It was different, Cheryl Reeve said, in the best of ways.
Reeve, the Lynx general manager and coach, was talking from Sydney late Saturday afternoon Minnesota time, early Sunday morning in Australia.
She hadn't gotten much sleep.
The night before, Reeve ended her first FIBA World Cup run as head coach of Team USA with an 83-61 victory over China in the title game, the biggest margin of victory in a title game in the history of the tournament.
"I was on a mission here to enjoy coaching," said Reeve, getting her first shot at being head coach of the team after years as an assistant. "To enjoy the people. And to do it in a way where we could all have fun."
That was only one of the ways it felt different. Remember the Tokyo Olympics? Team USA, filled with multiple gold-medal winners such as Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles, won again, of course. But it took awhile for the team to really click, and throughout that tournament the lofty expectations seemed to weigh down a team that won Olympic gold for the seventh time in a row.
Not this time. This was a vastly different team. No Bird, Taurasi, Fowles, Tina Charles, Brittney Griner. Only five members of this World Cup team had played for Team USA before. There were six newcomers, led by Alyssa Thomas, who also happened to be the only player on the team not in her 20s.
There were some who thought a Team USA squad in transition might be ripe for an upset. Not so much.
"A lot of people were worried," Reeve said. "But there is a depth of talent here. There is always another player. When [Taurasi] and Bird were young, and the likes of Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes were retiring, they were worried then, too. But there is always someone else. It looks different. Maybe the team is talented in a different way. But that's the fun of it. We had to play scrappy and defensively. Offensively we were very unselfish. Hopefully we made those legends feel proud. This group was ready to make it theirs."
They did it in front of nearly 16,000 fans at the Sydney Superdome that was cheering, mainly, for China. A'ja Wilson scored 19 points and Las Vegas Aces teammate Kelsey Plum added 17 as the Americans finished the tournament averaging 98.8 points over their eight victories.
Team USA emerged with its fourth consecutive World Cup Gold, and with a young roster, that bodes well. Wilson, who averaged 17.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals, was the tournament MVP. She and Breanna Stewart, the Team USA captain, were on the all-tournament team.
And remember, this was accomplished without players like Elena Delle Donne; or Napheesa Collier, who recently gave birth; or Griner, who is still detained in Russia. The next step, of course, are the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Reeve said she emerged from the tournament having formed a deeper bond with the team she will take to France in two years.
"They can feel your passion," Reeve said. "Your love for what you're doing. They all said that, that they loved our staff, the trust we had in each other."
