2009 WNBA Coach Of The Year Marynell Meadors Added To 2010 USA World Championship Team Staff

April 12, 2010 -Colorado Springs, Colo.

Marynell Meadors, head coach and general manager of the WNBA Atlanta Dream, has been selected as an assistant coach for the 2010 USA Basketball Women's World Championship Team, USA Basketball today announced. The selection of Meadors, who previously coached three USA Basketball teams, was made by the USA Basketball Women's National Team Steering Committee and approved by the USA Basketball Board of Directors.

Meadors, who will join the USA National Team in its spring training in Hartford and Storrs, Conn., April 13-18, will assist USA Basketball Women's National Team and University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma during the USA's training camps leading up to and during the 2010 FIBA World Championship, scheduled to be played Sept. 23 " Oct. 3 in the Czech Republic. Also assisting the USA National Team are DePaul University head coach Doug Bruno and Los Angeles Sparks head coach Jennifer Gillom.

-It's going to be an awesome experience," said Meadors, the 2009 WNBA Coach of the Year. -I've worked with USA Basketball in the past, but not recently. To have an opportunity to be able to work with this staff and also the USA National Team players is going to be incredible. I can't wait to share in those opportunities.

-The thing I think I add is experience in just about every category that you can think of. I've served in all those different capacities throughout my career. The international game is a lot different than what we're used to playing here in the United States, but basketball is basketball. We're going to do our best to put the best team on the floor. Whatever we've got to do, if we've got to work an extra hour or go the extra mile, we're going to do that. It's going to be a great team. It's a great staff and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a lot of fun and a lot of great experiences."

-I think we've put together a pretty good staff that's pretty diverse in their experiences," said Auriemma. -Marynell just adds to that. She's been involved at every level of basketball, from the NCAA to the WNBA, from the beginning of the WNBA to today. She's certainly done an incredible job in Atlanta from taking that franchise from birth to playoffs. It's important that we reward people who have put the time and effort in and who have been successful. I think her experience and all the things that she's seen at both levels are going to be invaluable. Some of us are going into this looking for as much help and as much experience we can find from our staff and our players, and I just think she's the perfect choice to be a part of our staff right now."

Following its April training camp, the U.S. squad will reconvene in July to compete in the WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun game that will be played Saturday, July 10 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The USA World Championship Team will reassemble for its final training in September (site and dates TBD) prior to departing for Europe to compete in the FIBA World Championship.

Members of the 2009-12 USA Basketball Women's National Team are Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Alana Beard (Washington Mystics), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Swin Cash (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Shameka Christon (Chicago Sky), Candice Dupree (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Lindsey Harding (Washington Mystics), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Kara Lawson (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Renee Montgomery (Connecticut Sun), Maya Moore (University of Connecticut), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks), Cappie Pondexter (New York Liberty), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx) and Candice Wiggins (Minnesota Lynx).

A member of three USA Basketball team staffs, Meadors served as the head coach for the 1989 U.S. Olympic Festival East Team that captured a gold medal. She then was the assistant coach for the gold medal winning 1992 USA R. William Jones Cup Team and returned in 1993 as the head coach for the USA Jones Cup squad that returned home with the bronze medal.

A five-year WNBA head coach, Meadors has spent the last two seasons (2008-09) as head coach and general manager of the Atlanta Dream, where she orchestrated the second-best turnaround in league history. The Dream in its inaugural season in 2008 finished with a 4-30 mark, but after making some off-season trades and drafting eventual 2009 Rookie of the Year McCoughtry, Atlanta posted an 18-18 mark and earned a 2009 playoff berth. For her efforts, she earned the 2009 WNBA Coach of the Year award.

Previously, Meadors spent three years (1997-99) as head coach and general manager of the Charlotte Sting and finished second in the Eastern Conference in 1998 and 1999. Meadors, who owns a 66-60 head coaching record in the league, also served a three-year (2005-07) stint as an assistant coach for the Washington Mystics and aided the Mystics to a 50-52 mark and the 2006 playoffs.

In all, Meadors is a 36-year coaching veteran who got her start at Tennessee Tech in 1970-71. She spent 26 years as a collegiate head coach, 16 at Tennessee Tech (1970-71 through 1985-86) and 10 seasons at Florida State University (1986-87 through 1995-96), and guided her teams to a 495-297 record for a 62.5 winning percentage. At Tennessee Tech, where she never posted a losing season and compiled 20 or more victories in 13 seasons, Meadors was the 1984 Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year.

Between WNBA coaching jobs Meadors was an assistant coach on the sideline at the University of Pittsburgh for two seasons (2003-04 through 2004-05).

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).

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.

Should the U.S. not finish with the gold medal in ‘10, it would have two additional chances to qualify for the Olympics: the 2011 FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament (dates and site TBD) and 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (dates and site TBD).

The USA Basketball Women's National Team Steering Committee is comprised of USA Basketball past President Val Ackerman, WNBA Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations Reneé Brown, USA Basketball Women's National Team Director Carol Callan, five-time Olympian Teresa Edwards and USA Basketball CEO/Executive Director Jim Tooley.

FIBA World Championship
The FIBA World Championship has been contested essentially every four years since 1953, and the United States captured the first two gold medals before the beginning of the Soviet domination of women's basketball was kicked-off 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 nations to break into the gold medal column at this event are Australia, the defending world champion, and Brazil, which defeated the USA in the 1994 semifinals and went on to take the top spot that year.

The USA owns a record seven gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals in FIBA World Championship play, while compiling an all-time 88-21 record at the event. In 2006, the most recent World Championship, the U.S. fell 75-68 to Russia in the semifinals, but rebounded to take host Brazil 99-59 in the bronze medal game and finish with an 8-1 record. Australia earned the gold after defeating Russia 91-74 in the final contest.