Mitchell, Gray to participate in Team USA camp — here's why A'ja Wilson won't
.JPG "South Carolina's A'ja Wilson gives former teammate Tiffany Mitchell a hard time for wearing number 22 during the 2018 USA Basketball women's national team minicamp at USC. 2/9/17")
Two former South Carolina women's basketball stars are getting closer and closer to representing the U.S. on the international stage.
USA Basketball announced the 19-player roster for its April training camp in Seattle, and both Tiffany Mitchell and Allisha Gray made the cut. The camp will run from April 24 to 26 and culminate in a friendly against the Chinese national team. The final USA roster for that contest will be selected from the 21 players at the camp and announced on April 25, according to a press release.
Both Gray and Mitchell were not initially named to the U.S. national team 2018-2020 pool from which the 2018 World Cup and 2020 Olympic rosters are expected to be picked, but they participated in the February national team camp in Columbia and were added to the pool in March. While both players have worked with USA Basketball before, neither has appeared on the court for the U.S. as a member of the senior national team — Mitchell was on the roster of the 2015 Pan-American Games but was injured.
The former Gamecocks will have the advantage of being overseen by South Carolina and national team coach Dawn Staley.
“I’m excited to have this group of players joining us in camp in a couple of weeks,” Staley said in a USA Basketball press release. “I look forward to working with them and gaining some more chemistry with both players and staff, now that we have a staff in place. We can get a lot more done and really focus on in-game situations, especially with the exhibition against China at the end of camp.”
A notable name missing from that group of players, however, is that of A'ja Wilson. The former USC star was just recently picked No. 1 overall by the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA draft and was already a member of the national team pool. She had to sit out February's camp while she was still in college, and she will miss April's camp because she will be busy finishing up her final classes at South Carolina and prepping for her first WNBA season, according to a spokesperson.
Two of Wilson's new teammates, Kayla McBride and Kelsey Plum, are also Team USA pool members but will miss the camp as the Aces open up their preseason workouts in late April, just a few days the national team closes its camp. The trio will still get to play the Chinese national team, however — Las Vegas opens it preseason on May 6 against China.
Shortly after that, Wilson will actually face Gray when the Aces and Dallas Wings take the floor in Las Vegas for another tuneup on May 13.
This story was originally published April 16, 2018 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Mitchell, Gray to participate in Team USA camp — here's why A'ja Wilson won't."