USC Trojans' Kennedy Smith Selected By USA Basketball For FIBA AmeriCup

The 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup will start on June 28 and end on July 6 in Chile. The competition is between 10 national teams of FIBA America. These 10 teams will split into groups of five, with the top four in each group advancing to the quarterfinals. From there, it will be a single elimination knockout tournament to see who wins. 

The 10 teams that qualified for this year’s tournament are the USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. 

Group A consists of the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Canada, El Salvador, and Brazil. 

Group B consists of the USA, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Puerto Rico. 

This is the 18th FIBA Women’s AmeriCup. The last edition was in 2023, where Brazil defeated the USA in the championship game.

Kennedy Smith's Freshman Season at USC

Kennedy Smith finished up her freshman season with the USC Trojans this year averaging 9.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game. Smith was a key component to the Trojans team in 2024-2025.

USC was led by superstar guard and Wooden Player of the Year winner, JuJu Watkins, but they had many contributions around her, and Smith was one of them. Smith was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team while also being named an All-Big Ten team honorable mention. The Trojans went 31-4 this season, including 17-1 in Big Ten conference play. They won the Big Ten regular season title in their first season as a member of the conference. 

Smith had one of her best games of her young college career this past March in the Sweet 16 of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. In the absence of the injured JuJu Watkins, Smith led USC in scoring with 19 points in 36 minutes played en route to the Trojans 67-61 win over the Kansas State Wildcats.

USC’s season came to an end two days later in the Elite Eight to the UConn Huskies. UConn, led by 2025 WNBA Draft No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers, was a buzzsaw the entire tournament. They won every game by double digits, including their 78-64 Elite Eight win over the Trojans. UConn won the National Championship over the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks by a final score of 82-59.

With Watkins's status for the 2025 season still up in the air as she recovers from her torn ACL, Smith will be asked to take on a much bigger role than she did last season.