USA – USA name men’s team for Youth Olympic Games

COLORADO SPRINGS (Youth Olympic Games) – The four-man squad that will represent the USA at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore has been named.

Centre K.C. Caudill, forward Angelo Chol along with guards Sterling Gibbs and L.J. Rose have been selected from the 2009-10 USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team to compete in the men’s 3on3 basketball tournament to be held in the Southeast Asian city-state from 15th to 23rd August.

The 2010 YOG will feature FIBA’s 3on3 basketball tournaments for both men and women, involving a total of 40 teams from 38 different countries. The competition is organised by FIBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Eric Flannery, head coach at St Edward High School in Cleveland, Ohio, will be the USA team’s head mentor. He is a long-time member of the USA Basketball Developmental National Team Committee (2001-2012).

“First of all I’m excited about the opportunity and I think we do have a great 3-on-3 basketball team,” he said.

“We’ve got two solid guards (Gibbs and Rose) that I think could have easily made U17 team (that will play in the U17 World Championship for Men in Hamburg, Germany).

Last summer, Gibbs and Rose helped the USA team to gold at the 2009 U16 FIBA Americas Championship in Mendoza, Argentina. They finished with a perfect 5-0 to earn the country’s qualifying berth for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship.

“We’ve got the combination of a versatile player in Angelo who I think can play the perimeter as well as inside and then we’ve got the big Caudill in the middle, a guy who I think can post people up and gives us an added dimension for this unique experience,” Flannery added.

“We have a good group of versatile guys that I think can handle a lot of different situations.”

The USA squad will reconvene for training in Springfield, Massachusetts in early August (7-9).

They have been drawn in Group C in the preliminary round and will go up against the Central African Republic, Israel, hosts Singapore and Turkey.

For more information on the Youth Olympic Games, click here

FIBA