Seven USA Basketball gold medalists, including four members of the 2016 USA U18 National Team that qualified USA Basketball for the 2017 FIBA U19 World Cup for Men, headline 28 of the nation’s top 19-and-unders who have accepted invitations to attend the 2017 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team training camp June 18-25 at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Invitations were issued by the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee. Athletes eligible for this team must be 19 years old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1998) and U.S. citizens.
“We’re excited about the players who have accepted our invitation to attend the USA Men’s U19 training camp,” said Purdue University head coach Matt Painter, chair of the selection committee. “We have an outstanding group of players, some of whom have prior USA Basketball experience, some with outstanding collegiate experience and some of the best high school players in America. It will be very competitive in tryouts to make the 12-person U19 team.”
As the 2013 and 2015 FIBA U19 World Champion, the United States will look for a third-consecutive gold medal at the July 1-9 event in Cairo, Egypt.
Accepting invitations to attend the USA U19 World Cup Team training camp were: Desmond Bane (TCU/Richmond, Ind.); Bol Bol (Mater Dei H.S./Santa Ana, Calif.); Marques Bolden (Duke/DeSoto, Texas); Chaundee Brown (First Academy/Orlando, Fla.); Devon Daniels (NC State/Battle Creek, Mich.); Hamidou Diallo(University of Kentucky/Queens, NY); Carsen Edwards (Purdue/Atascocita, Texas); Malachi Flynn (Washington State/Tacoma, Wash.); Kevin Huerter(Maryland/Clifton Park, N.Y.); Louis King (Hudson Catholic H.S./Columbus, N.J.); Kevin Knox II (Tampa Catholic H.S./Tampa, Fla.); Romeo Langford (New Albany H.S./New Albany, Ind.); Brandon McCoy (Cathedral Catholic H.S/San Diego, Calif.); De’Anthony Melton (Southern California/North Hollywood, Calif.); Charlie Moore (Kansas/Chicago, Ill.); Chuma Okeke (Westlake H.S./Atlanta, Ga.); Josh Okogie (Georgia Tech/Snellville, Ga.); Shamorie Ponds (St. John’s/Brooklyn, N.Y.); Payton Pritchard (Oregon/West Linn, Ore.); Immanuel Quickly (John Carroll School/Bel Air, Md.); Cameron Reddish (Westtown School/Norristown, Pa.); Mitchell Robinson (Chalmette H.S./New Orleans, La.); Quinton Rose (Temple/Rochester, N.Y.); Jeremiah Tilmon II (La Lumiere H.S., Ind./East Saint Louis, Ill.); PJ Washington (Findlay Prep/Las Vegas, Nev.); Austin Wiley (Auburn/Hoover, Ala.); Kris Wilkes (North Central H.S./Indianapolis, Ind.); and Trae Young (Norman North H.S./Norman, Okla.).
University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari will lead the USA U19 World Cup Team with the assistance of Tad Boyle from the University of Colorado and Danny Manning from Wake Forest University. Additionally, Sean Hanrahan of Warner University, Dan Muller of Illinois State University, King Rice of Monmouth University and Jeremy Shulman from Eastern Florida State College will serve as court coaches during the training camp.
The 2017 USA Men’s U19 World Cup Team training camp is set to get underway at 5 p.m. (all times local, MDT) on June 18. Following two practice sessions on June 19, 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and 4:30-7 p.m., and a morning session on June 20, finalists for the USA U19 team are expected to be announced. The selected finalists will remain in Colorado Springs and will train twice a day through June 25. The 12-member team is expected to be announced June 22.
Including seven gold medalists from this past summer, a total of 16 athletes on the list of invitees boast USA Basketball experience.
Returning from the 2016 USA U18 National Team are Diallo, Huerter, Washington and Young, while Knox, Quickly and Wiley return from the gold medal-winning 2016 USA U17 World Championship Team. Knox also helped the 2015 USA U16 National Team to a gold medal, and was a member of the 2017 USA Junior National Select Team that claimed victory in the 2017 Nike Hoop Summit.
Washington was also a member of the 2015 USA 3×3 U18 World Championship Team, which finished in eighth place in Debrecen, Hungary.
Six athletes – Bolden, Brown, McCoy, Ponds, Robinson and Wilkes – are back from the 2016 USA U18 National Team Training Camp, and Langford and Reddish participated in the 2016 USA U17 World Championship Training Camp.
Pritchard returns to the mix for the first time since helping the 2016 USA Junior National Select Team to a win in the 2016 Nike Hoop Summit, where he teamed up with Bolden, while he also was a member of the 2015 U18 3×3 World Championship Team and participated in the 2013 U16 National Team Training Camp.
Athletes with experience from the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team October minicamps are Bolden, who took part in the 2015 USA Junior National Team October minicamp; Knox, who was part of the 2015 and 2016 minicamps; Reddish, who also participated in the 2015 U16 National Team’s June training camp and the 2014 and 2015 October minicamps; Washington from the 2014 minicamp; Wiley, who has participated in the past three minicamps; and Young from the 2016 October minicamp.
Thirteen athletes recently completed their freshman season in college with six earning conference honors, including Okogie (ACC), Ponds (Big East) and Rose (American), who were named to their respective all-freshman teams. In addition, Flynn and Moore were named Pacific-12 Conference All-Freshmen team honorable mentions, while Melton garnered Pac-12 All-Defensive honorable mention honors.
Of the 14 high school athletes, nine are rising college freshmen and five, Bol, King, Langford, Reddish and Quickly are rising high school seniors. Ten earned high school All-America honors for their play this past season.
