I jokingly call the Team USA women the 'UConn All-Stars' because of the number of former players USA head coach Geno Auriemma usually selects for his Team USA FIBA world championship and Olympic women's squads. Hey, they keep winning medals, so I ain't mad at him or the USA Baskeball selection committee for doing so.
There are only five UConn alums on the 2016 Olympic team headed to Rio, but the 2016 Olympic ballers will be Seimone Augustus, Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Tina Charles, Elena Delle Donne, Sylvia Fowles, my Houston homegirl Brittney Griner, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, and Lindsay Whalen .
Coaching this team in addition to Auriemma will be assistant coaches Doug Bruno of DePaul, Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx and Dawn Staley of the University of South Carolina.When the Team USA women begin pursuit of their sixth consecutive gold medal and seventh all time on August 7, they will start Group B play with Senegal, followed on August 8 by the No 4 qualifier still to be determined by the Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament in Nantes, France from June 13-19. Team USA will then face Serbia on August 10, Canada on August 12 and the No. 2 qualifier on August 14 to close out group play.
They are 58-3 in Olympic competition, and will also be when they step on the court in Rio attempting to build on a 41 game winning streak that dates back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games
Should be fun to watch Team USA hopefully roll to a sixth straight Olympic title, but we have to play the games first..
TransGriot Update: The five teams that emerged from the June 13-19 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament were the host France, Belarus, Turkey, China and Spain. France, Belarus and Turkey are in Group A. China and Spain ended up in Group B with the USA.
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