**UPDATE: Isaiah Briscoe suffered a head injury Thursday night, and was subsequently removed from the USA U19 team. Read more here.**
In the past year, Isaiah Briscoe has won a gold medal with USA Basketball, the prestigious Nike Peach Jam title with his AAU team and the New Jersey Tournament of Champions crown with Roselle (N.J.) Catholic High School.
Now he’s looking to add another gold medal to his résumé before he heads to Kentucky next month.
The 6-foot-3 Briscoe made the final cut for the American team that will compete in the FIBA U19 World Championship beginning later this month in Crete, Greece.
The way his future head coach sees it, Briscoe will bring valuable leadership and experience to a team that is pursuing another gold medal.
“[The FIBA game] is such a different game that his physicalness will be fine,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said of Briscoe, who chose Kentucky over St. John’s and UConn last November. “Plus, he’s going to add a maturity to that team because they have a lot of young players, who had been in FIBA basketball before in the 16s and 17s but this is a different deal. I think he’s going to be fine.”
Briscoe will share point guard duties with Villanova-bound point guard Jalen Brunson and Oklahoma State’s Jawun Evans.
That could prepare him well for his time at Kentucky, where he will share floor general duties with rising sophomore Tyler Ulis and possibly Jamal Murray, who is considering Kentucky and Oregon and may reclass to 2015 from 2016.
“It doesn’t make a difference to me,” Briscoe told 247Sports.com from Colorado. “Like out here, if Jalen gets the ball, then I’m running the lane. Same if I get the ball. That’s what it will be like with Tyler. We will pretty much be the backcourt and if he has the ball, I’ll run the lane. If I have the ball, he’ll run the lane.”
Calipari began recruiting Briscoe late and ramped up his interest after the Roselle Catholic guard willed the NJ Playaz to the Peach Jam title last July.
It paid off with a Kentucky commitment, and now Calipari compares him to a former Cat now in the NBA.
“For us he’s going to be like Eric Bledsoe was for us, a guy that can play the point, can play the 2, that can be in pick-and-rolls, that can shoot the ball, that at end of the day he’s going to be in great condition and he’s really going to guard,” Calipari said. “I’m excited about him.”
A supremely confident player who borders on cocky at times, Briscoe has done nothing but win for the past year-plus, and plans to continue to do the same at Kentucky.
“I’m feeling good,” he told 247. “I think we can have an impact in the NCAA and have a good run in the tournament and hopefully win it all.”
Meantime, he wants to add another gold medal before he heads to college.
“I think playing for [Arizona coach] Sean [Miller] and the guys is going to be a great experience,” Calipari said.
Photo: USA Basketball
