USA Basketball

Three new players added to USA U18 team because Queen Egbo, Jordan Nixon and Abby Prohaska can no longer participate due to school commitments.

 

Sedona News...

The 2018 USA Basketball Women's U18 National Team will compete in Group A, along with Argentina, Chile and Puerto Rico in the 2018 FIBA Americas Championship that will be played Aug. 1-7 in Mexico City. Group B includes Canada, Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico. Texas freshman Sedona Prince is a member of the 12-person USA U18 Team roster for the 2018 FIBA Americas Championship.

 

Guess we should use this thread to keep up with both the U17 and the U18 teams.
USA lowers the boom on Latvia in their second exhibition: 103-38.
Stats: http://www.fibalivestats.com/u/LBS/867966/bs.html

Celeste had a nice overall game: led the team with six steals, had ten points on 4-5 shooting, including 1-2 from BTA, three rebs, and only one TO. Her FT shooting was a bit off this game as Celeste only hit one of three FTs.

UConn board has the info on the live feed and comments about the games (some nice things said about Celeste for her play vs Latvia). Latvia game comments start on page two. I'm not getting up early to watch the games, especially since I'm normally going to bed around 5 AM.
https://the-boneyard.com/threads/usab-u17-team-has-begun-preparations-for-world-cup.130774/

 

looks like the USA twitter will also provide a video link to the games before they start.

 

Next and last exhibition game for the U17 team is against Canada on July 16 (10 a.m. EDT).
Canada lost to Latvia 47-62 in their first exhibition game.

 

USABB story about the Latvia game:
https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2018/07/wu17-exh-2-lat.aspx

Sam Brunelle is having a rough time in the exhibitions. She went scoreless vs China, going 0-4 from the field. She did bounce back a bit against Latvia, scoring 8 pts on 2-4 from the field and 4-4 from the FT line.

I had expected her to be one of the best offensive threats on the team.

 

USA's U17 goes 3-0 in exhibitions with 87-56 win over Canada. Glad to see that Sam Brunnelle seemed to find her shooting touch, going 2-2 from the field and 1-1 from BTA.
https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2018/07/wu17-exh-3-can.aspx

Celeste had another solid game. 3-6 from the field and 1-2 from BTA. Three rebs, three steals and three TOs. Lots of threes for her this game.

 

Re-reading that story about the win over Canada.
Two more scrimmages before the World Cup starts on July 21.

Dang, those Cup games are rather early here in the USA, other than the game vs China. At least they should be easy to watch.

 

Here's the link to the US vs Latvia game. Celeste Taylor and Zia Cooke come into the game around the 6:00 mark of the first quarter. I've only watched the first quarter but Celeste has a great drive to the bucket and a couple of steals in the 1Q.

http://cdn.tiesraides.lv/20180715211101_sportacentrs.tv.3_0.mp4

This video is great "one-stop-shopping" for anyone who wants to see Haley Jones, Azzi Fudd, Samantha Brunelle, Zia or Celeste and others.

 

Here's a link to the FIBA youtube for the games:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtInrnU3QbWqFGsdKT1GZtg
First game is China vs Mali at 5 AM for those early birds. Second game is New Zealand vs Spain at 5:15 AM while the USA vs Italy kicks off at 7:15 AM.

 

The FIBA U17 webpage:
GMT is five hours ahead of CST.
http://www.fiba.basketball/world/u17women/2018

 

Wed. scrimmage against Australia. One more scrimmage left against France, either happened Thursday or today.
https://www.usab.com/~/media/7a0f6625805e410998f01446210ab5e9.ashx?la=en

Games start tomorrow.
https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2018/07/wu17-preview-july-20.aspx

 

Go, USA!

 

Half Time: USA 43, Italy 22.

Celeste with 4 points on 2 of 3 shooting at the half. Couple of hustle plays on a long rebound led to a jumper and then going to the ground for a loose ball to get possession.

Zia Cooke made a beautiful spin move just 2 minutes before the half for a bucket. It was impressive (and traveling).

The US struggled at times to get the ball across half-court when Italy went to the full court press. Too much dribbling against a double team. I assumed players at this level would be unfazed by it but they did get much better as the half wore on.

