Which country is the biggest threat to Team USA?
Yahoo Sports' Caroline Fenton and women's basketball writer Cassandra Negley are joined by Richard Cohen, women's basketball analyst and writer for Her Hoops Stats, who gives his insight into who will be the biggest threat to Team USA heading into the FIBA World Cup. Catch the full conversation on the "Hoops 360" podcast, and subscribe on Apple podcasts , Spotify , YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Is France the biggest threat to Team USA in the World Cup?
And if not France, then who?
I think they're top of the list, definitely.
As you say, the, just the level of talent that they've got, and this squad does have a fair amount of continuity.
Most of these players have played together for an extended period of time.
So although they're coming together at quite a late stage for this particular tournament, the core of the team is largely the same as it's been for the last two or three international tournaments.
And EuroBasket is every two years, so these, they do, these players do come together more regularly than we see in the US, where, you know, the top US players basically come together for a World Cup or an Olympics, and that's it.
It is more, especially in Europe, the, the top players do tend to come together more often because EuroBasket is every two seasons, plus they've got the World Cup and the Olympics as long as they qualify.
So yeah, I think, I think France are top, but there are certainly other contenders.
Spain are good.
Belgium have had that same core together as well behind Emma Meesseman.
In, China were the finalists four years ago against the US and can't be entirely overlooked.
This is a They've got so much size, but they do rely on, they rely on Han Xu and Li Yueru, who Americans are very aware of, have played, know what they can do.
So I think we, we've seen the mystique of the American teams sort of lower because there are more international players in the W, but that also means that they know these international players better than they used to.
You know?
I mean, Natalie Nakase is going over as an assistant coach and can tell everyone exactly what the tendencies of Janelle Salon and Gabby Williams are, because she's been watching it in practice every day for the last six months.
So yeah, I think there's, there's sides of this to be seen for everybody, but yeah, there are other contenders, and it gets interesting once you get past the US and down, down on 'Cause I've, I've seen France screw up too many times to be comfortable- just thinking that they will definitely be in a final against the US.
They tend not to win EuroBasket.
They tend to finish second or third because of Spain, because of Belgium.
So yeah, they are vulnerable.
