New look for USA in February Qualifiers with just three veterans from November window returning
COLORADO SPRINGS (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019)- USA Basketball will field an almost entirely different roster for their World Cup Qualifiers against Cuba on February 23 and Puerto Rico three days later.
Both games will be played in California on the home court of the G League Santa Cruz Warriors, the Kaiser Permanente Arena.
| USA 14-player squad for Americas Qualifiers against Cuba and Puerto Rico | |||
| Semaj Christon | Taylor Braun | Larry Drew II | Alonso Gee |
| Aaron Harrison | Terrence Jones | Trey McKinney Jones | Rodney Purvis |
| Xavier Silas | David Stockton | Rashawn Thomas | Marcus Thornton |
| Travis Wear | Devin Williams | ||
"The USA team for the February FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifying games will have some new faces," said USA coach Jeff Van Gundy. "A lot of the players involved in the November World Cup Qualifying games were unavailable because of call-ups to the NBA. We’re really excited for those players, but it does make our job of putting together another team more difficult."
Fourteen players, 13 from the G League and one free agent, have been invited to a training camp and only three of those - Larry Drew II, Semaj Christon and Travis Wear - were on the team for the first two games in November. Only Drew was on the team that won the FIBA AmeriCup last summer.
Van Gundy calls it, "a versatile group that has a nice mix of youth and experience."
NEWS: Fourteen athletes set to attend February USA Men's World Cup Qualifying Team training camp
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) February 8, 2018
🔗 https://t.co/i8B88P7DFC pic.twitter.com/xMvWkCh46S
The training camp will run February 15-20 with the final 12-man roster is expected to be named on the 20th.
The USA official, 12-member USA team is expected to be announced following the Feb. 20 evening practice. The USA World Cup Qualifying Team will continue its training in Santa Cruz on Feb. 21, 22, 24 and 25.
"We’ll need to quickly come together for our games against Cuba and Puerto Rico. We persevered to win a very difficult game against Puerto Rico in November, and Cuba is also very talented and hungry for a win. We will face significant challenges and I’m hoping that playing in Santa Cruz will give us a strong home court advantage."
Thirteen of the USA players and the USA coaching staff have been named to the NBA G League USA team that will participate in the G League International Challenge, an exhibition game featuring the USA G League players versus the Mexican National Team on February 18 during the NBA All-Star Weekend.
The current two-time defending FIBA World Cup champion, the USA men have participated in 17 FIBA World Cups and have collected 12 medals - five gold medals (1954, 1986, 1994, 2010 and 2014), 3 silver medals (1950, 1959 and 1982) and four bronze medals (1974, 1990, 1998 and 2006). USA teams own an overall record of 123-27.
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