USA Basketball released a press release this morning with a list of seventeen players that had accepted invitations to try out for the U-19 team that will represent the United States at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championships. The seventeen players will report to training camp, which will be held June 17-24 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The training camp will be used to select the 12-member team.
The USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee, chaired by NCAA representative Jim Boeheim (head coach, Syracuse University), will announce on June 19 finalists for the 12-member USA U19 World Championship Team roster. Training camp for the selected finalists will begin in the afternoon on June 19, with the official 12-member USA roster being announced prior to the teams’ departure for Europe on June 24. The 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men is being held June 30-July 10 in Valmiera, Liepaja and Riga Latvia.
The team is coached by Paul Hewett, longtime Georgia Tech coach who recently accepted the head coach position at George Mason. His assistants are Randy Bennett of St. Mary’s College and Cliff Warren of Jacksonville University.
From the USA Basketball press release:
“Between the coaching staff and the 17 players that will be participating in the USA U19 training camp, we believe we have assembled another outstanding group who should give us an excellent opportunity to defend our U19 World Championship gold medal,” said Boeheim. “The USA Basketball Men’s Collegiate Committee again did an excellent job of identifying a very talented group of young players who will compete during the first three days of the training camp for a roster position on the USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team.”
Originally known as the FIBA Junior World Championship, the tournament was held every four years from 1979 – 2007. Starting in 2009 FIBA changed its calendar and now holds age-based world championships every other year. USA men’s teams are 62-11 in the U19/Junior World Championships, and have won four gold and three silver medals, most recently earning the gold medal for the first time since 1991 with a 9-0 record in 2009.
This is obviously a huge honor for McDermott, who was named the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year and Freshman of the Year, as well as being named to the USBWA Freshman All-America second team. He became the first freshman since 1952 to be named first-team all-Missouri Valley Conference, led Creighton in scoring (14.9) and rebounding (7.2), and tied for the team lead with 47 three-pointers made. His nine double-doubles led the MVC and he joined Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony as the only freshmen nationally since 2003 with at least 525 points, 270 rebounds and 40 three-pointers in a season. And, it bears repeating if only because it amuses me greatly, many in the media and on message boards speculated McDermott would redshirt prior to the season…and then he went on to have one of the greatest freshmen seasons in not only Creighton but MVC history. And now this. How lucky are Creighton fans at getting to watch this guy for three more seasons?
Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott said in a Creighton press release, “This is a tremendous honor for Doug. The chance to compete alongside some of the best players in America in his age group, as well as the potential to represent Team USA on the world stage, is a huge opportunity that he is very much looking forward to.”
White & Blue Review will update his progress and should he make the team, track his performance in the U-19 World Championship in June and July.
