Four U18 Americas champs, Manute Bol’s son among USA U19 nominees
COLORADO SPRINGS (FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017) - USA Basketball has announced a pool of 28 players who will try out for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017
COLORADO SPRINGS (FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017) - USA Basketball has announced a pool of 28 players who will try out for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017 headlined by four champions from the USA's FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2016 team; three players from the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2016 title-winning side; as well as the son of Manute Bol.
Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Huerter, PJ Washington and Trae Young teamed together at the U18 continental championship to help the United States qualify for the U19 spectacle and now will try to make the team for 1-9 July in Cairo. Kevin Knox II, Immanuel Quickley and Austin Wiley meanwhile guided the USA to the U17 world title last summer in Zaragoza and hope to play another youth FIBA Basketball World Cup next month.
| USA 28-player preliminary squad for FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017 | ||||
| Desmond Bane | Bol Bol | Marques Bolden | Chaundee Brown | Devon Daniels |
| Hamidou Diallo | Carsen Edwards | Malachi Flynn | Kevin Huerter | Louis King |
| Kevin Knox II | Romeo Langford | Brandon McCoy | De'Anthony Melton | Charlie Moore |
| Chuma Okeke | Josh Okogie | Shamorie Ponds | Payton Pritchard | Immanuel Quickley |
| Cameron Reddish | Mitchell Robinson | Quinton Rose | Jeremiah Tilmon II | PJ Washington |
| Austin Wiley | Kris Wilkes | Trae Young | ||
Some of the other major names of note in the preliminary pool are Bol Bol, Marques Bolden, Romeo Langford, Payton Pritchard and Cameron Reddish.
Bol is the 1999-born son of former NBA star Manute Bol and recent MVP at the spring's Nike EYPL circuit. Bolden is returning to Duke after his freshman season while Pritchard helped Oregon reach the NCAA Final Four. Langford and Reddish meanwhile are two of five rising high school seniors in the pool along with Bol, Quickly and Louis King. Langford and Reddish are both ranked in the top four of their class in many ranking services and are both considering most of the top colleges.
"We're excited about the players who have accepted our invitation to attend the USA men's U19 training camp," said Purdue University head coach Matt Painter, who chairs the selection committee. "We have an outstanding group of players, some of whom have prior USA Basketball experience, some with outstanding collegiate experience and some of the best high school players in America. It will be very competitive in tryouts to make the 12-person U19 team."
New USA U19 head coach John Calipari will start his training camp at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs on June 18. The finalists for the team are expected to be announced on June 20 with the final 12 players destined for Cairo expected to be named on June 22.
The team will continue to train in Colorado until June 25 before heading to Egypt for the championship, where the two-time reigning champions are drawn into Group D with Angola, Iran and Italy.
FIBA