After three sessions at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., the pitchers are way ahead of the hitters, as most of the guards are shooting poorly, tossing the ball away for no apparent reason and failing to get the ball to the posts on a consistent basis. For their part, the posts, when they do get a good pass, will miss the close-in shot, and should they get an offensive rebound, miss again.

Oh, and did I mention the fouls? There are a lot of those too.

But Tuesday night’s session was better. Tara VanDerveer, who’s on the selection committee, said afterwards “It looked like basketball tonight” -- and there certainly were flashes. Skylar Diggins (Class of 2009, South Bend, Ind./Washington) started to find the range, Nikki Speed (Pasadena, Calif./Marlborough/Rutgers) ran her team with relative efficiency, and Kelsey Bone (Class of 2009, Stafford, Texas/Dulles) began to assert herself in the paint.

But Bone is just one of many strong, athletic bigs, and that’s a major reason the offenses are struggling: It’s very hard to score inside. The officials, here to get the Americans ready for international competition, which is very physical and seldom has a U.S. bias, are letting them play, and anything less than felonious assault is not going to earn a whistle.

The difficulty inside makes it easier for the perimeter defenders to close out on the shooters, so open looks are at a premium -- and when they arrive, they are seldom taken advantage of.

That said, the tendency of several guards to add mustard to every hot dog, no matter what the situation, only makes things worse, and a roster-wide weakness for the extra pass has turned decent shot opportunities into bad ones.

Coach Carol Owens recognized the problem, and started the day with shooting drills, telling the posts “to get comfortable with their shot” while the guards spent their time working on jumpers. Sadly, it didn’t help all that much, making the task of the selection committee a complex one. Few players are standing out from the pack, and few are falling behind, meaning selecting the 12 who will make the final roster will be a case of mix-and-match -- some will likely make it not because they are necessarily they are one of the top 12 players, but because they mesh well with the other girls who are chosen.

Then again, if someone, anyone, starts making shots, their chances look good, though there is a serious philosophical issue to consider: Should the team be chosen solely or primarily on what happens during these three days, or should a player’s body of work count as much or more?

Chiney Ogwumike (Class of 2010, Cypress, Texas/Cy-Fair) is the youngest player at the Olympic Training Center, with the shortest resume, but she has shown she deserves to be considered for the top 12. Joslyn Tinkle (Class of 2009/Missoula, Mont./Big Sky) has also had her moments, but she’s almost a complete unknown coming in. (Many of the girls just call her “Montana.”)

And meanwhile some of the players who have shown themselves more than capable of playing at this level have struggled, in one or more areas of their games -- so does this mean they just should go to the end of the line because of a couple bad days?

In the end, though, the very balance of the 34 players here (Shenise Johnson (Henrietta, N.Y./Rush-Henrietta HS/Miami, Fla.) couldn’t get out of finals) almost guarantees that the Americans will send a very strong team to Argentina July 23-27. And the tryouts pretty much guarantee that the team will be USA Basketball to the core: Shoot poorly, pass poorly, defend well, rebound better and wind up winning.

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Clay Kallam is a columnist and contributor to HoopGurlz.com. He is the founder of Full Court Press, an online magazine devoted to women"s basketball and the author of “Girls Basketball: Building a Winning Program" (Wish Publishing, 2002). Kallam has written about the women"s game for several national publications and is a voter for the McDonald"s All-American team, the Parade All-American team, the All-WNBA team and the Wooden Award, and formerly wrote for the Contra Costa Times newspaper chain. Clay can be contacted via our Contact form (click "Ask Clay Kallam").