In the inaugural Four Nations Tournament that ran from Aug. 12-15 at the Katayanagi Arena in Tokyo, Stanford senior guard Brittany McPhee participated as a part of the 2017 USA Basketball Women’s U23 National Team.
According to USA Basketball, “The 2017 U24 Four Nations Tournament provided meaningful competition and development opportunities. The USA’s participation in the tournament was intended to help further develop the USA Basketball athlete pipeline and to help prepare athletes for possible future participation in the USA Basketball Women’s National Team pool.”
McPhee was enlisted to be part of the USA team, consisting of 12 premier college players, after a training camp at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She has demonstrated her impressive skills over her Stanford basketball career, being recognized as Pac-12 Freshman of the Week in 2015 and the Pac-12’s second-most improved scorer year-over-year, increasing her scoring over her sophomore season by 6.8 points per game.
Majoring in human biology with a 3.73 GPA, McPhee is also strong academically, winning the 2015-16 Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention and the women’s basketball Elite 90 award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA in the NCAA.
McPhee was one of four Pac-12 athletes to be named on the team, alongside UCLA seniors Jordin Canada and Monique Billings and Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, the 2017 USBWA National Freshman of the Year. She is also the third Stanford player to play internationally this summer, alongside junior Alanna Smith and freshman Alyssa Jerome.
“I’m just really excited and humbled to be on this team with such talented players,” McPhee said. “My goal is just to work hard and try to make this the best experience possible. Because everyone is so talented here, it really is the little things that separate us from other players and other teams.”
In the recent 2016-2017 women’s basketball season, McPhee was named All-Pac-12 after starting 37 games, averaging 13.3 points and 4.9 rebounds, as a junior. This isn’t the first time she has dominated tournament play—the guard led Stanford in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 16.8 points with a 44.4 percent 3-point shot in the Cardinal’s Final Four Run and was also named to the Lexington Region All-Tournament team.
The USA U23 team ultimately took the 2017 U24 Four Nations Tournament Title as the undefeated champions, beating Australia 78-60, Canada 107-61 and Japan 103-71. McPhee left an impact with 28 points and 12 rebounds total throughout the three games.
“It was a cool and surreal moment. You dream about coming to play for the USA, so it was really cool and fun to be out here with such amazing players,” McPhee said.
Contact Kaylee George at kay.r.george ‘at’ gmail.com.