COMPLETE USA BASKETBALL RELEASE
West Hartford, Conn. - After leading the 2010 USA Basketball Women's U18 National Team to a perfect 5-0 slate, the gold medal and berth in the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship, University of Hartford head coach Jennifer Rizzotti will return to USA Basketball to head up the 2011 USA U19 World Championship Team, USA Basketball announced today. Rizzotti is days away from coaching the Hawks in their sixth NCAA Championship on Sunday when they take on the University of Connecticut Huskies at 12:05 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.
Rizzotti will rejoin her assistants from last summer Sue Semrau of Florida State University and Joi Williams of the University of Central Florida on the sideline during the 2011 FIBA U18 World Championships in Chile.
“The committee felt the coaching staff did a tremendous job last summer in qualifying USA Basketball for the FIBA U19 World Championship," said Donohoe. "Jen, Sue and Joi built their team into a cohesive unit in a short period of time. We feel these three coaches will be able to continue to build on last summer's success and extend the USA's streak of gold medals at the U19 World Championship."
Rizzotti, who is finishing out her 12th season at the University of Hartford, led the Hawks to their fifth America East Championship emerging as the conference champion after entering the tournament as a four seed. The Hawks stand at 17-15 on the season heading into the NCAA Tournament and are riding a five-game winning streak and have won 11 of their last 12 games. Overall, the Hawks finished the conference season with an 11-5 overall record, tied for third place with Binghamton University.
Both Semrau and Williams will also be strolling the sidelines during the NCAA Championship with Semrau leading Florida State to its seventh straight NCAA appearance and Williams to the second appearance in the last three years for Central Florida.
The U19 Worlds will feature 16 national teams that qualified for the tournament through their FIBA Zones. Including host Chile, participating nations for this year's U19 World Championship include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan and the United States.
USA Basketball will conduct trials for the 2011 USA U19 World Championship Team May 22-25 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs, Colo., with approximately 30 U.S. hopefuls participating. Only U.S. citizens who are 19 years old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1992) are eligible. The USA U19 World Championship Team training camp will be held July 11-15 at the USOTC, before the team travels to Chile for its final preparations.
