It hasn’t yet been a full week since coming back to the states, but senior forward Danielle McCray spent her Monday afternoon working out at the Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center, even after her coach gave her two weeks off.

“I can’t stay still,” McCray said. “But I guess that’s a good thing.”

McCray and sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor were the lone Jayhawks representing Kansas basketball for Team USA. Both athletes won gold medals, McCray in the World University Games and Taylor in the U-19 league division.

Both the World University Games and U-19 championships are held every two years. According to Team USA’s Web site, the World University Games are for current or recently graduated student athletes and the U-19 are for athletes age 19 or younger. Taylor turned 19 April 12,

After Kansas’ heartbreaking loss at home in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament finals, McCray focused on the next best thing: the upcoming season. But in between that and the end of the season, McCray had been preparing for the Team USA tryouts for the World University games. Playing for Team USA was something McCray said she had always dreamed of.

“I remember asking like my high school coach, ‘How do you get on Team USA?’” McCray said.

From the end of May through the middle of June, both McCray and Taylor spent time in Colorado Springs, Colo., going through the process of tryouts and cuts to make the roster for their teams.

McCray said she and Taylor would catch up after practices.

“We would just talk about normal stuff,” McCray said. “We were doing two-a-day practices and we wouldn’t want to talk about basketball.”

McCray said it was cool for both of them to be there representing Kansas basketball.

McCray said the selection process for Team USA’s World University Games was “scary.” The athletes sat in a room waiting to hear whether their names would be called.

“The first cut was out of 30 girls,” Mcray said. “I had figured I did the best that I could.”

After making it through the first cut, she had confidence in making the final cut. Once she was officially on the team, McCray traveled to Belgrade, Serbia while Taylor headed out to Auckland, New Zealand.

“New Zealand is an interesting place. We didn’t really do much except play basketball,” Taylor said at a press conference July 15.

Both Jayhawks played against players from around the world.

“It was good. We played against guys my age, so it wasn’t the best of the best, but for the age group, I think it was good,” Taylor said at the conference. “We played against some guys that play professionally over there, so there was a lot of great talent.”

While abroad, McCray played for Charli Turner Thorne of Arizona State and Taylor played for Jamie Dixon of the University of Pittsburgh.

McCray said Thorne was similar to coach Bonnie Henrickson.

“She said to always focus on the little things,” Mcray said. “If you weren’t, then you were coming out of the game.”

McCray said Thorne repeatedly told the girls to stay focused and to not let up on competition no matter how far they were. She said one difference she noticed in Thorne was her style of substitution rotation during games.

“She would bring five of us in and take the other five out,” McCray said. “We were equal to each other so it didn’t affect us at all.”

For Taylor, playing under NBA style rules was something he had to make an adjustment to.

“Guys were taking extra steps and the refs wouldn’t call it,” Taylor said at the conference. “It helped me prepare for the next level because they didn’t call anything.”

Taylor said that playing under those rules helped him to be more physical against guys who were bigger than his 6-foot-3-inch frame.

Both teams were undefeated going into their gold medal matches. For World University Games finals, Team USA played against Russia, and the U-19 league faced Greece. Both McCray and Taylor started in the final game. Taylor lead the team with 18 points, five steals and six assists leading Team USA to a 88 to 80 victory. Taylor played in eight total games and started in six of them. He was the leading scorer for Team USA throughout the tournament, averaging 10.8 points and 4.4 assists.

“I felt like all the hard work paid off,” Taylor said at the press conference. “We practiced a lot for two and a half weeks.”

McCray scored six points and three assists in the 83-64 victory against Russia. Throughout the tournament, McCray was second leading scorer for the team and started in five of the seven games she played.

Charles’s teammate Maya Moore won National player of the year and was McCray’s roommate during the tournament.

McCray said that she had to guard Moore during scrimmages and that she and Moore had the same strengths.

“She never stops moving,” McCray said.

McCray said she texted Moore to congratulate her after she won the ESPY award on Sunday for Best Female College Athlete. McCray considers her a good friend now.

“Before she was my roommate that took forever in the bathroom; now she’s in my phone and I text her every day,” McCray said.

McCray said winning the gold medal was bittersweet after losing the WNIT finals.

For the upcoming season, McCray will continue to take on the role of being the leader. Even on her two weeks off, McCray said she came in to early-morning practices to help cheer on her teammates.

Although the loss of the finals hurt the team, McCray said it was nice that it gave Kansas women’s basketball more publicity.

“It really showed how you can bring people in with success,” McCray said.

McCray said that people were “slowly but surely” paying more attention to Kansas women’s basketball, and believed that the first game of the 2009-2010 season would be a lot bigger than last year.

While competing overseas, the players were different about staying in touch with their coaches. McCray said she tried to update Henrickson as much as she could through Skype. Taylor said he hadn’t spoken to coach Bill Self about his experience in New Zealand but said Self was excited for him.

For Taylor, the upcoming season is a chance to better himself as a player after playing overseas.

“I knew I could play well like that. I just think other people didn’t really know how much I can do,” Taylor said at the conference. “I think I had confidence before — it’s just helping me because I know I’m going to be around great players this year, too.”

— — Edited by Hannah DeClerk