June 29, 2013
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo — After five days of training camp that began with 26 players at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, USA Basketball today named the official, 12-man roster for the 2013 USA Basketball Men’s World University Games Team. The roster includes Hawkeye junior Aaron White.
White becomes the first Hawkeye since Greg Brunner in 2005 to be named to a USA World University Games roster. In 2005, Brunner and his USA teammates captured the gold medal in Turkey after winning all eight games.
Training camp will continue in Colorado Springs through Sunday. The team will depart for Russia on Monday, July 1. Competition will take place July 7-16 in Kazan, Russia.
“We are extremely proud and excited for Aaron White to have earned a spot on the USA World University Games roster,” said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. “Being able to represent your country, and play in a tournament of this caliber, is a tremendous opportunity. We will be following him and Team USA these next couple weeks. This experience will give him incredible confidence heading into next season.”
Joining White on the 2013 USA World University Games men’s basketball team roster will be: Spencer Dinwiddie(Colorado/Woodland Hills, Calif.); Yogi Ferrell (Indiana/Indianapolis, Ind.); Treveon Graham (Virginia Commonwealth/Temple Hills, Md.); Luke Hancock(Louisville/ Roanoke, Va.); Tyler Haws (BYU/Alpine, Utah); Cory Jefferson (Baylor/ Killeen, Texas); Sean Kilpatrick (Cincinnati/Yonkers, N.Y.); Alex Kirk (New Mexico/Los Alamos, N.M.); Doug McDermott (Creighton/Ames, Iowa); Adreian Payne (Michigan State/Dayton, Ohio); Will Sheehey (Indiana/Stuart, Fla.).
“Clearly versatility, we have guys that can play more than one position, that’s one of the great strengths we have,” said USA head coach Bob McKillop (Davidson College). “I think we shoot the ball particularly well from a number of positions, and we’ve got guys who want to be teammates. Those two things, to me, are the biggest advantages that we have, or the biggest strengths for our team.”
Assisting McKillop on the USA sideline are John Beilein of the University of Michigan and Frank Martin of the University of South Carolina.
McDermott is the only USA Basketball veteran on the team, and he was a member of the 2011 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team that finished in fifth place with a 7-2 record in the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship in Latvia.
Eleven players took home end of the year conference honors, including McDermott, who was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year and an all-conference first-team selection. Additionally, Kirk listed on the Mountain West Conference All-Defensive team, Ferrell was named to the Big Ten Conference All-Freshman Team and Sheehey earned Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year.
Also taking home first-team recognition were Dinwiddie (Pac-12) and Haws (West Coast Conference). Named to all-conference second teams were: Graham (Atlantic-10 Conference), Kilpatrick (Big East), Kirk (Mountain West) and Payne (Big Ten). White earned All-Big Ten third team, and honorable mentions included Jefferson (Big 12) and Ferrell (Big Ten).
Additionally, Hancock earned 2013 Final Four Most Outstanding Player.
After departing on July 1, the USA will practice on July 3-6 in Kazan, Russia, including scrimmages on July 4 against Russian basketball club UNICS and on July 5 against the Russia World University Games Team before beginning World University Games play on July 7.
The USA has drawn preliminary round Group C for the 2013 World University Games men’s basketball competition, along with Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Sweden and United Arab Emirates. Playing in Group A are Estonia, Germany, Oman, Russia, Ukraine and South Korea. Playing in Group B are Japan, Mexico, Mongolia, Philippines, Romania and Serbia. Group D includes Brazil, Chile, China, Finland, Lithuania and Norway.
The USA will take on UAE at 6:30 p.m. (times listed are local; Kazan, Russia, is +8 hours from EDT) on July 7; followed by Czech Republic at 1 p.m. on July 8; and Sweden at 9 p.m. on July 10; Australia at 6:30 p.m. on July 11; and Canada at 1 p.m. on July 12.
Following the preliminary round, the first and second-placed teams in each of the four pools advance to the medal quarterfinals on July 14 to compete for first through eighth places; while the remaining teams will play out for ninth to 24th places. The semifinals will be played on July 15, and the finals will be contested on July 16.
The players were selected by the 2013-16 USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee. Chaired by Jim Boeheim (Syracuse University), the committee includes NCAA appointees McKillop, Matt Painter (Purdue University) and Lorenzo Romar (University of Washington), as well as athlete representative Curtis Sumpter, a member of the 2011 USA Pan American Games Team and the 2004 USA U20 National Team.