USA Basketball Men’s U17 Team Announced

(Via USA Basketball)

Featuring nine players from the 2009 USA Basketball U16 Championship Team that captured gold at the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina, the 12 member 2010 USA U17 World Championship Team was announced today. The selections, made by USA Basketball’s Men’s Developmental National Team Committee, came after five training sessions held June 18-20 at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Named as members of the USA Basketball U17 World Championship Team were ’09 U16 gold medalists Justin Anderson (Montrose Christian School, Md. / Montross, Va.); Brad Beal (Chaminade College Prep H.S. / St. Louis, Mo.); Quinn Cook (DeMatha H.S. / Bowie, Md.); André Drummond (St. Thomas More School / Middletown, Conn.); James McAdoo (Norfolk Christian H.S. / Norfolk, Va.); Johnny O’Bryant (Eastside H.S. / Cleveland, Miss.); Tony Parker (Miller Grove H.S. / Lithonia, Ga.); Chasson Randle (Rock Island H.S. / Rock Island, Ill.); and Adonis Thomas (Melrose H.S. / Cordova, Tenn.), while Michael Gilchrist (St. Patrick H.S. / Somerdale, N.J.), Marquis Teague (Pike H.S. / Indianapolis, Ind.), and Anthony Wroten, Jr. (Garfield H.S. / Seattle, Wash.) top off the roster.

“I think we are a really good shooting team.  Everybody can really shoot the ball from our post players inside the lane and then our guards are really good shooters. I think our defensive unit is going to be very good with our bigs.  We have several kids who can play different positions and I think that is big for us,” said USA U17 World Championship Team and Mid-Prairie High School (Iowa) head coach Don Showalter.

“We found out last year that when you go to a foreign country a lot of things can happen – foul trouble, some sickness could come on, or somebody’s not playing very well one night, just whatever, so your seven-eight-nine-ten players are very, very important to what you’re trying to accomplish.  If you can get energy off the bench, if you can get some production off the bench with those kids, then you’re set pretty good.  Hopefully we have that as an advantage when we play the international teams and we have a better second five then maybe our opponents do.”

Serving as assistant coaches for the 2009-10 USA Developmental National Team and 2010 USA U17 World Championship Team are Herman Harried, head coach at Lake Clifton High School (Md.), and Kevin Sutton, head coach at Montverde Academy (Fla.).

The USA U16 Team captured the gold medal, finished a perfect 5-0 and earned the U.S. its qualifying berth into the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship.

The ’09 USA squad scored an average of 113.0 points a game and won its five games by an average of 33.8 points per game. Three U.S. players ranked No. 1 in the eight-team field for individual marks. Cook ranked No. 1 in assists with 5.0 apg. and Beal led the tournament in 3-point field goals made with 18. Beal averaged a USA-high 19.0 ppg. and ranked No. 3 overall in scoring, while O’Bryant grabbed a team-high 9.8 rpg. to list No. 4 in rebounding. McAdoo tallied 16.8 ppg. to rank No. 9 in scoring and grabbed 8.6 rpg. to rank No. 5 in rebounding.

The USA dominated the tournament statistics, leading the eight nations in 12 of 19 statistical categories, including scoring offense (113.0 ppg.), scoring margin (+33.8 ppg.), field goal percentage (.498), defensive field goal percentage (.371), offensive rebounds (24.6 rpg.), rebounding margin (+20.0 rpg.), assists (16.6 apg.), blocked shots (8.2 bpg.) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.89).

The USA U17 Team continues its training June 21-24 at the University of Texas at San Antonio, then will journey to Kaunas, Lithuania, to continue its preparations. The USA will face Russia’s U18 team in a friendly game on June 28 and then meet Lithuania’s U17 team on June 29.

The 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Men is being held July 2-11 in Hamburg, Germany. Opening U17 World Championship play in a rematch of last year’s FIBA Americas U16 Championship gold medal contest against Argentina on July 2, the U.S. will face Lithuania on July 3, then continue preliminary round action against China on July 5, Egypt on July 6 and close the opening round against Serbia on July 7. The top four finishing teams from each preliminary round group will advance to the July 9 medal quarterfinals, the semifinals are slated for July 10 and the gold and bronze medal games will be contested on July 11.

The USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team Committee is chaired by USA Basketball Men’s National Teams Director Sean Ford (non-voting chair), and features five voting members: Ron Crawford, head of the Arkansas Wings AAU program and Boo Williams, head of the Boo Williams Summer League (Va.) were appointed by the AAU; Eric Flannery, head coach at St. Edwards High School (Ohio) and John Olive, head coach at Torrey Pines High School (Calif.) were appointed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS); while 1999 USA Pan American Games Team member Kermit Holmes serves as the athlete representative.