to prepare for the upcoming FIBA Women\u2019s World Cup Qualifying Tournament<\/a>, memories of the journey to this point started to flood back.<\/p>\nShe recalled when her under-16 team entered a room at the USA Basketball headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., that was filled to the brim with legends\u2019 jerseys.<\/p>\n
To some, that room was a glorified storage room, filled with boxes, shelves and racks.<\/p>\n
But for Clark, it meant something so much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember as a kid, like, my eyes were so wide,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI thought that was the coolest thing in the world \u2014 all these senior national team jerseys of all these great men\u2019s players and all these really great women\u2019s players \u2014 and we\u2019re 15 and 16 years old and obviously having dreams of being able to do that one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
That time has come.<\/p>\n
Clark, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese \u2014 three of the WNBA\u2019s newest faces \u2014 were among a group of players who made their USA Basketball senior national team debuts Wednesday at the World Cup qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico with a 110-46 victory over Senegal.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark, who scored 17 points and 12 assists, drives up court during Team USA\u2019s 110-46 victory over Senegal on March 11, 2026 in Miami. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Clark finished with 17 points and 12 assists. Bueckers had nine points and four rebounds while Reese tallied six points and eight boards.<\/p>\n
The roster \u2014 the first fielded by Bird since she was tapped to be the first managing director of the U.S. women\u2019s national team in May \u2014 features a balance of veteran leaders, such as Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper and Kelsey Plum, and youth. And Bird was excited to see the team in action Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a great group,\u201d Bird said. \u201cI keep joking, I\u2019ve been doing this for like 20 years on napkins, so it was nice to actually have a real roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napheesa Collier, A\u2019ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart are among the notable absentees due to scheduling conflicts or various other reasons. Stewart practiced with the team in Miami but headed back to New York on Sunday to rest before heading overseas next month for a brief stint with EuroLeague\u2019s Fenerbahce Opet.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark celebrates with fans after Team USA\u2019s blowout win over Senegal. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The U.S. already qualified for the 2026 World Cup, so the stakes for this upcoming tournament aren\u2019t necessarily as high.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Bird believes this is a \u201cwonderful opportunity\u201d for some of the first-timers to play international basketball, which is a different style than they might be accustomed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlobally, you have to understand that when you put that jersey on, it\u2019s different,\u201d Bird said. \u201cPeople come at you different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who\u2019ve played for junior national teams know just how rare an opportunity it is to get a senior team call-up.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark dribbles up court during Team USA\u2019s blowout win over Senegal. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Clark said she played on three junior national teams, including two under-19 squads. Her absences from the 2024 Paris Games roster spurred controversy. But Clark said she\u2019s savoring each step in this journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is obviously everybody\u2019s dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Clark, Reese and Bueckers have competed against each other for some time. But this will be the first time they\u2019ll share the court as teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really, really cool,\u201d Reese said. \u201cSo I\u2019m really excited. Obviously 2028 is a far, long way [off], but just being able to have this moment right now, I think it\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trio know there\u2019s a sense of honor and pride that comes with playing for USA Basketball. They are well aware of the eight consecutive Olympic gold medals as well as the Americans winning four straight World Cups (11 total).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just stay humble and grounded while also using that as motivation to continue to want to get better [and] to continue to just build off of what the people who did before us built,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cThey set the stage on what we want this to look like and the competitive fire, the winning, just the pride and the sense of passion you have for wearing USA, so it means a lot but again, those are just words. We want to put action behind it and really follow through with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Caitlin Clark grew up watching the greatness of Maya Moore, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi dominate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,455,66,4109,458],"class_list":["post-654150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-sports","tag-team-usa","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116215272223152408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}