World University Games Featuring Many Returning Stars Tips Off Saturday

The second major international basketball event of the summer involving collegians is set to tip off on Saturday, and Team USA appears that it will take a heavily perimeter-oriented team into the World University Games in Shenzhen, China.  Of the twelve-man roster of mostly rising juniors and seniors, the Yanks appear to be at a serious size disadvantage with only Greg Mangano (Yale) standing at 6’10″ and the beefy but 6’8″-ish forwards Tim Abromaitis (Notre Dame), Trevor Mbakwe (Minnesota), JaMychal Green (Alabama) and Draymond Green (Michigan State) likely to be giving up several inches against many of their opponents.

As discussed when the tryout roster was released in June, the WUG hasn’t been kind to Team USA over the last decade of competition.  Only the 2005 team featuring Duke’s Shelden Williams brought home the gold medal, and even a 2009 team that had the pending NPOY Evan Turner on its squad could only merit a bronze.  Apologies to Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh) and Abromaitis, but it’s unlikely there’s a 2011-12 NPOY hiding on this roster, which means that Matt Painter‘s team will need to take advantage of his cadre of three-point bombers that he has at his disposal.  Gibbs, Abromaitis, Marcus Denmon (Missouri), John Jenkins (Vanderbilt), Darius Miller (Kentucky), and Orlando Johnson (UC Santa Barbara) all made better than 40% from distance last season.

The team is already in China and managed to find time to clobber Japan by 40 points in a three-quarters scrimmage earlier this week.  It’s difficult to predict which teams might be the toughest competition for the Americans in the coming weeks, but the Russian, Lithuanian, Serbian and the host Chinese teams figure to be among the top several contenders.  Here are some of the sights and sounds from a recent practice as the team preps for its opening round game against Mexico on Saturday.

In case you missed the final roster announced several weeks ago, here it is:

NAME	POS	HGT	WGT	DOB	YOG	SCHOOL	HOMETOWN
Tim Abromaitis	F/C	6-8	235	09/17/89	2011*	Notre Dame	Unionville, CT
Marcus Denmon	G	6-3	185	03/20/90	2012	Missouri	Kansas City, MO
Ashton Gibbs	G	6-2	190	01/19/90	2012	Pittsburgh	Scotch Plains, NJ
Draymond Green	F	6-7	230	03/04/90	2012	Michigan State	Saginaw, MI
JaMychal Green	F	6-8	225	06/21/90	2012	Alabama	Montgomery, AL
Scoop Jardine	G	6-2	190	08/09/88	2011*	Syracuse	Philadelphia, PA
John Jenkins	G	6-4	220	03/06/91	2013	Vanderbilt	Hendersonville, TN
Orlando Johnson	G	6-5	205	03/11/89	2012	UC Santa Barbara	Seaside, CA
Greg Mangano	F	6-10	240	10/28/89	2012	Yale	Orange, CT
Trevor Mbakwe	F/C	6-8	241	01/24/89	2012	Minnesota	St. Paul, MN
Ray McCallum	G	6-1	185	06/12/91	2014	Detroit Mercy	Beverly Hills, MI
Darius Miller	G	6-6	185	03/21/90	2012	Kentucky	Maysville, KY

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under international basketball. Tagged: alabama, ashton gibbs, darius miller, draymond green, Greg Mangano, jamychal green, john jenkins, kentucky, marcus denmon, matt painter, michigan st, minnesota, missouri, notre dame, orlando johnson, pittsburgh, tim abromaitis, trevor mbakwe, ucsb, vanderbilt, world university games, yale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://rushthecourt.net/2011/08/11/world-university-games-featuring-many-returning-stars-tips-off-saturday/