Pittsburgh News, Ray Mernagh

BELLY OF THE BE-AST: USA U-19 EDITION

by RAY MERNAGH

They had six weeks to turn into a team, while their opponents had two years or more. They had knowledge that 22 other players, most more highly thought of than them, had refused invitations to tryout for the team they would now play on. And they knew the country they were representing — the United States — hadn’t won this competition, the Under-19 World Championships, since 1991. Some, like my buddy Joe, said it was a team made up of nobodies. But Joe was wrong, they weren’t nobodies — even if most of us never heard of most of them. They were all contributors on NCAA basketball teams last year as freshmen (one was a sophomore). The reason a lot of folks never heard of them is because most of us don’t pay attention anymore, preferring to let the ticker at the bottom of the screen tell us what player led their team in scoring while at the same time ignoring the game we’re supposedly watching. Hoop junkies knew about some of them, but for the most part, Joe’s opinion was sadly and probably the prevailing one.

But they gathered together a little over a month ago and prepared, with the guidance of a coaching staff made up of three grinders (Jamie Dixon, Matt Painter, and Chris Lowery) and prepared to fight for a gold medal. Going into the World Championship competition against several players projected as future NBA lottery picks, here’s what the numbers on our boys from the USA told us about them from their first season of college basketball.

Tyshawn Taylor — 9.7 ppg, 3 assists, 2 rebounds and one steal in 26 minutes
DeAngelo Casto — 4.4 ppg, 4 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 16 minutes
Klay Thompson — 12.5 ppg and 4.2 rebounds in 33 minutes
Seth Curry — 20.2 ppg, 2.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 36.5 minutes
Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh) — 4.3 ppg in 10.7 minutes
Gordon Hayward — 13.1 ppg, 2 assists, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 32.7 minutes
Shelvin Mack — 11.9 ppg, 3.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 30.7 minutes
Darius Miller — 5.3 ppg, 2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 21.2 minutes
Howard Thompkins — 12.6 ppg and 7.4 rebounds, 1.1 blocks and 1 steal in 26 minutes
Terrico White — 13.7 ppg, 2.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 30 minutes
Arnett Moultrie — 8.8 ppg and 8.2 rebounds in 26.8 minutes
John Shurna –7.3 ppg, 1 assist and 3 rebounds in 18.5 minutes

Some impressive numbers no doubt, but three of the five players that averaged double figures played in non-BCS conferences and their starting point guard, Gibbs, averaged a mere ten minutes a game as primarily an outside shooter. So what did this group of misfits do?

They went 9-0 and won those nine games by an average of 22.2 points a game. They did it by all twelve guys averaging at least 13 minutes a game and by holding their opponents to 66 points a game. They sacrificed in a way the 1969-70 Knicks of Red Holtzman did, or the Chuck Daley Pistons did — they became the best basketball team.

Sorry Joe, but you can’t call them nobodies anymore.

Champions — make that World Champions — will do just fine though.