Wilson Named to USA U23 National Team

Aug. 4, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina forward A’ja Wilson was named to the 2017 USA Basketball Women’s U23 National Team, the organization announced today. The 12-player roster, culled from the 36-player training camp that concluded Friday with Wilson’s Team 3 winning the gold medal game, will compete in the 2017 U23 Four Nations Tournament in Tokyo, Japan, Aug 12-15.

“We were very impressed during training camp,” said Jennifer Rizzotti, chair of the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee. “It was an impressive list to being with, but to see how hard they competed and how important it was for them to be here – nobody took the week off, nobody didn’t put in the maximum effort, and that is what made the committee’s job so hard.”

Selected for her fourth USA Basketball team since 2013, each of Wilson’s previous three teams captured gold – 2013, FIBA U19 World Championship, 2014 FIBA Americas U18 Championship and 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship. The 6-foot-5 forward was the tournament MVP in 2014 and 2015 and went on to win USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year honors in 2015.

The 2017 U23 Four Nations Tournament will provide meaningful competition and development opportunities. The USA’s participation in the tournament is intended to help further develop the USA Basketball athlete profile and to help prepare athletes for possible future participation in the USA Basketball Women’s National Team pool. At the event in Katayanagi Arena, the U.S. will take on Australia on Sat., Aug. 12, Canada on Aug. 13 and host Japan on Aug. 15.

Jeff Walz (Louisville) will be the team’s head coach with Courtney Banghard (Princeton) and Michelle Clark-Heard (Western Kentucky) as assistant coaches.