USA Women's National Team To Conduct Spring Training Camp In Connecticut April 11-18

April 1, 2010 - Colorado Springs, Colo.

The 2009-12 USA Basketball Women's National Team will continue its preparations for the 2010 FIBA World Championship with a spring training camp in Hartford and Storrs, Conn., April 11-18, USA Basketball today announced.

Led by University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma, available members of the USA National Team will begin training at 5:00 p.m. (all times EDT) on April 11 at the University of Connecticut's Gampel Pavilion. The U.S. will return to Gampel Pavilion for 10:00 a.m. practices April 12-14. Following a day off, the USA will resume training on April 16 at 10:00 a.m. at Gampel Pavilion, and April 17 at 10:00 a.m. at the University of Hartford's Chase Arena, with a 6:00 p.m. scrimmage scheduled both evenings at Chase Arena. The USA will close out its training camp on April 18 (location and time TBD).

-Obviously I'm thrilled to death that we're getting a chance to work with the players, some who I've not had the opportunity to see and some who were in camp last fall. So that's exciting," said Auriemma, who has directed the Huskies to a NCAA women's basketball record 76-0 winning streak heading into this weekend's Final Four in San Antonio, Texas. -Secondly, I think this is the perfect place for us to have it right now because of the excitement that's here in Connecticut. Obviously the facilities here at Gampel are great. We certainly have benefitted from them. The people here are looking forward to it. It's going to be an exciting time for me and everyone else here to have USA Basketball as part of what's already happening surrounding Connecticut basketball."

USA National Team members confirmed to attend the spring training camp are: Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Alana Beard (Washington Mystics), Swin Cash (Seattle Storm), Tina Charles (University of Connecticut), Kara Lawson (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Renee Montgomery (Connecticut Sun) and Maya Moore (University of Connecticut).

Additionally, USA National Team hopeful Jayne Appel (Stanford University), who attended the team's 2009 fall training camp, but was injured and unable to participate, will practice alongside USA National Team members in the hopes of being added to the squad.

The 2009-12 USA National Team also includes 12 players who are unavailable to attend the camp due to their European professional team schedule and other prior commitments, including: Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Shameka Christon (Chicago Sky), Candice Dupree (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Lindsey Harding (Washington Mystics), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks), Cappie Pondexter (New York Liberty), Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx) and Candice Wiggins (Minnesota Lynx).

Assisting Auriemma through the 2010 FIBA World Championship are DePaul University head coach Doug Bruno and Los Angeles Sparks head coach Jennifer Gillom.

The U.S. will look to capture the title at the 2010 FIBA World Championship that will be held Sept. 23 " Oct. 3 in Brno, Karlovy Vary and Ostrava, Czech Republic, with the gold medal winner earning a berth to the 2012 Olympic Games.

The USA has been placed in Group B, and will open play against Greece on Sept. 23, followed by Senegal on Sept. 24 and a final preliminary round game against France on Sept. 25.

The 12 remaining national teams were distributed as such: Group A includes Australia, Belarus, Canada and China; Group C consists of Brazil, Mali, South Korea and Spain; and Group D is comprised of Argentina, Czech Republic, Japan and Russia.

The preliminary round will be played Sept. 23-25 utilizing a round-robin format within each preliminary round group. The top three finishing teams from each group will advance to second round play with the top teams in Groups A and B merging into Group E and the top teams in Groups C and D forming Group F. The 12 teams qualified for the second round, which will be played Sept. 27-29, will feature six teams in each group and each team will play the three new teams in its second round group. Teams finishing in first through fourth places in the second round will advance to the Oct. 1 quarterfinals. Semifinals are slated for Oct. 2, and the gold medal game will be contested on Oct. 3.

In the past dozen years, the highly successful USA Basketball Women's National Team program, ranked No. 1 in the world by FIBA, has posted a 63-1 slate in major international competitions, winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008), two FIBA World Championship gold medals (1998, 2002), one FIBA World Championship bronze medal (2006) and one FIBA Americas Championship gold medal (2007).

2010 USA Basketball Women's National Team Spring Training Roster