As a tune-up for this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. women’s national basketball team plans to host a four-team tournament prior to the Games.
The tournament will also feature Australia, Canada, and France. It will take place from July 27-31 through three cities—Bridgeport, Connecticut, Newark, New Jersey, and New York City.
The tournament will begin at Bob Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware (the alma mater of USA Basketball’s Elena Delle Donne) on July 27. Team USA will play France and Australia will face Canada that day. Two days later in Connecticut, it will be Australia playing France with Canada facing Team USA.
The USA’s roster features five UConn alums (Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, and Diana Taurasi) as well as the head coach—Geno Auriemma who coaches for the Huskies.
The tournament will conclude at Madison Square Garden with Team USA facing Australia and Canada playing France.
Auriemma feels the tournament will not only give him a glimpse of what his team will look like prior to heading to Brazil, but will also give home fans the chance to see the team in person prior to the Olympics starting in August.
I think each of these games will be competitive and be a really, really good preview of what you’ll see in August at the Olympics. Two years ago, we were able to play games at Delaware and Bridgeport and the fan support at both of those games was tremendous. Then you add Madison Square Garden into the mix, what better way to give our team a final send-off before Rio?
–Auriemma per a USA Basketball press release.
The Rio Olympics begin on Aug. 2 with Team USA starting play on Aug. 7 vs. Senegal.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
