“Times have changed and circumstances have changed I’m sure, but what we do and what our expectation level is, what kind of people we bring into our program hasn’t changed and I’m really proud of that”.
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The Americans have won 41 consecutive Olympic contests dating back to the bronze medal game in 1992, winning by an average of almost 30 points a game.
“Fortunately, they’re a lot of the same players that played”.
“That’s something for us as a basketball program to be proud of, that we’ve been able to maintain, that the same things that helped Diana and Sue get to where they are were the same things that got Stewie on this team”. I just think about that it is obviously that they have been well-schooled.
At each hoop, two or three players shot baskets.
Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Taurasi, who grew up in Chino, Calif., were all members of the gold-medal squads in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing.
When the Geno Auriemma-coached US team featuring five of his former UConn players meets Canada on Friday at 7 p.m.in an worldwide friendly at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, don’t be surprised to see more than a few comments of “is it the US national team or UConn” variety especially if former UConn stars Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi are announced as starters for the third straight exhibition game in the USA Basketball Showcase.
On Thursday, Auriemma was on the court with seven of his former players.
Helping Auriemma and the USA staff are another pair of Huskies-Jennifer Rizzotti and Jamelle Elliott.
With that in mind, just what would happen if the 12-member USA team truly consisted only of UConn products?
“There is a reason why UConn has the most alumni in the WNBA, there is a reason”, Bird said. They never let you down.
“Having five of my former players helps, even though other than Stewie they’re kind of removed from UConn and they’ve added a lot of layers to who they are, so they’re not the same”. “I thought defensively we were about as good as we can be given the short amount of work that we’ve done”. The only change was putting Breanna Stewart into the group instead of Elena Delle Donne.
The challenge for Auriemma and his staff is finding the right mix of players for each unit. “There’s not a lot of dropoff when you make a substitution like there would be in college”.
Knowing that those who have criticized the US national team being too UConn-centric under Auriemma’s watch would come close to internally combusting if he ever started five UConn players at the same time led Auriemma to pull aside Reeve, who has coached the Minnesota Lynx to three WNBA titles.
On Friday, it will be something of homecoming for Auriemma & Co. “It will go by quickly”, Griner said about Taurasi’s words of wisdom.
Canada head coach Lisa Thomaidis expects a better showing from Nurse when Canada plays France on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Then it’s off to Rio for the Olympics. “It’s great to be around familiar faces every day, and it just makes it more fun and more enjoyable”.
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“For some of us, it’s our fourth Olympics, some third, second”, Taurasi said.
