For years the Triangle has been known for its men's basketball. Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Jim Valvano and others have made the area one of the nation's most famous for men's competition on any level.
The women's game is beginning to catch up.
The appearance of the women's national team in the Triangle area--training at Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State--comes on the heels of a breakout season for the ACC, which saw seven teams make the NCAA Tournament and three make the Final Four, including Tobacco Road rivals Duke and North Carolina.
"It shows great respect that USA basketball would be willing to come here to Duke, the Triangle area and ACC country," Goestenkors said. "I think they understand how much women's basketball has grown in this area, and I'm really proud that they decided to come here to train."
Giving the training camp a distinctly local feel are the two familiar Duke faces-Alana Beard, back playing in Cameron for the first time since her 2004 graduation, and Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors, one of USA head coach Anne Donovan's assistants.
Absent from the Final Four last season were both Connecticut and Tennessee, teams that combined to win eight of the last 12 NCAA titles.
Both schools were also knocked off by teams from the ACC. Duke took out the Huskies in the Elite Eight and the Tar Heels stamped their ticket to the Final Four in Boston, beating the Volunteers the same day.
As Duke fans know, Maryland eventually dashed the Blue Devils' hopes of their first NCAA title in the final game, but the ACC's performance in the tournament has firmly established the conference as arguably the best in the country today.
"It hasn't been lost on anybody in women's basketball just how much the game has grown in the Carolinas," USA Basketball President Val Ackerman said in a teleconference Aug. 3. "It's great to see how celebrated women's basketball has become at Duke University and the ACC at large."
Aside from the hometown heroes, stars such as Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Seimone Augustus will be on display in next week's exhibition game against Australia at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Australian squad, which took home the silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is led by the Seattle Storm's Lauren Jackson.
"We need a big turnout for the Australian game," Goestenkors said. "They're going to be one of our prime competitors for the gold medal. I'm hoping that the Cameron Crazies come out and show all of these players what Cameron Crazies are and how special women's basketball is to them."
A big turnout by the Crazies would also show just how much the sport has grown in this area.
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