INDIANA (United States) — One of the newer programs of USA Basketball to develop youth basketball is the US Open Basketball Championship, which this year welcomed 122 teams and more than 1,200 athletes.

Set in motion as a pilot program in 2017, USA Basketball wanted to bring together the best teams of the nation that had participated in tournaments organized by several of the main children and youth basketball leagues, such as the Amateur Athletics Union (AAU) and the Youth Basketball of America. To do this, USA Basketball established an alliance with the organizers of these tournaments so that participating teams would see qualifying to the US Open as the main objective of their appearance.

In 2019 the tournament doubled the previous year's participation. Forty tournament operators from the whole country are now part of the alliance. Featuring 1,200 athletes in 122 teams, the tournament included the four divisions that are part of the project: U12, U13 and — following the school model — ninth and tenth grade. Both sexes participated in all divisions.

“The US Open Basketball Championship is the main event of each year and it's nothing like what you've seen before,” said to FIBA.basketball Jay Demings, Director of Youth & Sports Development Division for USA Basketball. “The concept is that you qualify your team by participating in events that already exist throughout the United States. So, what we're trying to do is to find good events operators that are willing to embrace the federation's standards and promote them.”

According to Demings, some of these standards are the number of games per day, adequate rest, FIBA style rules, and the player eligibility criteria. The Director also emphasized that this initiative doesn't seek to “replace” none of these tournaments and organizations that have been operating for decades but to “complement” their work.

The Pacers Athletic Center in Westfield, Indiana, hosted the event this year during the four competition days in the month of July.

Demings previewed the Federation's plans of expanding the event to international reach. USA Basketball also wishes to increase the number of divisions to include wheelchair and parathletes categories.

“In no way is this a national championship,” Demings points out. “We'd love to explore ways for more international teams to come and participate. That's our goal, to involve the FIBA Americas communities to showcase not only our unit but also make players interact more and get to know different faces from different parts of the world.”

FIBA