By John Altavilla, The Hartford Courant –
WASHINGTON — The final weekend of domestic training for the USA Basketball women’s team began Saturday with some fun.
Led by coach Geno Auriemma and assistant Doug Bruno, his friend and longtime coach at DePaul, five team members gave a one-hour clinic, “Hoops for Troops” on Saturday morning at the famed DC Armory.
On hand from were Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Candace Parker, Seimone Augustus and Swin Cash, who arrived late after flying in from Chicago where her WNBA team played into overtime Friday night against the Connecticut Sun.
The clinic was part of a day-long World Basketball Festival in the city which also featured the appearance of the men’s Olympic team and many basketball dignitaries. The men’s team is also training in Washington this weekend and practiced for 2 ½ hours at the Armory for military members and their families.
The women’s team was to practice Saturday night at American University and again Sunday afternoon. Both teams will play games against Brazil on Monday at the Verizon Center. The women’s game will be at 5:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.
Auriemma and Bruno put dozens of their guests through drills. The kids were split up in groups with the players and Auriemma roamed the floor with a head microphone and entertained the crowd for the hour.
Saturday night’s practice was the first for the women’s team since just before the start of the WNBA season in May. A number of the players, including Tina Charles and Asjha Jones of the Sun, did not arrive in Washington until Saturday afternoon. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, whose teams played late Friday night, were not even expected to arrive in Washington until about an hour before practice.
“It’s just one of those things that once we play Brazil on Monday and get on the that plane for Great Britain, we will start coming together as a team,” said Auriemma. “It (practice) has been kind of a hodgepodge up until now.”
Auriemma said he doesn’t know yet what to expect from Taurasi. She has played only 36 minutes in this WNBA season because of a left hip flexor injury.
“It all depends on what she tells us,” said Auriemma. “We will leave it up to her.”
Also questionable this weekend is Jones, who injured her left foot Wednesday at the end of the Sun win over Washington. Jones did not play in Friday’s win over the Sky.
“All I heard about Asjha is that she didn’t play,” said Auriemma. “I haven’t heard whether her injury is serious or not.”
Lindsay Whalen, the former Connecticut Sun all-star guard and now the point guard for the defending champion Minnesota Lynx, couldn’t be more excited about having the opportunity to play in her first Olympiad. Many family members will attend the final week of the games. “It is just so great to be here,” said Whalen. “You have to focus on the WNBA while you are playing in the season, but you know in the back of your mind that you have this really event coming. To be here, to be a part of this team here, you really start to get a feel that its (Olympics) happening. And that enables you to do what you can do to make the team better.”
Cash was one of the six Olympians who didn’t get to Washington until Saturday because of four WNBA games played Friday afternoon and evening. Cash flew in by herself earlier than the Sky’s Sylvia Fowles and Charles and Jones because her father served in the Marines, her brother is in the army and she wanted to be a part of the clinic thrown for children of military personnel. “It was nice to see Tina and Asjha last night (at the Sun-Sky game),” said Cash. ‘And as far as having the energy to keep up with our schedule, it’s all in your mindset, taking care of your body because you know it’s going to be a grind. But I’ve been through it before and know what to expect.”
The photos
Candace Parker, the former Tennessee Lady Vols’ star and WNBA MVP for the Los Angeles Sparks, was one of the athletes profiled in ESPN The Magazine’s “body” issue, in which athletes from all over the sports world are shown posing nude. Diana Taurasi did it last season.
“I wasn’t nervous,” said Parker. “There were not many people in the room (when the photos were taken). They make you feel very comfortable. It’s basically you, the photographer and one other person. It was gratifying to be asked. I did it, it’s over and now we move on.”
