MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Lynx’s Cheryl Reeve will be the next USA Basketball national team coach, a person with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced. USA Basketball will hold a news conference on Wednesday in Minnesota.
The WNBA coach has been an assistant on the last two Olympic teams,. She will be the first professional women’s basketball coach to lead the team since Anne Donovan was courtside for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. UConn’s Geno Auriemma was the coach in the 2012 and 2016 Games. South Carolina’s Dawn Staley led the Americans to a seventh consecutive gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics this past summer.
Reeve served as an assistant coach to both Staley and Auriemma. The veteran coach has won four WNBA championships with Minnesota.
Cheryl Reeve (credit: CBS)
The U.S. is in a bit of transition with five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird retiring from international play. Her backcourt partner for all those gold medals, Diana Taurasi, hasn’t decided whether she will keep playing for USA Basketball or retire as well.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Sylvia Fowles, who plays for Reeve in Minnesota, also said she is retiring from USA Basketball. The Americans still will have a dominant interior presence with Britnney Griner, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.
Reeve’s first major international event will be the World Cup next fall in Australia. The Americans earned an automatic berth to it by winning the Olympics.
The U.S. will host a four-team qualifying tournamen t for the World Cup in February that includes Russia, Belgium and Puerto Rico.
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