In preparation for the year’s Olympics in Tokyo, an Olympics where the national team is still favored to win gold, USA Basketball’s Women’s National Team has been playing a series of exhibition contests against top college teams to fine-tune itself prior to heading to Japan this summer.
Among the teams that USA Women’s Basketball has already matched up against has included Stanford, Oregon State, Texas A&M and Oregon, the latter of which garnered a lot of attention for its result, a 93-86 Ducks win in which Sabrina Ionescu scored 30 points.
ESPN has stepped up to the plate and elected to air two of USA Basketball’s upcoming matchups against two major women’s college basketball programs.
Team USA will face Geno Auriemma’s No. 1 UConn Huskies on Monday Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and will square off against Jeff Walz’s No. 7 Louisville Cardinals on Sunday, Feb. 2 on ESPN.
Eric Frede, Holly Rowe and UConn’s very own Rebecca Lobo will work the game against UConn while Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli will be on the call for the contest with the Cards.
Breanna Stewart, after injuring her Achilles in 2019 and missing that year’s entire WNBA season, is slated to return to the court for the exhibition with her alma mater UConn. Huskies alums Stewart, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are scheduled to play in both games while Tina Charles will only be available for the game with UConn.
Angel McCoughtry, who recently made her return to basketball overseas with Euroleague’s Dynamo Kursk, will be available for the game against her alma mater Louisville at KFC Yum Center.
The USA National Team’s expanded training program is designed to help prepare our team for Tokyo in its quest for another gold medal and to promote and inspire women’s basketball around the country, and we’re appreciative of ESPN’s collaboration to help us accomplish those goals.
–Jim Tooley, CEO of USA Basketball (per release)
We know that they both will give us an incredibly high level of competition, and their fans will have a great opportunity to see our team, including their alums, as well as watching a glimpse of what they can expect to see in Tokyo. We’re looking forward to a great environment, similar to what we had in all four of our games in November and want to thank the fans in advance for coming to the games.
–Carol Callan, USA Basketball Women’s National Team director, chair of USA National Team Player Selection Committee (per release)
Primetime!
USA Basketball vs UConn, Louisville to air on ESPN (via @benrosofNY) https://t.co/O86QWUTJIU
— Kelsey Trainor (@ktrain_11) January 7, 2020
