The U.S. team playing in the FIBA Americas U18 Championships will be headlined by UConn incoming freshmen Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams.

The duo, who are expected to arrive on campus tomorrow, were among 12 players named to the team after trials held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Their inclusion is hardly a shocking turn of events considering that they were the top two scorers on the U.S. team that won the bronze medal at the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.

Here's a story I did on the two of them after catching up with Nelson-Ododa and Williams at Jordan Brand Classic media day last month.

Ten of the 12 players will be college freshmen in the fall - Jenna Brown (Stanford), Queen Egbo (Baylor), Nazarah Hillmon-Baker (Michigan), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), Jordan Nixon (Notre Dame), , Sedona Prince (Texas), Abby Prohaska (Notre Dame), Nalyssa Smith (Baylor) and the two UConn commits. The only players with remaining college eligibility are Aijha Blackwell and Class of 2019 Notre Dame commit Anaya Peoples meaning five of the 12 players are committed to either UConn or Notre Dame.

The 12 players will return to Colorado on July 20 to begin preparations for the tournament which will be held from Aug. 1-7 at a site to be determined.

Next up is the naming of the 12-member U-17 national team. The list of hopefuls has been cut from 156 to 18 with UConn Class of 2019 recruiting targets Aliyah Boston, Jordan Horston and Haley Jones among the finalists. The 12 players representing the U.S. in the FIBA U17 World Cup will be announced on Wednesday.

UConn recruiting target Christyn Williams in action during U.S. U-19
trials at U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado
(photo courtesy of Jenny Johnston/USA Basketball)

It would be easy to excuse the youngest player in Colorado Springs for the U.S. U-19 national team trials to be a little overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.

A total of 23 of the 33 vying to be a member of the 12-member team playing in the FIBA U19 Women's World Cup have already played a year of college ball. However, highly-touted high school senior to be Christyn Williams is no stranger at the concept of playing against older players since it is something she has done countless times in AAU ball.

"I feel like the first couple of drills, I've noticed that I can keep up with them so I can (look ahead) to my freshman year of college and how I am going to do," Williams said in a phone interview after Friday's second practice session. "I really have an advantage because I compete with some of my potential teammates or people I'll play in college. It has given me a big head's up.

"I've always played against people two or three years older than me so that is why it is so weird in AAU now because we are in the old group and I am not used to it. Everybody I am playing against is either my age or younger. It hasn't been much of a change because I have been playing up a lot."
The 5-foot-11 Williams has cut her list to a final five of Baylor, Notre Dame, Tennessee, UCLA and UConn.

Tennessee is represented at the trials by incoming freshman Evina Westbrook. UConn guard Crystal Dangerfield is in Colorado as are signees Mikayla Coombs and Megan Walker and Class of 2018 UConn commit Charli Collier.

"A lot of the girls will be there on my official visits so when I get on campus, I will know them already," Williams said. "It's been pretty cool being able to play with them to see how we play together."

I'll refrain from asking Dangerfield, Coombs and Walker to comment on Williams since it could be viewed as an NCAA violation since all are part of the UConn program and Williams is an uncommitted recruit.

Williams, the two-time Gatorade state player of the year in Arkansas, is a dynamic offensive player who averaged 26.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game as a junior at Central Arkansas Christian. There is another aspect of her multi-faceted game she is looking to show off at the trials.

"My defensive showing that I can guard off the ball and on the ball because they know that I can score from previous USA Basketball experiences," Williams said.

That scoring prowess was on display last summer as Williams was the second-leading scorer and had a team-high 10 3-pointers for the U.S. team which earned the bronze medal in the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women. She had 20 points in a hard-earned 59-55 win over Italy and 17 points in a 56-45 victory over France in the quarterfinals.

Williams figures to be busy in September and October taking her five officials visits before making her decision "before the high school season starts next year. People say that recruiting process is stressful but it's been pretty fun with me. I am just enjoying it."

I haven't seen Central Arkansas Christian's schedule for the upcoming season but the team opened the 2016-17 season on Nov. 15.

Andra Espinoza-Hunter is New York's Gatorade state player of the year
making 8th time in last 12 years a UConn recruit wins New York honor

UConn incoming freshmen Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter and Megan Walker were selected as the Gatorade state players of the year in Georgia, New York and Virginia respectively making them eligible for the Gatorade National Player of Year honor.

Coombs averaged  16.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 4.2 steals per game in leading the Wesleyan School to the Georgia 4A Private School state title.

