The talented-packed US roster for the Nike Hoop Summit was announced earlier this week. Although we’re a couple of days late, nonetheless, we figured this roster is worthy of your attention. From our friends at USA Basketball:
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 6, 2012) — Featuring 10 elite high school seniors, USA Basketball today named the roster for the 2012 USA Junior National Select Team, which will take on the World Select Team in the 2012 Nike Hoop Summit.
Played at 7:00 p.m. (PDT) on Saturday, April 7 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore., the 15th annual Nike Hoop Summit will be broadcast nationally by Fox Sports Net and its regional affiliates.
The Nike Hoop Summit is the country’s premier annual basketball game for high-school boys and features America’s top seniors playing against a World Team comprised of international players who are 19-years-old or younger.
Suiting up for the USA will be: Kyle Anderson (St. Anthony H.S./North Bergen, N.J.); Archie Goodwin (Sylvan Hills H.S./Little Rock, Ark.); Gary Harris (Hamilton Southeastern H.S./Fishers, Ind.); Mitch McGary (Brewster Academy/Porter, Ind.); Shabazz Muhammad (Bishop Gorman H.S./Las Vegas, Nev.); Nerlens Noel (The Tilton School, N.H./Everett, Ma.); Marcus Paige (Linn-Mar H.S./Marion, Iowa); Tony Parker (Miller Grove H.S./Lithonia, Ga.); Rasheed Sulaimon (Strake Jesuit College Prep/Houston, Texas); and Kaleb Tarczewski (St. Mark’s School, Mass./Claremont, N.H.).
“Both teams are in a similar situation in this game,” said USA head coach Kevin Boyle (Montverde Academy, Fla.). “The World Team also will have just a handful of practices to come together. Some of our players have played together and played international basketball and some have not. We are going to try and develop our chemistry and our rotation quickly and get our guys to understand their roles. It’s not an all-star game, and we will be playing to win. Not everyone will have the same amount of shots or minutes. It will be whoever is most deserving based on practices and preparation.”
The U.S. assistant coach will be Mike Jones (DeMatha High School, Md.), who also serves as a 2011-12 USA Men’s Developmental National Team assistant coach. In 2011, Jones helped the USA to a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship, and he will be on the U.S. sideline at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.
Tickets for the 15th annual Nike Hoop Summit are now on sale. General admission is $5 in advance and $10 on game day, and reserved courtside seats are $25 and $50. Tickets can be purchased through the Rose Quarter Ticket Office at 877-789-ROSE (7673), by visiting rosequarter.com or at nikehoopsummit.com.
Just two players, Anderson and Parker, come to the team with prior USA Basketball experience. Parker is a two-time gold medalist with USA Basketball, including a 5-0 record in the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship, and an 8-0 record at the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship. He averaged 3.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per game for the USA in 2010 and 8.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in 2009.
Alongside Parker, Anderson also participated in the 2009-10 USA Men’s Developmental National Team’s first mini-camp in October of 2009, a U16 training camp in June 2009 and a U17 training camp in June 2010.
Seven U.S. team members have signed a National Letter of Intent for the 2012-13 NCAA season. Anderson will play at UCLA, Goodwin will go to Kentucky, Harris is headed to Michigan State, McGary signed with Michigan, Paige committed to North Carolina, Tarczewski will go to Arizona and Sulaimon will play at Duke. Muhammed, Noel and Parker are undecided about where they will attend college.
All 10 players rank among the nation’s top 50 boys basketball players.
