Two women’s college basketball stars, Cameron Brink and Hailey Van Lith, and Jimmer Fredette will anchor the American three-on-three (3×3) teams attempting to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in the next few weeks.
USA Basketball announced Thursday that Stanford’s Brink, LSU transfer Van Lith, Cierra Burdick and Linnae Harper will play for the women’s team at the FIBA World Cup, from May 30 to June 4, in Vienna, Austria. The Americans will send Fredette, a former college and international superstar and first-round pick in the NBA, and 3×3 veterans Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis to the same tournament on the men’s side.
What’s at stake is nothing short of a first set of bids to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The top 3 teams (men and women) in FIBA rankings as of Nov. 1, 2023, will automatically qualify for Paris. So winning the World Cup or finishing second would virtually guarantee a spot for both USA teams, as the Americans are currently ranked second in the world on the men’s side and the women are ranked third.
Barry and Maddox were part of the USA team that failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2021 — and one of the main reasons for the Americans falling short was a back injury Barry suffered during training camp that forced him out of the qualifying…
