The team is just a victory from the title and can become Swedish champions on Friday night at home after 2-0 in the final series against Luleå.

The 38-year-old veteran has dominated when it comes to and averaged 21 points, eleven rebounds and five assists in the final game, despite the fact that after New Year she struggled with a painful back injury.

There were only eleven regular season matches, yet she was chosen as "Center of the Year" in SBL for the second year in a row.

- I really missed the team and came back just in time for the playoffs.

I lost a little skin, but my basketball IQ was still there so it was just to step straight into the team.

And there have not always been many side tracks, she says with a crooked smile.

Elected first in the draft

She's the farm girl who started her career shooting balls against a barn wall at home in Wisconsin.

A talent who in 2005, through a successful college career, was selected first in the WNBA draft, won the professional league with the Minnesota Lynx and also won a Euro League title.

She ended up in Sweden by chance, first in AIK Basket 2016 and now the third season in Alvik where McCarville contributed with more than just his passes and points.

Helps the team

She is the extended arm of coach Fotios Ioannidi, an assistant and playing coach who not least developed the team's long players and taught positions and maneuvers around the baskets.

- I have been involved for so long that I have seen and understand different types of defense and games.

And how to defeat it at the highest level, she says.

- When coach Fotios (Ioannidis) has a question about something, we discuss it and move on.

I have also shared with other players, I work with the longer players, with footwork, the game under the baskets, how should we position ourselves, the defensive game in general.

I have tried to help the team grow.

Train girls team

She has also taken responsibility for the club's future, as coach of Alvik's girls team born in 2004, a way to eventually add new talent to the A-team.

And for McCarville, his own career development in the direction of becoming a full-time coach.

She is studying coaching at a distance and has big visions.

- I can imagine training in the Euro League or even the WNBA, but I think that Sweden and Alvik are a good start for me as it is right now.

But first, a historic gold must be salvaged, the club's 20th but above all the first on the women's side.

- So far, so good, says McCarville before what could be a gold party at home on Friday.

CLIP: Janel McCarville: The draft winner who will take Alvik to the Swedish Championship gold

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Janel McCarville: The draft winner who will take Alvik to the Swedish Championship gold