BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : Other Basketball Power Makes Debut Today

BADALONA, Spain —  Olympic basketball is the Dream Team, or, perhaps more accurately, the Dream Team is Olympic basketball.

But while it is true that the NBA-dominated men’s basketball team has garnered much of the attention at the Barcelona Olympics, there is an enormously talented group of lesser renown prepared to win a gold medal for the United States.

Call it Dream Team II--the U.S. women’s team, which is on a longer Olympic streak than its male counterpart.

The U.S. women begin their quest for a third consecutive gold medal today when they play Czechoslovakia at the Sports Palace. Six members of the team that won the gold in 1988 in Seoul lead the team. That was the year that the U.S. men had to settle for the bronze.

The women had their own setback in the 1991 Pan American Games when they were shocked by Cuba and Brazil and finished third. Until that tournament, the women won 41 consecutive international games and gold medals in two Olympics and two world championships. Despite their Olympic success, they believe they have much to prove.

“We have six players back from the ’88 team, so this is a different team than the team last summer,” said two-time Olympian Katrina McClain, who went to the University of Georgia. “Last year, we just had two (players from ‘88). It wasn’t so much a lack of chemistry. It was just a really young team. We had only two weeks to work out as a team, and that wasn’t much to prepare for the Pan Am Games.”

The women will be led by Teresa Edwards, who will become the first U.S. basketball player to participate in three Olympics. Edwards, who also went to Georgia, was on the 1984 and ’88 teams. The 5-foot-11 guard is regarded as the world’s finest female player and perhaps one of the best ever.

“I think the fact that she is the only male or female player to play in three Olympics and possibly with three gold medals is evidence enough,” said Olympic Coach Theresa Grentz of Rutgers. “She has a fire that burns in her every day. She’s the most competitive person I’ve ever, ever been around. She’s just so fierce. If you need her to shoot, she shoots. You need rebounds, she rebounds. She does whatever it takes to win.”

McClain, 6-2, is the all-time leading Olympic rebounder with 52.

Edwards and McClain will have plenty of help. Eleven of the U.S. members play professionally.

Only 5-4 guard Suzie McConnell, who went to Penn State, does not. She is a high school coach in Pittsburgh and has a 20-month-old son.

Grentz is thrilled with the team’s talent. Grentz was hoping to settle on an eight-player playing rotation but abandoned the idea because the players are simply too good.

“This,” she said, “could be the team of an era.”