World University Games 2011 -- USA Announces First Cut

The First Cut is the Deepest...
USA Basketball modified their World University roster yesterday as the staff added Shabazz Napier from Connecticut (Tu Holloway of Xavier declined an invitation to tryout) and then trimmed the roster to 14, sending home eight players from eight schools (and four conferences). Players the Turk visited over the weekend included, Brad Burgess, a tall guard from the Virginia Commonwealth (CAA) that ran to the Final Four in April, Kim English, another guard from Missouri in the Big 12, Yancy Gates a bfc out of Cincinnati in the Big East, Kris Middleton from Texas A&M (Big 12), Tony Mitchell (forward) from Alabama (SEC), Northwestern forward John Shurna (Big Ten) and Jordan Taylor, a guard out of Wisconsin (Big Ten).

The Current Roster
As of August 1, the 12 who will continue to train in Colorado Springs include...

Name	Pos	Hgt	Wgt	School
Tim Abromaitis	F/C	6-8	235	Notre Dame
Marcus Denmon	G	6-3	185	Missouri
Ashton Gibbs	G	6-2	190	Pittsburgh
Draymond Green	F	6-7	230	Michigan State
JaMychal Green	F	6-8	225	Alabama
Scoop Jardine	G	6-2	190	Syracuse
John Jenkins	G	6-4	220	Vanderbilt
Orlando Johnson	G	6-5	205	UC Santa Barbara
Greg Mangano	F	6-10	240	Yale
Trevor Mbakwe	F/C	6-8	241	Minnesota
Ray McCallum	G	6-1	185	Detroit Mercy
Darius Miller	G	6-7	185	Kentucky
Aaric Murray	C	6-11	265	West Virginia
Shabazz Napier	G	6-0	170	Connecticut

Notable among the Big East survivors, Tim Abromaitis from Notre Dame, Ashton Gibbs from Pitt who led the U19 USA team to a championship in 2010, Shabazz Napier from Connecticut who was added at the last minute and La Salle ex-pat Aaric Murray who will sit for a season before lacing it up for West Virginia.

Next?
The team will continue two-a-days at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado through August 7. The last two cuts will come via an announcement of the official roster just before the team departs for China on August 8.

FIBA U19 2011 World Championship -- Ouch...

Granted the Grames Don't Count, But...
The USA U19 men's team arrived in Lithuania on June 25 for the U19 FIBA tournament which opens play tomorrow (June 30). It is typical (and prudent) to enter a warmup tournament to continue preparation, and part of the plan, the U19 USA team entered the Youth Global Games Tournament, held in Lithuania. The Americans one of about eight U19 teams in the field drew two Lithuanian teams, the U20 and the U19 teams, as their opponents.

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	87.2	0.84	39.5	31.9	18.3	26.3
Lithuania U20		1.16	56.0	34.1	17.2	62.7

The U20 team has been together for a year longer than the U19 Lithuanian team (which has been together at least 11 monthes longer than the USA team...), but the results are nevertheless disappointing. American shooting was definitely off, especially three point shooting. Was the distance difference, 20 feet 9 inches to 22 feet the principal culpret? Maybe, but American teams have had to compete with the deeper line since (at least) 2008. Team USA is listed everywhere as the U19 Champion (from the 2009 tournament). A chance to knock of "the champ" may play into the Lithuanian mentality. A shame given these players were not rostered on the 2009 team. Shooting 35% from inside the arc was not even on par with the Lithuanians' three point conversion rate, 36%, meaning the Americans were in deep trouble from the onset. The box score indicated that the Lithuanians jumped on Team USA from the opening whistle, building a 32-8 lead going into the second (10 minute) period, where they padded that lead (-24) with another eight points. Down by 32 at the half, Team USA had few strategic options. Lithuania's U20 team converted 49.3% of their two's, yielding an overall eFG% of 56.0%, a very difficult conversion rate to overcome. Countering with an eFG% of 39.5% would be enough, on it's face, to lose, but Team USA was also dominated on the boards (OR% was 31.9 vs. 34.1) and could not compensate by getting to the line (see table above, 26.3% vs 62.7% -- the Americans were not especially aggressive in the low post?). The final deficit, -29 (101-72) was slightly better than the half. Would Team USA do better against their tournament counterparts? Ahhh no...

