US women’s basketball to train in South Carolina next week

Dawn Staley will be busy next week.

The South Carolina coach will have a dual role leading fourth-placed Gamecocks and leading a US basketball training camp at school from February 4-7.

“We have been together for a training camp for a year now and I am excited to be back on the court with the US National Team,” said Staley, who is also the coach of the US Olympic team. “We have a great mix of veteran leadership and younger players, many of whom know how I manage training, and I predict that we will have four extremely competitive training days here in South Carolina. We are missing some pieces of the puzzle, we have 36 players in our pool, but it will be extremely helpful in our preparations for the Tokyo Olympics this summer. ”

Staley’s university team will play in Auburn on the first night of the camp, so U.S. technical assistants Cheryl Reeve and Dan Hughes will be in charge. Assistant Jen Rizzotti will not attend because she is busy training her team George Washington. South Carolina assistant Lisa Boyer and Dallas Wings coach Vickie Johnson will also serve as court coaches during the four-day camp.

The four Olympic times Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will not be at the camp, but veteran medalists Sylvia Fowles, Breanna Stewart and Brittney Griner will be among the 19 players present. South Carolina’s great A’ja Wilson will also be there. She had a statue erected in her honor in front of the Gamecock arena last week.

Chicago Sky guard Kahleah Copper, who is not part of the national team, will participate in the training. It could be added to the pool later.

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to start on July 23, postponed from last year, and IOC President Thomas Bach and local organizers last week rejected news that the Games would be canceled. The USA has won six consecutive Olympic gold medals.

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Follow Doug Feinberg on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DougFeinberg

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