FIBA World Cup – Syndication Server

Micah Shrewsberry takes gold for U.S. at FIBA Men’s U18 AmeriCup

Way to go, Coach!

[autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] has a long way to go before making Notre Dame into a national championship contender. For now though, he’ll settle for being an assistant coach on a gold-medal national team.

The U.S. U18 squad, for which Shrewsberry is an assistant coach, won the gold in the FIBA Men’s U18 AmeriCup with a 110-70 victory over Argentina. This is the 11th time in 13 editions of the event that the U.S. has been the last team standing.

It’s hard to tell exactly how this experience will impact Shrewsberry moving forward or whether he’ll implement anything from this team when it comes to the Irish. All we know is this will look good on his resume moving forward, and maybe that will implore some recruits to give a serious look at the program.

Congratulations to Shrewsberry and the entire team on capturing gold. Here’s hoping they enjoyed every bit of their experience.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Three former Notre Dame players on U.S. team training camp roster

Keep a lookout for this year’s Olympic roster.

With the 2024 Olympics in Paris only months away, now is the time for USA Basketball to plan its teams. That includes a women’s 5-on-5 team that can keep the gold medal in the U.S. Sure, the U.S. has won nine of the past 10 golds, but one never can be too certain.

Out of the 18 players on the U.S. training camp roster, 12 will be selected for the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournament. It should be noted that the U.S. is participating in the tournament despite automatically qualifying for the Paris Olympics by virtue of taking the gold in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics. The next few weeks will serve as player evaluation more than anything else.

Three players on the roster will be familiar to Notre Dame fans because they all played for the Irish. While none of these names are surprises, it still is nice to see them have this opportunity. Here they are:

Dillon Brooks ready to help transform Rockets on defensive end

Dillon Brooks: “When you play Houston, you know it’s going to be a physical battle. It’s going to be a challenge. It’s not just a walk in the park no more.” #Rockets

At Monday’s media day to launch 2023-24 Rockets training camp, newly signed forward Dillon Brooks met with media members in Houston for the first time since signing with the organization during the recently completed NBA free agency window.

“I love to compete at all costs,” Brooks said of his unique approach. “I do everything to either get into player’s head or make them tired. I’ve been pretty good at it, working that trade for a while.”

“I want [my intensity] to be contagious throughout the whole team, throughout the whole organization,” Brooks told reporters. “I’m ready to get on this ride, this journey.”

Here’s a roundup of what all we heard from Brooks at Monday’s media day from Toyota Center. Training camp will officially begin Tuesday at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

“When you come play Houston, you know it’s going to be a physical battle,” Brooks said. “It’s going to be a challenge. When you come play Houston, you know it’s going to be a physical battle. It’s going to be a challenge. It’s not just a walk in the park no more.”

Ranking the Top 10 big men for Team USA if Joel Embiid declines invitation to Paris Olympics in 2024

Anthony Davis is the top option but there are some interesting sleepers, too.

After shockingly failing to medal during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Team USA has lots of questions to answer before the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

One of the reasons why Team USA struggled to even earn a bronze medal was due to a lack of size in the frontcourt. They struggled on the defensive end of the floor and had a massive deficiency when it came to rebounding the ball.

This is a team that will need legitimate big men in order to compete with tough international talent in the post such as Serbia’s Nikola Jokic as well as France’s Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.

Team USA head coach Steve Kerr was asked about what changes may come before the Olympics and he mentioned that the team needed to have very specific intentions when it came to the types of big men they would target for the roster (via The Athletic):

“I think it’s a worthwhile point of discussion, but the discussion has to go to, ‘OK, then who is that?” […] “You can’t just say, we’re going to have size for size’s sake. You have to have players who are going to help you win, and you have to determine who those guys are. It’s not just the size, it’s the way the game is played. […] But I don’t think it’s as simple as saying it’s just size. I think you have to examine who you’re talking about if you go down that path.”

Of course, the first name that comes to mind is Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. He could join the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, who helped lead Team USA to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta after he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

The six-time All-Star is an international free agent who is eligible to play for Team Cameroon (after they clinched a spot to compete in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament) as well as Team France and Team USA.

Team USA managing director Grant Hill said Embiid “knows our desire” to have him on the team. According to Brian Windhorst, however, it’s too early to assume that the league’s reigning MVP will decide to actually suit up for the Americans at the 2024 Olympics in Paris (via ESPN):

“Team USA has done some recruiting of Joel Embiid, who holds both United States and French citizenship, but the Philadelphia 76ers star has thus far been noncommittal.”

