White Ready to Seize Opportunity

June 21, 2013

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Editor’s Note: The following first appeared in the University of Iowa’s Hawk Talk Daily, an e-newsletter that offers a daily look at the Iowa Hawkeyes, delivered free each morning to thousands of fans of the Hawkeyes worldwide.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — From the moment Aaron White received word of his invitation to the 2013 USA Basketball Men’s World University Games Team Training Camp, he has trained to put himself in position to seize the opportunity.

“I know I have gotten better since I found out (about the camp) a month ago,” said White, a junior on the University of Iowa men’s basketball team. “I have been training harder than I ever have in the summer. It’s late June, it’s the best shape I have been in at this time since I have been in school.

“This is what I have worked for my entire life to have an opportunity like this, but I have to seize it.”

White is one of 29 players invited to participate in the training camp June 24-30 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. He is one of seven players from the Big Ten Conference, along with teammate Roy Devyn Marble.

During the 2012-13 season, White was recognized as a third-team All-Big Ten selection after averaging 12.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and finishing with 41 steals. White’s 6.2 rebounds per game led the team, as he became the first Hawkeye since Michael Payne in 1981-82 to lead to the team in his freshman and sophomore seasons.

White credits UI head coach Fran McCaffery and the Iowa coaching staff for putting him in a position to earn the training camp invitation.

“This coaching staff has put me in a good position, and I think I have played hard when I have gotten my time,” he said. “Something like this is rewarding, it shows you you’ve worked hard and gotten better, and it shows that head coaches across the country have respect, not only for my game, but coach McCaffery’s program and Iowa as a whole.”

White has done his homework on the U.S. coaching staff, which includes Davidson’s Bob McKillop (head coach) and assistants Frank White (South Carolina) and John Beilein (Michigan), and he believes he’d be a good fit for McKillop’s style of play.

“He (McKillop) likes to go up and down, shoot from the outside, and he likes bigger, mobile guys,” said White. “That bodes well for a guy like me. The overseas game, in general, is not really back to the basket, it’s more spread out.

“You need big, long athletes that can guard the drive and rebound. That’s where I am at with my game. I am athletic, rebound and run the floor. I have to play relentless, rebound and show them the feel I have for the game, and I should be alright.”

White says the chance to travel to Colorado Springs and participate in a training camp of this magnitude is an opportunity in itself.

“If you look at that list and the names that have previously played in an event like this, it’s a big honor,” he said. “Going out there is going to be an experience whether you make it or not, going against that competition.

“It would mean everything (to make the team). I have always had the dream of playing with a jersey that said USA across the front, playing for my country, and against the best players in the world. I have to go there, work hard, show the coaches what I do well, and hopefully go to Russia and win a gold medal.”

White sees this as an opportunity to keep advancing his game and the profile of Iowa basketball.

“I am looking to prove that I am one of the top players in the country,” he said. “My mindset is to go there, make the team, and take that next step from being one of the better players in the league to one of the better players in the country.”

Twelve players from the pool of 29 at the training camp will be selected to represent the USA in Kasan, Russia, on July 6-17.