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The first part of the USA Basketball women's national team's college tour schedule has been announced, with four games in November. Three will be against Pac-12 schools. The U.S. squad will play Nov. 2 at Stanford and Nov. 4 at Oregon State. The Americans face Texas A&M on Nov. 7, and then return to the Pacific Coast to face Oregon on Nov. 9. The U.S. squad will play another series of games against college teams, and those schools and dates will be announced later. These games are part of USA Basketball's expanded women's national team program, as eight WNBA players are in a pool committed to five different training segments between November and April 2020. Those eight are Seattle's Sue Bird, Washington's Elena Delle Donne, Dallas' Skylar Diggins-Smith, Minnesota's Sylvia Fowles, Los Angeles' Chelsea Gray and Nneka Ogwumike, Phoenix's Diana Taurasi and Las Vegas' A'ja Wilson. Delle Donne is still competing in this WNBA season, as she and the Mystics host Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday. She is dealing with a herniated disk in her back, though, so her availability for the November games is still to be determined. Delle Donne said Monday that she will focus on that once the WNBA Finals are over. Others players from the national team pool have been named to join the core eight for the November games: Minnesota's Seimone Augustus and Napheesa Collier, Connecticut's Layshia Clarendon, and Las Vegas' Kelsey Plum. Clarendon's Sun team is also in the WNBA Finals, but she has not played since June 16 because of an ankle injury. She is now regularly working out with the team, though. Gray will miss the game at Stanford, and Plum will miss the first two games due to previous personal commitments. The U.S. women's basketball team is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Games, where the Americans are seeking their seventh consecutive Olympic gold. South Carolina's Dawn Staley is the USA head coach, but she will be busy with the Gamecocks during the November tour. The same goes for assistant Jennifer Rizzotti, who'll be with her George Washington team. The Minnesota Lynx' Cheryl Reeve and the Seattle Storm's Dan Hughes, who are also Staley's USA assistants, will serve as co-head coaches for the November games.
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