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USA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 27, 2016

THE MODERATOR: We've got a pretty busy schedule here in New York. This is Caroline Williams, communications director at USA Basketball.
I have with me Carol Callan, who is head of the women's national team program and chair of the selection committee, as well as Geno Auriemma, who is the head coach, as we all know, of the 2016 team, which was named today.
I'll turn this over to Carol now.
CAROL CALLAN: I'd like to thank everyone for being on this call. This is a great day for USA Basketball and our women's Olympic Team. Thanks to NBC and the U.S. Olympic Committee, we were able to make the announcement of our team in a very national way by being on The Today Show this morning; to also then having an opportunity in Times Square to be with Michelle Obama and her initiative, as well as the media that was assembled to announce our team.
It's a great day to celebrate the 12‑member team that we have. It was an incredibly difficult decision for our selection committee, yet also, a very positive progress in our national team program to the point where it was a difficult decision.
There are a lot of excellent athletes in our pool, and the committee selected what we feel is the team that will give us the best chance to win our sixth straight Gold Medal in Rio.
So with that, I'll turn it back to Caroline and we'll take some questions later.
THE MODERATOR: Geno, if you'd like to give a few comments on what you think of this team that the committee has selected for you.
GENO AURIEMMA: I want to just echo what Carol has said about the day and being in New York and what that experience was for the eight players that were able to attend, and how much significance it cares to try to build a narrative for this summer; and hopefully the winning of another Gold Medal kind of further cements the place that USA Women's Basketball National Team has in the Olympic history.
Obviously we haven't had a chance to get together as a team. We won't see each other until, I want to say, July 22, July 23, sometime in that area. We'll be playing a couple exhibition games and then we'll be in Rio before you know it.
So we're a hundred days away, but in some ways, it feels like it's right on top of us, and I know all of our players are excited to be on the team, to be named to the team, and to have an opportunity to represent USA in the Olympics in Rio.

Q. When you look at your newcomers, what do you think they add to the team? The first‑time Olympians, what do they bring to this team?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, when you look at Brittney Griner, it is her first Olympics, but she was with us at the World Championships in Istanbul in 2014. You're talking about a unique individual whose size and skill set allows her to do some things that very few, if any players, are able to do anywhere in the world.
The only thing that Brittany is lacking is the experience that you have to have and playing overseas and playing in Russia, and then in China last year, has given her a sense of that.
Elena Delle Donne, obviously one of the most talented players in the world. We're not quite sure right now exactly how that translates into international competition, because Elena has not had a lot of that. Although, she had some in Spain in October, but the fact that she can play multiple positions.
And same with Breanna Stewart. I think the fact that you can put her at various places on the floor and be productive, and having played in the World Championship, same with Stewy, she's had a chance to be a part of that.
But it also gives the team at least a little bit of the beginnings of a foundation for what's going to happen going forward in the next couple of years.

Q. You mentioned Breanna, and she's one of several of your former players on this team. What does that mean to you to have these type of Olympic‑experienced players that you obviously know so well from UCONN?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, other than Stewy, they are completely different players than they were when we played at Connecticut. They may be the same people but they are not the same players, as I found out quickly when I first coped them in 2009 and 2010 in the Czech Republic.
The fact that we have very little preparation time relative to the rest of the world, it was a little bit of a help for me back then.
This time around, I think what's more important is the fact that with Sue, Diana, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, the fact that I coached them in the 2000 World Championships, and then in the 2012 Olympics; I think that experience of being with them during that time of their lives is probably more significant than the time they spent at Connecticut with me.

Q. I was wondering what you thought Tamika Catchings brings the team at this point in her career ‑‑ you have so much experience already and she's kind of a natural leader, but you have a lot of that already.
GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, we do. I think Tamika's value to the team, in addition to experience, and as you said, certain leadership qualities. But I think more importantly is her tremendous desire to win; her ability to play whatever role you ask her to play; to play multiple positions, and as I found out at the 2012 Olympics in London, you can ask Tamika to do anything, and she'll do it to the best of her ability and provide something that will help the team win, whether it was starting, coming off the bench, playing, in the perimeter, playing inside, whether touching the ball 15 times or five times. I think Tamika's value sometimes is going to show up in the box score and sometimes not, but it's going to be invaluable.

