2015 International Hoops

[awhom111]

USA Basketball has finally announced players for something so it is time to start this summer's thread. It is the U16 tryout roster for the upcoming FIBA Americas tournament to qualify for the 2016 World U17 Championship, but it seems possible that one of these boys could end up being a Duke player at some point:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...announced.aspx

The expectation is that more tryout rosters for the summer should be announced in the next week, especially since key ones on the women's side get going in May, so we should get Duke-relevant news soon. Some coaching staffs have been announced recently.

On the senior side, most of the national teams that are not the United States will be hard at work trying to qualify for the Olympics, so there will be plenty of that to follow too. This thread will be the place!

[awhom111]

2017 Duke commit Mikayla Boykin is one of thirty five players to be invited to USA U16 tryouts as they prepare for the continental tournament this summer in Mexico. Tryouts will have more players added later through an application process.

Story:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...-invitees.aspx
Roster:
http://www.usab.com/womens/u16/roster.aspx

[awhom111]

The USA Women's team is not competing this summer, but they are having a training camp between the overseas and WNBA seasons next week. They announced the players that they expect to attend, with three new players joining twenty four players who were part of the original pool:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...ning-camp.aspx

The interesting pick in center Jennifer Hamson who last played competitive basketball in Spring 2014 with BYU. She had a year of volleyball eligiblity left, so she used that instead of playing in the WNBA as a third round pick or playing overseas basketball. I do not disagree with the USA Basketball braintrust that often, but I am very disappointed at this choice in light of the standards the program usually has for players.

Also of relevance, the Billy Donovan news makes it seem likely that USA Basketball will need to find a new U19 coach. I would have to think that Sean Miller would be the favorite with Ed Cooley less likely. I wonder who would be brought in to fill a vacant assistant position. Maybe Sean would bring in brother Archie?

I guess we can pretend this article never existed:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...ship-team.aspx

[awhom111]

As expected, Marty Pocius is one of the players on Lithuania's preliminary roster for the summer as they try to keep up their Olympic history:
http://www.musukrepsinis.lt/naujieno...s-automobilis/

[awhom111]

Three USA teams will be filled after tryouts next week, so they finally have a list available.

Azura Stevens is 1 of 34 players going for 12 spots on the U19 team playing in the World Championships. Duke will have representation regardless as Summer McKeehan will be the trainer.
Story with link to roster:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...announced.aspx

Rebecca Greenwell is part of the dual tryouts to fill out squads for the Pan-American Games and World University Games. 54 players look to fill 24 total spots. Alexis Jones will also be in the tryouts and see her first action at this level since her last game at Duke.
Story with link to roster:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...announced.aspx

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Much appreciation for your continued attention to this thread.

[awhom111]

Today's USA Basketball announcement was for the staff of the Pan-American Games team. Mark Few will be the head coach, assisted by Tad Boyle and Mike Brown (highly recommended by the Cavaliers):
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...can-games.aspx

This is significant because the rumor/open secret last year was that John Calipari would be coaching. I guess this either means that he secretly hates America, realized that it would not boost recruiting, did not want to lose to Rick Pitino or Canada or the Dominican Republic, or did not want some yahoo writing an article about him.

The team will be made up of non-NBA players and it will be interesting to see who eventually lines up to play. Lance Thomas was one of the players on the team last time and in recognition of his time on the team, he was given a spot on the following USA Select Team, which had to be a cool experience for him. Due to the timing of this event (around the time of the NBA Summer Leagues) I would not anticipate any professional player aspiring to be in the NBA next season to be involved. This might be a good opportunity for some upperclassmen from the college ranks to play at this level with the World University Games not in the picture.

[awhom111]

It was a busy day of USA Basketball news. As expected, Sean Miller slides over from the assistant chair to the head man with Billy Donovan gone. Someone in charge finally listens to me as they bring in brother Archie to fill the vacant assistant spot:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...coaches-2.aspx

The annual chaos is set for next week when 158 girls shoot for 12 spots on the American U16 team this summer. They like to add applicants for open tryouts in addition to players that they invite.
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...ls-roster.aspx

We only have pictures from one USA practice today so far. Here is Azura Stevens in action:
http://www.usab.com/~/media/a2a3ed10...shx?as=1&iar=1

[awhom111]

All of the tryouts from this weekend are done now and players will find out whether they have made a team on Sunday morning.

