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Notre Dame women’s basketball recruit Eve Long caps busy week with a berth on Team USA

Eric Hansenby: Eric Hansen05/25/26EHansenND

It’s been a whirlwind week for five-star women’s basketball recruit Eve Long, with her promising future redefining positively by the day.

On Wednesday, the 6-foot-3 forward from Olathe, Kan., verbally committed to Notre Dame and head coach Niele Ivey. The next day she was in Colorado Springs, Colo., as one of 46 invitees vying to make the 12-player USA U17 team.

On Sunday, it was mission accomplished.

USA Basketball announced on Sunday night the 12 players who will represent the U.S. in the 2026 FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup, July 11-19 in Brno, Czech Republic.

Long will be joined on the team by Jazman Bailey, Caroline Bradley, Tatianna Griffin, Maliya Hunter, Olivia Jones, Micah Ojo, Morghan Reckley, Nya Riak, Arianna Robinson, Nation Williams and Ivanna Wilson Manyacka. 

Ten members of the 2025 USA Women’s U16 National Team, which won gold at the 2025 FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup, made the squad — and that includes Long. Lubbock Christian University coach Steve Gomez will serve as head coach of Team USA after leading the U16 to the gold medal last summer.

World Cup format and history

The 2026 FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup features 16 teams. The USA will open play in Group A on July 11 against Ivory Coast. The Americans have an all-time record of 50-1 in the U17 competition, winning six of the seven tournaments held. The team will reconvene in early July before heading overseas.

After her successful gold medal run last summer, Long went out and averaged 32.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.4 blocks as a junior to lead Olathe South to a 20-5 record. She is the No. 8 player overall in the 2027 class in the Rivals Industry rankings.

Roughly 3 1/2 weeks after taking an official visit to South Bend, Ind., on Blue-Gold Game football weekend, Long became Notre Dame’s first commitment in the 2027 recruiting cycle, choosing the Irish over fellow finalists UConn and reigning national champion UCLA.

In the summer of 2027, she’ll be joining the first Notre Dame team in four years not to be built around point guard Hannah Hidalgo, who will be out of college eligibility. Instead it will be built around the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class in the last cycle, comprising five players led by wing Jacy Abii.

“That’s really something that stands out to me,” Long told Rivals’ Talia Goodman, talking about the 2026 class ahead of her April 24-25 official visit, “because the girls that they recruited are girls who have similar values to me. A great team attracts great players, and so I’m excited just to keep learning more about them.”

Notre Dame has a long history of players on the U17 national team. Abii in 2024 and Hidalgo in 2022 were on the last two USA U17 teams to play in the FIBA World Cup, held every two years.