Q. Any concerns about the Zika virus and how the players will be dealing with that, if there's any concern or any fears preparing for going overseas for this Olympics?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, obviously because it's out there, it's something that's on people's minds. The players have been made well aware of what the situation is.
At the same time, you know, the people at USA Basketball and the U.S. Olympics committee, have assured the players that everything will be done to protect them, and the players are very confident in that.
Again, it's something that they are well aware of, but I haven't heard any one player comment on the fact that they are worried about it or have apprehension about going there. You know, they know that it's there but their focus is on winning a Gold Medal right now.

Q. You have multiple players on your team that's on existing WNBA teams as teammates. How much of that chemistry helps in the formulation of this Olympic Team, and also, what little thing that you feel that this team has that hasn't been talked about or discussed.
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, it's not a coincidence, obviously, that players that win a lot of championships, tend to find their way on to the Olympic Team. The fact that you have four players from the Minnesota Lynx that's on the team, that's not a coincidence. You're talking about four of the very best players in the world, and four incredibly unselfish individuals.
And the fact that they have accomplished so much together; adding Sylvia last summer may have been the one addition that got Minnesota over the hump, and her performance in the finals speaks for itself.
But the fact that those four spend time together, practice together, know each other, that goes a long way. You know, you've got Diana and Brittney who have won a championship together down in Phoenix. And those things are not surprising. When you look at our team, in addition to the four from Minnesota; Brittney and Diana in Phoenix; Tamika has won a WNBA Championship in Indianapolis; Sue has won two of them in Seattle. You're talking about players that are used to winning and they are used to winning at every level that they have been at.
And the other thing I think that's important is the ability to play with other great players. That's a huge part of playing on the Olympic Team and knowing how to handle yourself when there's 12 of the best players in the world on the same team.
So I think it's a huge advantage that we have going forward.

Q. I know you spoke a little bit about the first‑time Olympians, but for a player like Elena, what kind of adjustments does she need to look forward to with being a first‑time Olympian?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, for people that are going through this for the first time, I think the pressures of having to live up to a certain standard now, being an Olympian suggests that you're one of the best players in the world, so now you've got to live up to that.
I just had a discussion with Elena today, as a matter of fact, talking about what this summer needs to be for her and what her role on the Chicago Sky team needs to be, and how when she plays now, she's not just playing as a member of the Chicago Sky; she's playing as a member of the U.S. Olympic Team. And that carries a certain amount of expectation with it.
Unfortunately, you know, she has not had much experience against international players, much older, much more experienced than she is. But Elena is a quick learner. Hasn't taken her very long to establish herself in the league. Being MVP of the league last year, I know that because she's not limited to one thing on the floor, she can help this team in numerous ways, and I'm looking forward to coaching her.

Q. I know that her time at UCONN was very brief, but did your past knowledge of her, will that help you at all? I know she's a different player, but will that help you at all moving forward as you coach her now?
GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, like you said, 48 hours isn't a whole lot of time to really get a feel for somebody. But what I saw of her when she played in high school, what I saw of her playing at Delaware, and what I've been able to see playing in the WNBA, I feel like I know her a little bit. I feel like I know what makes her tick. I think I can get to her in a way that she understands.
I'm sure that she's going to be nervous. She's going to be anxious. She's going to be all those things. Our relationship is great, and I would expect it to get even better.

