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Arizona senior center Kaleb Tarczewski has been reported for a while to be a possibility to play for Team USA in the Pan American Games at Toronto in almost three weeks.
USA Basketball made it official this morning, listing Tarczewski as one of 22 players invited to try out for the team. If Tarczewski makes it to the Pan Am Games he would add to Arizona’s Team USA contingent. Arizona coach Sean Miller and incoming freshman guard Allonzo Trier are part of the USA Basketball team competing at the FIBA U19 World Championships in Crete, Greece.
The Americans are 2-0 in the preliminary rounds of that tournament after beating top challenger Croatia 103-81 Sunday behind Trier’s 17 points.
“We really respected Croatia as an opponent,” Trier said. “We knew what they could do and tried to take away their strengths and really play our type of basketball.”
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Site founder and award-winning sports journalist Javier Morales has published his first e-book, “The Highest Form of Living”, a fiction piece about a young man who overcomes a troubled upbringing without his lost father and wayward mother through basketball and hope. His hope is realized through the sport he loves. Basketball enables him to get past his fears. His experience on the court indirectly brings him closer to his parents in a unique, heartfelt way. Please order it at Amazon (for only $4.99) by clicking on the photo:
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Sean Miller has Team USA off to an impressive 2-0 start at the FIBA U19 World Championships in Greece (USA Basketball photo)
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Miller (who played for Team USA’s gold-medal team in the 1991 World University Games) and Stanley Johnson were part of the U.S. team that won gold at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Colorado Springs last year.
Andre Iguodala, the NBA Finals MVP, captured gold with Team USA at the 2010 FIBA World Championships and the 2012 London Olympics. His record representing the U.S. is 17-0.
Richard Jefferson claimed a bronze medal with Team USA at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Steve Kerr and Sean Elliott earned a gold medal, with Lute Olson as coach, when Team USA won the title at the 1986 FIBA World Championships, the last time the highest-level U.S. team was comprised of only college players.
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The list of 22 hopefuls for the Pan Am Games include 16 current collegians (Tarczewski one of them) and six others who have played professionally overseas.
Colorado senior center Josh Scott will challenge Tarczewski for a spot on the team. Colorado coach Tad Boyle is one of the team’s assistant coaches. Mark Few of Gonzaga is the head coach.
The USA training camp will be held July 7-12 at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The U.S. team will also train July 13-16 at the Chicago Bulls practice facility. The 2015 Pan American Games men’s basketball competition will take place July 21-25 in Toronto, Canada.
The U.S. men have been placed into Group A and will play all three of its preliminary round games at 6 p.m. Tucson time, including Venezuela on July 21, Puerto Rico on July 22 and Brazil on July 23. Competing in Group B will be Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico.
The top two teams from each preliminary-round group will advance to the medal-round semifinals on July 24, while the third and fourth-placed teams will play for fifth-eighth places. The semifinal winners will compete for the gold medal on July 25, and the semifinal losers will play for bronze.
Allonzo Trier scored a personal-high of 17 points at the FIBA World Championships in Team USA’s 101-83 win over Croatia on Sunday (USA Basketball photo)
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He has also written articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
