COLORADO SPRINGS (FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017) - USA Basketball finished the challenging process of selecting their team for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017 by naming three winners of the FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2016 and a group of college players to their 12-man roster.

Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Huerter and P.J. Washington all helped the United States to the title at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship last summer and have answered the bell for the U19 global spectacle. The two-time reigning champions United States will face off against Angola, Iran and Italy in Group D of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017.

Washington was the team's fourth leading scorer at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2016 at 10.0 points a game while Diallo averaged 7.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists and Huerter chipped in 6.8 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in Chile. 

Both Diallo and Washington are rising freshmen next season for the University of Kentucky and will be playing for their collegiate head coach John Calipari, who is the USA U19 head coach. Calipari and the USA Basketball selection committee selected a roster heavy on college players.

"Every player on this team can play different positions and has different abilities," Calipari said. "Whether they're a point guard and a scorer or whether they're wing and a point guard, or a wing and a power player. We only took two true bigs, which is kind of dangerous. But, we decided that if we had to, we could go small and go zone. We could do it offensively and if they didn't have a real big guy, we'd just go, 'P.J., you just guard the guy. We're going to go pick-and-rolls, inside pick-and-rolls and slips and you're going to go play like a three anyway.'"

Another USA U19 player who will debut in college in the fall will be Brandon McCoy with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The University of Maryland forward Huerter meanwhile is one of five Americans who will be entering their second season in college along with Carsen Edwards (Purdue), Josh Okogie (Georgia Tech), Payton Pritchard (Oregon) and Austin Wiley (Auburn).

While Diallo, Huerter and Washington won the trophy at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2016, Wiley captured the title at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2016, teaming up with fellow U19 team member Immanuel Quickley.

The 1999-born Quickley meanwhile is one of four players on the USA squad who will be entering their senior year of high school after the tournament in Cairo along with Romeo Langford, Louis King and Cameron Reddish.

Calipari talked about the difficulty of the process, which started with the first training camp session on 18 June with 27 players. The group was cut to 18 players on 20 June.

"Every player on this team can play different positions and has different abilities. Whether they're a point guard and a scorer or whether they're wing and a point guard, or a wing and a power player. We only took two true bigs, which is kind of dangerous. But, we decided that if we had to, we could go small and go zone."John CalipariJohn Calipari

"This is a really hard process. But it wasn't just me selecting these guys, USA Basketball is involved. This was done by committee, and it went back and forth. Everybody was giving opinions. We went to midnight and we still couldn't make the final decision, we had to sleep on it," Calipari said. "Having to select the first group (finalists) was really hard and we ended up keeping three or four more guys, because we weren't ready to make a decision on those three or four. And then, we had couple of injuries, which ended up moving that number down. But, at the end of the day, there were three players for one spot and we had to choose one. We looked and said, 'okay. Who, if they had to, could help us?' And that’s who we went with."

The 12-man roster announcement came on the same day that FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2015 winners Jayson Tatum, Josh Jackson, Harry Giles and Terrance Ferguson were all picked in the NBA Draft and will therefore miss Cairo 2017 despite being eligible. Other first round draft picks who were eligible for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017 were Markelle Fultz, Malik Monk and Jarrett Allen.

The USA U19 team will practice in Colorado Springs until 25 June before then departing for Egypt.

FIBA