Bria Hartley (left) and Skylar Diggins (right), who played against each other in this year's Final Four, have both been named to the USA Women's 3x3 National Team. (photo by Kelly Kline)

3x3 is unconquered territory for USA

Another USA basketball team, another gold medal … yawn.

That may seem like it’s always the way it is, but not in FIBA 3x3 basketball, a relative newcomer to the international scene. There’s only been one 3x3 championship, in Italy last year – though there was also a 3x3 Youth Games competition in 2010.

And you know what? The U.S. didn’t bring home gold in either event.

So this year, in Athens Aug. 23-26, Skylar Diggins, Bria Hartley, Chiney Ogwumike and Alyssa Thomas will do their best to extend America’s dominance of girls’ and women’s basketball to the 3x3 realm. Perceptive readers may have noticed that there are four players for a three-person team, and that’s by design – and in fact, the U.S. might already have a gold medal if the roster had been five instead of four.

The Americans were unbeaten in Italy in 2011, even after Taya Reimer was hurt in the fourth game of the nine-game event and couldn’t play any more, but when Rebecca Greenwell went down 1:30 into the semifinal, the U.S.A. was down to two healthy players. Linnae Harper and Kaela Davis battled the host Italians before finally losing 21-19, and the Americans had to settle for an honorary bronze after forfeiting to Japan in the third-place game.

The three-on-three format, with a 10-second clock, also takes some getting used to, which is in part why the Americans also came up short in the first Youth Games competition in Singapore. Kiah Stokes, Briyona Canty, Amber Henson and Andrea Carter settled for third after losing to Australia, 25-23, in the semis.

But now, with experience in the game, and hopefully an injury-free tournament, Diggins (Notre Dame), Hartley (UConn), Ogwumike (Stanford) and Thomas (Maryland) will add a 3x3 gold to the Americans’ already extensive collection of hardware.