Team USA to face four schools in November segment of 2019-20 college tour

USA Basketball announced Wednesday that the USA Basketball Women’s National Team will face Stanford, Oregon State, Texas A&M and Oregon in November as preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. A second segment of the college tour will take place early next year.

Seven of the eight previously announced core players — Sue Bird, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Sylvia Fowles, Chelsea Gray, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi and A’ja Wilson — are slated to compete. (Elena Delle Donne, the eighth core player, was ruled out and will be replaced by Allisha Gray, as announced on Oct. 25.) Also on the roster for the college tour are Seimone Augustus, Layshia Clarendon, Napheesa Collier and Kelsey Plum.

Chelsea Gray will not be available for the first game, while Plum will miss the first two. Head coach Dawn Staley (South Carolina) and assistant coach Jennifer Rizzotti (George Washington) will miss the next two training camps as they focus on their college teams, so assistant coaches Dan Hughes and Cheryl Reeve will assume head coaching duties.

This first part of the college tour immediately precedes the Olympics pre-qualifying tournament from Nov. 14-17, where the United States will play Argentina, Brazil and Colombia.

The U.S. lost just one of its 40 combined college tour games it participated in prior to the 1996, 2000 and 2008 Olympics: against Tennessee in 1999.

Here’s the schedule of games, how to get tickets and more (preseason rankings via ESPN):

No. 4 Stanford — Saturday, Nov. 2, at 4 p.m. PT

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The Cardinal are the only team on this list that Team USA visited in each of its prior college tours, losing 100-63 in 1995, 101-58 in 1999 and 97-62 in 2007. Nneka Ogwumike is the United States’ sole Stanford alum returning to play against her former coach and team.

How to get tickets: Available Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 9 a.m. PT, on Stanford’s website

No. 6 Oregon State — Monday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. PT

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Like their Pac-12 rivals to the south, the Beavers have never hosted Team USA in a prior college tour. And while there are no Oregon State alums visiting, Ogwumike and Layshia Clarendon are Pac-12 alums (as is Kelsey Plum, though she won’t be available for the first two games of the tour).

How to get tickets: Season ticket holders have priority access until Friday, Oct. 11; available to the public Monday, Oct. 14, at 9 a.m. PT, on OSU’s website

No. 10 Texas A&M — Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. CT

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The Aggies faced Team USA during their 2007 college tour and fell 75-24. There are no former Aggies on this national team squad, but there is plenty of SEC representation: Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles both played for LSU, while the current Aggies who overlapped with recent South Carolina grads A’ja Wilson (2018) and Allisha Gray (2017) will get to face them again.

How to get tickets: Available now on Texas A&M’s website

No. 1 Oregon — Saturday, Nov. 9, at 4 p.m. PT

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Oregon has plenty of players with international experience, led by Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard. Although the preseason top-ranked team won’t be expecting to beat Team USA, it’ll still be a great opportunity for the Ducks to get a real, competitive game under their belts before diving into their non-conference schedule.

How to get tickets: Season ticket holders have priority access until Wednesday, Oct. 16; available to the public Monday, Oct. 21, at 9 a.m. PT, on Oregon’s website

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This story was originally published on Oct. 10 and was updated on Oct. 25 to include the addition of Allisha Gray to the team.