With a new-look roster and no A'ja Wilson the US FIBA World Cup title defense gets tougher

BERLIN (AP) — The U.S. has dominated the women's FIBA World Cup for nearly two decades, winning the last four titles.

A young American roster led by the trio of Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese now complement U.S. stalwart Breanna Stewart as the team looks to win its fifth straight championship.

The Americans will be missing four-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson, who the team announced Monday would miss the World Cup along with Kelsey Plum. They were replaced by newcomers Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.

The world has been catching up to the Americans with France coming within a point the U.S. in the gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Olympics. That's the closest any team has come to beating the U.S. in either the Olympics or World Cup since the Americans last lost in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup to Russia.

“I think there’s no question that the world is improving at a rapid rate. It’s so exciting to see, and I see it at every level,” U.S. coach Kara Lawson said Tuesday. “There’s more depth to the teams at the World Cup. Now when you look at rosters, there’s a number of just high-quality players. ... I think it’s going to be the most difficult World Cup to win that we’ve had because of that.”

The Olympic loss is still on the mind of the French team, which has more than a half-dozen WNBA players on its roster, including Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes and Dominique Malonga.

“We sure still do think about it,” Malonga said. “We know we were right there against the best team in the world.”

Other top teams that could reach the podium are Australia, Spain and China.

The next World Cup, which will be held in Japan, will move to Nov. 26-Dec. 8 in 2030 and won't potentially conflict with the WNBA schedule.

“I would I would call it one of the most significant decisions by the central boards in this decade,” FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis told The Associated Press. “We understood that, the women’s game needs its own dedicated spot in the world calendar and in particular in the basketball calendar.”

The women's World Cup used to be the same year as the men's tournament until 2014. Now the tournaments are held in different years with the men's championship a year before the Olympics and the women's tourney two years before the Games.

“It's a major decision because it creates a big window for essentially every league in the world,” Zagklis said.

With no major men's tournaments this year, Zagklis said that FIBA sponsors could focus more on the women this time.

It will also help with ease the challenges for the WNBA, which this has suspended play in the league during the tournament. Play in the WNBA will resume on Sept. 17 after stopping on Aug. 31. There are over 50 current WNBA players competing in the World Cup.

The format of the tournament has changed for the betterment of the players, with the addition of four teams in Germany. The 16-team format is not new; it was used from 1990-2018. Now teams will play three pool games in four days as opposed to the five games in six days — which they did in the 2022 World Cup when only 12 teams went to Australia.

The top teams will then earn a break before the quarterfinals begin while the second and third-place teams in each group will play to reach the elimination round. Instead of playing eight games, teams will potentially only need six to win the title.

Zagklis said this could be an extremely competitive tournament.

“Within the top 10, virtually everyone can beat anyone,” he said. “We saw that in 2022 where Nigeria beat in the group Australia and then Australia got the bronze medal. We saw it in the qualifier, where USA was trailing Belgium for 39 minutes.”

Many current and former WNBA coaches are heading up teams in the World Cup.

Mike Thibault is in charge of Belgium while Sandy Brondello is heading up Australia again. Her husband, Olaf Lange, took over Germany and will lead the host nation. Former Phoenix Mercury coach Corey Gaines is leading Japan and Chicago Sky assistant Rena Wakama is once again in charge of Nigeria.

The Americans are led by Lawson with WNBA head coaches Nate Tibbetts, Natalie Nakase and Stephanie White serving as assistants. Jose Fernandez is a scout for the team.

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here