Q. I just wanted to ask both you and Carol, it seems to me over the years, there have been like three protocols, if you want to call them that, for announcing the team members. One was a number of years ago when they sort of announced a few at a time and a few more would be added and a few more added as the Olympics approached. The last time I think we waited until almost the last possible minute, and I remember asking the question about doing that and whether it was easier to establish continuity, and was told that you basically wanted the chance to look at how all the players were doing over the course of the WNBA season, taking account of energies and who was coming on strong and who was not. This year, you've got the entire time, I don't know if any alternates have been named, or if there is a pool of alternates. Can you please explain the thinking that went into choosing to announce the team at this time and how you feel that benefits the program?
CAROL CALLAN: I'll jump in on this, because this is pretty much a USA Basketball decision.
As you go back in time, you're correct, we used to start with a smaller group, say, six, sometimes eight, that we would announce and sort of‑‑ well, we wouldn't announce, but we would put them into what we said was our core group, and then we would add to that as we progressed over the two years probably prior to the Olympics, and it became a bit of a difficult deal, because when we would make a commitment to that core group, they were still playing overseas.
And the commitment was, if we get together to train, you'll come and be a part of that, because that's the whole point is we want to train our team and prepare for that next competition.
And so what we found was happening was we would get a core but the core could never really get together. We also had some last‑minute injuries, if you remember, in 2006, leading into the World Championship, and we had to then replace those injuries with athletes that had never trained with us and were coming down and it was just unfair to them; that they had really no idea what we were doing.
So in response to both of those scenarios and looking at where we are now with the growth of women's basketball and the WNBA and overseas, we have decided to train a large pool, keep adding to the pool, until we get into the Olympic year, and then we will start whittling down to what we call finalists in January, and now the 12‑member team has been selected this time.
Four years ago, we announced the team at the Final Four. And it's an interesting philosophical discussion: Do you wait till the last minute that you possibly can, which would have been towards the end of June, or do you take advantage of opportunities to really promote our women's team and our women's players.
And we chose this time around, again, through the cooperation with NBC and the USOC and today's 100 Days out ceremony that's taking place today in New York City and in Times Square; that this is a great opportunity to give our team some additional attention to just naming them and having just this usual teleconference.
A special thanks goes to every WNBA team, because training camp started on Sunday and we were able to coordinate having players come to us last night, be here today, and then they will get back so they will not miss tomorrow's practice.
So that was the thinking behind it. Just to add to your question about replacements, the U.S. Olympic Committee will ask that we submit a 12‑member roster plus six replacement athletes by the end of June.
By announcing the 12 members today, obviously we have determined what that roster is, but we will be waiting to identify those six replacement athletes. It gives us some flexibility, should there be an injury, not only to one of the 12 players, but also perhaps to one of the pool members that will then be able to in June make a better decision with that.
And to also answer I think what would be your question is all of the 12 players remaining in the pool, are eligible to be replacement athletes.

Q. Thanks for that answer. And Coach, if you just could chime in on what you see as the advantages and disadvantages, if any, but the advantages of working with the group that's known to you at least a good two and a half, three months before the Olympics.
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, I wish that we‑‑ obviously I wish we had an opportunity to get together and train like these other schools or other countries have been able to do.
But you know, that's not the case. But it does help our coaching staff kind of formulate a game plan, what we're going to do and how we'd like to do it and what we have available to us.
And I think it helps the players in some ways. I mean, I can understand sometimes waiting and I think them knowing at this stage as they go back to training camp that this is in front of them come August. I think it helps them. I think it helps them prepare.
You know, I think there's a little added incentive, not that they need any, but as I said, there's a certain expectation level that comes, and I'm anxious to go see them play as much as I can in May and June. Hopefully everybody stays healthy and the same team that we introduced today is the same team that shows up in July.

