As we continue our preview of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo beginning next month, the most Connecticut-driven portion of the Games was announced yesterday with the U.S. women's basketball team roster. Though Geno Auriemma is no longer the head coach -- it's now Hall of Famer and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley -- there are still plenty of former Huskies going to Japan.
For some, it's an unprecedented fifth Olympics. For others, it's a first-time experience. Here are the five UConn players to make Team USA:
Sue Bird: The future Hall of Famer is back for one last Olympic ride. With four gold medals already to her name, the 40-year-old will look to become the the first and second (along with another UConn legend we'll highlight next) Olympians to win five golds in basketball. And given that the Americans have won each of the last six golds with a 48-0 record, they're likely to make it seven straight again in Tokyo.
Diana Taurasi: You can't name one without the other. Like Bird, Taurasi will be going for a fifth gold medal, making the team despite not yet returning from a chest injury (she's expected back for the Phoenix Mercury as soon as this weekend). In the process she'll break the Team USA record for most games played (32; currently tied for first with three other players) and pass Dawn Staley for third on the all-time assists list. If she has a really good tournament, she could break Lisa Leslie's points record, but in eight games she'd need to average 13.6 points. Not impossible, but she's only averaged that many in an Olympics once, in 2016.
Breanna Stewart: There could come a day when Bird and Taurasi see their (soon-to-be) gold medal record tied by Stewie. The 26-year-old will play in her second Olympics, and she figures to have a much bigger role than the fresh-out-of-college 22-year-old Stewart did, when she averaged 8.1 points in 10.9 minutes per game off the bench. Now the best player in the world, Stewart will be front-and-center in Tokyo as the Americans search for gold.
Tina Charles: If this were July 2020, Charles' name probably isn't on this list. However with her exit from New York and a year away from the WNBA for medical reasons behind her, the 32-year-old is proving that she's still darn-near unstoppable in the post. The Mystics center leads the league in scoring (24.5 points per game) and sits fourth in rebounding (9.1 RPG). Her reward is a third consecutive Olympic appearance.
Napheesa Collier: The newbie on this list, Collier makes her Olympic debut in 2021 as she continues to quietly put up phenomenal numbers in the WNBA. After winning Rookie of the Year in 2019, the 24-year-old earned All-WNBA Second Team honors in 2020 and could do so again in 2021, as she's currently averaging a career high 17.7 points per game along with 6.3 rebounds (down from 9.0 in '20).
Jennifer Rizzotti: While Geno Auriemma is no longer the coach, there will be a former Husky roaming the sidelines in Tokyo in Rizzotti, who is an assistant under Dawn Staley. The newly appointed president for the Connecticut Sun, Rizzotti will head to Tokyo for her first Olympics experience. Though she had national team experience as a player, she did not play in the Games at all.