Here is some coverage including quotes and a picture of Becca Greenwell in action:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...c-lessons.aspx
http://www.usab.com/~/media/bf235da9...shx?as=1&iar=1

[Reilly]

Thanks for the links. The men's U19 team will compete in Greece for a world championship, coached by the Miller brothers and Providence's coach. The team will have tryouts in June, then compete in late June through early July.

One of the articles said tryout invitations would be sent in March -- but I didn't see on the USA Basketball site a list of players invited. No announcement on that score? Any ideas? Should we expect the players from last year's U18 Americas champion? (See that Justise and Tyus were on last year's team so I guess not them with post-draft responsibilities? Kennard and Jeter were on last year's U18 team).

Interesting U19 history -- the U19 world championship has been held 11 times and the USA has won the gold in less than half (5/11).

It looks like JJ was on the team in 2003 and the USA came in 5th place -- but JJ played in only 2 of 8 games whereas everybody else on the team played 7 or 8 of the 8 games. Was JJ hurt? (I couldn't find any links indicating he was hurt.)

[awhom111]

Duke goes two for two this morning.

Azura will be on the U19 team:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...announced.aspx

Becca will be on the World University Games team:
http://www.usab.com/womens/world-uni...es/roster.aspx

The United States looks to be trying to do some damage at the Pan-American Games, sending a rather strong team of collegians against what will be nearly full strength teams from the Americas preparing for Olympic qualification:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...ter-named.aspx

Thanks for the links. The men's U19 team will compete in Greece for a world championship, coached by the Miller brothers and Providence's coach. The team will have tryouts in June, then compete in late June through early July.

One of the articles said tryout invitations would be sent in March -- but I didn't see on the USA Basketball site a list of players invited. No announcement on that score? Any ideas? Should we expect the players from last year's U18 Americas champion? (See that Justise and Tyus were on last year's team so I guess not them with post-draft responsibilities? Kennard and Jeter were on last year's U18 team).

Interesting U19 history -- the U19 world championship has been held 11 times and the USA has won the gold in less than half (5/11).

It looks like JJ was on the team in 2003 and the USA came in 5th place -- but JJ played in only 2 of 8 games whereas everybody else on the team played 7 or 8 of the 8 games. Was JJ hurt? (I couldn't find any links indicating he was hurt.)

It usually takes them a while to get their roster together. They have to deal with players declaring for the draft then incoming freshman deciding whether they want to participate or head to campus. That is part of the reason that our success has been variable at this age group as you pointed out. There will be some tough teams in this year's field (though sadly probably not the full strength Emus from Australia). The 2013 tryout list was announced on the 22nd, so expect something in the next week or two.

[awhom111]

Kansas was unlikely to have 12 scholarship players available to fill up all of the roster spots for their World University Games team so Larry Brown send them someone on loan:
http://www.kuathletics.com/news/2015...px?path=mbball

It was interesting that they got a current college player from another school like Nic Moore. Early speculation had them trying to bring back former players who are already pros. I am guessing N. Tharpe would be out of the question, but I thought an E. Johnson, T. Releford, or T. Taylor could be an option. They may still have another spot to fill.

For fun, I wonder how a lineup of D. Thornton, T. Thornton, Allen, Kennard, Jones, Ingram, Jeter, Jefferson, Plumlee, Hairston, and say Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer would do in comparison. Obi and Vrankovic would be excluded to let them represent other countries (Vrankovic played for the Croatia U16s at one point).

[awhom111]

This says that Lindsey Harding will make her way to Belarus soon:
http://www.bbf.by/ru/news/harding-pr...us-26-maya.htm

Earlier this year she took up citizenship there to help prolong her overseas career and to earn a little extra by not taking up a non-European spot on club teams. In return she has to fulfill national team obligations when they need her as they will for the upcoming Eurobasket Women tournament that determines Olympic qualification. This is similar to DeMarcus Nelson taking Serbian citizenship, but sentiment there right now is towards not using a naturalized player, so he has no national team responsibilities. Nick Horvath has citizenship in New Zealand by marrying a citizen there and of course he lives there as well.

