COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Duke's Gail Goestenkors and Syracuse's Marianna Freeman have been named assistant coaches for the 2002 USA Basketball Women's World Championship Team.

COMMENTS FROM COACH G

In a recent news conference, Duke coach Gail Goestenkors addressed her recent appointment and what it would mean for Duke's 2002-03 season. Here are a few excerpts: This is basically our Olympic team. It's going to be a great opportunity for me to work with players at the elite level, all from the WNBA, and with great coaches as well. I feel very privileged. It's going to be difficult for me to leave my team for a month. But at the same time I know I have tremendous assistants. I think it's going to be a great learning experience for them as well, because they'll have the opportunity to be in charge. Recruiting is probably by biggest worry. We're allowed to do home visits from Sept. 9-29, so I know it's a big squeeze for me. I return from China on the 26th and I have three days to do visits. I'll have four visits set up in those three days. Fortunately, we want to sign two players at the maximum. If there is a good year to do it, this is probably the year because we don't need a big class. I'll have a lot to do with the scouting of our opponents. Although it's tedious, it's something I really enjoy. I'll be involved very much with the scouting. I know the young players better than any older players. I'm looking forward to working with Tamika Catchings and Katie Smith. We recruited Katie when I was at Purdue. I think the one thing I'm really looking forward to with a Sheryl Swoops or a Lisa Leslie is what they do daily. The commitment they have. The level of intensity they play in practice with on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to being an assistant. I think it's going to be a great experience. It's been a long time. It will be interesting not to have the final say. Not to have the buck stop with me. Be the one that can always be positive. Just slap them on the back and helping them through things. Where as when you're the head coach sometimes you have to have tough talks with people. Actually I'm really looking forward to it.

The selections, made by the USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team Committee, complete the 2002 USA coaching staff as WNBA Charlotte Sting head coach Anne Donovan was previously named an assistant coach to the U.S. squad, which is headed up by Van Chancellor.

The 14th FIBA World Championship for Women will feature national teams from 16 nations competing in nine cities in the People's Republic of China on Sept. 14-25. The U.S. will face Russia, Lithuania and Chinese Taipei in preliminary-round play Sept. 14-16.

"We're really excited about adding two experienced college coaches who have coached in really great leagues and who really understand the game," said Van Chancellor, coach of the WNBA's Houston Comets.

The U.S. team has already opened its training camp in California and will play a series of exhibition games in Australia before going to China to defend its world championship.

"This is a tremendous honor and privilege and I look forward to working with, and learning from, the very best coaches and players in the world," said Goestenkors, the 2002 ACC Coach of the Year who has guided the Blue Devils to two Final Four appearances in the past four years.

The head coach of the silver medal winning 1997 USA R. William Jones Cup Team which posted a 6-1 record, Goestenkors has been a member of the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee since 2000.

The winningest coach in Blue Devil history, Goestenkors boasts a 237-82 record (.743 winning percentage) in a decade at Duke. The four-time ACC Coach of the Year, Goestenkors took over a program that had advanced to one NCAA Tournament prior to her arrival and has since piloted the Blue Devils to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past eight seasons, reaching the Final Four twice (1999, 2002), the Elite Eight once (1998) and a pair of Sweet 16s (2000, 2001).

Goestenkors, an NAIA All-American as a player at Saginaw Valley State (Mich.), led Duke, a team featuring eight young players (the top three scorers included one freshman and two sophomores), to a school-record 31 victories last season before losing to Oklahoma in the national semifinals.

Freeman, who recently completed her ninth season at Syracuse, returns to USA Basketball for her third coaching assignment. An assistant on the 1997 USA Basketball Junior World Championship Team that claimed the gold medal, Freeman served in 1996 as an assistant for the USA Junior World Championship Qualifying Team that captured the silver medal and qualified the United States for the '97 FIBA Junior World Championship.

In 1993-94, Freeman took the reigns of a Syracuse program that had not produced a winning record since 1990 and had not finished above .500 in the Big East Conference since 1988. Following a pair of rebuilding years, Freeman piloted the Orangewomen in 1996 to a 14-14 overall record, a tie for first in the Big East Seven, while advancing to the Big East Tournament semifinals. In 1995-96, Freeman guided her squad to a 62-59 victory over then No. 2-ranked Connecticut, marking the first time in 25 years the Orangewomen had defeated a top five ranked team.

Freeman recently completed her most successful season at Syracuse and the program's best in more than a decade, tallying an 18-13 record which marked the most wins since the 1987-88 season as the Orangewomen reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988. She was honored as the 2002 National Female Coach of the Year by the Black Coaches Association, 2002 New York co-Coach of the Year by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York and also collected the 2002 Vivian Stringer Female Coach of the Year award from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

"I am so excited about this opportunity," said Freeman, who played for Stringer at Cheyney State, which went undefeated her senior season. "One of the greatest experiences in my life was with the junior teams in 1996 and 1997. And then I got the call to be a part of another USA Basketball team. I feel so honored and blessed to be able to represent my country, especially at a time like this."

The United States, which earned the gold medal at the inaugural World Championship in 1953, earned its sixth gold medal with an unblemished 9-0 record in the 1998 World Championship in Germany. All told, the USA owns a 71-20 overall record (.780 winning percentage) in World Championship play and has won six golds, one silver and one bronze medal in the 12 previous FIBA World Championships in which the U.S. competed.

Team USA roster: Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Tamecka Dixon, Jennifer Gillom Shannon Johnson, Lisa Leslie, DeLisha Milton, Katie Smith, Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson and Natalie Williams.

Tournament participants: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, France, Japan, Lithuania, Russia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, United States, Yugoslavia.