USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley affirmed that Caitlin Clark is expected to be a "big part" of the national team's future despite missing the cut for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

"She's certainly going to continue to get better and better," Tooley said on Tuesday, according to Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press. "Really hope that she's a big part of our future going forward."

The team's selection committee chairperson, Jen Rizzotti, explained why Clark was left off the 12-person roster for the Paris Games:

"Here's the basketball criteria that we were given as a committee and how do we evaluate our players based on that?" Rizzotti said. "And when you base your decision on criteria, there were other players that were harder to cut because they checked a lot more boxes. Then sometimes it comes down to position, style of play for Cheryl (Reeve) and then sometimes a vote."

Clark's omission was a controversial call among fans, with critics pointing to how much her popularity could've increased the visibility of the women's team and the Summer Games as a whole.

The reasons behind USA Basketball's decision were called into question as well. USA Today's Christine Brennan reported that "concern about how Clark's millions of fans would react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster was a factor in the decision making."

Rizzotti denied anything other than basketball-related factors went into constructing the 12-payer squad.

"It would be irresponsible for us to talk about her in a way other than how she would impact the play of the team," she said. "Because it wasn't the purview of our committee to decide how many people would watch or how many people would root for the U.S. It was our purview to create the best team we could for Cheryl."

That Clark figures to be a member of Team USA for a long time to come offers one line of logic for taking her to Paris. She won gold medals at the youth level for Team USA, and getting her feet wet now would've provided her with some experience at the senior level.

But that didn't provide ironclad grounds for selecting the 22-year-old.

Because she was playing for Iowa in the Final Four, Clark missed Team USA's brief training camp in April, and that put her behind the curve.

Her performance out of the gate didn't make this a no-brainer, either. Through 13 appearances, she's averaging 16.3 points on 37.3 percent shooting, including 33.0 percent on threes, along with 4.9 rebounds and 6.0 assists.

Feinberg noted the door isn't closed on Clark for the 2024 Summer Olympics. She's one of the alternates and would be under consideration if Las Vegas Aces star Chelsea Gray is ruled out due to her foot injury.