ASU women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne’s summer plans just got a little bit busier.

USA Basketball announced on Thursday that Turner Thorne will be the head coach of the 2009 Women’s World University Games Team that will compete this July in Belgrade, Serbia.

“[My first reaction] was definitely one of great enthusiasm,” Turner Thorne said. “[I took] a slight pause, just because it’s so intense and it is a big time commitment, and then really [I was] just genuinely feeling honored and appreciative of the opportunity to coach with USA Basketball again.”

Turner Thorne was selected as the team’s coach by the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee and then approved by the USA Basketball Board of Directors.

The World University Games is an event organized by the International University Sports Federation that features a variety of sports and takes place every other year.

This will be Turner Thorne’s first head coaching position with USA Basketball. She served as an assistant coach for the USA Women’s U21 National Team in 2007 that posted an 8-0 mark in Moscow and captured the gold medal.

“I very much enjoyed my assistant coach role [in 2007],” Turner Thorne said. “I enjoyed not necessarily being in charge of everything and responsible 100 percent. This is going to be a little more, and yet it will be exciting too, because it will be a greater challenge for me.”

Turner Thorne said she can take much of her experience as an assistant coach on the U21 National Team and apply it to the increased duties that will come with being a head coach at the international level this time around.

“[Being an assistant coach] was huge, [because] I really didn’t have a huge exposure to high-level, international basketball,” she said. “I would feel ill-prepared to take a team without doing that [role] of the assistant coach first.”

Joining Turner Thorne’s staff as assistant coaches will be Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant and Pepperdine coach Julie Rousseau.

“The coaching staff for the World University Games Team is an outstanding group of coaches who have been highly successful and will bring a wealth of experience to the players on the team,” said Sue Donohoe, chair of the Women’s Junior National Team Committee, according the ASU media relations. “These young women will have a remarkable experience and will learn a great deal, both on and off the court, from Charli Turner Thorne, Suzy Merchant and Julie Rousseau.”

Turner Thorne said there are a number of things to look forward to as she gets ready to embark on her second journey of international competition.

“It’s just a fun challenge just to get to represent your country and go for a gold medal,” she said. “You get to coach some of the best players in the country and get a chance to work with them a little bit. And then [I’m looking forward to] the international travel.

Basketball has taken me all over the world already, and I wouldn’t get to Eastern Europe otherwise, so I feel like that will be a real learning experience for me as well.”

Turner Thorne finished her 13th season at ASU last month, where the Sun Devils went 26-9 (15-3 Pac-10) and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. She is the most successful coach in program history (251-154) and currently ranks fourth in Pac-10 history in career wins.

Trials for the 2009 USA Basketball Women’s World University Games Team will take place May 14 to 17 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Finalists will then return on June 18 for training camp before the 12-player team departs for Belgrade on June 25.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.