Delaware struck again on the 2012 recruiting front over the weekend when Millbrook High senior guard Courtni Green announced she will sign with the Blue Hens.
Virginia Tech appeared to have the inside track on Green, a two-time state player of the year who averaged 25.8 ppg last season and has led Millbrook to back-to-back state titles. She has long cited a desire to play close to home, and she has a tight bond with her brother Erick, who plays men's basketball at Tech.
Courtni Green acknowledged to the Northern Virginia Daily that as recently as last week, she was leaning towards Tech. And during a decision ceremony at her home Saturday, she faked out onlookers by picking up a Hokies hat - only to hand it to her brother before revealing Delaware as her choice.
"I felt like Delaware offered everything I wanted in a school," the 5-8 Green told the newspaper. "I felt like they wanted me."
Green also cited the lure of playing one season with Blue Hens All-American Elena Delle Donne. Delle Donne will be eligible to leave Delaware after the 2012 season, when she will be four years removed from high school. But according to women's basketball guru Mel Greenberg, Delle Donne currently intends to stay at Delaware through the 2012-13 season, when Green will be a freshman.
Unless Green changes her mind - she can't sign a binding commitment until November - this means that all three of the state's Associated Press 2010-11 players of the year will be leaving Virginia for college. Elizabeth Williams, the Group AAA player of the year, is at Duke and Maryah Sydnor, the top player in Group A, is at Appalachian State.
It will also give Delaware the last three Group AA players of the year; Green has won it the last two years and Blue Hens sophomore and former Freedom High star Kelsey Buchanan copped the award for 2008-09.
Click here to see the 2012 verbal commitments from around the state.
Showing posts with label Delaware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delaware. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Delle Donne: the best of the best?
One could certainly make that case. The Blue Hens star helped finish off Chinese Taipei with a flourish, as she racked up 18 points and team highs of 11 rebounds and 8 assists in 30 minutes (also a team high). The double-double was her third in the six games. For the tournament, Delle Donne, who started every game, led the U.S. in scoring (15.7 ppg) and rebounding (8.5 rpg).
If nothing else, anyone that thought Delle Donne's Delaware numbers were in any way a product of playing in the mid-major CAA must now recognize that even when surrounded by several of the best college players in the country, this player belonged in the front row.
She may have even been at the head of the class.
World University Games results
Gold medal: United States 101, Chinese Taipei 66
Bronze: Australia 66, Sweden 56
5th place: Russia 71, Canada 52
7th place: Brazil 62, Finland 57
9th place: Czech Republic 93, China 68
11th place: Lithuania 80, Japan 66
13th place: Slovakia 69, Great Britain 56
15th place: Poland
Friday, August 19, 2011
Delle Donne, U.S. reach World University Games final
UPDATE: The World University Games gold medal women's basketball will be streamed live here. Registration is free.
In what was by far its closest game of the tournament, Delaware star Elena Delle Donne had a tournament-high 22 points (on 24 shots) and 11 rebounds to lead the United States past Australia 79-67 in the World University Games semifinals Friday in Shenzhen, China. The U.S. will face fellow unbeaten Chinese Taipei, which survived Sweden 71-70 in overtime in the other semifinal, in the gold medal game. Chinese Taipei's Yingli Huang made the second of two free throws with two seconds left to break a 70-70 tie.
The gold medal game is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Sunday (Eastern time).
The U.S.-Australia game featured some unusual shot distribution from the winners, particularly considering how many weapons Team USA can deploy. Delle Donne made 10 of 24 field goal attempts. Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, who added 17 points, was 7 of 20 from the field. No other Team USA player took more than than 7 shots; Delle Donne and Diggins combined for 44 of their team's 78 shot attempts. But hey, it worked.
The U.S. (5-0) was coming off a 66-point victory over Finland in the quarterfinals. It's previous "closest'' game was a 46-point decision over Slovakia.
Also see: Delle Donne's video diary
In what was by far its closest game of the tournament, Delaware star Elena Delle Donne had a tournament-high 22 points (on 24 shots) and 11 rebounds to lead the United States past Australia 79-67 in the World University Games semifinals Friday in Shenzhen, China. The U.S. will face fellow unbeaten Chinese Taipei, which survived Sweden 71-70 in overtime in the other semifinal, in the gold medal game. Chinese Taipei's Yingli Huang made the second of two free throws with two seconds left to break a 70-70 tie.
