Category Archives: Duke Basketball

USA U16 National Team Wins the Gold

quinn-cookTeam USA traveled to Mendoza, Argentina for the FIBA Americas U16 Championship and brought home the Gold Medal with a dominating performance which featured balanced scoring. Four players averaged double digit points, over the five games, led by Brad Beal who averaged 19 points per game. Johnny O'Bryant led the team in rebounding with 9.8 per contest, while point guard Quinn Cook averaged 5 assists. Going undefeated over five games, Team USA broke the century mark in all five victories and averaged 113 points per contest.

In the Gold Medal Game, the USA defeated host, and Group B first place finisher, Argentina 101-87. The game was close early but the United States opened it up to take a 50-36 halftime lead and then opened the second half with an 8-0 run. Brad Beal led the USA in scoring with 26 points, while James McAdoo hauled in 12 rebounds and Quinn Cook dished out five assists. Cook and McAdoo added 22 and 20 points respectively. Argentina qualified for the Gold Medal game with a 66-58 victory over Venezuela in their semi-final game.

In the Semi-Finals against Group B second place finisher Canada, USA jumped out to a 14 point first quarter lead, but Canada outscored the USA by five points in the second quarter cutting the halftime advantage to nine at 57-48. The second half was all Team USA as they blew open the game with a 30-5 run and went on to defeat Canada 126-78. James McAdoo (19 points/11 rebounds) and Johnny O'Bryant (10 points/12 rebounds) both recorded double-double performances. Quinn Cook had a team high five assists to go along with 15 points.

During Round Robin play, the USA dominated Group A by winning their three games by an average 35 points including a 28 point victory over Brazil, a 26 point victory over Argentina, and a 52 point victory over Puerto Rico. In the opening game against Brazil, Adonis Thomas paced the United States with a 21 point performance featuring making 4 of 5 from behind the 3-point arc. The second game against Venezuela saw point guard Quinn Cook explode for 22 points. In the victory over Puerto Rico, six U.S. players scored in double figures and all 12 scored.

The U16 National Team is coached by Don Showalter of Mid-Prairie High School (Iowa). Showalter is being assisted by Herman Harried of Lake Clifton High School (Md) and Kevin Sutton of Montverde Academy (Fl). International competition provides an opportunity for young men to represent their country and develop their basketball skills in a structured environment. Full tournament coverage including game summaries, box scores, and photo galleries is available at the USA Basketball and FIBA Americas websites.

The United States, Argentina, and Canada qualified to compete in the FIBA 2010 U17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2010.

BDN Premium’s Basketball Recruiting Update – The Latest Happenings

Barnes-Parker
Barnes-Parker

If you read our message board you already know that Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton have made there way down to Duke after the NBAPA Top 100 Camp.  What you may not know is that [private] they'll be working out a lot with Nolan Smith who just got back from D.C. where he worked out with Michael Beasley.

The visitors will also be there when Harrison Barnes visits Durham on Tuesday of this week.  Barnes left for Chapel Hill with his mom and sister in tow where he'll get to know Roy Williams and the players.  He will participate in the camp while there and you can bet they'll do what they can to thwart his visit to Durham. If you are counting, this would make his third trip to Duke but do not look for a verbal for this one will last a good while longer.

Duke will also have a few ex players left over from the camp.  In fact, they are working with current players early and often.  Two of those players are Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly.  Both incoming freshman are working hard in the weight room to get stronger and prepare for the rigors of competing at the highest level.

Back to Barnes for a moment, as you have seen on the message board, he was hanging out with Andre Dawkins, Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton.  After Barnes final play off game, he sat and talked with Dawkins for a good while and Thornton came over as well.  Kendall Marshall's father saw me taking a picture (hate that happened) and beamed in on them.  Marshall, who goes by mrtiger on the Scout boards, loves to meddle, especially when it involves Duke or UNC players.  If you think he wouldn't help Carolina's cause you're crazy and I implore you to not trust what he says.  While he'll get some things right, he will also meddle about with rumors or staunch opinions.  He runs about picking at prospects and others while at AAU events and worse, he sits in the stands and rails on other prospects if they make bad plays while playing with his son.  He berated one well known recruiting guru for not ranking his son high enough, constantly dropping every curse word in the book regardless of who was around and yes, in front of his own younger children.  He epitomizes the worst case scenario in a little league father and I am surprised Scout allows him to hang around.  Kendall is a fine young man though and he is impressive  both on and off the court in every way.  I just hate to see little league fathers acting in a way that I feel in inappropriate.

Enough on him, back to recruiting talk.  Ray McCallum seems to be inclined to wait on his decision for a bit and I feel he's hoping Duke offers.  That will be dependent on how Duke feels about Kyrie Irving who had a sluggish start to the tournament.  Irving has not played in a ton of AAU tournaments, haven stayed on the East coast most of last year.  He was stymied by the talent and not being the man or getting the ball where he wanted it.  In fact, as the interviews roll your way, you'll hear several prospects say the same thing.  Irving emphatically told me that there was no truth to him being an Indiana lean and discussed the rumors and false information that hit the boards where Andrew and myself let you know the real deal after the Rumble in the Bronx.  I expect Irving to visit Duke by the end of summer and they should know of his interest level at that time.  Unfortunately, my batteries gave way during the interview and much of the good stuff was missed, but I will reconstruct what I can.

Fab Mello answered two questions before turning his back to the media and saying he couldn't speak our language much to his AAU coaches chagrin.  He wasn't doing that bad, but seems to have trouble handling pressure.  This will not bode well for him with concerns to landing in the kind of position he wants to in college.

McCallum is a pure point guard and plays within his capabilities, but he got dusted by Joe Jackson in a head to head match up.  However, McCallum bounced back after that game and played his best ball of the tournament.  Jackson?  He's a blur with the ball and can light it up on offense.  He is of course the teammate of Tarik Black on his AAU team, the Jackson Tigers.  Brick Oettinger said he'd move up significantly in his rankings and I must admit that I came away impressed.  We have an interview coming with him as well where he mentions that Duke's Nate James has been in touch, but Kentucky and Memphis are the leaders.  We talked with Black as well and yes, I caught another sites writer on film looking at my notes on press row while I was away.  I will give you one guess where they were from;)

Dominique Ferguson said that Duke just came out of nowhere, but he is seriously entertaining the notion as are many kids.  Nate James has really helped broaden the Duke name on the trail and he will likely continue under the tutelage of Chris Collins and Wojo.

One more thing ... we told you that Josh Hairston would be transferring to Montrosse Christian Academy, but that has not be officially announced yet, so we'd appreciate you keeping that here for nobody from Scout or Rivals has a clue about this.

We'll continue to bring you coverage from the NBAPA Top 100 camp all this week and you will surely enjoy actually hearing the players for yourselves.  I will have the audio updates in a more timely fashion next time around, so thanks for the patience while we worked through that. [/private]