Fifteen seconds remained in the fourth
quarter of the gold-medal match in the
Under-19 Women’s World Cup. The United
States and Naz Hillmon were staring down
the barrel of a defeat to Australia as, back
to the basket, Hillmon posted up against
an Australian defender on the top of the
key. She watched as two of her teammates
crossed in front of her, waiting for the
inbound and a chance to tie the game at 66.
***
Two years earlier, Hillmon had tried out
for the United States under-17 national
team. She fought and battled through
trials, making it to the final round of cuts.
She didn’t make the team, instead
designated an alternate.
“I had never seen her so devastated in her
life,” said Hillmon’s mother, NaSheema
Anderson. “So we went back to the
drawing board — what could you have
done differently, what could you work
on? They gave her things she could work
on, and she spent the next year getting
stronger, getting shots up, adding some
components and dimensions to her game.”
The next year, Hillmon went back to
Colorado and made the under-18 team,
won a gold medal in the Americas
Championship and went on to be the
Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the Year and
first team All-Big Ten as a freshman at
Michigan.
Three months before she would face off
against Australia, Hillmon was bugging
her mom. One by one, her friends across
the country received letters inviting them
to come to Colorado and try out for the
under-19 team, to play in the World Cup
in Thailand, and she didn’t receive one.
Her mom had kept it from her, to make
sure she wasn’t just doing this to please
her family. Finally, Hillmon was brought
into the loop. She made her way to
Colorado.

After five days of trials, the team was
ready to be announced. Hillmon called
her mom beforehand, debriefing her on
her chances and when the results would
be announced — while her mom teased
out the excitement, Hillmon wasn’t going
to make her wait.
The time ticked by, Hillmon’s deadline
went by, USA basketball’s deadline went
by. Anderson was sent out texts to other
parents, refreshed Twitter, did the math
as reports trickled in of players who had
been cut.
She didn’t want to watch her daughter be
dealt a blow like the one two years prior.
As they listed the players who made the
team alphabetically, five bigs were called
before her, nearly filling her position
group and increasing the chances she was
an alternate.
Finally, she called her mom.
The coaches reached H. Her name was
called. Hillmon would be one of just three
players to play for both the under-18 and
under-19 teams.
***
Taking the inbound, guard Paige Bueckers
launched the ball from center court, arcing
over the head of the posted-up Hillmon,
into the hands of a streaking Hailey Van
Lith.
***
Three weeks before the championship, in
July, right as the Wolverines began their
summer camps, Hillmon went to Tokyo.
As she set off for Japan, she was filled
with the advice of Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico, who had coached the same
tournament ten years earlier.
“She knew how important it is to
represent USA across your chest and how
much it was about basketball,” Hillmon
said. “She wanted me to enjoy it and take
in the experience.”
Twelve of the best 18 year-olds from

around the country — some high school,
some college — landed for their pre-
tournament scrimmage against Japan.
For most, it was their first time
playing together. The chemistry wasn’t
established.
Hillmon, who played for the same coaches
the year before, stepped up.
“Because I was one of the older girls, I
needed to take responsibility over what
was going on, on and off the court,”
Hillmon said. “(I knew) the coaches … (I
knew) what they liked and how to help
the people just coming in.”
But it was a process. Chemistry doesn’t
come easy.
The bus tour through the heart of Tokyo,
the team’s visit to the Grand Palace in
Bangkok, the wisecracks and laughs
throughout the tournament — it all built
a family.
“You could just see the more time they
spent together the more comfortable
they are and the more they trusted each
other,” Anderson said. “They wanted to
play for one another and they wanted to
win for their country.”
The scrimmage in Japan and the practices
before the tournament in Thailand were a
crash course in each other — what shots
each player liked to take, what moves
they made — what their strengths and
weaknesses were.
***
Van Lith caught the ball a step ahead of
her Australian defender. Using the space
she had gained in a run to the top of the arc
before a cut back to the hoop, she took one
dribble toward the hoop — with Hillmon
moving in to grab a potential rebound —
faked her shot to get a clear look and sent
up the potential game-saving shot.
***
In the first game of the tournament, eight
days before the championship, Hillmon

started against Australia. She stole the
show as one of just four players on the
team to score 10 points while also tallying
a team-leading nine rebounds and five
steals.
The pattern would continue.
Starting the whole tournament, she tallied
three games with 10 or more rebounds
over the course of the tournament,
consistently having one of the best plus-
minus margins on the team.
Hillmon’s tireless work on the court was
mirrored by her leadership off it, using
her voice to empower and better her
teammates, while she improved herself.
“I learned a lot about myself, in terms
of how I could compete against some of
the best in the country,” Hillmon said.
“I figured out when people stop this
that or another move, you have to have
three or four more counters. And also
learning how to put my teammates in
better positions, working out with girls
that you’ve never played with before
and having a month, you have to hone in
and make sure you put them in the best
positions.”
Her growth over the course of the
tournament snowballed, culminating in
her being named captain the night before
the final game — she was no longer just
an alternate.
She neglected to tell her mom.
***
Minutes before Van Lith’s catch, Hillmon
was racing down the court toward her
own basket.
The seconds were counting down. Three
points behind Australia, the gold medal
was slipping out of the USA’s grasp. The
only option left for the United States was
to foul and hope the Opals missed their
shots.
“I had no idea how (coach Jeff Walz) was
going to pull that off,” Anderson said.

HILLMON’S QUEST FOR GOLD

4B
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
November 8, 2019

HILLMON’S QUEST FOR GOLD

KENT SCHWARTZ / DAILY SPORTS WRITER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF USA BASKETBALL