Two SEC Players Invited To Team USA Camp

Four ACC players invited to Team USA camp

By Lorenzo Perez
lperez@newsobserver.com

Posted: Thursday, Jul. 08, 2010

Duke seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, North Carolina junior Tyler Zeller and Florida State junior Chris Singleton were among the 20 college players named today to the USA Basketball Men's Select team.

Only two other conferences — the Big Ten and the Big XII — had four upperclass players named to the team, which will train with the U.S. national team later this month in Las Vegas. The Atlantic 10, Big East and SEC each have a pair of players on the team.

Joining the ACC quartet on the USA Basketball Select squad are: Lavoy Allen (Temple); William Buford (Ohio State); LaceDarius Dunn (Baylor); Jimmer Fredette (BYU); Scotty Hopson (Tennessee); Scoop Jardine (Syracuse); JaJuan Johnson (Purdue); Jon Leuer (Wisconsin); Shelvin Mack (Butler); Marcus Morris (Kansas); Jacob Pullen (Kansas State); John Shurna (Northwestern); Howard Thompkins (Georgia); Mike Tisdale (Illinois); Kemba Walker (Connecticut); Chris Wright (Dayton).

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar and Villanova coach Jay Wright will serve as co-head coaches of the Select team, which will gather in Las Vegas for a July 19 training session. The following day, they will begin working out with the NBA players on the U.S. National team's training camp roster.

“We believe bringing in a USA Basketball select team to train against the USA National Team will help our team get better prepared for the upcoming FIBA World Championship,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said in a statement released this morning. “In 2007 and 2008 we brought in to the national team training camps USA select teams comprised of young, up-and-coming NBA players and that proved not only beneficial for our national team, but for those select team players who got a great training opportunity and became involved in USA Basketball’s pipeline. This will be a tremendous opportunity for these collegians to get a look at the next level.”

Singler and Smith were teammates on the USA’s U18 Championship team that won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship; they were also teammates on the 2007 USA Junior National Select Team that defeated an international select team in the Nike Hoop Summit.