USA - Parker, Muhammad highlight USA's Summit team

COLORADO SPRINGS (Nike Hoop Summit) - FIBA U17 World Championship gold medalist Tony Parker and 2012 Naismith Trophy High School Player of the Year Shabazz Muhammad highlight the United States' squad selected to participate in the highly-anticipated 2012 Nike Hoop Summit.

USA Basketball named a team of 10 elite high school seniors that will go up against a World Select team in the 15th annual Nike Hoop Summit – which features players 19 years and younger – on April 7 at Portland’s Rose Garden.

The international team is expected to be named later this month.

“We are going to try and develop our chemistry and our rotation quickly and get our guys to understand their roles,” said USA head coach Kevin Boyle.

“It’s not an all-star game, and we will be playing to win. Not everyone will have the same amount of shots or minutes. It will be whoever is most deserving based on practices and preparation.”

The 2012 edition of Team USA is stacked with players who have aspirations of joining the elite group of ex-Summit stars. That group includes some of the best players in today's game: 2010 FIBA World Championship gold medalists Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose of the USA, along with international stalwarts Tony Parker of France, Argentina's Luis Scola and Dirk Nowitzki of Germany.

Tony Parker, from Lithonia, Georgia, is the only player to have represented the USA before. He helped the Americans win gold at the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship with an undefeated 5-0 record.

He then featured for the undefeated gold medal-winning USA side at the inaugural FIBA U17 World Championship on a team which included among others current college stars Bradley Beal (Florida), Andre Drummond (Connecticut), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Kentucky), Chasson Randle (Stanford), Marquis Teague (Kentucky) and Tony Wroten (Washington).

Kyle Anderson from North Bergen, New Jersey, also has some experience with Team USA as he participated in the 2009-10 USA Men’s Developmental National Team mini-camp in October 2009 as well as a U16 training camp in June 2009 and a U17 training camp in June 2010.

Anderson, who will be attending UCLA in the fall 2012, is widely considered among the top four players in the 2012 U.S. high school senior class and was included on the four-player Naismith Trophy High School Player of the Year finalists list.

That award was won by Muhammad, who helped Bishop Gorman High School of Las Vegas to their third Nevada state championship in four seasons.

The left-handed shooting guard Muhammad, undecided about college but considering attending Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, UNLV and USC, is widely considered the second-ranked high school senior in the country.

That distinction goes to Nerlens Noels of Everett, Massachusetts. Like Muhammad, the center is still undecided about college and his list list includes Connecticut, Georgetown, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Providence and Syracuse.

In last year's Nike Hoop Summit, Austin Rivers - a leading player for the USA team that won the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship and presently in his freshman year at Duke - had 20 points in leading the USA to a 92-80 win over the World Select Team, who got a historical triple-double (12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks) from current Charlotte Bobcats rookie Bismack Biyombo of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

2012 USA JUNIOR NATIONAL SELECT TEAM (to compete in 2012 Nike Hoop Summit, 7 April 2012 at the Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon, USA):
Kyle Anderson (6ft 8in/2.04m, St Anthony HS/North Bergen, New Jersey)
Archie Goodwin (6ft 5in/1.95m, Sylvan Hills HS/Little Rock, Arkansas)
Gary Harris (6ft 6in/1.98m, Hamilton Southeastern HS/Fishers, Indiana)
Mitch McGary (6ft 10in/2.08m, Brewster Academy/Porter, Indiana)
Shabazz Muhammad (6ft 6in/1.98m, Bishop Gorman HS/Las Vegas, Nevada)
Nerlens Noel (6ft 11in/2.11m, The Tilton School, New Hampshire/Everett, Massachusetts)
Marcus Paige (6ft 1in/1.85m, Linn-Mar HS/Marion, Iowa)
Tony Parker (6ft 8in/2.04m, Miller Grove HS/Lithonia, Georgia)
Rasheed Sulaimon (6ft 3in/1.91m, Strake Jesuit College Prep/Houston, Texas)
Kaleb Tarczewski (7ft 0 in/2.14m, St Mark’s School, Massachusetts/Claremont, New Hampshire)

FIBA