Espinoza-Hunter is averaging 37.8 points, 7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3 steals per game for Ossining High School including a 40-point effort to clinch a spot in the New York AA semifinals.
Walker averaged 25.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.2 rebounds per game to lead Monacan High School to its third straight Virginia 4A title.

UConn recruiting targets Aliyah Boston and Christyn Williams were the state players of the year in Massachusetts and Arkansas respectively while the Connecticut winner McKenna Dale of E.O. Smith who has committed to Brown.

It is the second Gatorade state player of the year honor for Walker and Williams, who announced via her Twitter account yesterday that UConn joins Baylor, Notre Dame, Tennessee and UCLA are her five finalists.

UConn Class of 2018 recruiting target Charli Collier is one of 18
finalists for U-17 national team (photo courtesy of USA Basketball)

One of the most pressing questions surrounding the U-17 trials was how many members from the bronze-medal winning U-16 squad would make the cut.

Well, many of the answers came this morning as the fourth cut was made to get down to 18 candidates and Alexis Morris (the leading scorer on the U-16 squad) and UConn Class of 2018 recruiting targets Aquira DeCosta and Sedona Prince were among the final 18.

"Ever since we lost, it has always been a motivation for us to win gold coming back this year," DeCosta said. "All of us are hungry to win gold."

This is the fourth U-17 team. In 2010 eight of the 12 players on the 2009 U16 made the squad, two years later six of the 12 players on the U17 team played in the FIBA Americas U16 event in '11. More recently, seven members of the U16 team in 2013 were members of the U17 squad in 2014.

UConn Class of 2017 commit Andra Espinoza-Hunter, one of three double-digit scorers on the U-16 team which lost to Brazil in the semifinals in the 2015 FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women, was among those cut as the roster was trimmed from 41 to 18. There are still six more cuts that need to be made.

Since 1997 United States teams competed in 22 age-group 5 on 5 FIBA or FIBA Americas event and won the gold medals 20 times.

Back in 2001 the U.S. team coached by UConn's Geno Auriemma and featuring current WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter, Alana Beard and Monique Currie suffered a loss to host Czech Republic in the 2001 FIBA U19 event en route to earning a bronze medal. That script was revisited last June when the U.S., after winning its first three games by an average of 39.3 points, lost to Brazil in the semifinals. The U.S. needed to beat host Mexico to avoid becoming the first United States squad to failing to medal in an age-group event since the U-19 team finished seventh in 1993.
DeCosta, Prince and fellow UConn Class of 2018 recruiting targets Charli Collier and Christyn Williams are among the final 18 as is Samantha Brunelle, a Class of 2019 prospect drawing interest from UConn.

"I think this was the most competitive trials we have ever had," USA Basketball National Team Director Carol Callan said in a statement. "As they emerged through the weekend, these 18 played really, really well. They provide a lot of the pieces to the puzzle of putting a roster together. It's not only at each position, but within each position, versatility, different style of play and stature. There are rebounders, there are shooters, there are defenders and there are really good players at each position."

The 18 finalists who will remain in Colorado Springs through Thursday when the 12-member squad will be announced. Here are the rest of those in contention to make the team.

Janelle Bailey, Rellah Boothe, Aliyah Boston, Jenna Brown, Maya Dodson, Destanni Henderson, Nazahrah Hillman, Taylor Mikesell, Morris, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Abigail Prohaska, Madison Williams, Zoe Young.

Eleven of the 18 finalists are from the Class of 2018 while Brunelle is one of three Class of 2019 prospects to make the cut joining Zoe Young and Aliyah Boston, a Worcester Academy star who is the only New England prospect to make the list of 18 finalists.

Boston and Janai Crooms, a 2018 prospect from Rhode Island, were the only New England players among 139 to try out for the U17 team.

Texas has four of the 18 finalists followed by Georgia and Ohio with three each while Florida is the only other state with more than one finalist.

Among the Texas players not to make the cut is Jade Williams, who drew some recruiting interest from UConn. When the Huskies were down in Texas to face SMU in January (the same trip when I saw Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey at one of Lexi Gordon's games) and didn't make it to see Williams play I kind of figured she wasn't in the Huskies' plans moving forward. Williams confirmed that.

"They were looking at me heavily but I think they recruited some people so their interest fell off," Williams said. "It is not really UConn anymore."

The U-18 team will be announced tonight around 8:30 p.m. There are currently 31 players fighting it out for 12 spots (counting Kasiyahna Kushkituah, who tried out for the U-17s and was added to the players trying to make the U-18 team) including UConn incoming freshman Crystal Dangerfield and Class of 2017 recruiting target Megan Walker.