By Eric Detweiler
The call came in early March, just as Jennifer Rizzotti was wrapping up one of the most gratifying seasons of her coaching career in women’s basketball.
Her George Washington University Colonials, picked sixth in the conference preseason poll, had persevered to peak at the right time and make a spirited run to claim the Atlantic 10 Championship title.
As Ms. Rizzotti began preparations for her first NCAA Tournament leading the Buff and Blue, U.S. Women's National Team Director Carol Callan phoned with more good news: Ms. Rizzotti had been picked by an esteemed committee of USA Basketball officials to serve as an assistant coach under South Carolina's Dawn Staley for the U.S. women’s basketball team’s upcoming Sept. 22-30 FIBA World Cup in Spain.
"When I got that call from Carol, I literally wanted to cry," Ms. Rizzotti said. "It was a really big deal for me. Because I wasn't sure with how many ridiculously good coaches are out there that I would get this chance this soon."
Ms. Rizzotti has earned the chance to direct the best players in the world thanks to her commitment to USA Basketball through the years.
She made her Team USA coaching debut as an assistant with the under-18 squad in 2006. Since then, she's served in a variety of capacities at the youth and senior levels, including a role as advance scout at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"It's easy to want to be a part of this," Ms. Callan said. "But when you really get in it, and you realize that the days are 20-hour days, all the sudden people kind of tail off.
"With Jen, the follow through is so good. She just gives you her all. We notice it. The players notice. And the reward is we want her to continue to work with us."
Ms. Rizzotti’s first experience with USA Basketball came in 1996. She had just wrapped up an All-American career as a point guard at Connecticut when she was picked to be part of a team of college all-stars that USA Basketball sent to Taiwan to compete in the 1996 Jones Cup.
Ms. Rizzotti led the squad in assists as the team finished with a 9-0 record, winning by an average of 33 points per game. She headed home with a gold medal, some lasting friendships and a better sense of what it meant to represent her country.
"For me, it was just a great honor," Ms. Rizzotti said. "You stand there with your red, white and blue on and you listen to the national anthem, and it just means a lot more than you ever thought hearing it in your own gym."
It's a feeling Ms. Rizzotti has come to cherish in her coaching work with Team USA.
Ms. Rizzotti was leading Hartford in 2006 when she was appointed to help DePaul's Doug Bruno at the under-18 FIBA Americas Championship in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Besides a few summers away as she was starting her family, Ms. Rizzotti has been involved with Team USA in some capacity ever since. She's won international gold medals as a youth head coach (under 18 in 2011 and under 19 in 2012) and as a member of the senior team staff (World Cup 2014 and Olympics 2016).
Along the way, the GW coach has earned respect from some of the best in the world with her intensity, attention to detail and willingness to work. She's earned the chance to keep adding responsibility within the national program.
"When you're a really good coach," Ms. Staley said, "it translates to the highest level."
Beyond the draw of the world stage, Team USA presents an environment that brings out the best in Ms. Rizzotti. Every workout provides a masterclass in what it takes to be great on the basketball court.
"People from the outside don't always get to see what goes into the gold-medal championship culture," Ms. Rizzotti said. "You don't make this team because you're the best player. You make this team because you embrace what we're all about."
Ms. Rizzotti embodies that spirit as much as anyone. She'd never been an assistant coach at any level before her Team USA debut, but she's eagerly embraced every opportunity, whether she's leading the huddle or working behind the scenes.
At the 2016 Rio Games, her role required hours of in-person scouting and film study daily to help head coach Geno Auriemma and his assistants prepare for what turned out to be eight games in 14 days. The highlight was when she got to present the scouting report to the squad before its matchup with China.
It was a sometimes thankless job putting in so much work but having to watch games from the stands instead of on the bench, but her commitment to the details made a difference in helping Team USA claim a sixth straight Olympic gold.
For Ms. Rizzotti, every Team USA assignment is a learning experience. She makes time for USA Basketball with the support of her student-athletes and staff because she knows it will ultimately make her a better coach.
She's constantly mining for details that can translate to her GW program, whether that's talking offseason structure, strength and conditioning or how to maximize limited practice time during the season.
Lately, she's made a concentrated effort to give the Colonials more ownership in scouting and preparing for opponents after seeing the success of that style with the national team. There's more buy-in to the plan when it feels more like a collaboration, she's found, thanks to her work with WNBA veterans such as Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.
"It just gives you a variety of opinions and pieces of the whole puzzle," Ms. Rizzotti said of her time around some of the game's greatest minds. "Basketball can be so limited to that on-the-court experience, and what we do as coaches is so much more than that.
"I love talking about philosophy and strategy and game-planning with anybody that is willing to talk to me.”