The gold medal game is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Sunday (Eastern time).
The U.S.-Australia game featured some unusual shot distribution from the winners, particularly considering how many weapons Team USA can deploy. Delle Donne made 10 of 24 field goal attempts. Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, who added 17 points, was 7 of 20 from the field. No other Team USA player took more than than 7 shots; Delle Donne and Diggins combined for 44 of their team's 78 shot attempts. But hey, it worked.
The U.S. (5-0) was coming off a 66-point victory over Finland in the quarterfinals. It's previous "closest'' game was a 46-point decision over Slovakia.
Also see: Delle Donne's video diary
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
U.S. 85, Great Britain 33 at World University Games
Ouch.
A Great Britain squad featuring Old Dominion's Mairi Buchan and Becca Allison became the latest to feel the fury of mighty Team USA as the Americans blitzed the Brits 85-33 in the teams' final preliminary round of the World University Games. The United States has now beaten its three WUG opponents by a combined 158 points.
Delaware star and Team USA starter Elena Delle Donne had 10 points and 6 rebounds for the U.S. Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins led the balanced attack with 13 points and Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike added 12 for the United States (3-0), which as the first-place team in Pool B will meet Pool A runner-up Finland (2-1) in the quarterfinals Wednesday at 10 p.m (Eastern time).
Buchan, still trying to regain her form after sitting out nearly a full year with injury, went scoreless on 0-of-8 shooting in 18 minutes for Great Britain (1-2), which shot just 18 percent from the field and nearly produced more turnovers (32) than points. Buchan has started all three games. Allison managed 2 points in a 28-minute stint of the bench, by far her longest outing of the tournament.
The game actually featured four CAA players, as Great Britain's Renee Johnson-Allen (Drexel) also took part along with Delle Donne, Buchan and Allison.
I noticed yesterday when I saw them in the village, I was like, ‘I know these girls.’ " Delle Donne said. "Two of them are on ODU’s team and one was from Drexel, so it was pretty cool out there playing with girls in my conference.It says the CAA is definitely a strong conference. I’m definitely proud of the conference and glad to see we’re out here representing it."
Great Britain played without former Marshall star Chantelle Handy, who averaged 20.5 points in Great Britain's first two games, the third-highest average in the tournament. It is unclear why Handy wasn't available.
The loss dropped Great Britain into the classification rounds for 9th-16th place. The third-place team from Pool B, Great Britain will next face Lithuania (0-3), the fourth-place team from Pool A.
Click here to follow Delle Donne's adventures in China through her video diary.
A Great Britain squad featuring Old Dominion's Mairi Buchan and Becca Allison became the latest to feel the fury of mighty Team USA as the Americans blitzed the Brits 85-33 in the teams' final preliminary round of the World University Games. The United States has now beaten its three WUG opponents by a combined 158 points.
Delaware star and Team USA starter Elena Delle Donne had 10 points and 6 rebounds for the U.S. Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins led the balanced attack with 13 points and Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike added 12 for the United States (3-0), which as the first-place team in Pool B will meet Pool A runner-up Finland (2-1) in the quarterfinals Wednesday at 10 p.m (Eastern time).
Buchan, still trying to regain her form after sitting out nearly a full year with injury, went scoreless on 0-of-8 shooting in 18 minutes for Great Britain (1-2), which shot just 18 percent from the field and nearly produced more turnovers (32) than points. Buchan has started all three games. Allison managed 2 points in a 28-minute stint of the bench, by far her longest outing of the tournament.
The game actually featured four CAA players, as Great Britain's Renee Johnson-Allen (Drexel) also took part along with Delle Donne, Buchan and Allison.
I noticed yesterday when I saw them in the village, I was like, ‘I know these girls.’ " Delle Donne said. "Two of them are on ODU’s team and one was from Drexel, so it was pretty cool out there playing with girls in my conference.It says the CAA is definitely a strong conference. I’m definitely proud of the conference and glad to see we’re out here representing it."
Great Britain played without former Marshall star Chantelle Handy, who averaged 20.5 points in Great Britain's first two games, the third-highest average in the tournament. It is unclear why Handy wasn't available.
The loss dropped Great Britain into the classification rounds for 9th-16th place. The third-place team from Pool B, Great Britain will next face Lithuania (0-3), the fourth-place team from Pool A.
