Bueckers, Clark and Reese will debut with the United States senior team in the World Cup & more related news here

Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are among five players who will make their competitive debut with the senior US national team in the FIBA ​​Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament next month.

Bueckers of the Dallas Wings and Clark of the Indiana Fever are the latest two winners of the WNBA Rookie of the Year award. Reese, of the Chicago Sky, was part of the 2024 draft class along with Clark. Two 2025 WNBA rookies along with Beuckers, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen of the Washington Mystics, will also be on the team, which was announced Wednesday by USA Basketball.

The qualifying tournament will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from March 11 to 17. It’s a chance to prepare for the World Cup, which the United States already qualified for after winning the 2025 AmeriCup competition last summer. The FIBA ​​World Cup will be in Berlin from September 4 to 13. The United States has won that event 11 times, including the last four in a row.

Clark’s Fever teammate Aliyah Boston, the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year, will also be on the 12-player roster. She last competed for Team USA in the 2024 FIBA ​​Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The World Cup qualifying tournament roster is rounded out by players who medaled at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young won gold on the United States 5-on-5 team. Copper played last season for the Phoenix Mercury, Plum for the Los Angeles Sparks and Gray and Young for the 2025 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces.

Dearica Hamby, who spent 2025 with the Sparks, and Rhyne Howard, who played for the Atlanta Dream and was WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2022, won the bronze medal in Paris in 3×3.

Most WNBA players not currently on rookie contracts are free agents awaiting a new collective bargaining agreement before signing with teams for the 2026 season, which is scheduled to begin in May pending the new deal.

Three-time Olympic and World Cup champion Breanna Stewart, who played for the New York Liberty last season, will be with the U.S. team for a pre-competition training camp on March 7-8 in Miami.

Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson, who is also the U.S. senior national team coach, will lead the team in San Juan. WNBA head coaches Natalie Nakase (Golden State Valkyries), Nate Tibbetts (Mercury) and Stephanie White (Fever) will be her assistants. Lawson will return to the Blue Devils to prepare for the NCAA tournament before the qualifying tournament ends, at which point the assistants will be in charge.

The United States opens play on March 11 against Senegal, followed by Puerto Rico (March 12), Italy (March 14), New Zealand (March 15) and Spain (March 17). National team general manager Sue Bird, who selected this squad, will continue to evaluate the players before choosing the squad for the World Cup later this year.