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