Click here to follow Delle Donne's adventures in China through her video diary.
Monday, August 15, 2011
The Buchan-Delle Donne World University Games report
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| Elena Delle Donne |
Meanwhile, Elena Delle Donne and her U.S. teammates continued rolling through pool play, waxing Slovakia 114-68. Team USA opened the event Sunday with a 112-53 pasting of Brazil that Delle Donne led with a team-high 17 points. Against Slovakia, Delle Donne, who has started both games, posted a double-double (10 points, a game-high 10 rebounds) and was one of six U.S. players in double figures. The Blue Hens star's points came in somewhat unusual fashion - she made 3 of 4 3-pointers but missed all 6 of her 2-pointers. Most surprising of all: Delle Donne made just 1 of 2 free throws. She shot a ridiculous 94.4 from the line for the Blue Hens last season.
Click here to watch Delle Donne's video diary of her adventures in China.
Buchan, Allison and Great Britain will try their luck against the U.S., which if we understand the time difference correctly with go off at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Buchan returns, Delle Donne shines at World University Games
 |
| Mairi Buchan |
Buchan started for Great Britain and logged 16 minutes in a 64-51 victory over Slovakia. It was a rusty debut, as Buchan missed all six of her shots from the field, did not have a rebound or assist and turned it over three times. But at least she's back on the court. Injuries had essentially rendered Buchan inactive since the 2010 European U20 Championships last July, as she sat out the entire 2010-11 season for Old Dominion.
Buchan hopes to use this tournament as an audition for a spot on Great Britain's 2012 Olympic team.
ODU's Becca Allison - or Rebecca Ann Allison as she is known in World University Games boxscores - also played for Great Britain and did not score in 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, Delaware star Elena Delle Donne went off on Brazil - and so did most of her teammates - racking up a team-high 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in just 12 minutes in a 112-53 rout. Delle Donne started for the U.S., along with Skylar Diggins, Natalie Novosel, Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Chiney Ogwumike. So let's see, that's Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Stanford, Stanford and...Delaware? Way to represent the CAA, Elena!
The U.S. will take on Slovakia and Great Britain will face Brazil on Sunday (which will actually be Monday in China. The much-anticipated - at least by us - U.S.-Great Britain game follows on Monday (Tuesday in Shenzhen).
Monday, August 8, 2011
Hoops notes (VTech, Radford, ODU etc.)
VIRGINIA TECH: Among the things we wondered about upon learning of last week's report of a man carrying a gun on the Virginia Tech campus was how much this kind of story would hurt the Hokies' recruiting. Well, in at least one case, it hurt quite a bit. The Baltimore Sun reports that football offensive line prospect Greg Pyke postponed a trip to Tech upon hearing the news and visited Georgia instead - and wound up committing to the Bulldogs on the spot.
"We were on the way down, and we heard on the radio that there was a guy with a gun," Pyke said. "We called the [Virginia Tech] coaches, and they told us that the school was on lockdown. Obviously they take that very seriously because of what happened four years ago. So we told them it was probably best if we just rescheduled, and we just kept on going down to Georgia."
Don't know if any women's basketball recruits were similarly scared off. But we're sure it didn't help.
RADFORD: OK, so the youthful Virgin Islands team led by Highlanders head coach Tajama Ngongba didn't exactly set Nassau on fire last week as the team finished fourth out of six teams at the CBC Championships in the Bahamas. But we bet those players know a whole lot more about defense than they did a few weeks ago...Hanka Musa, the 6-4 center we thought would make a huge impact for the Highlanders a year ago as a junior-college transfer, has quietly transferred to Division II Lincoln Memorial in Tennessee. Formerly of Liberty Christian Academy, Musa played only 10 minutes over five games in her lone season at Radford. At least now she gets to play with her sister Edina, who transferred to Lincoln Memorial from Gardner-Webb. Also, she goes from one cool nickname - the Highlanders - to another: the Lady Railsplitters.
