It was only three days, but Courtney Williams and Morgan Tuck each enjoyed the time they spent practicing at the 2017 USA Women’s Basketball National Team training camp, which wrapped up on Monday.
“I think the competition,” Williams said, when asked what she took away from her experience. “We haven’t competed like that since the end of the WNBA season. I feel like everything we did, we did super hard. It was great.”
For Tuck, who played on junior USA Basketball teams earlier in her career, just having the chance to participate in a USA National Team training camp was exciting.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said after the first day of camp. “It’s just fun. It’s similar to the other times I’ve been out with other USA teams, but just the fact that it’s for the national team and even in my room this morning, I was like, ‘Wow! You’re wearing red instead of blue!’ So, it’s just a fun experience. I’m just really blessed to be here.”
Both players were invited to participate by the USA Basketball Women’s National Player Selection Committee. The camp was utilized to help identify and prepare athletes for future USA National Team events, including the 2018 USA World Cup Team. It marked the USA’s first training camp under head coach Dawn Staley.
Williams and Tuck will each be traveling overseas to compete internationally during the WNBA offseason. Williams will play in Perth, Australia while Tuck is bound for Israel.