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	93.5	0.80	35.6	33.3	22.5	46.6
Lithuania U19		1.16	53.8	45.0	25.7	69.7

The net score was -33 (108-75), four points worse than the scoring net versus the Lithuanian U20 team. Though the Americans did not get rolled at the opening tip, losing the first period by 11, 34-23, they could not regain the ground in the second period. They yielded another 10 points in the second 10 minutes to take a -21 gap (38-59) into the locker room. But the third period proved even worse as Team USA ceded another 17 points to the Lithuanians before cutting into some of that -38 gap in the final 10 minutes. Compare the two possession-based breakdowns and note the similarities, especially in shooting and rebounding, considered the two more important elements in offensive and defensive efficiency (Eff. in the tables above). Small "victories" in the turnover rate versus Lithuania U19 and getting to the line more than against the U20 team. The Americans continue however, to foul far too much. As the box score indicates, the European teams are more inclined to hit their free throws (80%), fouling offers no advantage.

Team USA, with better athletes and higher skill levels, should do well against Egypt, their first opening game opponent, but Serbia, game two (on Friday), may, if Team USA does not get their shot conversion and rebounding in order, give Team USA another rude surprise. Coming so early in the tournament, a first loss will only increase the pressure on the young squad.

FIBA U19 2011 World Championship -- The Field is Set

16 Teams, Three Stages
The FIBA U19 World Championship field includes 16 teams (see Preliminary Pool below). FIBA will operate this tournament in three phases to determine the champion and set the finish for each participating team. ;

The pool for the preliminary round will include four groups (A, B, C & D) of four teams each:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Brazil	Argentina	Canada	China
Poland	Australia	Croatia	Egypt
Russia	Latvia	Lithuania	Serbia
Tunisia	Taiwan	South Korea	USA

The first preliminary round will have each group play three games, round robin style, with the other teams in the group. The top three teams from each group will be reorganized into two groups (E & F) of six teams each (Groups A & B will be assigned to Group E; Groups C & D will be assigned to Group F) for a second sequence of three games against the three teams from the other original group (A teams will play B teams; C teams will play D teams). The four teams not assigned to a second round group will play a two round classification sequence to determine places #13 - #16 in the tournament. The USA schedule for the first preliminary round is below; all first preliminary round games can be found at the USA Basketball and the FIBA World Cup sites. Team USA will play all three Group D games in Liepaja, Latvia...

		Est. Time
Date	Opponent	DST
06/30/11 Thurs	Egypt	9:00am
07/01/11 Fri.	Serbia	9:00am
07/02/11 Sat.	China	11:15am

Note start times are given in Eastern Daylight Savings time, approximately -7GMT from the time scheduled in Latvia.

From the second round of group play, the top four teams from Groups E & F (eight teams total) will advance to the medal round to play a quarterfinal game against an opponent from the other group (each group will be seeded for quarterfinal play). The winners will advance to the semi-finals, the losers will play a two round classification match for places #5 - #8. The last two teams from Groups E & F will advance to a two game classification round to determine places #9 - #12. Medal round quarterfinal winners will advance to a semi-final round, the semi-final winners to play for #1 and #2 place (gold and silver), while the semi-final losing teams play for places #3 and #4 (bronze and fourth place).

Sorting Out the Field in Groups C, D & F Play
A single loss in either of the two preliminary round robin phases would not, depending on the standing of the other teams in the group, doom Team USA to a classification round game in the third phase of the tournament. Since four teams will advance out of Group F, more than likely spots #3 and #4 (F3 and F4 in the medal round quarterfinal) will be settled on points and tie-breakers. A lower seed going into the quarterfinal medal round would not be fatal, but it would mean facing three (should Team USA continue to win...) of the most competitive teams in the field in the last three games. Team USA should advance out of Group D, the game with Serbia serving as an early indication of how the team will fare against the more competitive teams they will encounter in Group E (and medal round?) games. Canada, Croatia and Lithuana should advance out of Group C. Both Crotia and Canada advanced to the medal round(s) in the 2009 U19 tournament before falling to Team USA. The Team USA-Team Lithuania exhibition game being played today (Tuesday June 28) in Vilnius, Lithuania should give a hint on how that second round, Group F, matchup should go. Though Team Canada and Team Croatia should be capable of surprises, it is the games with Teams Lithuania and Serbia that will determine whether Team USA can advance to the medal rounds with a #1 or #2 Group F seed, or finish the tournament in a classification game.