OLD DOMINION: Did you catch Deion Sanders' shout-out to Nancy Lieberman during his doo-rag Hall of Fame speech Saturday? Lieberman sure did - she was in Canton, Ohio for the ceremony. Seems like she's been just about everywhere over the past few months, from Israel to San Antonio for the WNBA All-Star Game to Chicago to sign copies of her book "Playbook For Success." Next month, she'll be running hoops clinics in Hawaii. And just think: if she'd gotten the Old Dominion job, she could have spent most of that time sitting on wooden bleachers watching teenage hotshots. I mean, it was cool of Lieberman to throw her star-studded hat in the ring for the Lady Monarchs' head-coaching job. But even had it been offered, we could never picture her giving up everything she has going on - and leaving her beloved Dallas - to actually take it. Speaking of Lieberman, in this Q&A with ESPNW, "Lady Magic" reveals, among other things, that her big-picture goal is to own a professional team...Old Dominion star forward Tia Lewis leads all scorers (13.3 ppg) in the 7 Cities Pro-Am Summer League, which will wrap up with playoffs Saturday and Sunday at Maury High School in Norfolk. Click here for the postseason schedule.
NCAA: In "It's About Time" news, the NCAA Division I Leadership Council appears to be moving towards eliminating its text-messaging ban as part of a series of adjustments to men's basketball recruiting. In other words, instead of vainly trying to stuff the text genie back in the bottle, coaches may soon be able to use the most effective means of communicating with today's teenagers.
Again, this is a men's basketball proposal. But we have to believe the women's basketball folks will follow suit as soon as their next meeting. And if there's no meeting on the horizon soon, they ought to schedule one just to get this change in motion.
DELAWARE: Nice story from USA Basketball on Delaware star (and honorary LadySwish hoopster) Elena Delle Donne, who left for Shenzhen, China Monday as part of the United States team that will compete in next week's World University Games. Of course, the big question with Delle Donne - and it's one we're not sure even she knows the answer to yet - is whether or not she'll leave Delaware after this season. The WNBA allows players to join its league if they are four years removed from high school, which Delle Donne will be after the 2011-12 season. While this will be just her third season playing basketball at Delaware, Delle Donne spent her first year with the Blue Hens as a Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie team performer on the school's volleyball team after famously leaving UConn in the summer of 2008.
Now, as huge fans of Delle Donne's hoops skills, we're hoping she stays an extra year in Newark. And we get the sense it'll be hard for her to leave, as Delle Donne speaks extensively about how much she loves being close to home and family. Were she to depart, as a sure-to-be high-lottery WNBA draft pick Delle Donne could easily find herself toiling in Tulsa this time next year (no offense, Shock fans).
So we think ultimately, hanging with the fam will be too tough for Elena to pass up. Having said that, we're fully aware that, as Delle Donne's shown us in the past, a girl's entitled to change her mind.
"We were on the way down, and we heard on the radio that there was a guy with a gun," Pyke said. "We called the [Virginia Tech] coaches, and they told us that the school was on lockdown. Obviously they take that very seriously because of what happened four years ago. So we told them it was probably best if we just rescheduled, and we just kept on going down to Georgia."
Don't know if any women's basketball recruits were similarly scared off. But we're sure it didn't help.
RADFORD: OK, so the youthful Virgin Islands team led by Highlanders head coach Tajama Ngongba didn't exactly set Nassau on fire last week as the team finished fourth out of six teams at the CBC Championships in the Bahamas. But we bet those players know a whole lot more about defense than they did a few weeks ago...Hanka Musa, the 6-4 center we thought would make a huge impact for the Highlanders a year ago as a junior-college transfer, has quietly transferred to Division II Lincoln Memorial in Tennessee. Formerly of Liberty Christian Academy, Musa played only 10 minutes over five games in her lone season at Radford. At least now she gets to play with her sister Edina, who transferred to Lincoln Memorial from Gardner-Webb. Also, she goes from one cool nickname - the Highlanders - to another: the Lady Railsplitters.
OLD DOMINION: Did you catch Deion Sanders' shout-out to Nancy Lieberman during his doo-rag Hall of Fame speech Saturday? Lieberman sure did - she was in Canton, Ohio for the ceremony. Seems like she's been just about everywhere over the past few months, from Israel to San Antonio for the WNBA All-Star Game to Chicago to sign copies of her book "Playbook For Success." Next month, she'll be running hoops clinics in Hawaii. And just think: if she'd gotten the Old Dominion job, she could have spent most of that time sitting on wooden bleachers watching teenage hotshots. I mean, it was cool of Lieberman to throw her star-studded hat in the ring for the Lady Monarchs' head-coaching job. But even had it been offered, we could never picture her giving up everything she has going on - and leaving her beloved Dallas - to actually take it. Speaking of Lieberman, in this Q&A with ESPNW, "Lady Magic" reveals, among other things, that her big-picture goal is to own a professional team...Old Dominion star forward Tia Lewis leads all scorers (13.3 ppg) in the 7 Cities Pro-Am Summer League, which will wrap up with playoffs Saturday and Sunday at Maury High School in Norfolk. Click here for the postseason schedule.
