Four International Veterans Added To USA Women’s National Team Pool

-- USA’s Pre-World Championship Training To Tip-Off In Nation’s Capital Sept. 4 --

Aug. 18, 2010 • Colorado Springs, Colo.

• Additional Notes & Quotes
• Teleconference Audio || Quotes

Four international veterans were today added to the 2009-12 USA Basketball Women’s National Team, from which the 2010 USA World Championship and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams will be selected. Added to the USA National Team roster were Jayne Appel (San Antonio Silver Stars), Rebekkah Brunson (Minnesota Lynx), Ebony Hoffman (Indiana Fever) and Kia Vaughn (New York Liberty), all of whom have aided USA Basketball teams to gold medals during their careers.  Player selections were made by the five-member USA Basketball Women’s National Team Player Selection Committee.

Selected members of the USA National Team will assemble on Sept. 4 in Washington, D.C., to tip-off its final training prior to departing for Europe to compete in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. While in the nation’s capital the team will practice daily Sept. 4-7 at 10:00 a.m. (all times EDT). On Sept. 4-5, the squad will train at The Flint School in Oakton, Va., and on Sept. 6-7 the USA will practice at American University’s Bender Arena in Washington, D.C.

“Certainly one of the positions that we are trying to shore up is in the post,” said 2009-12 USA Basketball Women’s National Team and University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma. “With Candace Parker not being available because of her operation, these four additions give us a lot of options to choose from. I’m anxious to see how they fit in. And depending on who’s available because of the playoffs, I think it’s important to have as many options as possible.

“I’m really looking forward to that first week in September in D.C., and even more so the following few weeks as the playoffs wind down and we’re able to add more and more players. Speaking for all the coaches, we’re anxious to get our whole team together. And even then it might not happen until the start of competition, but at least we’re getting close.”

Moving up the coast to Hartford, Conn., the team will train Sept. 9 at 10:00 a.m. at the XL Center before taking on defending world champion Australia in an exhibition game on Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. The U.S. will practice at 10:00 a.m. on Sept. 11 at the XL Center and will cap its domestic training with a friendly against Spain, the No. 5-ranked women’s program in the world, at 1:00 p.m. on Sept. 12.

Tickets are on sale now online at www.ticketmaster.com, through Ticketmaster charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and in person at the XL Center box office. Ticket prices range from $75, $50, $30, $20 and $10 respectively, additional fees may apply.   

In addition to the USA exhibition games, the University of Hartford will play host to an exhibition between Australia and Spain on Sept. 11 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets for the Australia – Spain exhibition game are $10 and can also be purchased through Ticketmaster.

Traveling to Salamanca, Spain, the USA National Team will face Australia a second time, on Sept. 17 (time TBD) in the first game of the 2010 Spain International Invitational. Spain will tip-off against Senegal in the second game of the day and the winners will meet on Sept. 18 (times TBD) for the championship, while the losing teams will play for third place.

The U.S. will get one final warm-up before the start of the 2010 FIBA World Championship when it faces host Czech Republic in a scrimmage in Brno on Sept. 20 (time TBD).

The 12-member 2010 USA World Championship Team will be selected from the 24-member USA National Team pool. The make-up of the USA National Team during its exhibition contests will be partly dependent upon who is competing in the WNBA playoffs and the official 12-woman USA roster that will compete in the 2010 FIBA World Championship must be submitted to FIBA at the technical meeting that normally is held the day prior to the start of the competition.

The 20 previously announced 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).

Assisting Auriemma and the USA National Team through the 2010 FIBA World Championship are DePaul University head coach Doug Bruno, Los Angeles Sparks head coach Jennifer Gillom and Atlanta Dream head coach / general manager Marynell Meadors.

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).

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 USA Basketball Women's National Team Player Selection Committee is comprised of WNBA representatives Renee Brown, Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations; Dan Hughes, General Manager of the San Antonio Silver Stars; and Chief Operating Officer/General Manager of the Indiana Fever Kelly Krauskopf; athlete representative and five-time Olympian Teresa Edwards; and USA Basketball Women's National Team Director Carol Callan.

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.