University of Minnesota Athletics
Lindsay Whalen Earns Spot on USA Team, Travels to Brazil
7/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The USA Team members are: Kara Brown-Braxton (Georgia / Jackson, Mich.); Shameka Christon (Arkansas / Hot Springs, Ark.); Ebony Hoffman (Southern California / Harbor City, Calif.); Laurie Koehn (Kansas State / Hesston, Kan.); Kelly Mazzante (Penn State / Montoursville, Pa.); Amber Obaze (Louisiana Tech / Dallas, Texas ); Nicole Ohlde (Kansas State / Clay Center, Kan.); Jia Perkins (Texas Tech / Granbury, Texas ); Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers / Chicago, Ill.); Heather Schreiber (Texas / Windthorst, Texas ); Stacy Stephens (Texas / Winnsboro, Texas ) and Li ndsay Whalen (Minnesota / Hutchinson, Minn.). The four finalists not selected to the team were named alternates and could be called into action in the event of an injury prior to the start of competition. The four alternates are: Jacqueline Batteast (Notre Dame / South Bend, Ind.); Steffanie Blackmon (Baylor / Dallas, Texas); Vanessa Hayden (Florida / Orlando, Fla.); Amber Jacobs (Boston College / Clarks Summit, Pa.).
"I really like this group, I like their enthusiasm," said USA and Texas Tech University head coach Marsha Sharp. "I think that we have a lot of great ingredients. We're really balanced and we have a little bit of everything that we need. We have some great shooters, we have some penetrating guards and we have some big and athletic post players, as well as some post players who can shoot it with a little bit of range. I thought the committee did a really nice job of giving us a lot of different options. That's something that will be important to us when we get down there so now, depending on how we're defended against, we'll have a lot of different choices."
The tournament will be hosted by Brazil in Ribeirao Preto on July 17-21 and will feature eight teams from North, South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. The top three nations will qualify for the inaugural International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Championship For Young Women which is scheduled to be played in Dubrovnik, Croatia (July 25-Aug. 3, 2003).
The team travels to Brazil on Friday and will play exhibition games against the Brazil Young Women Team (July 14) and the Brazil National Team (July 15) to preparation for the tournament. The U.S. will open the tournament on July 17 against Venezuela, followed by games on July 18 versus the Dominican Republic and on July 19 against Argentina. The tournament semi-finals are set for July 20, with the finals scheduled for July 21.
Whalen earned Associated Press, Kodak and U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-America honors during her sophomore season at Minnesota. Along the way, Whalen captured 2002 Big Ten Player of the Year honors, as well as unanimous All-Big Ten first team acclaim. The 5-8 guard led the Gophers and ranked eighth nationally scoring 22.2 points per game. She also topped Minnesota with 159 assists and shot an impressive 56.1 percent from the floor.
Photos courtesy of USA Basketball