NCAA: In "It's About Time" news, the NCAA Division I Leadership Council appears to be moving towards eliminating its text-messaging ban as part of a series of adjustments to men's basketball recruiting. In other words, instead of vainly trying to stuff the text genie back in the bottle, coaches may soon be able to use the most effective means of communicating with today's teenagers.
Again, this is a men's basketball proposal. But we have to believe the women's basketball folks will follow suit as soon as their next meeting. And if there's no meeting on the horizon soon, they ought to schedule one just to get this change in motion.
DELAWARE: Nice story from USA Basketball on Delaware star (and honorary LadySwish hoopster) Elena Delle Donne, who left for Shenzhen, China Monday as part of the United States team that will compete in next week's World University Games. Of course, the big question with Delle Donne - and it's one we're not sure even she knows the answer to yet - is whether or not she'll leave Delaware after this season. The WNBA allows players to join its league if they are four years removed from high school, which Delle Donne will be after the 2011-12 season. While this will be just her third season playing basketball at Delaware, Delle Donne spent her first year with the Blue Hens as a Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie team performer on the school's volleyball team after famously leaving UConn in the summer of 2008.
Now, as huge fans of Delle Donne's hoops skills, we're hoping she stays an extra year in Newark. And we get the sense it'll be hard for her to leave, as Delle Donne speaks extensively about how much she loves being close to home and family. Were she to depart, as a sure-to-be high-lottery WNBA draft pick Delle Donne could easily find herself toiling in Tulsa this time next year (no offense, Shock fans).
So we think ultimately, hanging with the fam will be too tough for Elena to pass up. Having said that, we're fully aware that, as Delle Donne's shown us in the past, a girl's entitled to change her mind.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Woodside's Alecia Bell chooses Delaware
Big Delaware news day here at Ladyswish Central. First Blue Hens star Elena Delle Donne makes the U.S. team for the World University Games. Now comes word - via Twitter - that Woodside rising senior Alecia Bell has verbally committed to Delaware. The Daily Press followed with full details.
Score this one as a big CAA victory for the Blue Hens. A few weeks ago, the 6-0 Bell, who averaged 15.2 points per game for the Wolverines last year, told the Daily Press she was seriously considering offers from William and Mary and VCU in addition to Delaware. In addition, George Mason had also been in the picture. And check out this quote from this Daily Press story in March:
And after Bell's 19-point performance (on 8-of-14 shooting) Saturday against Western Branch, (Woodside coach Mike) Tallon said Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry approached him and asked, "What do I have to do to get her?"
Score this one as a big CAA victory for the Blue Hens. A few weeks ago, the 6-0 Bell, who averaged 15.2 points per game for the Wolverines last year, told the Daily Press she was seriously considering offers from William and Mary and VCU in addition to Delaware. In addition, George Mason had also been in the picture. And check out this quote from this Daily Press story in March:
And after Bell's 19-point performance (on 8-of-14 shooting) Saturday against Western Branch, (Woodside coach Mike) Tallon said Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry approached him and asked, "What do I have to do to get her?"
Delle Donne makes World University Games cut
Delaware star Elena Delle Donne survived the final World University Games cut and will be part of the 12-player United States team set to compete in the international tournament Aug. 14-21 in Shenzhen, China.
The Blue Hens' 6-5 All-American will be joined by Maryland forward and Woodbridge native Lynetta Kizer, Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, Natalie Novosel and Devereaux Peters, Stanford sisters Nnemkadi and Chiney Ogwumike, Tennessee's Glory Johnson and Shekinna Stricklen, USC's Jackie Gemelos, DePaul's Keisha Hampton and Baylor's Odyssey Sims.
Delle Donne has been blogging about her adventures and will continue through the tournament.
The final 12 players were selected from the 14 finalists that arrived in Colorado Springs Sunday for a training camp. Miami's Shenise Johnson, the ACC Player of the Year, and Rutgers' April Sykes were cut on Wednesday.
