USA women’s basketball to face Tennessee, Duke

The USA Basketball women’s national team will play exhibition games against Tennessee and Duke in November in preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the program announced Thursday.

USA Basketball will play at Tennessee on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. ET and at Duke on Nov. 12 at noon ET with the aim of helping the program evaluate its player pool heading into Paris.

USA Basketball will host a training camp from Nov. 7-9 in Atlanta between the exhibitions. Roster information will be announced in the coming weeks.

“As preparations continue for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the games against Tennessee and Duke, as well as training camp, will serve as important opportunities for the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee to evaluate players who have national team aspirations,” USA Basketball women’s national team director Briana Weiss said in a statement. “USA Basketball has a long history of partnering with NCAA Division I programs to help prepare for major international competitions and we are grateful to these two programs for adding our games to their preseason slates.”

USA Basketball has played college teams in such settings since 1995, most recently against Stanford, Oregon State, Texas A&M, Oregon, UConn and Louisville heading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In November 2019 the Ducks became the second college team to beat the U.S. women’s national team, and the first in 20 years.

Tennessee last played Team USA in 2007; Duke last did it in 1999.

Team USA is looking to win an eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal. It also is coming off a fourth consecutive gold at the FIBA World Cup under the program’s new coach Cheryl Reeve. Reeve will coach both exhibition games alongside assistants Mike Thibault and Curt Miller.