USA Coach Cheryl Reeve Addresses Team's Mindset on Caitlin Clark Olympics Chatter
The US Women's National Basketball team won its 59th consecutive Olympics game on Wednesday after defeating the Nigerian National team in Paris.
Team USA has not lost an Olympic match since the Barcelona 1992 semifinals, and are all but guaranteed to cruise through their semifinals game against Australia on Friday and then win their eighth consecutive gold medal against either France or Belgium on August 11.
Due to Team USA's dominance, much of the conversation surrounding them this summer has been about off-court matters. Specifically, the fact that rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was left off of USA's roster.
But head coach Cheryl Reeve has made it clear that her players aren't letting outside chatter get to them, regardless of how loud it may be.
“Their mind is on this journey and their mission to win a gold medal," Reeve said about her players' opinions on outside noise, per the San Francisco Chronicle. "Sure, they hear the talk, but it’s not something they walk around thinking about.”
“Honestly, they don’t think about it as much as we all talk about it. Because they weren’t a part of all those so that’s not on their mind," Reeve added of Team USA's past Olympics success.
WNBA legend Diana Taurasi has been on six consecutive Team USA Olympics squads; which means she is seeking her sixth consecutive gold medal in Paris.
This also means that Taurasi knows as well as anyone that while Team USA's success might appear easy from the outside looking in, the Americans can't expect to just show up and have opponents bow down to them.
"These teams are hard, they’ve played together a long time,” Taurasi said in the San Francisco Chronicle article. “We’ve been together for two and a half weeks and are trying to figure it out. It’s always been our strength to be unselfish — next man up, next woman up — to win a gold medal.
“I think people think it’s easy and it’s not easy," she added. "It’s different to play on this stage. The rules are different. The style of play is different. You have to get used to it.”
Taurasi is two wins away from becoming the first basketball player in history to win six Olympics gold medals.
Which is why it makes sense that Clark's Olympics snub is the last thing on her mind.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.