2026 Women’s USA Basketball- My Advice for 2028

Some things are real and some things are just crazy when it comes to the WNBA, and in particular to this past USA and World Cup series. 

Careful What You Believe- Anytime you read about a player giving up their First Class Seat on a Flight to a veteran or a senior citizen- just press delete. 

The biggest bogus report that I saw on the internet regarding the World Cup was that Caitlin Clark consoled Dorka Juhasz after the USA vs Hungary game- it never happened. 

Not Throwing Outlets to Clark- This was evident in the USA games. There were times when Breanna Stewart would get a rebound, Clark would have hands out calling for the outlet, and Stewart would take off on the dribble instead of passing to Clark.

Clark fans need to relax. Team USA had limited practices, while Team USA put in their schemes, there are some areas of the game that are not going to change in just a few practices. Some of the WNBA teams want their rebounders to not hesitate, get a rebound and go. It can be argued that the fastest fast break is when a rebounder just goes. Some of the players have been playing for a couple months in systems where when you rebound- you go. Stewart is one of those players. I don’t see her failure to outlet the pass as an act of selfishness. It is what she has been trained to do, and she does it well. While I prefer the point guard to be the handler in a fastbreak, there are other ways to run a break. 

Not Passing to Clark in the Half-Court- As a high school coach, it was not uncommon for a set of parents to be convinced that certain players would not pass the ball to their daughter. There may have been a few ones in my career that I believed a player was being iced by teammates. Usually the reason the “daughter” was not getting the ball was the result of a skill deficiency by the passers- they couldn’t see the pass or they didn’t have the physical passing skills. 

The Clark fans put clip after clip on social media showing Clark open and not receiving the passes. I saw no evidence that there were any issues with second team players or any of the post players. To really break it down, I would want to study the film, and would hope at some point the USA coaching staff does this. 

I have reason to believe that Jackie Young was icing Clark. The basketball action that everyone from HS to college to pros use today is to drive the ball into the lane. Whether at ND, the Aces, or USA, when you drive to the lane, you always read if the weakside defender helps into the lane- then you kick the ball out. Either the weakside wing has the shot, or if they rotate then the wing makes the “and one” pass to the corner. 

Young has the ability to get the ball into the lane. I never once saw her kick the ball out to Clark at the weakside. Her pass of choice was back to the side she came from. To me the explanation in this case is either a lack of basketball skill or a choice not to pass. I am guessing you don’t become the #1 draft pick in the WNBA with a lack of skills. 

Logic would say that the starting three guards would feel their playing time and position was most threatened by Clark. So maybe analysis will confirm my suspicions about Young. But for Clark fans, it serves no purpose to keep beating this drum without further analysis. 

Clark Not Starting- As a HS coach, my preference would be to start games with my strongest lineup, but in reality who started was not hugely important to me as a coach. The important things to me were who got the most minutes and who finished the games. 

As a coach, you start the season with what you feel is the best lineup going into the season. In HS it can be based on what players did last year and what they did in the summer- but ultimately it is who you think is best in November. By January, as coach, I may have changed my mind who were the best five. My approach was usually to just adjust the players minutes. 

Did Gray play well in first half of championship? Absolutely. Is Clark better than Gray? Absolutely. Is USA better with Clark than Gray? Absolutely. 

I could not care less if Clark started, the key is her minutes. Clark, Howard, and Bueckers didn’t get the minutes early, as a result when they got to the championship, the coaches had not developed a trust in them. (Note- All three had their minutes elevated by playing at end of games, not at crunch time. So don’t say look at their minutes.)

Whining about Clark starting or not starting for now makes you sound like either a petty parent, or the Fox News people who have no basketball knowledge but have started commenting and stirring things up. 

Come On, We Aren’t that Dumb- When the Coach Lawson was asked if she had thought about starting Clark, Bueckers, or Howard, her replay was that they were sticking with the vets. Her reply,”Our vets are getting us off to good starts.”

Anyone who has watched the games knows that Lawson’s answer is absolutely not true. The USA Team has had a pattern of starting slow and having the young group come in and get things going. 

The best answer by Lawson would have been, “We really like bringing our young players off the bench because they bring so much energy and athleticism, they have shown an ability change the game coming off the bench.”

Plus/Minus- For those who don’t know what this is, they calculate the score of the two teams when each player is on the floor. This is one of the most important analytic stats used in the NBA. 

For example, in the semi-final game, when Clark entered the game in the first quarter, USA was down 6. When she left the game in the second quarter, USA was up 6. Clark would then be considered +12. 

She left the game in the 2nd quarter with the game trending in the direction a coach would hope for. Then in the second quarter Clark did not play. Very tough to understand. 

I would hope the coaching staff and Sue Bird after this tourney would take some time and take a deep dive into lots of analytics. Do the analytics supports their opinions?

Come On, We Aren’t that Dumb- Part 2- At the very start of the semi-final game, as the teams got ready to jump center, the TV announcer read off the USA starters names and then added, “In terms of plus/minus, this is USA’s best lineup.”

The three best lineups with the highest plus/minus ratings for USA all involve Clark, Bueckers, and Howard- and two other from the group of Stewart, Collier, Reese, and Boston. 

Building a Team- If you don’t want to build a strong, cohesive team, a great idea is to separate your team into veterans and rookie, and seldom allow them to play together. 

In HS basketball, it is often easy for a coach to start the seniors. There is always a tendency of seniors and their parents to feel like, “It’s our turn.”

Experience matters but when you separate your team based on seniority, with seniors in one group and underclassmen in another group. You are not building ONE Team, but you are building TWO teams. 

It is tough for juniors and seniors to be beat out by a sophomore. As a coach if you know this is going to happen, it is often better to just rip off the bandaid and have the players deal with it early. 

