Courtesy USA Basketball
Rosters for the 2019 USA Basketball Women’s 3x3 National Championship, which will be held May 3-4 in Las Vegas, are nearly complete and include three teams that qualified out of 3x3 tournaments over the past year, 13 teams representing some of the top NCAA Division I programs across the country and two teams that will be comprised of eight athletes invited to attend a two-day minicamp prior to the USA Women’s 3x3 Nationals.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held for the first time outdoors at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, located in the heart of downtown Las Vegas. The USA 3x3 Nationals will tip-off with preliminary games from 3-10:30 p.m. (all times listed are local, PDT) on Friday, May 3. The preliminary round will continue from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on May 4, and, after teams are seeded based on preliminary records, the knockout round will begin Saturday at 6 p.m. The women’s championship game, which will be streamed live online at usab.com/live, is set to tip at 10 p.m.
Rosters, which can be found here, have been submitted to USA Basketball and teams have until May 2 to finalize their squads.
In addition to the lure of a national championship, the event also will serve as the 2019 USA Basketball Women’s 3x3 National Team trials, as all eligible athletes will be in consideration for selection to the 2019 USA Women’s 2019 U.S. Pan American Games 3x3 Basketball Team.
As has been the case over the past two USA Women’s 3x3 National Championships, USA Basketball invited select NCAA Division I programs to enter a team into the tournament. Included in this year’s competition are representatives from Arizona State University, University of Connecticut, DePaul University, Iowa State University, University of Louisville, University of Maryland, University of Miami (Fla.), University of Michigan, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, defending USA 3x3 National Championship gold medalist University of Oregon, Stanford University and University of Texas.
Connecticut’s team features Olivia Nelson-Ododa (Winder, Ga.); Megan Walker (Chesterfield, Va.); Christyn Williams (Little Rock, Ark.) and University of South Florida guard Sydni Harvey (Nashville, Tenn.).
Olympic fans will see the launch of a new basketball discipline with the inclusion of 3x3 in 2020. The exciting and fast-paced game officially was unveiled in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and has since become a fan favorite at FIBA 3x3 World Cup events. Played on a half court with a 10-minute clock, and a 12-second shot clock, the first team to 21 points, or the team in the lead at the end of regulation, is the winner. The non-stop action of 3x3 will ensure it is one of the hottest tickets in Tokyo, and fans in Las Vegas will get an early taste of that excitement during the USA Basketball 3x3 Nationals.
Held annually since 2012, this year marks the eighth edition of the USA Basketball 3x3 National Championships, and the first time the nationals will be held outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado.