Monday, June 7, 2010

USA Basketball invitees: some come back and some don't

Ariya Crook-Williams has been invited to try out for USA Basketball's U18 team:

Ariya Crook-Williams, the 5-foot-7 point guard from Long Beach, Calif., told ESPN HoopGurlz she has a confirmed invite to the USA Basketball U18 National Team Trials at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Her Cal Sparks club coach said that the invitation was sent out early on in the process but working out scheduling of exams at her high school, Polytechnic High School, delayed her ability to accept the invitation.
Crook-Williams, the No.15 ranked college prospect in the 2011 class according to ESPN HoopGurlz, attended the U16 National Team Trials a year ago. She will join eight other invitees from that class in the trials composed mostly of older players from the 2010 class. The other underclass invitees are Morgan Jones, Cassie Peoples, Reshanda Gray, a teammate of Crook-Williams on the Sparks, Brittany Boyd, Amber Orrange, and Raven Ferguson.


But just because a player is invited one year doesn't mean she has an automatic bid the next year, as some athletes have discovered.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would they think they would be invited, especialy considering the committee members watched the players over the course of the year, so this time they had a better idea who could do what, last year they hadn't even seen most of those invited.

Sue Favor said...

Because:

1. It's easier to notice when your skill level goes up than when it stays the same or goes down.

2. The majority of high school players don't know who's good in other cities and states. They don't know if they've been surpassed by someone else.