Thompkins was among 17 of the nation¹s top 19-and-unders competing at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. The 12 players will remain in Colorado Springs through June 25 to continue training for the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship, which will be held July 2-12 in New Zealand. The player selections were made by the USA Basketball Men¹s Junior National Team Committee, chaired by Syracuse University head coach Jim Boeheim.
In addition to Thompkins, others selected to the team included: DeAngelo Casto (Washington State / Spokane, Wash.), Seth Curry (Duke / Charlotte, N.C.), Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh / Scotch Plains, N.J.) , Gordon Hayward (Butler / Brownsburg, Ind.), Shelvin Mack (Butler / Lexington, Ky.), Darius Miller (Kentucky / Maysville, Ky.), Arnett Moultrie (UTEP / Memphis, Tenn.), John Shurna (Northwestern / Glen Ellyn, Ill.), Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas /Jersey City, N.J.), Klay Thompson (Washington State / Ladera Ranch, Calif.) and Terrico White (Mississippi / Memphis, Tenn.).
³I think this is a well-balanced team. They¹ll have to get the job done as a team. They may not have a star-caliber player, but they have a lot of very good players. At this stage the U19 team looks like they will work very well together. All of the U19 trials participants played very hard throughout the trials. There has been no lack of effort, and that¹s a good sign,² said Boeheim.
³We¹re a pretty good shooting team from the perimeter and we have some big guys who can shoot the ball, so I think that¹s going to be a strength,² said USA U19 National Team and University of Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon. ³I¹m concerned that we don¹t really have experienced point guards, but I think we¹ve got some wings that can make some plays.
"Now at this point we¹ve got our team and we¹ve got to just mold it. We didn¹t do a lot of team stuff during these three days (of trials), but what we¹re now going to do is focus on defending as a team and then running our offense, and just trying to play unselfish, playing hard and playing smart at the same time.²
Dixon is being assisted by collegiate head coaches Chris Lowery of Southern
Illinois University and Matt Painter of Purdue University.
Thompkins, a rising sophomore from Lithonia, ranked second on the Georgia team last year in scoring at 12.6 points per game and led the Bulldogs in rebounding at 7.4 per contest. He was named to the 5-man Coaches' SEC All-Freshman team.
"Any great player who has ever played this game has gone through USA and competed at the international level," Thompkins said. " I just find it a blessing from God to be able to participate in something like this. Moving forward, becoming a unit and winning are the most important things, so we can come back with a gold medal. We¹re not settling for anything else and I¹m not expecting anything else."
The 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship features 16 national teams comprised of
athletes 19-years-old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1990) that qualified through their FIBA zone tournaments.
Sixteen nations will battle for the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men title July 2-12 in New Zealand. The United States has been placed in Group B, along with Egypt, France and Iran. The 12 remaining 19-and-under national teams were distributed as such: Group A includes Angola, Greece, Lithuania and Puerto Rico; Group C consists of Australia, Canada, Spain and Syria; and Group D is comprised of Argentina, Croatia, Kazakhstan and host New Zealand.
The U.S. squad¹s preliminary round slate opens with a July 2 contest against Iran, followed by France on July 3, and the USA squad will celebrate the Fourth of July by taking on Egypt. The top three teams from each preliminary group will qualify for the preliminary second round, while the fourth place teams will qualify for the classification round to determine 13th to 16th places.
The twelve teams qualified for the second round, which will be played July 6-8, will be divided into groups E and F, with six teams in each group. The top three preliminary round teams from groups A and B will advance to Group E, and the top three from C and D will advance to Group F. Each team will play the three new teams in its new group, with the final scores of all games played in the preliminary round carrying over to determine the second round standings.
Teams finishing in first through fourth places in the two second round groups will qualify for the quarterfinals, with the opportunity to advance to the semifinals and finals. Teams finishing in fifth and sixth places in Groups E and F will play for ninth through 12th places. The quarterfinals will be held on July 10, semifinals are slated for July 11 and the gold medal game will be contested on July 12.
In addition to Boeheim, the USA Basketball Junior National Team Committee includes NCAA appointees Lorenzo Romar (head coach, University of Washington), Bruce Weber (head coach, University of Illinois) and Roy Williams (head coach, University of North Carolina); and athlete representative Jay Williams, a member of the 2002 USA World Championship Team.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/6/221216