2011 USA Basketball Women’s National Team European Tour Roster Announced

Swin Cash (Seattle Storm), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Brittney Griner (Baylor University), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Renee Montgomery (Connecticut Sun), Cappie Pondexter (New York Liberty), Sophia Young (San Antonio Silver Stars), Danielle Robinson (San Antonio Silver Stars) will participate in the USA’s first three games of USA Basketball's European tour. Candice Dupree and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) will join the team later this week.

For more details, visit the USA Basketball link above.

8 months ago Nate Parham 21 comments 0 recs |

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Becky Hammon was voted

one of the 15 best players ever to play in the WNBA. Lauren Jackson is Australian so Hammon was among the 14 best candidates for the National Team, and she never made it. Katie Douglas has never played in the Olympics either. Don’t know if she ever made an apearance for some lesser event.

by ttdomi on Sep 26, 2011 4:37 PM EDT reply actions

USA Basketball has made some head-scratching choices over the years

More recently, note Crystal Langhorne’s absence on Team USA even though she’s younger and better than any of the power forwards who will be competing on this tour.

by RP_45 on Sep 26, 2011 5:10 PM EDT up reply actions

"Crystal Langhorne’s absence"

Agreed that she’s among the best in the league (really for about 3 seasons now) but just to throw this out there…

All of the power forwards listed are more finesse, face-up, quicker post players. Might the logic be that their games are better-suited for the international game? (I don’t watch enough international ball to say that for sure)

Twitter: @NateP_SBN.

by Nate Parham on Sep 26, 2011 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions

The lack of Langhorne is a mystery to me, too.

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 26, 2011 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions

What?

Love for Lang?

by thewiz06 on Sep 27, 2011 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions

Dude, she's a badass

Even those of us who are serious homers for other teams can see that. ;)

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 27, 2011 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks you

There must be a god!

by thewiz06 on Sep 27, 2011 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions

She was on my All-Star ballot

Every. Single. Day.

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 27, 2011 5:09 PM EDT up reply actions

"Might the logic be that their games are better-suited for the international game?"

Langhorne’s performed very well for Team USA in the past.

2005 with the U19 team: http://www.usabasketball.com/womens/u19/wu19_2005.html
2007 with the U21 team: http://www.russia2007.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/07/fiba/u21wom/teamPlay/team/p/eventid/3957/langlc/en/roundid/3957/teamnumber/379/fe_teamPlay_teamAccuStat.html

2008 with the national team: http://www.usabasketball.com/seniorwomen/2008/08_test_stats/USA.HTM

On the other hand, she barely played at the 2009 Ekaterinburg International Invitational, which was Geno Auriemma’s first tournament as head coach of the national team. Perhaps he just isn’t a fan.

by RP_45 on Sep 27, 2011 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions

"Perhaps he just isn't a fan"

That seems like a fair assumption based on the available information.

Twitter: @NateP_SBN.

by Nate Parham on Sep 27, 2011 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions

Well

the US womens senior national team is essentially the UConn Alumnae team.

by thewiz06 on Sep 27, 2011 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

IIRC Douglas has been going through the process to play for Greece for...years now

I think she got started on it when she married the Greek guy. There’s like a 5 year waiting period. Not sure if she’s still going that way or not. Could explain the absence from USA BB though.

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 26, 2011 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Best part about this announcement for me, though? (Besides the obvious 5 Lynx)

“And there was much rejoicing!”

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 26, 2011 5:57 PM EDT up reply actions

She leap-frogged Vandersloot.

by ttdomi on Sep 26, 2011 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions

She was always ahead of Vandersloot.

People just were looking the wrong way.

I think a lot of people looked at DRob in college and then made guesses about what she couldn’t do in the pros, while people looked at Vandersloot and made guesses about what she could do.

Time will tell whether Vandersloot ultimately becomes the better of the two, but DRob came into the league better prepared than ’Sloot, and then got a serious jumpstart having great guards around her to help her adjust her rookie year.

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 26, 2011 7:12 PM EDT up reply actions

If only she had come up National Team big in the playoffs.

by ttdomi on Sep 26, 2011 8:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Eh, that's asking too much at this stage

The important thing is she’s back in the pool so she’s going to get that extra experience and the +1 to her development that comes along with it.

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 27, 2011 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I should have said

If only she had matched her regular season field goal percentage in the playoffs (.46 versus .259) Minnesota would not have won game one and would have been under big pressure to win in San Antonio.

by ttdomi on Sep 27, 2011 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions

She hasn't necessarily always done great vs. Min in the past, though.

0-3 @ Min on 8/4
2-7 vs. Min on 8/28

Her other games were better, but the point is that Minny’s got athletic/savvy enough bigs to deny DRob her favorite drive & draw the foul play. The night she was 2-7 she also never shot freethrows, which is pretty interesting since she’s usually very good at getting herself to the line.

That’s the sort of thing that shows she’s still a rookie. She’s going to have up & down games right now as she continues to adjust. She’ll learn how to navigate those defenses better over time.

by Shannon Cotterell on Sep 27, 2011 5:09 PM EDT up reply actions

DRob is a Rookie

In the 1st Minnesota playoff game with the game on the line in the last minute of play DRob tried to force the ball inbounds over the outstretched arms of a taller player. You know she’s been told over and over again that in that situation you have 3 choices with 1 and 2 being variations of the same thing. 1. inbound the ball using a bounce pass 2. inbound the ball using an underhand or a side arm pass 3. call a timeout. NEVER EVER TRY TO FORCE THE INBOUNDS PASS OCER THE OUTSTRETCHED ARMS OF A TALLER PLAYER STANDING IN FRONT OF YOU. She tried to do the same thing in the 3rd playoff game early in the second half. Hopefully, we can attribute that to rookie mistakes that won’t happen in future years.

by lkg on Sep 27, 2011 7:51 PM EDT up reply actions