Q. You did kind of answer this question with an earlier response, but having seen what Elena went through eight years ago, in her brief stay up at UCONN, is it kind of nice for you to see how far she's come and where she is today with earning a spot on the Olympic Team?
GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, I mean, you'd always want people to be successful, obviously. I mean, you don't want anyone to come up short of what‑‑ you know, you want people to go as far as their talent and their ability will take them.
Everybody knew Elena, coming out of high school, what her talent level was and what the ability that she had on the basketball court was. It was just getting her mind running and getting herself going in the right direction and I think that certainly happened when she was at Delaware and it's continued to happen in the WNBA. There's never been any denying what she can do. I don't think anyone's surprised by her success in the WNBA.
But as I talked to her about this a couple years ago in Las Vegas at one of our training camps, this is a great opportunity for her. Now is the time for her to take it and not just in college and not just in the United States, but to have some similar success on the world stage, and that's what all the great players have done that have played in America. They have been able to transfer their success in the States into worldwide success. I'm anxious to see that.

Q. When you're assembling a roster for the international game, particularly the Olympics, is that experience more important at some positions than other positions?
CAROL CALLAN: Well, a really good question. My mind immediately goes to point guard. My first Olympics was 1996, and we had a year‑long program with two experienced players, Teresa Edwards and Katrina McClain, and the rest were all first‑time Olympians. But we had a full year together.
It was interesting, Dawn Staley was considered to be the up‑and‑coming new point guard, and she had an injury or two that occurred at different times where somebody had to step in, and quite honestly, Teresa Edwards, three‑time Olympian at that point, stepped in, and offered experience at that level.
The following two Olympics for Dawn, she was a much more experienced point guard. In 2004, her last Olympics, that was Sue Bird's first Olympics, and Sue continues to this day.
So I do think the point guard position is extremely important with some experience, and maybe that would be the most important. I think what we tried to do with this team, as we have done with many teams, and I think the success of our program is twofold. One is, we have players that want to play again and again and again, and in this case, again. We'll have three four‑time Olympians, and that leadership both on and off the court is hard to quantify; it's so important.
So we have players that want to play many times over, but we also have been able to mix in several first‑time Olympians. Whether it be ten in 1996 or in this case, three; that just speaks to this team that it does have veteran leadership, yet we were able to put three first‑time Olympians in.
I don't know if that answers it entirely, but the quick answer would have been the point guard position.

Q. Being the chair of the committee, you have one player from 2012 out of ten who was a finalist who isn't going to be on this team with Candace Parker. Can you talk about why she wasn't selected? Was it about her play? Was it about her being a teammate? What were the factors in her being the only one of those ten that's not coming back on this team?
CAROL CALLAN: Yeah, appreciate your question, because Candace is a great player. She's a two‑time Olympian. She's done a lot for us in the past since she was in high school.
As a committee, we don't get into specifics speaking about each player publically. Needless to say, there are a lot of deliberations. We have a committee for a reason. Every player has an advocate and in that case, it's not just one person who is making a decision.
So I may not be able to satisfy your question with an answer specifically of why or why not, but I think what it does speak to is that we have incredible depth on this team. We have ten Olympians, as you mentioned, from 2012.
We had five more newcomers in the World Championship; that's 15 athletes, without even considering some of the emerging young players that we have currently. We're looking at depth and talent at each position, and there are just a lot of numbers games that are played at that 3‑4 position that is the strength of our team.
So we appreciate Candace. It's not an easy call to make. It's not an easy call to hear, and from her perspective. And yet what we are trying to do is pick a team collectively that we feel has the best chance to win the Gold Medal, and we think we've done that.

