A couple of updates from the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team, which is on its way to Russia to play in the Ekaterinburg International Invitational starting Friday. USABasketball.com has posted photos of the team’s visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Clinic for an open practice and clinic for kids. Also up today are quotes from various players, including the Storm’s Sue Bird, on the competition the team will face from top European clubs.

“I’m very familiar with them,” said Bird. “Ekaterinburg has a lot of talent. They’re a very talented team, one of the best in Europe. The other two teams are very good as well. They’re tough European teams. Sopron went to the EuroLeague Final Four last year, Prague won the Czech league. Like I said, it’s just a different style. They have some very good players and it’ll be interesting to see how we do.”

What is unclear is what kind of rosters those teams will have, since some of their stars just wrapped up their WNBA seasons. For that matter, Ekaterinburg’s Cappie Pondexter is still playing for the Phoenix Mercury. So the lineups don’t figure to be quite as star-studded as they will be when Bird is facing these opponents later this winter while playing for Spartak Moscow Region. Nonetheless, they should offer the U.S. roster a good test as the team continues to build toward the 2010 FIBA Women’s World Championship.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under USAB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.