The U.S. women’s national basketball team will meet at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, next month for Kara Lawson’s first training camp as head coach.
Team USA announced an 18-player roster on Monday for a training camp that Duke will host Dec. 12-14. Notably, rising stars in women’s basketball like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers are included, while some Team USA veterans who had deep runs in the WNBA playoffs — like A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu — are absent.
Here’s the full roster:
- Kahleah Copper (Phoenix Mercury)
- Chelsea Gray (Las Vegas Aces)
- Brittney Griner (Atlanta Dream)
- Kelsey Plum (LA Sparks)
- Jackie Young (Las Vegas Aces)
- Dearica Hamby (LA Sparks)
- Brionna Jones (Atlanta Dream)
- Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever)
- Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever)
- Angel Reese (Chicago Sky)
- Cameron Brink (LA Sparks)
- Veronica Burton (Golden State Valkyries)
- Sonia Citron (Washington Mystics)
- Kiki Iriafen (Washington Mystics)
- Rickea Jackson (LA Sparks)
- Lauren Betts (UCLA)
- JuJu Watkins (USC)
Betts is the lone active college player on the roster and figures to be a candidate for National Player of the Year and lottery pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft. UCLA doesn’t have any games during this window.
Watkins will likely be a big part of Team USA’s future plans and may have a spot on the team when the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics roll around, but she’s currently sidelined for the year for the USC Trojans as she continues to recover from an ACL injury she suffered in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
Copper, Griner, Plum, Young and Gray — the lone former Duke Blue Devil in this group — were all on the 2024 gold-medal-winning Team USA squad. Hamby and Plum also own an Olympic gold from 3×3 play in 2021, a team that was also coached by Lawson.
Alongside Betts and Watkins, this camp will mark the senior national team debuts for Brink, Bueckers, Burton, Citron, Clark, Iriafen, Jackson and Reese.
Assisting Lawson in her first camp as Team USA head coach will be three WNBA head coaches: Natalie Nakase of Golden State, Stephanie White of Indiana, and Nate Tibbetts of Phoenix.
The camp also falls in an open window for Duke, which will open ACC play against Virginia Tech on Dec. 7, then take an 11-day break for exams before facing South Dakota State on Dec. 18. The Blue Devils’ season has gotten off to a bumpy start, as they’re 3-3 with losses to Baylor, West Virginia and South Florida after being voted No. 1 in the ACC preseason poll.
In October, Lawson talked to SB Nation about the challenges of juggling her goals with Duke and her ambitions with the national team.
“It takes two great staffs,” Lawson said. “My staff at Duke has a high level of experience — so I lean on them a lot to be able to run our program and to teach. So, leaning on them at times when the USA commitment pulls me a little bit, and vice versa.”
She added: “When we do select our staff for the national team, I’ll be leaning on them as well at times when I’m with Duke… I think that’s the key, is finding people who work really well together. I know I have that at Duke. And then obviously we’ll be in the process here in the coming months of forming that (Team USA staff).”
Lawson, hired by Sue Bird, was announced as Team USA head coach in September. She was an assistant on Cheryl Reeve’s 2024 staff, the head coach of the gold-medal-winning 3×3 team in 2021, and won a gold medal as a player in 2008.
