It's just like old times: Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson -- all part of UConn's 2012 recruiting class -- are among 34 players 19 years old and younger to have accepted invitations to take part in the 2013 USA Basketball U19 World Championship team trials.
The team will be whittled down to 12 players after a four-day session from May 16-19 at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
You can view a list of the other participants here, and the team will be coached by Miami's Katie Meier.
The Huskies have a history of stocking the national team roster with its players. Two summers ago, Jefferson, Stewart and Tuck, all rising high school seniors at the time, made the final 15 of the 2011 U19 National team roster along with Huskies Stefanie Dolson, Bria Hartley and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. Everyone but Jefferson made the final roster, marking the third time in as many years Jefferson just missed the cut. (More impressive, perhaps: that she was even in position to compete for a roster spot.) As we wrote in June 2011, Jefferson seemed undeterred by the temporary bad news.
"It fuels me knowing I didn’t make [the team the last two times]," Jefferson said in May 2011. "When you come out for something like this, you want to make it. Honestly, I give my best, 110 percent, every time I get on the court. Being cut hasn’t really changed anything about me, it just makes me go a little harder."
Last summer, all that hard work paid off because Jefferson -- along with Stewart and Tuck -- made the final roster. And it's reasonable to expect them to be among the finalists this time around, too.
