REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - USA Basketball gave international hoops fans an early Christmas present as they announced the 12-man USA roster for the 2016 Nike Hoop Summit, which has a very heavy youth World Championship and Kentucky feeling.

The USA team is led by three players who have already made their names well known outside the United States. Jayson Tatum, Terrance Ferguson and Josh Jackson have teamed together the past three summers to collect plenty of hardware internationally – without losing a game. They were undefeated at the 2013 FIBA Americas U16 Championship and then followed that with an unbeaten run to the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship crown. This past summer they played underage but still helped the United States to the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship title.

A fourth member of those three USA teams was selected to the Hoop Summit team but will not play as Harry Giles was named as honorary captain as he sits out with a torn ACL. Giles and Tatum will play together at Duke starting the 2016-17 season.

That chemistry between Tatum, Ferguson and Jackson will be invaluable to USA head coach LJ Goolsby for the showcase on April 9, 2016 in Portland.

The USA lost the 2015 Hoop Summit to the World Select team 103-101 as Canadian Jamal Murray torched the USA team for 30 points, and Australian Ben Simmons collected 13 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

The World Team, which will be announced in March, has won three of the last four Hoop Summits, but the Americans still hold a 12-6 overall advantage in the series.

The University of Kentucky once again will have a major presence in the Hoop Summit. In addition to current Wildcat Murray, Skal Labissiere (21 points, six rebounds and six blocks for World team) and Isaiah Briscoe (nine points, nine assists and three steals for USA team) also gave UK fans last year a taste of what to expect when they arrive in Lexington.

The 2016 USA team will include three players who have committed to John Calipari and Kentucky – Edrice ‘Bam’ Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox and Wenyen Gabriel.

And a fourth to-be Kentucky Wildcat also made headlines as Malik Monk – a top-five player in his class – was not included in the USA team. Monk has not yet played for the USA internationally and he missed the USA Basketball Junior National Team training camp in October. Jonathan Givony of Draft Express hinted that Monk may have been kept off the team because he’s considered a ball-dominant combo guard.

Adebayo and Gabriel are interesting for another reason as both players could have played for the World Select team as Adebayo is said to have Nigerian heritage while Gabriel was born in South Sudan.

The other players on the team - for the first time with a 12 player roster - are Jarrett Allen, Marques Bolden, Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac, Josh Langford and Payton Pritchard.

“The strengths of our team will be our versatility and experience. Most of our guys are capable of playing multiple positions, and that will allow us to use a wide variety of lineups making us more difficult to defend,” said Goolsby.

Just as importantly, many of our guys have been involved with USA Basketball for the last four years and have already been tested and exposed to international play. They all understand what an honor it is to play for their country. - Goolsby

The addition of Pritchard - number 42 in ESPN’s ranking of the class - may have marketing reasons behind it as well as he hails from the Portland suburb of West Linn and will attend the University of Oregon next fall.

There will also be a heavy Texas feel to the team as Allen is from Austin; Bolden and Ferguson have Dallas as hometown; and Fox hails from Katy.

But it will not be an easy task for Goolsby and his team as World Select boss Roy Rana always has a very talented grouping of players – selected from around the world with the goal of beating the USA as a team.

Some of the top talents that Rana could possibly have - this is purely speculation - are Serbian Borisa Simanic, French trio Frank Ntilikina, Bathiste Tchouaffe and Killian Tillie, Germans Isaiah Hartenstein and Kostja Mushidi, Latvian Kristers Zoriks, Australians Issac Humphries (currently with Kentucky) and William McDowell-White, Egyptian Ahmed Khalaf, Japanese Rui Hachimura and Silvio De Sousa of Angola.

David Hein

FIBA

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