A'ja Wilson, Mikayla Blakes headline Team USA camp ahead of Women's Final Four

UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina won’t be the only basketball players in town for the Final Four in Phoenix. Team USA will host a three-day training camp for its senior women’s team beginning Wednesday, April 1, at the Phoenix Mercury’s practice facility. Caitlin Clark — who was the MVP of the FIBA Qualifying Tournament a few weeks ago in Puerto Rico — is not on this roster, but fans shouldn’t read too much into that.

Other WNBA stars like Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart, Aliyah Boston and Alyssa Thomas won't participate in this camp either. This is the third training camp under coach Kara Lawson and there’s not a competition that immediately follows it. This is simply another opportunity for Lawson and managing director Sue Bird to get to know the wider pool of players a bit better before the Americans take the court in the FIBA World Cup in Berlin, Germany in September.

This will be the first camp under Lawson that Sabrina Ionescu and three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson will be apart of. Stefanie Dolson, who Lawson coached to a gold medal in the 3x3 competition in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, is also among the invitees. Two college players will participate in this camp.

SEC Player of the Year Mikayla Blakes, who led the led the nation in scoring for Vanderbilt this season, will be in Phoenix. Blakes was the MVP of the FIBA AmeriCup last summer. Joining Blakes will be USC star JuJu Watkins, who continues to recover from a knee injury she suffered in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.