USA Basketball announced that Team USA will tour the country playing exhibition games against college teams prior to the 2020 Olympics. "Because of the cooperation by the NCAA and its member schools, prior to the two FIBA tournament windows, the USA National Team will compete in a series of exhibition games against some of the nation’s premier NCAA Division I programs, similar to the college tours conducted by USA Basketball teams ahead of the 1996, 2000 and 2008 Olympic Games. Over the course of those three tours, the USA earned a 39-1 record competing against a combined total of 30 different NCAA Division I teams. The complete game schedule will be announced at a later date." The 2 FIBA windows are: Nov. 10-18, 2019, and Feb. 2-10, 2020. USA Basketball has commitments from the following players to participate with others added based on schedule availability: Sue Bird (Seattle Storm) Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota Lynx) Elena Delle Donne (Washington Mystics) Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks) A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces) Skylar Diggins-Smith (Dallas Wings) Chelsea Gray (Los Angeles Sparks) I can't think of any college team that could keep it very close but it would be a great opportunity to compete against the best of the best and maybe draw additional fans that will return for regular UT games.
With our revamped roster and lack of depth at post I'm worried enough about our opener in South Florida.
Post depth would be my primary concern with Big Syl down in the paint beating on Joyner, Charli and Ashlee.
Yeah, it might be a beat down, but that's what everyone expects anyway, considering the national team roster. I don't see any downside. One bad loss isn't going to shatter anyone's confidence. Why wouldn't we want our players to spend a game on the floor with the best the game has to offer? I'm all for it.
Lose badly and oh well that was supposed to happen. Keep it close or pull the unthinkable and the team has a different confidence level for the season.
When I write about post depth concerns - it’s about suffering an injury in an exhibition game against the most physical center in the WNBA (Syl) not so much competing in the paint. Then again, the 2 biggest injuries the Longhorns suffered last year were in games against Puerto Rican high schoolers and Quinnipiac so...
If it hadn't happened to us twice last year, like you stated, I probably wouldn't be so hesitant about it.