[awhom111]

A most difficult process is now complete as the USA U16 Girls Team has whittled down their roster from 158 to 12 in the course of one weekend:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...eam-named.aspx

[awhom111]

The next set of USA tryouts is the U16 Boys. Most of the list was released earlier, but there were a handful of additions right before camp including the brother of Tyus Jones. Full details are here:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...5-16-mjnt.aspx

[awhom111]

Lindsey Harding made her debut for Belarus today in an exhibition tournament game against Romania. She had 9 points in 25 minutes as they won 75-58. Ex-West Virginia player Yelena Leuchanka, the unquestioned star of the team, had 20 points and 21 rebounds. Ex-Drexel player Gabriela Marginean had 13 points in the loss.
Here are stories that you probably will not be able to understand without a little help:
http://www.bbf.by/ru/news/kubok-hali...-rezultaty.htm
http://www.bbf.by/ru/news/dedyut-harding-29-5-15.htm

This is a little more clear:

[awhom111]

Lindsey and Belarus lost the final game of the exhibition tournament 78-66 to Russia. Lindsey had 6 points in 25 minutes. Yelena Leuchanka had 16 points. In the win, Lindsey's naturalized counterpart, ex-Rutgers player Epiphanny Prince, had 18 points, 7 assists, and 6 steals.

The USA U16 Boys Team has cut their squad down to 17 with no further cuts projected in the near future. Tre Jones is one of the remaining players:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...mu16-team.aspx

[awhom111]

USA Basketball decided to go wild with announcements today.

The U16 team roster has been finalized. It is a little early to figure out recruiting angles, but Tre Jones was picked. I also like this article which explains some of the other activities that players go through during the camp process, something that USA Basketball is doing well at all age levels:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...ng-a-team.aspx
Article:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...eam-named.aspx
Roster:
http://www.usab.com/mens/u16/roster.aspx

The U19 tryout roster has been announced and it is quite surprising since I was not given advance notice that this would be the case, but Luke Kennard, Chase Jeter, and Brandon Ingram are not participating, apparently by choice. I still hold out hope that it is because we a have a yet to be announced overseas tour, but it seems more likely that they will be ready to show up on campus for the second session of summer school.

Despite some experts saying some nice stuff about the list, I cannot help but think that this even weaker than I expected. Only three of the twelve players from last summer's roster remain, although I would expect Isaiah Briscoe, Jalen Brunson, and Allonzo Trier to all have key roles. Again, there is a reason that the United States has historically performed below expectations at this age level and I expect this to be the biggest test of USA Basketball's constant reminders that all of its national teams are defending champions.

Article:
http://www.usab.com/news-events/news...announced.aspx
Roster:
http://www.usab.com/mens/u19/roster.aspx

[gam7]

I posted about this in the 2018 recruiting, but this deserves its own thread.

Congrats to our U16 USA National Team: http://www.usab.com/mens/u16/roster.aspx. FIBA U16 championships start next week. Make us proud guys!

Of particular interest to us:

2017 targets Wendell Carter, Jarred Vanderbilt and Gary Trent Jr. made the cut.

One 2018 name of note: Tre Jones (Tyus's little bro) made it!

[awhom111]

A few tidbits:

Lindsey Harding did not play in today's exhibition where Belarus beat the Czech Republic 69-67.

Antonio Vrankovic is not listed in Croatia's preliminary squad at the U19 level. This was to be expected since his only involvement thus far has been as bench player at the 2012 European U16 Championships, but there were thoughts that he might have developed enough to be worth another look. Croatia's U19 team does have a pretty solid frontcourt, which is why they would be among several European teams (along with Turkey and Greece) that should be behind the United States as favorites in the tournament.

Canada has named its World University Games team, which will scrimmage the USA University Games team (Kansas plus Nic Moore). They have opted to only play with CIS players and no NCAA players. This seems to discriminate, but they have actually done this before and had some success.
http://www.basketball.ca/en/news-art...es-fisu-roster