A three-time Olympian as a player, Anne Donovan has been the head coach of the USA Basketball squad since January of 2006. Jesse Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

U.S. women's Olympic team coach Anne Donovan knows a thing or two about expectations. A three-time U.S. Olympic team member herself as a player, Donovan has won two gold medals on the court and has another as an assistant on the 2004 team in Athens.

So with yet another gold medal in their sights, Donovan and the USA Basketball selection committee announced the first nine members of the 2008 Olympic team Saturday in Washington, D.C.

WNBA.com's Brian Martin spoke with Donovan about several of the players selected and the roles each of these superstars might play in Beijing later this summer.

Q. I think you summed up how you felt about the players in the press conference (read the transcript | listen to it), but I'll ask again, how do you feel about the first nine players selected for the Olympic team?

A. Unlike Renee (Brown, chair of the selection committee), I don't have to be politically correct and I can say that the nine players that we've selected are no-brainers. We have some of the best talent in the world with these nine players.

Q. You touched on this when you spoke about Cappie (Pondexter) in the press conference, but how important is it for players to accept a role on a team like this? You're taking a lot of superstars for this team, so how important is it for them to be able to adjust their role?

A. I think it's bigger than coaches want to admit sometimes. Cappie came to us last year as the MVP of the Finals and she came into automatically playing a role off the bench, which was very difficult for her when we were in Chile. It's hard. I think players have to change their mindset. I love Lisa (Leslie) when she said that comment earlier, she said that nobody remembers who the leading scorer or the leading rebounder was in any of the Olympic games she's played in. And that's what players will continue to get focused on the more they are around Lisa and some of our older players.

Q. I know on the men's side, they brought in specific role players: a lockdown defender, a 3-point shooter... Did the committee think about doing something like that and going to specific roles rather than just taking, like you said, the no-brainers, an All-Star team?

A. I think we will, definitely. I know I've talked about that with the committee with our last couple of spots. (Tamika) Catchings is a no-brainer when she's healthy. But those last two spots for me, it's important that they are players that understand that role. We can't have 12 players play equal minutes; it's not going to happen in the bigger games. That will go into evaluating the last two we select.

Q. Looking at the nine you have now and the possible addition of Catchings, what do you see as the biggest needs you're hoping to fill with those last two spots?

A. We need another post player to give us more depth in the post. I see Catchings, hopefully healthy, playing the three and the four as she always had. Another post defender would a good thing for me. The same thing on the perimeter... I'd like a perimeter defender that can help us if Sue struggles defensively or Cappie's not on... somebody else that can lock down someone on the perimeter.

Q. Any names come to mind?

A. Several.

Q. Willing to divulge any of them?

A. Not today.

Q. I know during the press conference that you deferred most of the committee questions to Renee, but how much input do you have in the players that are selected for the team.

A. Renee and I have quite a bit of dialogue, but the committee is definitely the one that makes the final decision. Especially when it comes down to the last couple of spots, there's always been a good back and forth between us.

Q. You talked in the press conference about how L.A. is so important to USA Basketball with Lisa and Candace (Parker) playing together for the next two months. You also have Diana (Taurasi) and Cappie and your relationship with Sue from Seattle. Not having this team together until the end of July has got to be tough, but at least some players will be familiar with each other, right?

A. It is tough. The thing that gives me comfort is those kinds of relationships along with Sue (Bird), Tina (Thompson) and Diana playing together in Russia, they are developing their pockets of chemistry. Through these two years, we've had Seimone with some of the other players. We've developed it in non-traditional ways, which is not to my liking, but it's what we have now in this day and age of women's basketball. But we've done the best we can with the time frame.

Q. Talk about your relationship with Sue, specifically. As the point guard, the coach on the floor, how important is it that you know her better than probably any player you have on the team?

A. It's incredible. It's a great comfort for me. Sue knows me inside and out, she knows my personality, she knows the look before I ever have to deliver it. She understands what I'm looking for and she's a true coach on the floor. She relates very well with the coaches and with her teammates. She's invaluable to this team. What I love about Sue is the work she has done to get to this level. I know that sounds cliché, but she really studied under Dawn (Staley) and Dawn really worked with Sue throughout the Olympics in Athens. Dawn knew that Sue was the next one coming, so there was time spent there that Sue had to really understand and grow her game internationally and she's done that.

Q. You're not coaching in the WNBA this year. How much has that helped you that you can focus solely on USA Basketball?

A. It's been great. Just not having any distraction at all, I don't have to worry about the success of my WNBA team and worry about the success of the Olympic team. It's been great to take one of those things off of my plate.

Q. You've talked about this team passing the torch between generations. When you look at this team, you have Lisa who has been a mainstay for 12 years now. Is this the time for the next generation of players to take over and have players like Candace be the one that we see for the next dozen years?

A. Diana and Sue to me are the middle ones. This will be their second Olympic team and Catchings is still hanging on for her second team. But then it's Candace and Sylvia (Fowles) and all of the young ones coming up behind them. There's a definite changing of the guard and we found that out at the World Championships. We were without Dawn, without Sheryl (Swoopes) -- she didn't play a significant role because she was dealing with her back at that point -- and without Lisa. Those were our three multiple-time Olympians that were gone from that World Championship team, so Sue and Diana had to step up. So the changing of the guard is there. I think it's the same legacy; it's just a matter of how long those young players stay with it.

Q. This is Candace Parker's first Olympic team, but she gained some valuable experience in the World Championship in 2006. What were your impressions of her at that time?

A. I was very surprised that she could perform as well as she did at that level, against the best players in the world, with such limited experience. Without Lisa, we had to see if she would sink or swim... and she swam so well. You have to look back to the World Championship and you take away the positives, and that was a positive. She's more ready than she ever would have been had she not gone on that trip.

Q. How impressed are you with the play of the young players coming up?

A. They're unbelievable. I'm so impressed with who they are, not just as players, but the level of respect they have for the people that played the game before them. Lisa is their mentor. Sylvia and Candace, in the times that I've seen them, have acted like sponges around her, just trying to absorb as much as they can. It's a beautiful thing to see.