The USA Basketball Women's National Team took a big step toward fulfilling coach Tara VanDerveer's greatest need by adding 6-5 Sylvia Crawley to the roster for the May 6-15 Goldmark Cup competition in Australia.
Crawley, USA Basketball's 1995 Female Athlete of the Year, spent the 1995-96 season with Banco Luos Espanol in Vigo, Spain. She averaged 16.6 ppg and 7.9 rpg for her pro club, then came to the April 7-11 tryout for the 12th spot on the National Team roster.
Crawley was one of six players invited to the five-day tryout for the lone spot open on the Australian tour. The 1995 graduate of the University of North Carolina was joined by 6-3 Shanda Berry (Iowa '89), 6-8 Heidi Gillingham (Vanderbilt '94), 6-4 Venus Lacy (Louisiana Tech '90), 6-3 Val Whiting (Stanford '93) and 6-7 Kara Wolters (Connecticut '97). The group worked out alone for one day, then joined the National Team for April 8-11 workouts at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
VanDerveer has said repeatedly that the USA Basketball National Team's biggest weaknesses was lack of size in the paint. At 6-5, Lisa Leslie is the team's tallest player, and Leslie is more of a finesse scorer than a banger. While Leslie is pouring in a team-high 17.6 ppg in the team's 39-0 run, she's averaging just 6.9 rpg -- a number that has gone down against the other Olympic qualifiers. Katrina McCalin has been the workhorse underneath, pulling in 9.2 boards an outing despite her 6-2 frame but she will find it hard to duplicate those figures against people like China's 6-10 Haixia Zheng.
Crawley, a member of last year's World University Games team that won the silver medal, averaged 16.1 ppg and 5.9 rpg during that competition. "She should be a good addition to our roster when we face Australia, Cuba and Ukraine," VanDerveer said. "At 6-5, Sylvia will add size to our frontcourt and allow us to utilize Lisa and Katrina in their more natural forward positions without sacrificing size in the middle."
Crawley also blends her size with the quickness that both Gillingham and Wolters lack. As much as USA Basketball and VanDerveer wanted inches, those inches couldn't come at the expense of an up-tempo, down and dirty style of defensive play that is at the heart of the team's success. When the other four players on the court are denying passes and pressuring the ball, the center must do likewise. That is especially true in international play, where the key is angled wider at the baseline and centers often pop outside and shoot from the perimeter or play facing the basket. "Tara felt pretty much like the rest of us: that Sylvia's athleticism, quickness, ability to guard the perimeter and wingspan were a good fit for the team," said Karen Stromme, chair of the USA Basketball Women's Player Selection Committee. "She is a good choice to fill our need for the Australia trip."
Stromme emphasized the her spot on the team is for Australia only, and USA Basketball spokesperson Caroline Williams said that even if Crawley tears it up Down Under, USA Basketball expects to have its roster back to 11 after the team returns home.
On May 15, USA Basketball submits a roster of 18 names that make up the 1996 Olympic Team. Six of those will be designated as alternates, though that determination will not be made until June 19. The six-player post tryout and the April 27-May 2 guard tryout are the final steps in reviewing the candidates fo inclusion on the Olympic Team.
Stromme and a USA Basketball Women's Player Selection Sub-Committee will be in Colorado Springs to watch guards Edna Campbell (5-8, Texas '91), Dena Head (5-10, Tennessee '92), Niesa Johnson (5-8, Alabama '93), Saudia Roundtree (5-7, Georgia '96), Katie Smith (5-11, Ohio State '96) and Teresa Weatherspoon (5-8, Louisiana Tech '88). And even though Roundtree tore up the NCAA this year, she's a longshot to even make the 18-woman roster -- more likely choices are Head and Weatherspoon, with the other four alternates coming out of the post tryouts. "The committee has talked regularly, and will continue to do so, as we take a look at all of the candidates for the 18-person team," Stromme said. "At this point, we feel we've done our homework and been able to see everyone we need to see."
While the May 2 date formally ends the guard tryout, it also marks the departure date for Crawley and rest of the USA National Team, which plays seven games in 10 days in four cities in the Goldmark Cup. The squad opens play May 6 in Melbourne against a Cuban club that has lost all three of its meetings with the USA. The last affair, though, was an 81-78 nailbiter that stands as the National Team's stiffest test-to-date.
Cuba, Australia and Ukraine are three of the five teams matched against the U.S. in preliminary group play at the 1996 Olympics.
The U.S. club has yet to play the Australians, who finished fourth in the 1994 World Championships. The Aussies and Americans squared off in the 1994 World Championships bronze medal contest, with the U.S. prevailing, 100-95.
Ukraine has not fared much better. The National Team averaged a 23-point margin of victory in beating Ukraine four times in Russia in January. Then, Ukraine suffered a 93-69 pounding in South Carolina on March 28. "I think this tournament is going to be great competition for us," said VanDerveer, who will be getting used to new assistants at the same time that Crawley is getting used to the national team experience. The contracts of assistant coaches Renee Brown and Nell Fortner ended after the US drubbed China, 85-52 on April 13. The two left their assistant coaching positions at Kansas and Lousiana Tech, respectively, to serve for a year under VanDerveer. Fortner landed the Purdue job but will return, along withBrown, to USA Basketball in some kind of aide position around the Olympics. "They both did a tremendous job, especially in relating to the players," said Stromme. "There are a lot of changes that go on in a team over a year, and losing them is a change in chemistry. But at the same time, the transtion marks a step to the next level. It's time to get really serious."
Assuming their duties as the US Olympic Team assistant coaches will be Colorado's Ceal Barry, Ohio State's Nancy Darsch and Kansas' Marian Washington. The change should raise the level of intensity a notch as the presence of the entire Olympic coaching staff should send a message to all that the preseason is over.
The Games are about to begin.