So if Team USA is not able to successfully recruit Embiid, here are the other top options that they could consider:

The best scoring performances ever against Team USA with NBA players

Here are the best scoring performances ever against Team USA with NBA players.

Dillon Brooks went off for 39 points and seven threes in Canada’s bronze medal game win over Team USA in the FIBA World Cup. It was the best scoring performance ever against Team USA with NBA players, and of course, it generated a lot of responses.

That said, we present the top-scoring performances ever against NBA-studded USA teams. From what you’ll see, most of the best scoring performances come from international NBA players. Only one of the twelve players listed hasn’t played a single NBA game in his career.

Team Serbia roster: Meet the national team fighting for gold at the 2023 FIBA World Cup

Serbia made it to the 2023 FIBA World Cup Finals even without Nikola Jokic.

Canada was long considered one of the two favorites to win the 2023 FIBA World Cup, but they lost to Serbia in the semifinals.

After the upset victory over Canada on Friday in the Philippines, the Serbian national team will advance to the finals and will face Germany for a chance to win the gold medal in the competition.

Serbia is coached by Svetislav “Kari” Pešić, who has previously coached Barcelona as well as Bayern and Valencia in the Euroleague. He also possesses German citizenship and coached the German national team from 1987 until 1993 and then again in 2012.

His roster at the FIBA World Cup has three NBA players, which is one fewer than his German opponents (4) in the championship game.

Serbia is without key players who could represent the nation, including NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic. Others with NBA experience who are eligible to play for Serbia but not on the roster include Vasilije Micic, Milos Teodosic, Boban Marjanovic and Aleksej Pokusevski.

Despite that, however, Serbia currently has the best point differential among all teams in the tournament.

Here are the Serbian players representing their country in this competition.

Team Germany roster: Meet the national team that beat Team USA at the 2023 FIBA World Cup

Franz Wagner and Moritz Wagner are not the only NBA players on this team.

Although the United States was considered the favorite to win the 2023 FIBA World Cup, they lost to Germany in the semifinals.

After the upset victory over Team USA on Friday in the Philippines, the German national team will advance to the finals and will face Serbia for a chance to win the gold medal in the competition.

Germany is coached by Gordon Herbert, who led Germany to win a bronze medal at the European Championships in 2022. His roster at the FIBA World Cup has four NBA players, more than any other nation except for just Team USA (12) as well as Australia (9) and Canada (7).

This team, also known as Die Mannschaft, is currently the only undefeated nation remaining in the tournament. Here are the players representing their country in this competition.

Rockets assistant Royal Ivey coaches South Sudan to 2024 Olympics

Led by #Rockets assistant Royal Ivey, South Sudan recently clinched a spot in the 2024 Olympics. It’s the young nation’s first Olympic berth in any team sport.

The Republic of South Sudan became the world’s youngest nation and Africa’s 54th country on July 9, 2011. Until 2019, there wasn’t an indoor basketball arena in the country.

But that’s when former NBA player Luol Deng became president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation. With Deng’s connections to the NBA and G League, he brought players such as the Los Angeles Lakers’ Wenyen Gabriel and G League MVP Carlik Jones to visit the new country, all while recruiting other talented players and coaches to join them.

One of those recruited was Royal Ivey, who is now an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has more:

Three summers ago, Deng tapped former NBA player and longtime friend Royal Ivey to be the team’s head coach. Ivey, an assistant with the Rockets, started practices on concrete floors and outdoor courts that were sometimes flooded.

As a result of a 101-78 victory over Angola at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, South Sudan’s Bright Stars have secured Africa’s lone 2024 Olympics bid. It’s the nation’s first Olympic berth in any sport.

According to Windhorst, the success comes “with a team filled with refugees and the children of refugees from the war-torn nation.”

The South Sudan, a team filled with refugees and their children, has qualified for the Olympics in a World Cup moment that left many in tears including national hero Luol Deng. This is their story: https://t.co/CYq4n2vD8k

— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) September 2, 2023

Ivey, who mentored Deng over two decades ago when he arrived at the same high school in New Jersey, said after his team clinched:

It’s been a humbling journey. I had heartaches, I have a lot of ebbs and flows, and it’s a great feeling right now. A year ago we were practicing outside with eagles flying around while we were practicing and the courts were flooded. Like to go from there to come and play in front of these fans in the Philippines (Manila), and I’m on cloud nine right now.

Read on for an assortment highlights, interviews and postgame reaction from Manila, including remarks from Ivey. South Sudan finished its 2023 FIBA World Cup run with a 3-2 record.