 

Final: USA 86 - Italy 48.

Despite not starting, Celeste ended up #4 in minutes played. 9 points on 4/7 shooting, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals (multiple tipped passes). She’s got long arms for her height and uses them to great effect on defense, couple that with her always running motor and you understand why Karen Aston had to have a big smile on her face after Celeste’s commitment. Something else I really liked? Even though she plays aggressive, pesky defense - only 1 foul in almost 19 minutes on the floor.

 

29-9 USA after one.

 

59-18 at the half, USA.
Really impressed with the way USA moves the ball in the half court as well as how well they run. Outstanding use of the square by the players on layups.

 

very sloppy start to the 3rd quarter. So bad that the coach put in five players just under two minutes into the quarter. Still not executing like in the first half but that second group played better. 70-30 USA at the end of three. Celeste was part of that second group but she went out late in the quarter after taking a hard charge.

 

92-39 USA. Poorly played second half. Better fourth than the third was but nothing close to the way they played in the first half. Without looking at stats, it looked like the whole team struggled from the FT line.

Still, 92 pts while playing a poor second half. Mali was totally outclassed. I had thought that the USA would break 100 easily. Only one more game in their group vs China on Tuesday. USA is the only undefeated team in their group as China fell to Italy 72-57 earlier this morning. Both Italy & China are 1-1 while Mali is 0-2. Italy will play Mali Tuesday.

Glad to see Celeste come back into the game in the fourth quarter after she took that hard spill picking up a charge late in the third.

 

Celeste didn’t have a great day shooting (2/9, 1/6 from 3) but she crashed the boards - 11 rebounds in just 18 minutes of play. No other American player had more than 6.

 

Game story: https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2018/07/wu17-game-2-mli.aspx
Add 3 assists, two steals and 2 TOs for Celeste in this game.
The USA was 5-12 from the FT line. As DFW_Horn said, Celeste was relentless on the boards.

 

From the quotes section in the above story, from the USA HC:

Celeste was also one of the players that was asked about the game. Nice comments from her.

 

I really like what I see from both Haley Van Lith and Cameron Brink, both 2020s. Wonder if the coaching staff is looking at them.

 

Huh, some UConn fans complaining about the person with an airhorn. One even complained that the horn was blown while Mali was shooting a FT. Like we (all fans) don't try to distract opposing FT shooters.

Funny, though, I never heard the horn going off during the game, too busy watching the game.

 

Have to admit that horn was annoying the hell out of me too. Whoever has it used it a lot more during the Italy game but they blow it when USA is on defense or the opponents are shooting free throws.

 

Sounds about when cheerleaders and that ribbon thingy asks fans to make noise. Must be something about the tone and/or pitch that is irritating to some.

It didn't bother me during the Italy game and I didn't notice it at all vs Mali.

 

Celeste is not shooting well during the two games (37% from the field, 25% from BTA and 50% from the FT line) but she is doing well in other categories.

She is tied for the lead in rpg at 6.5. She is tied for second on the team with 6 assists. She is also tied for the lead in steals with four. Her scoring average of 7.5 ppg is tied for 7th. She is tied for 5th in mpg at 18.5.

 

@BabHorn or @DFW_Horn How have Haley Jones and Zia Cooke looked in the games?

 

IMO, Jones is probably the best SF/W on the team, at least at the pace that they run which is very fast. Very under control, makes the extra pass when it's there, takes the shot when it's the best option, and is an excellent team player. USA coach is using four players listed as guards with one F to start.

Cooke, OTOH, just seems to be looking for her shot first. Really, I'm not sure why I have that impression since she really is not taking many shots at all, nine total in two games, and is third in assists. She does have twice as many TOs (8) as any other player. She is very quick, very good passer and is strong getting to the basket, just is having trouble finishing right now.

Both would be excellent players to get to come to Texas although I would put a higher priority on Jones. Mainly, because we will have only two fairly tall wings in Jada (Sr.) and Shae (Soph.) when the class of 2019 comes to campus. Far as I can find out, we are still in the running for both.