USA - You can't replace gold medal experience: Rizzotti

Puerto Montt (FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) - As is often the case, the biggest title threat from the Americas is the USA, boasting a wealth of talent who already have gold medals in their trophy cabinets.

The perennial favourites made light work of the 2010 Americas U18 Championship for Women, winning the gold medal with a 5-0 record and an average winning margin of 56 points.

While only five of the team from last year's U18 triumph return - led by exciting wings Diamond DeShields and Bria Hartley - US coach Jennifer Rizzotti believes the influx of players from the gold medal winning team at the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women in France last year will more than compensate.

"I think in some ways, there might not be as much continuity, but fortunately for us, all 12 players are coming off of a year of USA Basketball experience. So, even the seven players that weren't on my team played for the 2010 U17 world championship team," Rizzotti said.

"You can't replace that kind of experience of winning a gold medal. I'm pretty happy with the group we have and I'm confident that they'll come together quickly."

Team cohesion should be helped by the presence of point guard Ariel Massengale, who led the U17 world championship in assists (5.4 apg) with the tournament's best assist-turnover ratio (2.7), while also ranking in the top 20 scorers (10.1 ppg) - all in less the 23 minutes per game.

In Group B, the USA face Japan, Russia and Argentina, who return seven players from last year's Americas championship.

"We're a little bit familiar with Argentina, having played them last year," Rizzotti said. "Japan and Russia, we have film from the U17 world championships, but it could be a very different roster.

"So, we're just going to go in there, do our best to scout as much as we can in the preliminary games of pool play. More importantly, we want to have ourselves prepared and ready to go and know that it's in our control," she added.

The USA can expect strong service inside from 193cm centre Elizabeth Williams, who was outstanding last year in France, leading her country in scoring (13.5 ppg) and rebounding (7.6rpg). But coach Rizzotti believes it is more about what they do as a team, particularly using their speed on defence and in transition.

"Right now, to pick out one player, it would be hard to say because everybody's being really competitive and I think you're going to have to watch out for all of them," Rizzotti said confidently. "We want to use our 12 guys to our advantage, knowing that there are very few teams who have this kind of depth."

FIBA