USA 3x3 U23 Women's National Team Aims for Medals in Wuhan
MINNEAPOLIS – The core of USA Basketball’s next wave is packing for Wuhan, and they’re not going for the experience. They’re going for medals.
Tori McKinney and the USA 3x3 U23 Women’s National Team will open their campaign at the 2026 FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup from Sept. 15-19 in China, carrying the momentum of a summer that already proved they can handle pressure on the international stage.
A Winning Core Reunites
The roster is unchanged from the group that stormed through the 2026 FIBA 3x3 Nations League Americas North Conference in July in Ñuñoa, Chile: McKinna Brackens, Dani Carnegie, Katie Fiso and McKinney.
Same four. Same coach. Same expectations.
Todd Monsey, who guided them in Chile, returns on the sideline and knows exactly what he has: a tight, battle-tested unit that already understands 3x3’s unforgiving rhythm. There are no passengers in this format. Every possession is a decision. Every mistake is a chance for the other team to end it in a hurry.
This group has already shown it can play with that urgency.
A Brutal Pool, A Brutal Clock
The Americans drop straight into the deep end in Pool D.
They open on Sept. 16 against Japan at 2:50 a.m. CT, the kind of tip time that tests body clocks back home but won’t matter one bit in Wuhan once the first possession goes up. Later that morning, at 7:50 a.m. CT, they face Kenya in a game that could shape the early balance of the group.
Two days later comes the real grind.
On Sept. 18, the USA meet Slovenia at 4:30 a.m. CT, then Australia at 8:25 a.m. CT in what could be a decisive double-header for seeding and survival. Four games, four very different styles, all crammed into a schedule that rewards depth, conditioning and clarity under fatigue.
There is no margin for drifting through pool play. Not in 3x3. Not at this level.
The Cut-Throat Path to Knockouts
The format is simple and ruthless: four pools, five teams in each. Only the top two from every group advance to the quarterfinals on Sept. 19.
Finish first or second, and the real tournament begins. Slip to third, and the World Cup is over before it truly catches fire.
Quarterfinal matchups and tip times will be finalized once the pools are settled, but the Americans already know the equation. Handle business in Pool D, and they stay on the medal track. Stumble, and that Nations League title in Chile becomes a footnote instead of a launchpad.
McKinney, Brackens, Carnegie and Fiso have already shown they can carry the USA jersey through a regional gauntlet. Now they step into a global one, with the lights brighter, the games shorter, and the stakes far sharper.
Wuhan will reveal whether this group is just a promising 3x3 project—or the start of a new American standard in the U23 game.
