Kentucky freshman-to-be Darius Miller was among 25 players invited to the 2008 USA Basketball Men’s Under-18 National Team Trials, which will be July 1-3 in Washington, D.C.
USA Basketball announced the invitees on Tuesday. After leading Mason County to the state championship, Miller was named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball.
The trials will be held at Verizon Center. The Men’s Collegiate Committee will announce the 12-member USA U18 National Team roster, plus alternates. The selected finalists will remain in Washington, D.C., for the July 4-10 training camp. The USA squad will depart for Formosa, Argentina for the 2008 FIBA America’s U18 Championship for Men on July 10. Competition is July 14-18.
Here’s the news release by USA Basketball:
The 25 players selected include: Isaiah Armwood (Montrose Christian H.S. / Rockville, MD); Kenny Boynton (American Heritage H.S. / Plantation, FL); Dominic Cheek (St. Anthony H.S. / Jersey City, NJ); Drew Gordon (Archbishop Mitty H.S. / San Jose, CA); JaMychal Green (St. Jude H.S. / Montgomery, AL); Kenny Hall (Redan H.S. / Stone Mountain, GA); Matt Humphrey (Hales Franciscian H.S. / Chicago, IL); Ryan Kelly (Revenscroft H.S. / Raleigh, NC); Sylven Landesberg (Holy Cross H.S. / Flushing, NY); Malcom Lee (John W. North H.S. / Riverside, CA); Leslie McDonald (Briarcrest H.S. / Memphis, TN); Darius Miller (Mason County H.S. / Maysville, KY); Reeves Nelson (Modesto Christian H.S. / Modesto, CA); Mason Plumlee (Christ H.S. / Arden, NC); Travis Releford (Bishop Miege H.S. / Shawnee Mission, KS); Lance Stephenson (Lincoln H.S. / Brooklyn, NY); Ari Stewart (Wheeler H.S. / Marietta, GA); Dexter Strickland (St. Patrick H.S. / Elizabeth, NJ); Hollis Thompson (Loyola H.S. / Los Angeles, CA); Terrell Vinson (Montrose Christian H.S. / Rockville, MD); Kemba Walker (Rice H.S. / New York, NY);Maalik Wayns (Roman Catholic H.S. / Philadelphia, PA); David Wear (Mater Dei H.S. / Santa Ana, CA); Travis Wear (Mater Dei H.S. / Santa Ana, CA); and Wesley Witherspoon (Berkman H.S. / Lilburn, GA).
The coaches for the USA team are Bob McKillop of Davidson College who will serve as head coach. The assistant coaches will be VCU’s Anthony Grant and Georgetown’s John Thompson III. Collegiate head coaches who will serve as trials’court coaches include Cornell’s Steve Donahue, Kevin McCarthy of the State University of New York at Cobleskil, Joe Niland of the University of Mobile and Gary Stewart of the University of California at Davis.
Nine of the 25 trials participants will be college freshman in the 2008-09 season, and the remaining 16 will be high school seniors in the class of 2009. Among those college freshmen are Gordon and Lee who have both been signed by UCLA, Green at Alabama, Humphrey at Oregon, Landesberg with Virginia, Miller at Kentucky, Walker with Uconn and Releford at Kansas. The release stated five of the players, including Alabama’s Green, were 2007-08 Gatorade Boys Basketball state Players of the Year in their respective states in a list that included Green for the state of Alabama, Releford for Kansas, Miller for Kentucky, Landesberg for New York and McDonald for Tennessee. The release also said that Rivals.com ranked six of the seniors among its top 50 players, while the remaining three seniors rounded out the top 100. Walker listed No. 14, Green placed No. 21, Witherspoon was No. 34, Miller ranked No. 43, Gordon at No. 46, Lee was No. 48, Landesberg at No. 66, Releford listed No. 70, while Humphrey ranked No. 95. It said 11 of the rising juniors rank among Rivals.com top 50 players in the class of 2009. Stephenson lists No. 7, Cheek is No. 11, Strickland is No. 16, Armwood is No. 23, Wayns at No. 24, Nelson ranks No. 30, McDonald is No. 32, Plumlee ranks No. 40, Hall lists No. 41, Kelly is No. 44 and Thompson is No. 46. Four additional juniors also listed amongst Rivals’ top-65: Wear (David) ranks No. 54, Wear (Travis) lists No. 55, Stewart is No. 59, while Vinson ranks No. 61.