Other Teams & Matchups of Interest
Group A teams that should advance to Group E include Poland, Russia and Brazil. Given the proximity of the tournament, expect both Poland and Russia (and Lithuania), along with host Latvia to enjoy a home court advantage against teams from outside the Baltic region. Poland and Russia in particular should be worth following, but Team Brazil, which finished strongly in the U18 competition last year (and returns the nucleus of that team) maybe the surprise candidate and advance to the medal round at the expense of one of the European teams. Out of Group B, expect Argentina, Australia and host Latvia to advance. How far can the hometown crowds carry Team Latvia? Over the past few years, Team Latvia has finished FIBA zone and world tournaments somewhere in the middle of the field...they may get to the Medal Round quarterfinals (beyond typical expectations), but most likely fight for a place in the #5-#10 standings. The older age classification teams for Argentina have done better in international competition than the younger teams. Matchups with the Poles and Russians (and Brazilians) in the Group E round should be a good barometer on how far the Argentines can go. Team Australia advanced by sweeping a very small field in the Oceania Zone, their games against Argentina and Latvia should provide a preview on how far the Emus can advance beyond Group E play.

FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- U16 Americas Cup Field is Set

Costa Rico is the Third Centrobasket Team to Qualify
Though the game results of the last day of competition in the Centrobasket U16 qualifying tournament were listed on the FIBA Americas website last night around 12:30am (eastern daylight savings) -- you had to link to the individual box scores scrolling at the top banner -- the final standings of the tournament were not posted until 11:00am or so this morning. The nightmare scenario played out as Costa Rico blasted Guatemala 105-47 to record a 2-3 record even as Belize, the team who controlled their fate, lost to El Salvador by seven, 64-71, dropping all three teams (Belize, Costa Rico and El Salvador) into a deadlock with matching 2-3 records. A review of the U16 Centrobasket Championship standings lists Costa Rico as the #3 place team. The FIBA Americas site has confirmed that the Costa Rican team (and not Belize, as I suggested yesterday) has been assigned to Pool B for the FIBA U16 Americas Cup Tournament, to kick off tomorrow with a full slate of games. Puerto Rico, as suggested in the previous post, did indeed win the tournament, beating host Mexico yesterday by a surprisingly large 36 point margin, 99-63. Puerto Rico will enter the Americas Cup with the momentum of a 5-0 record from the Centrobasket Tournament behind them.

The revised projected pools with Costa Rico assigned:

Pool A	Pool B
Canada	Argentina
Chile	Brazil
Mexico	United States
Puerto Rico	Costa Rico

Puerto Rico swept through the U16 Centrobasket Tournament racking up a winning margin of +253 points over five games. That is an average winning margin of 50.6 points. Even eliminating the Guatemala game (a 125-28 pasting), the Puerto Rico team still managed an average winning margin of 39 points, the standard deviation -- 7.55 -- suggesting consistent game-to-game domination of the competition. The Puerto Ricans should probably be considered the favorites in Pool A, though the Canadians may disagree. Puerto Rican players to watch include Ariel Watson, a 6-2 guard who plays for Good Counsel in Washington DC, Eliel Gonzalez Gomez who shot 27-39 through the five games, Jairo Velez Lopez who shot 20-26 and Bryan Moreno who shot 19-25 in only three games. Under the boards, Ian Torres Medina averaged eight rebounds per game through five games.

USA games through pool play, again revised...

Date	Opponent
06/21/11 Tues	Brazil
06/22/11 Wed.	Argentina
06/23/11 Thur	Costa Rico

After pool play the top two teams from each pool will advance to two medal round games, while the bottom two will play two additional Classification games to determine places #5 - #8, the games to be played Friday (6/24) and Saturday (6/25). Teams who finish #1 - #3 will qualify for the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championships.

FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- U16 Americas Cup Field is Set...Almost

Puerto Rico, Mexico, and...Belize?
A review of the FIBA Americas standings at the Centrobasket U16 Championship 2011 held in Mexico City, Mexico indicates that Puerto Rico (4-0 with one game remaining) will qualify for the FIBA U16 Americas Cup, the tournament to start next week. Puerto Rico will be assigned to the A pool (see below). Mexico, also 4-0 going into the last game has already qualified for the Americas Cup and was assigned to Pool A back in May. Puerto Rico and Mexico meet in the last game (played later today -- Sunday), so one will finish undefeated while the other will take second place. The second qualifier from Centrobasket U16 will most likely be Belize, currently sporting a 2-2 record. The fourth place teams, Costa Rico and El Salvador are 1-3. Should Belize lose later today to El Salvador all three will most likely finish at 2-3 -- Costa Rico, facing 0-4 Guatemala is almost assured to finish 2-3 as well -- and will require a tie-breaker to determine the team for Pool B. The cleanest finish would be for Belize to beat El Salvador. Both have already played the leaders, Puerto Rico and Mexico, and lost. Belize has a -35 point margin in the two contests, while El Salvador is -127 (that is not a typo...). Though the game has to be played (and anything can happen...), I suspect that Belize will win, given that both also played Costa Rico, and Belize, in their head-to-head beat the Costa Ricans by a point (71-70), while El Salvador lost by 28 (79-51). If Belize loses while Costa Rico wins, and the tie-break is:
1. Head-to-head, then the FIBA Americas Commission will have to go to a second tie-breaker;
2. Point margin among the tied teams, then Belize should get the last spot;

The projected pools (Belize beats El Salvador or wins the tie-breaker):

Pool A	Pool B
Canada	Argentina
Chile	Brazil
Mexico	United States
Puerto Rico	Belize

As expected both Puerto Rico and Mexico dominated the Centrobasket U16 field. Ironic that both wound up in Pool A. Given the strength of Canada, Puerto Rico (and do not underestimate home court advantage) and Mexico, Pool A could be interesting (though Canada and Puerto Rico would still have to be favored to advance to the medal rounds). USA games through pool play...

Date	Opponent
06/21/11 Tues	Brazil
06/22/11 Wed.	Argentina
06/23/11 Thur	Belize

Signs of the Off season 2011 -- International Tournaments

The International Tournaments of 2011
USA Basketball, the organization charged with coordinating with the US Olympic Committee to select, train and field men's and women's teams for international competition has released their schedule of events for the summer of 2011, and the organization will select, train and field four men's teams between June (U16) and October (Pan American Games). A single pre-collegiate team, the U16 men, will the FIBA Americas Cup in Cancun, Mexico in June. Collegiate-aged teams, the U19 men's team and the World University Games men's team will train and play through June, July and into early August, with the Pan American men's team. The calendar for each of the men's team...

U16 Men -- Don Showalter Coach
When	What	Where
6/10-6/17	Training Camp	Colorado Springs, CO
6/21-6/26	FIBA Americas Championship	Cancun, Mexico
U19 Men -- Paul Hewitt Coach
6/16-6/24	Training Camp	Colorado Springs, CO
6/30-7/10	FIBA World Championship	Valmiera & Riga, Latvia
World University Men's Team -- Matt Painter Coach
7/31-8/06	Training Camp	Colorado Springs, CO
8/12-8/23	World University Games	Shenzhen, China
Pan American Men's Team
10/13-10/30	Pan American Games	Guadalajara, Mexico

The U16 Team
18 high schoolers who were named to the 2011-12 USA Developmental National Team and who participated in the 2010 USA mini-camp last summer will be joined by six more athletes who had outstanding seasons in 2011. Those 24 will train/tryout in Colorado Springs June 10 through 18, when 12 of the 24 will be named to the team to represent the USA in the FIBA U16 Americas Championship June 21 through June 25 in Mexico. The official USA Basketball press release of March 24 identifies all 24 invitees; Villanovans however, might be more interested in the progress of Beejay Anya a (class of 2013) forward/center out of Hyattsville, Md who attends DeMatha HS, Dakari Johnson, a (class of 2014) forward/center out of Brooklyn, NY who attends St. Patricks in Elizabeth, NJ (alma mater for Corey Fisher and Mike Nardi) and Isaiah Whitehead, a (class of 2014) off guard who also lives in Brooklyn, NY and plays for Lincoln HS.

The FIBA U16 Americas Championship is an eight team, two pool tournament that will send the three highest finishing teams onto the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship to be held June 29 – July 12 in Lithuania. The eight team field...

