COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 9, 2019) – The USA Basketball Women’s National Team, which announced in July an expanded training program to aid in its pursuit of a seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal, will tip-off its quest for a gold in Tokyo with four games against top 10 ranked NCAA Division I programs. Opening on Nov. 2 at Stanford University, the USA will play Oregon State University on Nov. 4, Texas A&M University on Nov. 7 and cap the first portion of its NCAA games against University of Oregon on Nov. 9.  Ticket information for each game can be found at //USAB.com/tickets.

Additionally, early in 2020 the U.S. will compete in a second series of NCAA games, which will be announced at a later date.

Because of the cooperation by the NCAA and its member schools, the USA National Team has been afforded the opportunity to compete in these two series of exhibition games against some of the nation’s premier NCAA Division I programs.

“I have to thank all of the parties involved, the NCAA, USA Basketball, all of the people who worked behind the scenes to get a waiver for us to be able to play a college tour once again,” said USA National Team head coach Dawn Staley (South Carolina). “Historically speaking, it has been great for our program to have a college tour. All our past USA teams that had a college tour went on to win Olympic gold medals. So, if we can pull back into some historical times in which we had the opportunity to showcase our national team in this light, women’s college basketball is at an all-time high as far as exposure. This will increase the exposure to women’s basketball. And I’m excited. Again, it’s prep time. It’s more prep time. The more time we have, the better we will perform in Tokyo.”

As part of its expanded women’s national team program, USA Basketball has secured commitments from eight elite athletes from the 2019-20 USA National Team pool to participate in the team’s five training segments that will take place between November 2019 and April 2020. Those eight include Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Elena Delle Donne (Washington Mystics), Skylar Diggins-Smith (Dallas Wings), Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota Lynx), Chelsea Gray (Los Angeles Sparks), Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces).

The roster for the November college tour will be rounded out by USA National Team members Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Layshia Clarendon (Connecticut Sun), Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx) and Kelsey Plum (Las Vegas Aces).

Gray will miss the game at Stanford and Plum will miss the first two games due to previous personal commitments.

In all, fans during the four NCAA games will see athletes who own a combined 15 Olympic and 15 FIBA World Cup gold medals.