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    CT Sun
    Friday, May 03, 2024

    Sun's Miller to serve on USA Basketball National Team player selection committee

    Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller has been chosen to be part of the selection committee by USA Women's Basketball that will help pick the 2018 World Cup team and the 2020 Olympic team. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day)
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    Curt Miller has taken on a new responsibility every year ever since arriving at Mohegan Sun in Dec. 2015. First it was head of the Connecticut Sun, tasked to fix a franchise in disarray. He took over as general manager the following season.

    Miller’s has added a third gig — he’s been chosen to serve on the 2017-20 USA Basketball Women’s National Team player selection committee.

    “It’s a fun added hat,” Miller said of the job.

    “I was very excited to receive the phone call back in October about the opportunity to join this amazing small committee, and enthusiastically accepted to be part of this committee. … I’m certainly honored and blessed to be asked. It’s been a lifelong dream to be affiliated with USA Basketball.”

    Miller will help select the 2018 USA World Cup team and, should the USA qualify, the 2020 U.S. Olympic team. He joins Carol Callan (USA Basketball Women’s National Team Director), UConn head coach Geno Auriemma (who coached Team USA to gold at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics), Katie Smith (New York Liberty head coach), and Penny Toler (Los Angeles Sparks general manager).

    The Sun finished 21-13 in Miller’s second season as head coach in 2017 and ended a franchise-worst four-year playoff drought. Miller was named WNBA Coach of the Year by the media, and was the inaugural Executive of the Year award winner, chosen by one basketball executive from each team.

    Miller was a collegiate head coach for 13 years at Bowling Green and Indiana and earned six Coach of the Year honors.

    “Curt Miller’s lengthy experience in women’s basketball and his accomplishments this past season with the Connecticut Sun make him a perfect committee member,” Callen said in a release. “We’re happy to have him on board this quadrennium, and his insight will be valuable as we evaluate and select athletes for the USA National Team.”

    Miller will attend the USA National Team training camp Feb. 9-11 at the University of South Carolina as the team prepares for the 2018 FIBA World Cup for Women in Tenerife, Spain (Sept. 22-30).

    Connecticut’s Chiney Ogwumike, Morgan Tuck and Courtney Williams are part of the 29-player pool.

    UConn’s Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson, and former UConn greats Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tina Charles (New York), Stefanie Dolson (Chicago Sky), Tiffany Hayes (Atlanta Dream), Maya Moore (Minnesota Lynx), Breanna Stewart (Seattle), and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) are also in the pool.

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