Q. If I can follow‑up, you mentioned the importance of experience at point guard, but now you're going to have two consecutive Olympics where you won't have a point guard who is under the age of 30. Is there any concern that you haven't brought in a younger point guard? You've got, I guess the three this year, 35 and two of them will be 34 by the time of the Olympics. You had Sims on the world team but what is the thought process of not having a younger point guard, especially since it seems like it was imperative to have Breanna Stewart on this team as a post player as a young player; was there not a similar need to have a guard that was at that age?
CAROL CALLAN: Absolutely. We discussed that a lot. And that's where versatility in players is so important. If you look at this team as it is, you could probably say, okay, there's five guards, and you're right, the versatility of, say, a Diana Taurasi, we want the ball in her hands to shoot, but she can also handle it. So we have depth at point guard, but not necessarily youth at point guard to take the reins, say, the next time.
I think that was one of those whereas a committee, we struggled with that one. Because as much as you want to bring youth in, now all of a sudden you're, again, not able to take another veteran who, again, that's another one of those excruciating decisions.
I think the thing that helps us, and this is, again, another reason I think we have a very strong national team program, it's kind of the good news and the bad news. The bad news is we don't get to train very much because there are players that are playing basketball year round. We have so many players that go overseas and they all play in the WNBA. That's the bad news.
But the good news is that because they all do overseas, and I know Skylar Diggins before she got injured was making plans to go overseas. You look at our pool, every one of those players that's in that sort of point guard mix, they go overseas.
And so as much as we wish we had 13, 14 roster spots to put a young point guard on, we also know that they are getting experience overseas. We know that we do have a multi‑year program. A lot of these players that are in the pool now will of course move forward in the next pool.
So they are getting training as much as we can get them training. And when you consider all those factors, we feel comfortable that one or two or three will emerge over the next four years.
GENO AURIEMMA: Carol and Michelle, if I can just add to that from a coaching standpoint.
When you added the three players that we added, Brittney Griner, Elena Delle Donne and Breanna Stewart, what they have accomplished in their careers up to this point really does set them apart from almost everyone else that would be a candidate for those positions.
What has to happen now, is if I were to ask you or anyone else: Give me three guards that have separated themselves from everyone else in the WNBA, to put themselves at the same level as Sue, Diana, Lindsay Whalen, you really start to look around, and you go, that is a huge question that has to be answered going forward.
And that would be my advice to some of those guards that are playing in the WNBA. You have an opportunity in these next couple years to separate yourself from everyone else. It hasn't happened yet. It look Lindsay Whalen some time. Sue and D were right out of college, but it took Lindsay Whalen some time but when she got it, she really got it.
I think that's the big question for USA Basketball, who are the guards in the next two years that are going to rise up and say: Yes, I'm different than every other guard in this league, and yes, I should be on that national team.

Q. Since you mentioned the team won't get together until July, and obviously your primary focus is on Team USA, but how much attention are you giving to the final rosters of other national teams, especially others that you know are in your draw before the Final qualifying games in June?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, we know somewhat who is in our pool. I think off the top of my head, I know Serbia won the European championship is in ours, and Canada who won the Pan Am Games last year is in ours.
We have a little bit of knowledge. We intending to over to Europe in June and see the Final Olympic qualifiers. So we'll see eight more teams, which two of them, for sure, are going to be in our pool. We don't know who they are yet, but we do keep abreast of all that. We do have the availability of video to watch a lot of the teams play.
We know from past experiences in the Olympics in 2012 and then also in the World Championships, that teams like Serbia that just exploded on to the scene are really, really, really good: Spain, who we ended up playing in the finals of the World Championships, has an incredible program. France, who we played in 2012 in the Gold Medal game. Turkey, which has an incredible program.
And you also obviously can't discount Brazil being the home team and how passionate they are. Those are just a few of the teams I think we're keeping an eye on.

Q. With Canada, Kia Nurse will probably be on that Canadian team, and I know you're the coach of Team USA, but what kind of pride do you have in the fact that she will probably be facing you on the opposite end of the court?
GENO AURIEMMA: Well, Kia has been part of the Canadian national team program for a long time. She was part of their junior program when she was in high school and when she first came to UCONN.
I'm really proud of her because she's gotten better and better every day. She was amazing last summer in the Pan Am Games playing against some of the really good players in this country, two of our players, Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart, and Kia was MVP of the tournament. I would expect her to get better and better. She's an incredibly competitive individual. She's a tough kid, and I would love nothing better than to see her have a great pole Olympics.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Geno, and thank you for everybody who called in.

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