One of the greatest programs in sports history is in Minneapolis this week.
So is UConn.
Wednesday morning, the USA women's basketball team practiced at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square. Lynx General Manager and coach Cheryl Reeve is the first-time coach of Team USA, and she was surrounded by the kind of royalty usually associated with European castles.
Among the first to arrive was future Hall of Fame coach MIke Thibault, whose daughter, Carly, is on Lindsay Whalen's staff at Minnesota.
Future Hall of Famer and former Lynx star Seimone Augustus, who is on the team's selection committee, arrived in the next wave, just before future Hall of Famers Breanna Stewart and A'ja Wilson, two of the past four WNBA MVPs.
They practiced on Wednesday as part of Team USA's mini camp, with the Lynx's Aerial Powers and Angel McCoughtry taking star turns.
"I'm not going to lie,'' Powers said. "I had, like, first-timer jitters. I was nervous. Not the anxious kind of nervous, but the happy kind of nervous. What stuck out to me today was the level of energy these people bring. That's one of the wonderful things that Team USA brings out, is just wonderful, great players.''
Reeve is far from choosing a final roster, and injuries could create surprise openings. Powers is trying to do what Lynx star Napheesa Collier did during the last Olympic cycle - become a late, surprise addition to a team that has won seven straight gold medals.
For now, this group of players is listening to Reeve and preparing to watch the Final Four at Target Center. "I love it,'' Powers said. "Women's basketball is starting to get the respect it deserves, more and more. So the fact that I'm able to be in Minneapolis where all this is happening is like a dream come true.''
Reeve's two predecessors as Team USA head coaches — South Carolina's Dawn Staley and UConn's Geno Auriemma — are in the Final Four. Louisville's Jeff Walz, part of the Team USA staff, came to the practice on Wednesday. The other Final Four coach, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, another sure Hall of Famer, coached Team USA to Olympic gold in 1996.
McCoughtry played at Louisville. Her rooting interest is obvious.
Powers played at Michigan State. "I picked Stanford to win it,'' she said. "So my dog is still in the hunt. I've got to go check my Instagram bracket.''
Wednesday's practice became a basketball convention within a basketball convention in what Reeve and the Lynx have made one of the meccas of the sport.
"It's great to have this here in Minneapolis and we're showing off the commitment we have to women's basketball,'' Reeve said. "You'll see it as you walk around town; you'll see it as you walk around our building, how much we care about the WNBA here.''
When Reeve coaches in Paris in 2024, she won't have two legends, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, who jubilantly announced their Team USA retirements during their last news conference in Tokyo.
That happened right after Taurasi slammed champagne and just before Staley indicated that Reeve could be her successor.
Reeve may have Powers or Kelsey Plum on her roster, or one of the many stars in this Final Four, a group that includes Hopkins and UConn star Paige Bueckers.
"The league's in really good hands,'' Reeve said. "Sometimes you think, well, Diana and Sue are retiring, whether from the national team or the WNBA, and you think that somehow everything's going to stop.
"No. They've created a place where that next generation is coming through and it's going to be even better because of what they've been able to do on the court. Now kids are watching at a younger age and dreaming of playing in the WNBA, and that's what it's all about.
"Our game is getting better and better and better. It's obviously, right now, at its peak.''
Team USA's present and future will be passing each other in the skyway all week.
