USA U19 World Championship Training Camp Roster Announced


From our friends at USA Basketball:

Twenty-four players, including 16 with previous USA Basketball experience, have accepted invitations to attend the 2013 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team training camp that will be held June 14-19 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs, Colo. The USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee issued the player invitations.

Accepting invites to participate in the USA U19 training camp were Ryan Arcidiacono (Villanova University/ Langhorne, Pa.); Bryce Alford (La Cueva H.S./Albuquerque, N.M.); Brandon Ashley (University of Arizona/San Francisco, Calif.); Robert Carter (Georgia Tech/ Thomasville, Ga.); Damyean Dotson (University of Oregon/Houston, Texas); Kris Dunn (Providence College/Oakdale, Conn.); Javan Felix (University of Texas/New Orleans, La.); Michael Frazier (University of Florida/ Tampa, Fla.); Marcus Georges-Hunt (Georgia Tech/College Park, Ga.); Shaq Goodwin (University of Memphis/Atlanta, Ga.); Aaron Gordon (Archbishop Mitty H.S./San Jose, Calif.); Jerami Grant (Syracuse University/Bowie, Md.); Montrezl Harrell (University of Louisville/ Tarboro, N.C.); Rondaé Hollis-Jefferson (Chester H.S./Chester, Pa.); Jahlil Okafor (Whitney Young H.S./Chicago, Ill.); Rodney Purvis (University of Connecticut/Raleigh, N.C.); James Robinson (University of Pittsburgh/Mitchellville, Md.); Marcus Smart (Oklahoma State University/Flower Mound, Texas); Jarnell Stokes (University of Tennessee/Memphis, Tenn.); Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke University/Houston, Texas); Devin Thomas (Wake Forest University/ Harrisburg, Pa.); Mike Tobey (University of Virginia/Monroe, N.Y.); Nigel Williams-Goss (Findlay Prep/Happy Valley, Ore.); and Justise Winslow (St. Johns H.S./Houston, Texas).

The 2013 USA U19 World Championship Team will be led by a trio of experienced and successful college coaches, including Billy Donovan (University of Florida) as head coach, with Tony Bennett (University of Virginia) and Shaka Smart (Virginia Commonwealth University) as assistant coaches.

“We have a really impressive group of talented players and a large number of the players have USA Basketball and college experience. Selecting our 12-man U19 team will be extremely difficult, but the committee is excited and confident that we will be able to field another strong USA team,” said Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University and Hall of Fame coach and chair of the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee. “The FIBA U19 World Championship might be from top to bottom the most competitive competition FIBA conducts.  Any of the teams that are competing have a real chance to win the U19 gold medal as has been shown by six different countries winning the title over the last six U19 World Championships.” The USA U19 training camp will be used to select the 12-member USA team that will compete in the FIBA U19 World Championship. The U19 training camp will begin on June 14 with the first session (5:30-7:30 p.m., all times are local time, MDT), followed by two sessions on June 15 (9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and 4:30-7:00 p.m.) and one session on June 16 (8:30-11:00 a.m.).  Team finalists will be announced following the 
June 15 morning session.

The team will train twice a day on June 17 and 18 (9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and 4:30-7:00 p.m.), and will practice once on June 19 (9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.).  The team will train twice a day at the Washington Wizards’ practice facility in Washington, D.C., on June 20-22, then depart for the Prague, Czech Republic, and the June 27-July 7 FIBA U19 World Championship.Sixteen players will enter the U19 training camp possessing a variety of prior USA Basketball experiences.  Eight players, Goodwin, Grant, Harrell, Robinson, Purvis, Smart, Stokes and Sulaimon were all part of the 2012 USA U18 National Team that won gold at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship and qualified the United States for the FIBA U19 World Championship. Okafor and Winslow were members of the 2012 USA U17 World Championship Team that collected gold, and Okafor was named was selected the tournament’s MVP and was joined on the FIBA U17 World Championship All-Tournament Team by Winslow. Gordon and Okafor were members of the 2011 USA U16 FIBA Americas gold medalist team; Gordon and Hollis-Jefferson were members of the 2013 USA Junior National Select Team that participated in the 2013 Nike Hoop Summit, and Robinson and Sulaimon played for the USA in the 2012 Nike Hoop Summit. Hollis-Jefferson has also been part of the 2012 USA 3×3 U18 World Championship Team that won silver and the 2011 USA 3×3 Youth World Championship Team. Arcidiacono, Carter and Dunn boast of USA Basketball experience that came from participating in last year’s U18 National Team training camp; while Ashley, Gordon, Hollis-Jefferson, Okafor and Winslow were members of USA Basketball’s 2011-12 Developmental National Team.