After taking 17 players to training camp, USA Basketball has narrowed that group down to 12 players for its official AmeriCup roster, the program announced in a press release. The players representing Team USA in next week’s AmeriCup tournament will be as follows:
- Larry Drew II, PG
- Kendall Marshall, PG
- Xavier Munford, SG
- C.J. Williams, SG
- Billy Baron, G
- Reggie Hearn, G
- Darrun Hilliard, G/F
- Reggie Williams, SF
- Jonathan Holmes, PF
- Jameel Warney, PF
- Alec Brown, C
- Marshall Plumlee, C
The five players who missed the cut for the final roster were Rod Benson, Will Davis II, Ra’Shad James, Darius Morris, and Derek Willis.
“All 17 guys that came to camp in Houston had a strong case that they could have made that they should have been selected, but unfortunately, we could only take 12,” said U.S. coach Jeff Van Gundy. “It was very, very difficult getting down to that number, but we feel very happy with the guys that we have selected. We feel we have positional versatility, we have a good balance between size and quickness, so it will be interesting for us to go to Uruguay and see what we can do.”
As we detailed in an earlier story, FIBA has changed its format for qualifying for marquee events like the World Cup and the Olympics, and many of the qualifier tournaments will now take place during the NBA season. For those events, Team USA intends to primarily use players who have been spending time overseas and in the G League, with the bigger-name players taking over for the main events in 2019 and 2020.
Team USA doesn’t need to win the AmeriCup to qualify for the next World Cup and Olympics, but it’s a tournament the U.S. must participate in to eventually play in more crucial events. Van Gundy’s squad will participate in preliminary round games in Uruguay starting next Monday. If Team USA wins its group – which also includes Panama, the Dominican Republic, and host Uruguay – it would advance to the semifinals in Argentina in early September.
The program won’t face real pressure to win until November, when Team USA need a top-three finish in a pool that includes Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba in order to start advancing to later qualifiers. For more in-depth details on how those qualifiers work, be sure to check out FIBA’s breakdowns for the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
I feel like I’m looking at the roster of the Cleveland Indians from “Major League”.
Board Member #1: I’ve never heard of half of these guys and the ones I do know are way past their prime.
Charlie: Most of these guys never had a prime.
Rachel Phelps: The facts are, we lost our two best players to free agency. We haven’t won a pennant in over thirty-five years, we haven’t placed higher than 4th in the last fifteen. Obviously, it’s time for some changes.
Board Member #2: This guy here is dead.
Rachel Phelps: [obviously…] Cross him off, then.
Best first comment I’ve seen in a while. This roster would’ve been better if they had some Big3 guys on there like Jason Williams or Rashard Lewis.
Bro, you win the comments section!! Had me laughing my ass off
This isn’t even good enough for a G League All Star Team. This is more like the YMCA League All Star team. They would do better with the 1st and 2nd teams from any major college conference over this group of stiffs.