA Basketball's final spring training session April 1-12. The training will begin in Boston April 1-4, where the U.S. will prepare for the April 7-12 Opals World Challenge, featuring Australia, China and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), in Cairns and Canberra, Australia.

Due to the timing of the 2006 WNBA Draft, USA assistant coach Dawn Staley, who has headed up the Temple University (Pa.) squad since the 2000-01 season, will step in as the acting head coach for the USA's first contest in Australia. USA head coach Anne Donovan (Seattle Storm) and assistant coach Mike Thibault (Connecticut Sun) will travel to Australia following the draft and Donovan will reassume head coaching duties for the USA's second contest.

"I'm excited about this mix of players," said Donovan. "It's going to be great to get some of the college kids out here. I've really enjoyed working with the younger players who don't have a lot of senior-level international experience. These young players all have international experience, but it's all with our junior program. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt to playing in our senior program and I'm sure they're looking forward to playing with some of our Olympians."

Olympic gold medalists Swin Cash (Detroit Shock), a member of the first European Tour squad; Ruth Riley (Detroit Shock); Katie Smith (Detroit Shock), who competed in both of the USA's 2006 European tours; and Tina Thompson (Houston Comets) will provide the veteran leadership for a squad that will feature young WNBA talent in 2006 USA Women's National Team spring training participants Alana Beard (Washington Mystics); Kristin Haynie (Sacramento Monarchs) and Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs); as well as Shameka Christon (New York Liberty), a member of the 2001 bronze medal winning USA Junior World Championship Team.

The internationally experienced crew of collegians all helped the U.S. earn the 2005 World University Games gold medal. A member of five USA Basketball teams, Pondexter boasts four golds and one bronze medal in international play. Most notably, Pondexter and Augustus, the 2003 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year and MVP of the 2003 FIBA World Championship For Young Women, teamed up to lead the 2003 USA World Championship For Young Women Team to gold in Croatia.

In addition to the 12-member squad that will compete in Australia, three-time Olympic gold medalist Sheryl Swoopes (Houston Comets) will practice during the team's Boston training camp. Due to prior commitments, she is unable to compete in Australia.

USA athletes involved in the Final Four and/or the 2005 WNBA Draft will travel with Donovan and Thibault and join the squad in Australia.

USA Basketball will announce the final 12-member 2006 USA World Championship Team by the end of June.

Two-time (2000, 2004) Olympic gold medalist Smith also collected gold at the 1998 and 2002 FIBA World Championships, while Cash, Riley and Thompson helped lead the U.S. to gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

In 2005 Beard earned WNBA All-Defensive second team honors, while she, along with Cash and Riley, were 2005 WNBA All-Stars. Coming off a senior season that saw Michigan State advance to the NCAA title game, Haynie teamed up with Lawson and the Sacramento Monarchs as they earned the 2005WNBA title.

The 2005 Naismith, Wade Trophy, Honda Award and John R. Wooden Award winner as the top college basketball player, Augustus is again in line for this year's top awards. She and Pondexter are among four finalists announced for the 2006 Naismith Player of the Year award; Augustus, Fowles and Pondexter are finalists for the 2006 Wade Trophy; Augustus and Pondexter are finalists for the 2006 Senior CLASS Award; and all four are among the finalists for the 2006 John R. Wooden Award. Additionally, Augustus is a two-time (2005, 2006) Southeastern Conference Player of the Year; Davenport is a two-time (2005, 2006) Big Ten Conference Player of the Year; Fowles was named to the 2006 All-SEC first team; Pondexter was named the 2006 Big East Conference Player of the Year and all four athletes have all been selected as 2006 Kodak/WBCA All-America finalists.

The U.S. will gather in Boston for four practices, open to credentialed media only, before departing for Australia, beginning with an April 1 training session that gets underway at 10:00 a.m. (all times local) at Harvard University's Malkin Athletic Center. The USA's final three practices will be held at Boston College's Conti Arena and will begin on April 2 at 12:00 p.m., at 10:30 a.m. on April 3, and the final practice in Boston will tip-off at 9:00 a.m. on April 4.

In addition to team training, several players will speak to young athletes at NCAA YES Clinics, participate in a clinic at the NCAA Hoop City, and the U.S. team will host area youths during the April 2 practice, followed by an autograph session.

