Many of the world’s best women basketball players will take the court at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY, when Team Americas plays Team World in the Aurora Games, the inaugural all-women’s sports and entertainment festival to be held August 20-25, 2019.
Lindsay Whalen, a former University of Minnesota star who is the coach of her alma mater’s women’s team, will play and coach for Team Americas, whose roster also includes Barbara Turner, a former Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star and two-time national champion at the University of Connecticut.
The basketball squads will play at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 22 at Albany’s downtown arena. The roster for Team World will include European stars Laia Palau, a longtime member of Spain’s national team who helped her squad win a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and Julie Vanloo of Belgium, a member of her country’s national team.
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The rest of Team America’s basketball squad consists of former college and WNBA players Kenisha Bell, Emma Cannon, Naomi Davenport, Megan Gustafson, Samantha Fuehring, Jamasha Gayle “Meme” Starr Jackson, Jennie Simms and Krystal Thomas. Carly Thibault-DuDonis, an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, will serve as Whalen’s assistant coach.
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Approximately 150 world-class athletes from as many as 20 countries, including Olympic medalists and world and national champions, are set to compete for Team Americas and Team World in the Aurora Games.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and five-team Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comaneci will serve as honorary team captains for the Aurora Games. Joyner-Kersee, an American track and field icon, will lead the athletes representing Team Americas. Comaneci, the legendary Romanian gymnast, will guide those competing for Team World.
ESPN is the exclusive broadcaster of the Aurora Games, with all six nights to air on ESPNU and ESPN3.
Sounds interesting, and I’d like to watch. If Whay is going to be player/coach, then hopefully right now she’s gettin back in shape by playing on the scout team during Gopher practices.
They will apparently need to get replacements for Kenisha Bell and Megan Gustafson, who got picked up by the Lynx and Wings, unless they get re-cut by then.
Why do you care so much about Whalens weight? Give it a rest. Its just exhibition games, i doubt she plays much if she plays at all.
The Minnesota women's basketball program will be well represented at the inaugural Aurora Games this week in Albany, N.Y. as head coach Lindsay Whalen, assistant coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis and former Gopher Kenisha Bell are all scheduled to participate.
Whalen has been selected as head basketball coach of the Americas Team, while Thibault-DuDonis will be her assistant and Bell will be on the roster. The Americas Team will take on the World Team Thursday night at 6 p.m. CT at the Times Union Center and the game is scheduled to be aired on ESPNU.
You can remove the "player/coach" label from Lindsay Whalen for these Aurora Games.
She will just be the coach.
Whalen, recruited to fill both roles for Team Americas during the basketball event Thursday night at Times Union Center, said Wednesday that she won't suit up against Team World in Thursday's night game.
"I'm not playing," she said. "That was a year ago."
"I don't even know what would happen if I tried to play basketball right now," she said. "I haven't played since my last (WNBA) game about a year ago."
"You'd still make buckets," Team World player Abby Bishop of Australia told her.
While most of the weeknight competition has listed a 7 p.m. starting time, the basketball game Thursday night isn't scheduled to begin until at least 7:10 p.m., when ESPNU begins its live telecast.
The game will be played in four 10-minute quarters, with a five-minute overtime, in needed.
Laia Palau, a 39-year-old three-time Olympian from Spain, demonstrated to a Times Union Center crowd announced at 2,517 what the women's international game is all about.
Palau racked up 15 assists and also coached Team World to an 85-77 victory over Team Americas in the basketball segment of the all-women sports festival.
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"I was excited for our younger point guards to play against her," said Team Americas coach Lindsay Whalen, a 15-year WNBA veteran who spent 10 winters playing in Europe. "She's been in the game 20 years professionally. Kenisha (Bell), this is her first year professionally. Meme (Jackson), this is her first year professionally. To get to play someone like her caliber was cool for a lot of our players."
Other than during a 10-point run, which turned a 7-0 deficit into a 10-7 lead, Americas was playing from behind the entire game.
Abby Bishop, a 6-3 former WNBA player from Australia, had team-high totals of 21 points and eight rebounds for Team World, which shot 49 percent for the game.
Team Americas, which got 24 points from former Penn State and WNBA player Maggie Lucas, simply had no answers for Palau.
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"You play in Europe and play against it, and they can see the floor," Whalen said. "They can see the next pass. Credit to them. That's a fun style to play, and I'm excited for a lot of our younger players to play in Europe and get adjusted to that style where it's more free flowing and the lanes are open."
Palau alone had more assists than the entire Americas team (eight).
"I played in Spain several years ago when she was playing," Team Americas center Krystal Thomas said. "I've known of her, know her name, seen her play multiple times, all overseas in Europe. That's the norm for her. She's an unbelievable player. It's great to be able to watch her again and still be able to do what she does at her age."