Air is thin, competition strong at USA Basketball's girls U-16 tryouts

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – On Thursday, there were 124 players. By Saturday afternoon, there were 95. Sunday morning? Only 43 of the country's finest girls basketball players were left at the USA Basketball U-16 tryouts – and there are 31 more to go.

That's life in the fast lane — or better, in the high altitude — when USA Basketball has open tryouts. Though 33 players were invited, the other 92 filled out a form and showed up in Colorado Springs ready to show what they could do.

The reality, though, is the final 12 who make the team and travel to the FIBA Americas U16 competition in Cancun, Mexico, in June will most likely come from the 33 who were selected by USA Basketball – but you never know.

And there's pressure on those 33 as well.

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"Everybody knows you've been invited," said Te'a Cooper of McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.), "So when you come home, and if you say ‘I didn't make it,' it would be the worst feeling ever."

Cooper, though, played very well in the early sessions, and the Class of 2016 point guard made a positive impression.

So did Asia Durr, another Georgia girl, who plays for St. Pius X Catholic (Atlanta), but Durr did notice one thing: "The air here is really thin."

Colorado Springs is a mile above sea level, give or take, and the lowered oxygen content does not go unnoticed.

"Everybody's saying it's affecting their lungs," said Cooper. "But it's affecting my legs. The air where I'm from is thick."

Katie Lou Samuelson is from Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), right at sea level, and she echoed Cooper. "It's definitely harder to run up and down the court," and Tori McCoy of St. Thomas More (Champaign, Ill.) said the same thing.

But McCoy, like the others, is still overjoyed to be in Colorado Springs.

"I was surprised when I got the invitation," she said. "I was really excited but I had to calm down because I was at school when I got it."

McCoy, a 6-4 center, also discovered that the USA Basketball coaches want to see all sides of the players. "They made the posts go out of their comfort zone and do guard stuff in drills," she said.

But that's part of the process – adjusting to a situation where you're no longer the star, and in fact might not even be in the top three out of any 10 players who happen to be on the court.

Durr had talked to Lexie Brown, who had been at USA Basketball tryouts before. "Lexie said to play hard, work hard and be coachable."

Durr has used the first two days of the tryouts to figure out where she needs to improve.

"I definitely think I need to hustle more and play defense," which is music to the ears of any coach.

But not everyone gets the team concept.

"The downfall is, when you're a point guard, you have to direct people," Cooper said. "Some people don't like to be directed. They want to do what they want to do, when you're just trying to get them open."

Samuelson wasn't one of those players, because she knew how the system worked – both of her older sisters had been to USA Basketball tryouts in the last few years.

"They said ‘Be positive and don't worry if you have a bad session; you're always going to have a bad session.'

"They said it was going to be really physical, and the best players were going to be here, and you have to be on top of your game always. They were pretty spot on."

Neither of her sisters made the team. Karlie Lou is the last chance for the Samuelsons. Naturally, she is focused on making the final roster (which will be announced Monday) and representing her country.

She's not the only one.

"Oh my God, it would mean the world to me," said Cooper. "I would be so happy."