COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Kaylee Johnson, Erica McCall and Lili Thompson have accepted invitations to attend the 2015 USA Basketball Women’s Pan American Games and World University Games Team Trials, USA Basketball announced Wednesday. The USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee issued the invitations for the trials, which will take place May 14-17 at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Trials will be used to determine the rosters for the 2015 U.S. Pan American Women’s Basketball Team and the 2015 USA Women’s World University Games Team. The 12 members of each squad, or finalists for each team, will be announced on the morning of May 17. Fifty four of the nation’s best collegiate basketball players accepted invitations.
Stanford is one of only three schools sending three student-athletes to Colorado Springs along with Maryland and Ohio State.
Johnson, who will be participating in her first USA Basketball event, was a rebounding revelation for the Cardinal in her freshman season. She sandwiched Stanford’s trip to the Rainbow Wahine Shootout in Honolulu over Thanksgiving with a pair of 22-rebounds performances, pulling down that many on Nov. 24 at New Mexico and then again on Dec. 14 against Santa Clara. Chiney Ogwumike is the only other Cardinal player with multiple 20-rebound games in a career.
The Casper, Wyoming native was named USBWA National Freshman of the Week after those performances. Johnson was a three-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week (Dec. 1; Dec. 15; Feb. 16), a Pac-12 All-Freshman selection and finished the season third among the country’s first-year players in rebounds. She is tied for 10th in Stanford single-season history in rebounds (344) and ninth in rebounding average (9.6), both marks which top the Cardinal’s freshman record books.
McCall appeared in all 36 games during her sophomore season, making 18 starts. She was second on the team in rebounding (5.4 per game) and seventh in scoring (5.6 per game). A Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention selection, McCall closed the year with three impressive performances in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 9.7 points and 8.0 rebounds against CSUN, Oklahoma and Notre Dame.
A veteran of USA Basketball and one of 16 USA Basketball gold medalists attending the trials, McCall has captured three golds for her country, beginning with the 2011 U16 FIBA Americas Championship. In 2012, McCall and the United States also won the FIBA U17 World Championship and the FIBA 3X3 U18 World Championship.
Thompson, who like Johnson will be participating in her first USA Basketball event, led Stanford with five 20-point efforts in 2014-15. She started her sophomore season with 26 points against Boston College, 24 against Connecticut and a career-high 28 against the Longhorns to become the first Cardinal guard to put up 20+ in three consecutive games since Candice Wiggins in 2008. She was named espnW National Player of the Week on Nov. 23 and followed that up with a Pac-12 Player of the Week nod on Nov. 24. She finished the year averaging 13.3 points per game, earned her first All-Pac-12 selection and was one of just five underclassmen in the country to be named Capital One Academic All-District.
Pan American Games
The selected U.S. Pan American Women’s Basketball Team players and coaches will return to Colorado on July 3 for the start of training camp and will depart for the competition in Toronto, Canada, on July 8. The 2015 Pan American Games women’s basketball competition will take place July 16-20.
The USA women have been placed into Group A and will take on Brazil on July 16, Dominican Republic on July 17 and Puerto Rico on July 18 in the preliminary round. Competing in Group B will be Argentina, Canada, Cuba and Venezuela.
The top two teams from each preliminary-round group will advance to the medal-round semifinals on July 19, while the third and fourth-placed teams will for fifth-eighth places. The semifinal winners will compete for the gold medal on July 20, while the semifinal losers will play for bronze.
The Pan Ams are a multi-sport event featuring teams from North, South and Central American and the Caribbean that are organized by the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) and played every four years in the year preceding the Olympics (2015, 2019, etc.).
Since the first Pan American Games for women in 1955, the USA has compiled an overall record of 87-15 and won eight gold medals, three silver medals and two bronze medals.
World University Games
The selected USA players and coaches for the 2015 USA World University Games Team will return to Colorado Springs for training camp on June 18-July 2, before departing for the event. The 2015 World University Games women’s basketball competition will be held July 4-13 in Gwangju, South Korea.
The USA women have drawn Group C and will play Italy at 10 a.m. (all times listed are local, Gwangju is +13 hours from EDT) on July 5, China at 5:30 p.m. on July 6 and Czech Republic at 8 p.m. on July 7. Playing in Group A will be Canada, Hungary, Mozambique and South Korea; Group B includes Japan, Mexico, Russia and Sweden; and Group D features Australia, Brazil, Taipei and Uganda.
The quarterfinals will be played on July 9, the semifinals are on July 11, the bronze medal game is on July 12 and the gold medal game is set for July 13.
Held every other year, the World University Games is organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The WUGs are a multi-sport competition open to men and women who are between the ages of 17 and 24 (born between 1/1/88 and 12/31/98), who are enrolled as a full-time college student with remaining eligibility for the 2015-16 school year.
USA Basketball women’s teams have participated in 17 World University Games and collected a record nine golds, six silvers and one bronze medal. Since 1973, the first year the USA women competed in the World University Games, USA women’s teams have compiled a 101-15 all-time record. The USA has won gold medals in the past five WUGs in which it has competed (2001, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013).