ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly is at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., trying to put together his team for the 2011 World University Games.

Fennelly, who was named the 2011 USA women’s basketball coach for the games back in April, is now just a few weeks away from chasing a gold medal in Shenzhen, China.

“The challenge is that you have three weeks to do what college coaches want to do in a year or years: try to build a team,” Fennelly said. “I think the biggest thing is that you have to make things really simple. You can’t put in a really complicated offensive structure.”

There are 14 players currently at the U.S. Olympic Training Center who are competing for one of the 12 spots on the roster.

Once the final two cuts are made and the roster has been finalized, Fennelly will have until Aug. 8 to prepare before the team leaves for China.

“One of the challenges is that you will have 12 people that are used to playing all the time and shooting all the time,” Fennelly said. “You have to check your ego at the door. You’re not going to play all the time and you’re not going to take every shot. I think the challenges are getting them to share the ball and getting them to play defense.”

Fennelly’s previous experiences with USA basketball have all led to gold medals, including a FIBA U19 World Championship in Thailand in 2009.

This time will be a little different, however: in the past, he had always served as an assistant coach.

“The biggest obvious thing for me is, when you get to coach for a USA team, that’s a pretty special deal,” Fennelly said.

The road to the World University Games started in May when USA Basketball held a 35-player tryout in Colorado Springs.

After the group of 35 was cut down to 14, the players and coaches went home and did not resume training together until July 31.

Although Fennelly and his two assistant coaches, Terri Williams-Flournoy of Georgetown and Suzie McConnell-Serio of Duquesne University, were not able to choose the 14 finalists, they were pleased with the players that the USA committee selected.

“We don’t have a true center, like a Brittney Griner kind of person, and we might lack a little perimeter shooting, but I think we’ll be very athletic at the two, three and the four. We also have Skylar Diggins and Oddessy Sims to play the point guard, so that’s not too bad,” Fennelly said.

Team USA has been placed in Group B with Brazil, Great Britain and Slovakia, and will play the opening of the 2011 World University Games against Brazil on Aug. 14.

“I’ve heard the national anthem a lot in my life, but when you hear it after a game where you’ve just won a gold medal, it’s a little different and that’s a feeling that you want those kids to have,” Fennelly said.