{"id":88195,"date":"2014-01-15T09:16:27","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T14:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=88195"},"modified":"2014-01-17T09:09:36","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T14:09:36","slug":"huskies-dominate-usa-womens-national-team-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/01\/huskies-dominate-usa-womens-national-team-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"Huskies Dominate USA Women\u2019s National Team Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brianna<\/a>
Brianna Stewart ’16 (CLAS) is one of three current UConn student-athletes and a total of seven Huskies who were named to the USA Women’s Basketball National Team pool this week. (Andrew Bernstein\/USA Basketball for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Breanna Stewart \u201916 (CLAS) was selected last week as the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year for the second time in the last three years, she expressed the hope that one day she would be able to play for her country in the Olympics. As a veteran of USA Basketball with five international gold medals in her trophy case, the self-effacing second-year Husky did not have to wait very long to get a major step closer to the opportunity she desires.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the 19-year-old Stewart was among seven current and former Huskies named by USA Basketball to the group of 33 of the nation\u2019s top women basketball players who hope to make the USA National Team. Once selected, the team will try to qualify for the 2014 FIBA World Championship and for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I watched the Olympics, that\u2019s something I\u2019ve always wanted to do,\u201d Stewart says, adding that representing her country through basketball at the highest level is one of her biggest goals.<\/p>\n

Stewart, junior Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis \u201915 (CLAS), and senior Stefanie Dolson \u201914 (CLAS) were selected to the player pool, along with former Huskies Sue Bird \u201902 (CLAS) of the Seattle Storm, Tina Charles \u201910 (CLAS) of the Connecticut Sun, Maya Moore \u201911 (CLAS) of the Minnesota Lynx, and Diana Taurasi \u201905 (CLAS) of the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

\u201cStewie has always been honored to be part of USA basketball. It\u2019s one of the most important things to her,\u201d says Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma, who will return as coach of the USA National Team. \u201cAs far as the game itself goes, she\u2019s never passed up an opportunity to participate and she\u2019s played at her age group, she\u2019s played up one or two and sometimes three years, and she always performs at a really high level. \u201cYou just tell her when training camp is and she shows up. Whatever team she\u2019s on usually wins a gold medal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current trio of Huskies are among just six student-athletes in the pool who are still playing as undergraduates and in the future will likely play in the WNBA. Dolson has won two gold medals and Mosqueda-Lewis has won four, playing in international competition. Bird, Charles, Moore, and Taurasi, along with Swin Cash \u201902 (CLAS) and Asjha Jones \u201902 (BUS), were members of the U.S. Olympic Team that won the 2012 London Olympics gold medal coached by Auriemma. They are among the group of USA veterans in this year\u2019s selection pool who collectively have won 14 Olympic and\/or FIBA World Championship gold medals.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A reunion of Huskies last October when USA Basketball invited the nation\u2019s top women\u2019s players to Las Vegas to compete for consideration to join the USA National Team that hopes to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games included six of the current and former Huskies who were named this week to the National Team pool. From left, 2011 U19 USA head coach Jennifer Rizzotti, Tina Charles, Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Stefanie Dolson, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, USA Women\u2019s Basketball head coach Geno Auriemma, and Sue Bird. (Photo by Andrew Bernstein\/USA Basketball for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The seven UConn players represent the largest group of those connected to a university that has produced top student-athletes in women\u2019s basketball. Three players are from Tennessee and two each represent Baylor, Louisiana State, and Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

“I think the game has changed tremendously and we are fortunate that the pool is probably greater than it’s ever been,” says Auriemma. “The gap between those that have won gold medals and those that are still playing for the USA Basketball National Team and those that want to be part of it who are younger and have made a name for themselves is narrowing every year. I’m excited that we have so many great players to choose from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Dolson, \u201cI don\u2019t know that I always thought it would really happen, but after putting in all the hard work here at UConn and doing the same with USA Basketball, I\u2019ve grown and improved so much. It\u2019s really just awesome to be a part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kaleena<\/a>
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ’15 (CLAS) was a member of the team that won the 2013 World University Games gold medal in Russia last summer. (Andrew Bernstein\/USA Basketball for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adds Mosqueda-Lewis: \u201cEver since I started playing USA Basketball and getting a feel for the organization and seeing what it\u2019s all about, it\u2019s been a hope of mine to make the National Team. So now, being in the pool and getting closer to that goal is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participation on a USA Basketball Team is by invitation only. Competition committees select athletes to participate in team training as well as the final 12-member team. The USA Basketball Women’s National Team over the next three years will compete in the 2014 FIBA World Championship (Sept. 27-Oct. 5 in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey), and if the USA qualifies, the 2016 Summer Olympic Games (Aug. 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). They will also take part in additional USA training camps and exhibition games, in order to determine the final roster of 12 players who would go to Brazil in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always difficult when you\u2019re trying to put together a team,\u201d says Auriemma. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t always come down to picking the 12 best players, putting them on the team and let\u2019s go. I think there are other factors that go into it, and hopefully the committee and coaches can come up with a team that is capable of winning gold medals and represents the U.S. in the best possible manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the USA Basketball Women\u2019s National Team Player Selection Committee include Chris Sienko \u201988 (SFA)<\/strong>, Connecticut Sun vice president and general manager, as well as USA Basketball women\u2019s national team director Carol Callan; WNBA appointees Rene\u00e9 Brown, WNBA chief of basketball operations and player relations, and Dan Hughes, San Antonio Silver Stars head coach and general manager; and three-time Olympic and two-time FIBA World Championship gold medalist Katie Smith, who played in nearly 200 games for USA Basketball from 1993 to 2008, and serves as the athlete representative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seven current and former UConn players represent the largest group of those connected to a university. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":88200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-88195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 19:23:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88195"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88230,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88195\/revisions\/88230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/88200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88195"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=88195"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=88195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}