At 8:30 a.m. on April 1, Beard, Christon, Haynie and Smith will speak to girls and boys, aged 10-18, at each of the NCAA Women's Final Four YES clinics from 8:30-9:15 a.m. Beard will attend the Reggie Lewis Center clinic in Roxbury; Christon will be a the Shelburne Community Center clinic in Roxbury; Haynie will attend the University of Massachusetts-Boston clinic; while Smith will be at the Harvard University site. That evening at 5:00 p.m., Davenport, Haynie and Riley will be featured assistants at a clinic inside the NCAA Hoop City at Hynes Convention Center.

USA Basketball has also invited up to 25 area youths who are members of the Baintree Youth Basketball Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA team to attend the final 30 minutes of its practice on April 2, after which the kids will have a chance to interact with and get autographs from U.S. team members.

The Australia-hosted Opals World Challenge tips-off in Cairns with the U.S. opening with China on April 7 and facing Australia on April 8. The tournament then moves to Canberra, where the Americans will play China again on April 10, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) on April 11, and the Opals World Challenge concludes with the second USA-Australia clash on April 12.

USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team
This marks USA Basketball's third of three spring training camps, which will see 2006 USA World Championship Team hopefuls go against top national and professional club teams from around the globe to help determine the 12-member roster for the 2006 USA Women's World Championship Team. The USA has previously posted an overall 6-0 record over top professionals during two training camps in Europe, March 2-9 and March 18-24.

The USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team Committee, chaired by Reneé Brown, the WNBA's Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations, selected the athletes for the three spring training camps. The spring training will give the coaching staff and USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team Committee a chance to evaluate a variety of candidates competing for the 12 roster positions on the 2006 USA World Championship Team.

Following the 2006 WNBA season, the USA will regroup in late August for a final training camp before heading to Brazil to defend its World Championship title at the 15th FIBA World Championship, slated to be played Sept. 12-23 in Sao Paulo.

Donovan will be assisted at the 2006 FIBA World Championship by Connecticut Sun head coach Mike Thibault, and collegiate head coaches Gail Goestenkors of Duke University (N.C.) and Dawn Staley of Temple University (Pa.).

FIBA World Championship
Behind the play of 2002 FIBA World Championship MVP Leslie, the United States captured the ‘02 gold medal, successfully defending its 1998 World Championship crown. The U.S. owns a record seven gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the World Championship, while compiling an 80-20 (.800 winning percentage) record, including a 19-0 winning streak that dates back to the 1994 bronze medal game.

The World Championship has been contested essentially every four years since 1953. The United States captured the first two gold medals before the beginning of the Soviet domination of women's basketball at the 1959 World Championship. The former USSR put together a string of five straight golds (1959, 1964, 1967, 1971, 1975), before the United States reclaimed gold in 1979. The Soviet Union in 1983 earned its final World Championship crown as the USA went on to capture four of the next five World Championships (1986, 1990, 1998, 2002). The only other nation to break into the gold medal column at this event is Brazil, which defeated the USA in the 1994 semifinals and went on to take the top spot that year.

FIBA conducted on Jan. 31 the official draw to determine the four preliminary round groupings for the 2006 FIBA World Championship, and the United States was placed in Group C along with China, Nigeria and Russia. Preliminary round games are scheduled for Sept. 12-14, and the top three teams from each of the four preliminary round groups will advance to the second round for the right to advance to the medal round quarterfinals. Placed in Group A were Argentina, host Brazil, South Korea and Spain; Group B includes Australia, Canada, Lithuania and Senegal; and Group D consists of Cuba, Czech Republic, France and Chinese Taipei.

The 15th FIBA World Championship format will feature a round-robin competition in preliminary round play. The top three teams from each preliminary group advance to form two second round groups consisting of six teams each. Each team's results from its preliminary group carries over to the second round standings, and each team will play the other three teams in the second round group whom they have not faced previously. The top four teams from those two groups will advance to the medal round quarterfinals. The gold and bronze medal games will be played Sept. 23.

2006 will mark Brazil's fourth time hosting the FIBA World Championship: Rio de Janeiro played host in 1957, and Sao Paulo was the site for the 1971 and 1983 Worlds. In all, the United States had mixed success when playing a World Championship in Brazil. The 1957 squad took home the gold with an 8-1 slate, in 1971 the U.S. finished in eighth place with a 6-2 record and in 1983 the USA squad again went 6-2, but returned with the silver medal.