But even if you feel it is best to start an all senior lineup, intermix you with old as you sub. If you don’t intermix as you sub, you produce what happened with Team USA where fans are keeping score for the vets a for the youngsters. You do that in HS, trust me that parents/players at the end of games will know what the score was for the seniors and for the underclassmen. 

Involve Youth- Whether they are going to be starters or regulars, the USA must do a better job in ‘28 than they did in ‘24 and ‘26 of integrating the young players. 

Some combination of Sonia Citron, Clark, Reese, and Bueckers should have been on the ‘24 team- watching and learning. If one or two of them had been on the ‘24 team then they would have been ready to start in ‘26 and perhaps the coaches would have built up a trust in them. And maybe if Clark and Bueckers were on the roster, they would have formed some bond with each other and with some of the vets. 

It is a funny thing for coaches, players have to earn our confidence. By not putting younger players on the roster in ‘24, it was harder for the players to earn the coach’s trust.  

The overriding thing this World Cup showed is that women’s USA Basketball has failed to develop confidence in the young players- Bueckers and Clark in particular. Granted, neither looked great in the first half of the championship game but they were only in for 2 1/2 minutes.

Hopefully by ‘28, USA Basketball coaches and management will figure out a way to develop trust in Bueckers and Clark- there is a good chance they will be two of the best by then. For Clark, maybe her performance in the 2nd half of the championship game will help the coaches and some of her teammates have more trust in her. 

You can’t load up a roster with youth, but USA Basketball should have looked forward to ‘28 when they made the ‘26 team. It would have made sense to have a couple from the group of Olivia Miles, Veronica Burton, JuJu Watkins, or Azzi Fudd. 

You look at any great HS program, they always have a couple freshmen or sophomores on the varsity roster. The message to those players and everyone associated with your program is that these young players are going to be important to our future. The coaches and the young players can build a trust that helps later. 

Isiah Thomas Rule- Whatever the exact dynamics were, Isiah Thomas was not on the original USA Dream Team because in an NBA All-Star game Thomas organized players to ice Michael Jordan. Some believe Jordan told USA Basketball if Thomas was in, Jordan was out. 

If you have to choose between Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas, who do you choose? If you have to choose between Jackie Young or Caitlin Clark in ‘28, who do you choose?

As a HS coach if you have a sophomore who is a rising star, and a senior who is unhappy, who do you choose?

After analysis, if it is clear any of the vets had issues with the young players, they must treat them as Isiah Thomas was treated- leave them off future rosters. 

Roster Going Forward- USA Basketball must sit down with A’ja Wilson and make sure they are on good terms. I have no problem with a 30 year old in the middle of a WNBA title run choosing to pass on the World Cup. More players will do this going forward as the WNBA title becomes more their priority. But USA Basketball must make sure that as a 32 year old she will play in the ‘28 Olympics. If you thought Clark and Angel Reese were dynamic on ball screens, Clark and A’ja could be spectacular. 

A mistake in both men’s and women’s USA Basketball is that they tend to always overload with athletes and be short on shooters. They need fill two spots for ‘28 with the best shooters in America, whether that is Sabrina Ionescu, Azzi Fudd, Rhyne Howard, Kelsey Mitchell, Kelsey Plum, or Kayla McBride.

Breanna Stewart is long and is talented, but more importantly, she is a leader. She must be kept on Team USA. 

Style Going Forward- USA Basketball’s greatest strength is their depth and athleticism. If you were a HS coach and knew you team team was going to be deeper and more athletic than you opponents, what style would you want to play? 

USA must play uptempo- no walking the ball up the court. 

Coaching Staff- As one looks back at the history of men’s and women’s USA Basketball coaches thru the years, this staff was one of the biggest gambles ever taken. 

Kara Lawson has a total of only 6 years as a head coach. It seems over her six years as a head coach at Duke, her claim to fame is giving talks about commitment and intensity. Her big speech during the World Cup to players was about motivation. I prefer a coach who is more invested in X/O’s and strategy. 

For assistants on this level, you want coaches who fill one of three things- 1) Strong relationship with the head coach, 2) Great X/O mind, 3) Good cop who bring out best in the players. 

From my vision of the bench, the only assistant who seems to have shown a relationship with the players is Natalie Nakasa of Golden State. She shows great energy. Behind the scenes they may do a lot more but on the bench, the other three look like their thinking, “I am a head coach, what am I supposed to be doing as an assistant?”

Stef White’s body language on the bench was that of a teenage boy told he had to go to church youth group when his favorite NFL team was playing Monday night football. 

This staff may grow from this experience and be better in ‘28, but they are not the best five coaches America has to offer. We can do better. 

As a group, they failed to handle a tough set of dynamics. Many will say that Lawson had an agenda, I think as a 6th year head coach, she was just over her head. 

I can guarantee if any high school coach managed their roster the way Coach Lawson did, the HS coach better have a VERY supportive administration because parents, players and the public are going to go after the coach. 

Sue Bird- In general, I have had great respect for Sue Bird as a player. Since she has retired, I have much less respect for her in her role as head of USA Basketball. Issues that need to have been addressed head on by Bird and/or Lawson do not appear to have been addressed. 

The media needs to take Bird to task, she is the manager of OUR USA TEAM. We have a right to ask her tough questions and ask her to defend her decisions and her coach’s decisions. Sue Bird has the personality and the ability with a rationale conversation to calm the waters and change the focus. 

Sue Bird is an intelligent individual and has shown herself to be a great leader as a player. My hope is that she will grow and become better in her position as Director of USA Basketball.

The worst thing that the women’s USA Basketball could do is let their win in the World Cup mask the need for some serious analysis.