As a member of the 12-player roster selected to the 2015 USA Basketball Women's University Games Team, Baylor's Nina Davis is one of seven players selected to their first USA Basketball team. The junior forward joins five USA Basketball gold medalists on the team.
In her sophomore season at Baylor, Davis, a Memphis, Tenn., native, earned consensus All-American honors as well as being named Big 12 Player of the Year. In addition, she was a finalist for numerous major awards. The 5-11 forward averaged a Big 12 leading 21.1 points per game and hauled down 8.3 rebounds a contest while shooting 58.4 percent from the floor.
The 12-member roster was announced following three days of trials that featured 51 athletes at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, features five USA Basketball gold medalists, including Jordin Canada (UCLA/Los Angeles, Calif.); Diamond DeShields (Tennessee/Norcross, Ga.); Rebecca Greenwell (Duke/Owensboro, Ky.); Erica McCall (Stanford/Bakersfield, Calif.); and Mercedes Russell (Tennessee/Springfield, Ore.).
Joining Davis playing on their first USA Basketball team will be: Chanise Jenkins (DePaul/Chicago, Ill.); Brionna Jones (Maryland/Havre de Grace, Md.); Aerial Powers (Michigan State/Detroit, Mich.); Courtney Range (California/Manteca, Calif.); Sydney Wiese (Oregon State/Phoenix, Ariz.); and Courtney Williams (South Florida/Folkston, Ga.).
Northwestern University head coach Joe McKeown will lead the 2015 USA Women's World University Games Team, and he will be assisted by Holly Warlick from the University of Tennessee and Tanya Warren from the University of Northern Iowa.
"Well, I am really excited," McKeown said. "I feel like we have tremendous talent and balance. We have size, we have quickness and the ability to score the basketball a high level. The challenge will be, obviously, to blend everybody together. But I feel like we have a real unselfish group, and it is going to be a lot of fun."
DeShields is a four-time USA Basketball gold medalist, including the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship, the 2012 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championship, the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship and the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
Canada, Greenwell, McCall and Russell won gold together at the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship, while Greenwell, McCall and Russell also won gold at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.
Players eligible for the 2015 USA World University Games teams must be U.S. citizens who currently are enrolled as full-time college students with remaining eligibility for the 2015-16 school year.
The USA players and coaches for the 2015 USA World University Games Team will return to Colorado Springs for training camp on June 18-July 2, before departing for the event. The 2015 World University Games women's basketball competition will be held July 4-13 in Gwangju, South Korea.
