Team USA coach Kara Lawson isn't sugarcoating the fact winning 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup gold will be challenging.
The U.S. women have largely dominated their international competition winning
eight straight Olympic gold medals and nine of the last 12 World Cups dating back to 1979. The field is getting better and Team USA could have an uphill battle in this World Cup, which begins Friday, Sept. 4.
"There's no question that the world is improving at a rapid rate. It's so exciting to see, and I see it at every level, obviously, being a college coach," Lawson said Tuesday. "... That's an obvious statement that the world is improving. It has continued to improve, and there's more depth to teams at the World Cup,"
"Now, when you look at rosters, there's a number of just high-quality players. The depth of these rosters is really strong. I think it's gonna be the most difficult World Cup to win that we've had because of that, which is exciting. I mean, you should want it to be difficult, you know? It should be hard to win. It's a World Cup, you know?"
The depth of USA Basketball will all but certainly be tested.
On Monday, the organization announced A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum won't play in Germany, citing health reasons. Replacing Wilson and Plum on the roster are Washington Mystics players Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, who are making their senior national team and tournament debuts.
With Citron and Iriafen, the United States has seven newcomers including Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Aliyah Boston and Rhyne Howard. The aforementioned names are also part of a larger group of nine total players, including Napheesa Collier and Jackie Young, who have never played in a World Cup. Collier and Young have played in other international competitions, including the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
"It's the best teams, and it's a tough schedule, and it's a short ― it's all those things you want to say it is, but at the end of the day, every team's job is to try and win this," Lawson said. "And so we're hungry, and we're focused on trying to put our best performances on display and see if we can get the job done."
Lawson and her coaching staff will have just days to prepare for the tournament, which opens with a group phase game against China on Friday (8:15 a.m. ET, TNT). The U.S. plays Italy Sunday (2:45 p.m. ET, TNT) and Czechia Monday (2:45 p.m. ET).
"It's just more of being really focused and locked in when we do have our time together, and we know that there's a lot of information to install. I don't think it's changed the way I would normally coach. It's just being very direct with what we want done, and they were great today in practice at picking up a lot in a short period of time," Lawson said.
"We don't want to waste time forgetting things or not having things down that already been taught because (of the) short leadup. That's an important quality of our group going into this tournament that we have: that our attention is at a really high level so we can keep building as we move through the tournament."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Team USA could face 'most difficult' FIBA Women's World Cup yet, Kara Lawson says
