By Danny Waldo
If you win, they will come.
May as well be the mantra of every college basketball coach from Seattle to Tallahassee, and Montana State is no different.
Fresh off their 2016 Big Sky Conference regular season championship, the Lady ‘Cats have been able to land talent to replace departing seniors Lindsay Stockton, Alexa Dawkins and Jasmine Hommes, but no recruit can boast the credentials of incoming freshman, Oliana Squires of Colorado Springs, Colorado. That’s because Squires was recently extended an invitation to participate in the 2016 U18 National Team Trials at the United States Olympic Center later this month. Squires was one of 27 girls invited to tryout for one of the 12 spots on the United States U18 team that will participate in the 2016 FIBA Americas Championships July 13-17 in Valdivia, Chile.
With the invitation, Squires becomes the first, and only, Montana State women’s basketball recruit to be invited to tryout with the United States National Team program, an honor head coach Trisha Binford was quick to point out. “This is such an incredible recognition not only for Oliana but for our program’s first athlete to be selected to USA trials,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “We knew Oliana was talented and this invite recognizes her abilities. We are so happy for her to get this opportunity to compete against the best, and whatever the outcome, it will only pay dividends to her basketball future and development.”
The competition at the trials will be fierce with 14 players already boasting Team USA basketball experience, including a pair of gold medal winners from the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championships in Lauren Cox and Crystal Dangerfield. Cox is headed to Baylor as the No. 1 recruit in the country, while Dangerfield, a UConn Husky commit, is considered the No. 3 recruit.
“There is a strong group of returning athletes that will benefit from the additional opportunities. We also have a strong group of first-time participants,” said Jim Foster (Tennessee-Chattanooga), chair of the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee, which is responsible for issuing the invitations to participate in trials.
Squires, who played her high school ball at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs, participated in the 2016 USA Basketball 3X3 U18 National Tournament.
