Aug. 30, 2000 Seattle - Washington sophomore Loree Payne (Havre, Mont.) will rejoin the USA Basketball Women's Select Team, which features 11 of the 12 team members who captured gold in this summer's R. William Jones Cup, when it reassembles in Honolulu, Hawaii, to begin training for a Sept. 3 exhibition game against the USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team. The game, held at the University of Hawaii's Stan Sheriff Center, will be nationally televised on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. (Hawaii time) and will be the final domestic exhibition game for the USA Senior National Team before it leaves for Adelaide, Australia to continue its preparations for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. Men's Olympic Team is also training in Hawaii. The Hawaii portion of the Senior National Team's training will mark the first time the entire 12-member Olympic Team will be together as 1996 Olympian and 2000 WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes (Houston Comets /Brownfield, Texas), who recently helped the Houston Comets earn a fourth consecutive WNBA title on Aug. 26, joins the squad Aug. 31. Payne, UW's leading scorer as a freshman last year, and the Select Team will hold two practices Aug. 31, from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. The team will train at the University of Hawaii Gym 2 on Sept. 1 from 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. and on Sept. 2 from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. The USA Basketball Women's Select Team features four players who competed in the 2000 Women's NCAA Finals: Sue Bird (Syosset, N.Y.), Shea Ralph (Fayetteville, N.C.) and Kelly Schumacher (Quyon, Canada) of 2000 NCAA champion University of Connecticut and Michelle Snow (Pensacola, Fla.) of NCAA runner-up University of Tennessee. Also included on the squad are: Chantelle Anderson (Vanderbilt / Vancouver, Wash.), Bird, Camille Cooper (Purdue / Georgetown, Ky.), Marie Ferdinand (Louisiana State / Miami, Fla.), Deanna Jackson (Alabama-Birmingham / Brewton, Ala.), Brandi McCain (Florida / Silsbee, Texas ), Loree Payne (Washington / Livingston, Mont.), Ralph, Schumacher, Snow, Jackie Stiles (Southwest Missouri State / Claflin, Kan.) and Brooke Wyckoff (Florida State / West Chester, Ohio). Virginia Tech head coach Bonnie Henrickson will lead the USA Basketball Women's Select team for the second time this summer. St. Joseph's University (Pa.) head coach Stephanie Gaitley and Grambling State University (La.) head mentor David "Rusty" Ponton will serve as assistant coaches. Henrickson was an assistant coach for the silver-medalist 1999 World University Games team that went 4-2, while Gaitley was the head coach of the silver-medalist West team in the 1995 Olympic Festival that finished with a 2-2 overall record. This is Ponton's first appointment with USA Basketball.
The 12-member team, which was chosen by the USA Basketball Women's Select Team Committee, competed July 16-20 in the R. William Jones Cup Tournament held in Taipei, Taiwan. The group of U.S. college standouts cruised past opponents in convincing style, rolling to a 4-0 record to claim the USA's ninth gold medal in the tournament. Ralph led the balanced U.S. scoring effort with 12.0 ppg., while Ferdinand was credited with 11.8 ppg., Schumacher added 9.8 ppg. and Jackson contributed 9.5 ppg. Led by the efforts of Cooper and Schumacher's 7.3 rebounds per game apiece, the U.S. outrebounded opponents by a whopping margin of 27.8 rebounds a game. Bird led the squad in assists with 17 and Ralph and Ferdinand both had a team-high seven steals and Schumacher blocked five shots over four games. Payne finished the tournament with 16 points, three rebounds and four assists in three games played. The 2000 Sydney Olympics are being held Sept. 15-Oct. 1, with women's basketball being conducted Sept. 16-30. The defending Olympic champs, the USA women initiate their preliminary play in the 2000 Olympics on Sept. 16 against South Korea, then play Cuba on Sept. 18, Russia on Sept. 20, New Zealand on Sept. 22 and the U.S. concludes its preliminary play facing 1999 European champion Poland on Sept. 24. Quarterfinals play will be held Sept. 27, with semifinals action being contested on Sept. 29 and the gold and bronze medal games are slated for Sept. 30. Women's basketball has been an official sport of the Olympics since the1976 Summer Games in Montreal, Canada. The USA women in Olympic action have compiled a sterling 26-3 overall record (.897 winning percentage) and have won the gold medal three times (1996, 1988, 1984), the silver once (1976) and the bronze once (1992).
2000 USA Basketball Women's Select Team Roster
Head Coach: Bonnie Henrickson, Virginia Tech
USA Basketball Women's Select Team Training Schedule Date Time Location |
