Losing Not An Option Winning Is Still The Only Dream For U.S. Women

They have a coach named for Scarlett O’Hara’s mansion. A star layer who dunks and poses for magazine fashion layouts. A 51-0 team record.

The U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team also has a golden opportunity in these Olympics. With the novelty fast disappearing from the men’s basketball team - how many 60-point wins over Angola do you really want to see? - these women are poised to become stars.

They are the female Dream Team, playing a recognizable form of basketball relying on hustle, good fundamentals and teamwork. They could be unforgettable in three weeks.

Then again, they could fall flat on their faces.

And if that happens, this $3 million experiment in women’s hoops could evaporate like a 10-point first-quarter lead in the NBA.

“We don’t want to even raise the question in our minds that we might not win the gold medal,” forward Katy Steding said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

The team has traveled more than 100,000 miles in the past year, promoting the gospel of women’s basketball. Sandra Day O’Connor showed the team members around the Supreme Court, saying she made time to do it because “what you’re doing is important.”

President Clinton jogged with the team one morning. An Elvis impersonator in Russia danced with the players. Shoe companies lined up to sign them up - team member Sheryl Swoopes even has her own signature shoe, produced by Nike.

All of the women took major pay cuts to bond together for this year, playing for $50,000 each rather than the $200,000-$300,000 most could have made overseas. Their mission is already complete in one sense.

“I think we’ve done a lot already,” said Teresa Edwards, who is playing on her fourth Olympic team - the most appearances by any U.S. player ever. “We’ll definitely be known as pioneers… . But personally, I’d be very disappointed if we don’t have a gold medal.”

The women’s Dream Team was created in direct response to the embarrassment of 1992.

After winning golds in 1984 and 1988, the U.S. women were supposed to get their third straight in Barcelona, Spain. Instead, they were upset by the Russians and finished with a bronze medal.

That American team - like every other U.S. women’s team from the past - was cobbled together a couple of months before the Games. It was a group of all-stars who had been playing on different teams, usually overseas. And when the going got tough in 1992, the Americans turned out not to be tough enough.

“It was foolish for us to think as Americans that we can just enter international competitions without any preparation and win,” said Tara VanDerveer, the women’s Olympic coach. “So this time we didn’t wait until a month or two before the Games to put together a team.”

This time, the team was chosen a year ago. VanDerveer took a year off from her regular coaching job at Stanford to coach the squad.

You may remember that Stanford got to the women’s college Final Four anyway in Charlotte in March. VanDerveer was in Charlotte, N.C., already - the U.S. team had womanhandled the Ukraine in a nearby exhibition the same week.

VanDerveer, earning the nickname the “distant assistant,” watched in the stands as Stanford lost to Georgia in the Final Four.

VanDerveer’s U.S. team, on the other hand, hasn’t lost a game since its formation. The USA blasted through a schedule that has been a mixed bag of collegiate teams and international teams. It has trailed at halftime only four times in 51 games - although it won its last exhibition, against Russia, by only 80-79.

In a perfect situation, the women’s Dream Team would finish 60-0 by winning an exhibition against Italy July 13 and then sweeping eight Olympic games.

If that happens, expect 6-foot-5 Lisa Leslie to get as much TV time on NBC as Jerry Seinfeld. Already taller than her elementary school teacher in second grade, she is this team’s best player.

Leslie, 24, can dunk off a running start and has been featured in numerous photo spreads in magazines, including Vogue and Newsweek.

“Modeling is easy,” she said. “You just look pretty and smile.”

On the basketball court, though, Leslie gets much more ornery.

“When I’m in regular clothes, I’m feminine, I don’t like to sweat,” she said. “I’m a peacemaker in an argument. But when I put on basketball shorts, forget it.”

VanDerveer knows how important a gold medal could be to jump-start the two professional women’s leagues slated to start in the U.S. next season. She is a longtime student of the game.

In middle school, she was the basketball team mascot, but kept taking off the bear head she was supposed to wear so she could see the game better. Later, at Indiana, she took Bob Knight’s coaching class on campus and earned an A.

Now she believes this team is destined for gold.

“We’re in the right place at the right time with the right people,” she said.

At least, that’s the plan.