Coaches Corner: Mike Thibault
Mar 4, 2021
Mike Thibault has been the head coach and general manager of the Washington Mystics since December 2012, and he is the winningest coach in WNBA history. He led the Mystics to the WNBA Finals in 2018 and to a WNBA championship in 2019.
Thibault was an assistant coach for the gold-medal-winning USA Basketball Women’s National Team at the 2008 Olympic Games and 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and the bronze-medal-winning 2006 FIBA World Cup. He also coached two USA Basketball men’s teams, including the gold-medal winning 1993 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Team and silver medalist U.S. team at the 1995 Pan American Games.
A’ja Wilson Looks to Add to Her Résumé
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The former South Carolina star is back in Columbia for U.S. women’s minicamp.
Things move quickly around
The 6-foot-4 forward stayed home to play college basketball at South Carolina, leading the Gamecocks to their lone NCAA title in 2017. Then she was drafted No. 1 overall by the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces in 2018 and won the league’s Rookie of the Year Award. She added a WNBA MVP Award to her trophy case in 2020.
Oh, yeah, and South Carolina Athletics erected a bronze statue of Wilson outside of its arena. Not a bad list of accomplishments for someone who’s still just 24 years old.
USA Women Draw Japan, France, Nigeria for Olympic Preliminary Round Play
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FIBA conducted the draw for the Tokyo Olympics women’s basketball competition virtually Tuesday from its headquarters in Mies, Switzerland, and the U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team has been drawn into Group A alongside host Japan, France and Nigeria for the July 26-Aug. 2 preliminary round.
Rounding out the 12-team field are Canada, Serbia, South Korea and Spain in Group A; and Group C features Australia, Belgium, China and Puerto Rico.
The XXXII Olympic Games women’s basketball competition will be held July 26-Aug. 8 at the Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan.
Jan 28, 2021
Three-time WNBA All-Star Chelsea Gray is reportedly signing with the Las Vegas Aces, according to TheNextHoops s Howard Megdal.
Gray spent the first five years of her WNBA career with the Los Angeles Sparks and won a championship in 2016. She made three consecutive All-Star teams in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
This past season, Gray averaged 14.0 points, 5.3 assists, 3.7 rebounds in just under 31 minutes of action. She was also recently named as one of 19 WNBA players traveling to a USA Basketball Women s National Team minicamp in early February in preparation for this summer s Olympics.
By joining Las Vegas, Gray bolsters last year s top regular season team and the eventual WNBA finals runner-ups.
ABC Columbia
Jan 25, 2021 4:10 PM EST
Allisha Gray,
Tiffany Mitchell and
A’ja Wilson are part of the 19 athletes set to participate in a USA Basketball Women’s National Team minicamp, Feb. 4-7, at the University of South Carolina. Gamecock head coach
Dawn Staley, who is also the current National Team head coach, will lead the four-day minicamp.
“It’s been a year since we’ve been together for a training camp, and I’m excited to step back on the court with the USA National Team,” Staley said. “We’ve got a great mix of veteran leadership and younger players, most of whom know how I run practices, and I anticipate we’ll have four extremely competitive days of practice here in South Carolina. We’re missing a few pieces of the puzzle, we have 36 players in our pool, but it will be incredibly helpful in our preparations for the Olympics in Tokyo this summer.”