Argentina	Brazil
Canada	Mexico
USA	Venezula
TBD	TBD

...at this point has to favor the USA team (dominated the last U16 competition), Argentina (a historic strong competitor), Canada and Venezula as the cohort from which the three teams will advance.

The U19 Team
According to a May 11 USA Basketball press release, 19 players will tryout for 12 spots on the team that will represent the USA in the U19 FIBA World Championship in Latvia June 30-July 10. Of particlar interest to Villanovans is rising sophomore James Bell, who participated in the U18 tryouts last summer and was invited to tryout/train again this summer. Also from the Big East, Jeremy Lamb, a rising sophomore from the National Champion Connecticut Huskies and Trevor Cooney, a wing out of Sanford HS in Delaware will be an entering freshman at Syracuse this fall. The 16 team field will be divided into four pools of four teams each...

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Brazil	Argentina	Canada	China
Poland	Australia	Croatia	Egypt
Russia	Latvia	Lithuania	Serbia
Tunisia	Taiwan	South Korea	USA

After round robin pool play, the top three teams from each pool will advance to a second preliminary round, where they will be placed in two pools of six teams each. Each team will play the three teams in their pool which they did not play in the first round robin. The eight teams who earn the top point value (wins versus losses, combined scores become the tie breaker) will be reseeded for a three round, single elimination tournament to determine places #1 through #8. The four (total) teams not qualifying for places #1 through #8 will play a similar, two round single elimination tournament for places #9 through #12. A quick glance at the first round pools suggest that the USA should advance easily to the second round. Serbia, a team that beat the USA World University Games team in 2009(?) should be the most competitive game through the first round robin session. Of the Pool C teams (the top three will be grouped with the top three Pool D finishers), Canada, Croatia and Lithuania should advance. All three (with Lituania and Canada most likely) should offer competitve games to the USA team. Of the teams in Pools A & B, expect the USA team, should they advance to the medal rounds, to face some combination of Argentina, Poland or Russia, though it is common for a team in the medal round to face a previous opponent a second time. Do not be surprised if Team USA faces Serbia or Lithuania a second time somewhere in the third round of play.

The World University Games (WUG) Team
The staff includes Matt Painter, head coach at Purdue as the head coach, with Cuonzo Martin, head coach of Tennessee and Brad Stevens, head coach of Butler serving as assistants. Like the U16 and U19 squads, a 12 man squad will be named at the conclusion of a tryout period (July 31 through August 6), with the games to follow (August 12 through August 23). Normally there is a warm up basketball tournament prior to the games. USA Basketball has yet to announce the 20 or so individuals who will be invited to tryout/train in late July. Often those not chosen for the U19 squad are invited to participate in the WUG tryouts. Given the Selection Committee is headed by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and the squad's coaching staff is drawn from the Big Ten, the SEC and Horizon League, expect the pool of candidates to be dominated by players from those four conferences.

Maalik Wayns and the U18 Team

Looking for news about the team may be difficult. I don't know how closely ESPN/CBS/SportingNews/etc. will cover the team. The news I have found has come from USA Basketball, the non-profit organization which runs the USA's development program for the Olympic Committee and organizes the teams for FIBA competitions (a pretty good background on USA Basketball over at Wikipedia).

The team has left for Argentina on Friday -- the USA Basketball site has published 2 articles ("Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Part I" & "Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Part II") over the weekend, which documented their journey to Argentina and first few hours in the host country, getting focused for the tournament. Part I has a mini-interview with incoming UConn guard Kemba Walker and another with Maalik (and Maalik's picture is posted on Part II...better treatment than the Philly media). I suspect USA Basketball will be the major distributor for news/updates, so if you want to follow daily, bookmark their site (above -- or maybe the mods will sticky this post for easy reference). They are, according to the published schedule due to play Venezuela on Monday. This will be a typical international tournament -- 3 round robin games in their bracket (Monday - Wednesday), followed by 2 medal round games (Thursday & Friday). Team USA is assigned to Bracket B with the Bahamas, Pueto Rico and Venezuela. The top 4 finishers (brackets A & B) will qualify for FIBA's U19 competition next year.

For those not familiar with Maalik, USA Basketball has also provided a Background/Bio Page on him, and indeed on every member on team roster.

Go Maalik!
Go USA!