Oregon's Grace VanSlooten named to USA Basketball's U19 national team
Oregon star Grace VanSlooten has been named to the 2023 USA Women’s U19 national team that will compete at the 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup later this summer, USA Basketball announced on Monday.
After three days of trials at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., VanSlooten was one of 12 athletes named to the team.
The 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup, which features 16 teams, is scheduled to be played in Madrid, Spain, from July 15-23.
The U.S. will be in Group B along with Chinese Taipei, Germany, and Mali.
The U.S. team, which is coached by Texas A&M head coach Joni Taylor, will reconvene in Colorado Springs for training camp on July 2 in preparation for the Women’s World Cup. Old Dominion coach DeLisha Milton-Jones and Indiana coach Teri Moren will serve on Taylor’s staff.
VanSlooten, a 6-foot-3 freshman forward, earned honorable mention all-Pac-12 honors and was named to the conference’s all-freshman team after a standout debut campaign with the Ducks.
In 32 games, including 30 starts, she was second among Oregon players with 13.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. She shot 46.5% from the field and was second among Pac-12 freshmen in scoring.
VanSlooten was voted Pac-12 Freshman of the Week four times last season. On Dec. 26, she became just the third player in Pac-12 history to sweep both weekly conference awards when she was named conference player of the week and freshman of the week.
As Oregon approaches the 2023-24 season, VanSlooten figures to be the Ducks’ top-scoring option after a flurry of offseason departures. All-conference guard Endyia Rogers opted to transfer to Texas A&M, and fellow all-conference guard Te-Hina Paopao has transferred to South Carolina.
Along with VanSlooten, head Kelly Graves will lean on freshman guard Chance Gray and freshman forward Kennedy Basham. The trio of ’22 signees forged a recruiting class that was tabbed by ESPN as the second-best in the nation.
Oregon will also return starting center Phillipina Kyei. The Ducks will also welcome a ’23 singing class that features three players ranked in the ESPN top 100: forward Sofia Bell (No. 26), forward Sammie Wagner (No. 42), and forward Sarah Rambus (No. 66).
The full USA U19 national team is as follows.
- Madison Booker (Texas commit)
- Aalyah Del Rosario (LSU commit)
- Jadyn Donovan (Duke commit)
- Joyce Edwards (Camden HS)
- Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame commit)
- Londynn Jones (UCLA)
- Chloe Kitts (South Carolina)
- Talana Lepolo (Stanford)
- Cotie McMahon (Ohio State)
- Kiki Rice (UCLA)
- Grace VanSlooten (Oregon)
- Allie Ziebell (Neenah HS)
