MINNEAPOLIS — Four members of the Minnesota Lynx were among the 21 finalists announced for the 2012 US women's Olympic team roster on Monday.
Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen are all finalists. The 21-player list will be cut to a 12-player roster in the coming months.
Geno Auriemma, who has led the women's national team since 2009 and is also the head coach at the University of Connecticut, will again coach this year's team. During a Monday teleconference, he said that this team will continue USA Basketball's tradition of success on a world stage.
"There's a culture of winning," Auriemma said. "There's a culture of excellence. There's a commitment from the players that's unmatched anywhere in the world."
The 21 finalists make up a group that's accustomed to victory. Among them, players have won Olympic gold medals, WNBA championships, international competitions in Europe, NCAA national championships and FIBA World Championships. That's crucial in maintaining the legacy of the US women's team, which is the reigning Olympic gold medal winner and world champion.
The four Lynx players, without a doubt, contribute to that culture of success after winning the WNBA championship in October.
Moore, 22, won two NCAA championships at Connecticut under Auriemma, and after being picked first overall in the 2011 WNBA draft, she was one of the main catalysts behind the Lynx's championship and won the 2011 WNBA Rookie of the Year award. She was also part of the US women's team that won the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and she averaged 8.7 points and 3.3 rebounds during the competition.
Brunson, 30, is the only Lynx player who has not played on the national team. Augustus, 27, won a gold medal in Beijing with the US women's team, when she played off the bench in all eight games and averaged 7.9 points and 2.3 rebounds. Whalen, 29, played alongside Moore on the 2010 FIBA World Championship team, and Auriemma said she was instrumental to the team's championship. She averaged 5.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists and led the team in scoring with 16 points in its second-round victory over Canada.
Auriemma said that though he's not sure how much the four players' familiarity with one another will help them in the selection process, it will definitely work in their favor.
"Certainly, the fact that they know each other and have had experience and great success winning the WNBA championship this year . . . I certainly think it's an added bonus for them to be in that situation," Auriemma said.
The four Lynx players in contention for an Olympic spot range in age from 22 to 30, from a young phenom in Moore to a tested veteran in Brunson. That's typical of this year's pool of players, though, which features several young players, such as Moore and Baylor's Brittney Griner, who have yet to compete in the Olympics and will give the team a new look if selected.
"There is a great mix, and I love that," Auriemma said. "I love that because you've got the veterans you can count on that have been to that point, that have stood on the gold-medal stand. And you have young guys, wide-eyed, (saying) help me win my first gold medal."
Although the final roster is far from being decided, Auriemma does know that he wants the team to be a balanced one. Though the US has the best point guards in the world, he said, he wants to avoid such a one-dimensional categorization. The team will need to work to combat the size of teams like Russia, and Auriemma knows that superior point guard play won't be enough in many situations.
"I'd rather not play with an oriented team leaning in any one direction," Auriemma said. "I think in order to win at that level, you've got to have answers for every question that's going to come up."
Narrowing the list of 21 players to 12 will take place throughout the coming months. USA Basketball spokeswoman Caroline Williams said that the roster will be complete before the WNBA preseason in order to maximize training time. In order to minimize the time that the members of the Olympic squad will spend separated from their WNBA teams, USA basketball is working with the WNBA to devise a training schedule during the league's preseason in May. The members of the Olympic team will again train in earnest when the WNBA season breaks from mid-July to mid-August.
Joining Augustus, Brunson, Moore and Whalen on the list of finalists are Jayne Appel (San Antonio Silver Stars), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Swin Cash (Chicago Sky), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Candice Dupree (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Griner (Baylor University), Lindsey Harding (Atlanta Dream), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Kara Lawson (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Renee Montgomery (Connecticut Sun), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks), Cappie Pondexter (New York Liberty), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and Sophia Young (San Antonio Silver Stars).
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