VCU's Courtney Hurt and Georgetown's Sugar Rodgers (King's Fork High in Suffolk) were part of the original 35-player tryout roster.
“Getting the group down to 12 is one of the hardest things I’ve done in my lifetime, in coaching anyway,” said Bill Fennelly, USA World University Games Team and Iowa State University head coach. “You have 14 people who worked very hard at it, who were very committed to it and it’s not something like they weren’t good enough. It’s about trying to build a team with some versatility. It was very, very hard, but I’m very happy for the 12 young people who made it. They’ll do a great job representing USA Basketball and ultimately that’s what this is all about.
“There’s a step to this. When you had 14 there were things you didn’t want to get into, because they may not be here. They were all on a little bit of an edge, because they don’t know if they’re on the team or not. Some kids handle that differently. They play passive because they don’t want to make a mistake. It’s the whole idea of playing not to lose the game rather than playing to win the game. Now, they know they’re on the team and hopefully after their initial excitement, they can relax and refocus on figuring a way to win. We know the combinations, we know the people we’re going to work with now. It is a process, but I think moving from now until we leave the training center, I think we’ll be focused a lot differently on preparing and practicing for the task at hand, getting ready to play and building a team.”
The U.S. team will leave for China on Monday and will open World University Games play on Aug. 14 against Brazil. The USA will then play Slovakia at 10 a.m. on Aug. 15 and Great Britain at 6 a.m. on Aug. 16. Quarterfinals action begins on Aug. 18, with the semifinals and finals on Aug. 19 and 21, respectively.
“This is just an experience that not many people get, so I’m just trying to take it all in,” Delle Donne said. “I’ve never been to China before; getting to go there is incredible. And then to be able to compete for a gold medal is something that is amazing and I can’t wait to do it.”
The Blue Hens' 6-5 All-American will be joined by Maryland forward and Woodbridge native Lynetta Kizer, Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, Natalie Novosel and Devereaux Peters, Stanford sisters Nnemkadi and Chiney Ogwumike, Tennessee's Glory Johnson and Shekinna Stricklen, USC's Jackie Gemelos, DePaul's Keisha Hampton and Baylor's Odyssey Sims.
Delle Donne has been blogging about her adventures and will continue through the tournament.
The final 12 players were selected from the 14 finalists that arrived in Colorado Springs Sunday for a training camp. Miami's Shenise Johnson, the ACC Player of the Year, and Rutgers' April Sykes were cut on Wednesday.
VCU's Courtney Hurt and Georgetown's Sugar Rodgers (King's Fork High in Suffolk) were part of the original 35-player tryout roster.
“Getting the group down to 12 is one of the hardest things I’ve done in my lifetime, in coaching anyway,” said Bill Fennelly, USA World University Games Team and Iowa State University head coach. “You have 14 people who worked very hard at it, who were very committed to it and it’s not something like they weren’t good enough. It’s about trying to build a team with some versatility. It was very, very hard, but I’m very happy for the 12 young people who made it. They’ll do a great job representing USA Basketball and ultimately that’s what this is all about.
“There’s a step to this. When you had 14 there were things you didn’t want to get into, because they may not be here. They were all on a little bit of an edge, because they don’t know if they’re on the team or not. Some kids handle that differently. They play passive because they don’t want to make a mistake. It’s the whole idea of playing not to lose the game rather than playing to win the game. Now, they know they’re on the team and hopefully after their initial excitement, they can relax and refocus on figuring a way to win. We know the combinations, we know the people we’re going to work with now. It is a process, but I think moving from now until we leave the training center, I think we’ll be focused a lot differently on preparing and practicing for the task at hand, getting ready to play and building a team.”
The U.S. team will leave for China on Monday and will open World University Games play on Aug. 14 against Brazil. The USA will then play Slovakia at 10 a.m. on Aug. 15 and Great Britain at 6 a.m. on Aug. 16. Quarterfinals action begins on Aug. 18, with the semifinals and finals on Aug. 19 and 21, respectively.
“This is just an experience that not many people get, so I’m just trying to take it all in,” Delle Donne said. “I’ve never been to China before; getting to go there is incredible. And then to be able to compete for a gold medal is something that is amazing and I can’t wait to do it.”
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