Longhorns Olympic Dream: Texas Ex To USA Hoops Camp
Former Texas Longhorns women’s basketball player Ariel Atkins will participate in the USA Basketball Women’s National Team’s four-day mini-camp from Feb. 4-7 at the University of South Carolina.
Atkins will be one of 19 participants in the four-day camp, and part of a pool of 36 players that will considered for the team that will represent the US in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo later this year.
Atkins, who was drafted No. 7 overall in the 2018 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics, has already put together a successful WNBA career, highlighted by a championship in 2019. She has also been named to the WNBA All-Rookie team in 2018 and has earned three WNBA All-Defensive Second Team selections.
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For her three-year WNBA career, Atkins (5-foot-8) is averaging 11.8 points per game, along with 2.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game. She has also played professionally abroad with ENEA Gorzow and the Perth Lynx.
With Texas, Atkins was a two-time All-Big 12 First Team selection, a two-time Big 12 All-Defensive Team selection, and an All-Big 12 Freshman Team selection. At high school in Duncanville, Texas, she was a McDonald’s All American.
This will be the national team’s first in-person training camp since last February.
After last summer’s postponement, the 2020 Olympics, which will see 12 women’s basketball teams battling for gold, will be held July 23-Aug. 8, 2021. The USA women, which own a 66-3 all-time Olympic record, have captured the past six Olympic gold medals and currently are riding a 49-game winning streak that dates to the 1992 bronze medal game.
Matthew Postins is an award-winning sports journalist who covers Longhorns in the Pros for Longhorn Country on FanNation.com and SINow. He also writes for CowboyMaven and DallasBasketball.com, covers the Big 12 for HeartlandCollegeSports.com and is the Editor of the College Football America Yearbook. Have a story idea about a former Longhorn now in the professional ranks? Contact Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.