Stanford FBC: Stories of the Season: Nneka and Alanna and the World Cup

September 21, 2018

Nneka and Alanna and the World Cup

The 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup begins tomorrow in Tenerife, Spain.

Two Stanford hoopsters will participate — alumna Nneka Ogwumike ('12) with USA Basketball and senior Alanna Smith ('19) with Basketball Australia.

This will be Nneka's second appearance in the Women's World Cup. She was on the 2014 team that won the gold medal,

Alanna played for Basketball Australia in the FIBA U17 and U19 Basketball World Cups, but this is her first Women's World Cup. She is one of the players making her debut featured by FIBA in: Our 12 exciting players ready to take their first #FIBAWWC footsteps

Australia have been one of the first nations to confirm their final roster for the event and Smith was always likely to be a lock after what she produced at her first senior tournament last year. The forward was superb at the FIBA Women's Asia Cup and while disappointed her team were edged out in agonizing fashion by Japan in the title game, Smith had to be satisfied with a productive 10.8 points and 5.3 boards per outing. She is one of the most exciting players that are pushing the Opals into a new chapter and we already know her skills from her displays at the FIBA U17 and U19 Basketball World Cups.

All of the games will be streamed to ESPN+ (an ESPN service that costs $4.99 a month) and to LiveBasketball.TV (A service that costs $9.99 a month). The quarterfinals and semifinals will be on one of the ESPN channels to be determined and the finals will be carried by ESPN.

The USA and Australia are in different groups, so they won't meet (if at all) until the playoffs.

Follow all the action on the FIBA World Cup website. Note that you may choose to have game times shown in your local time.