Swanigan throws weight around at FIBA U17 Worlds

   The 6-9, 265-pound Swanigan, who weighed 355-pounds in eighth grade, was still foundering in the sport, playing in a lower level AAU team in Ft. Wayne, hampered by his weight that affected his way to run the floor in transition with the elite athletes who made up the core group of USA Basketball U16 national team that rolled to a gold medal in the 2014 FIBA Americas tournament in Uruguay.

   But Swanigan, who had a tough life growing up when his mother gave him up to a foster home after his dad died when he was young, convinced them to take a second look. Showalter received recommendations from college coaches after he dropped 15 to 20 pounds his junior season since moving from Salt Lake City to Ft. Wayne, where he has come into his own since living with his legal guardian Roosevelt Barnes in a stable environment for the past three years. 

     Swanigan, who has lost 90 pounds overall, drastically changed in eating habits– no fast food, no breads, fresh fruits and vegetables and lean meats– and developed a daily exercise regiment that has completely changed his body regiment and made him an intriguing candidate when USA basketball conducted its final tryouts this summer in Colorado Springs. He became a huge force off the bench Friday night when the Americans defeated Serbia, 89-68, in the semi-finals.

     “It seems like the more weight I lose, the more prestigious player I become,” Swanigan said. “I do the elliptical, the stair master. I run and that’sa added on to all the stuff I do basketball wise.’ 

     Swanigan came off the bench to score 11 points and 8 rebounds and completely dominated the game inside with the type of power no one on Serbia could handle as Team USA finally broke a close game open in the fourth quarter.

     Swanigan,who averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds last season for Homestead High in Ft. Wayne, shined at the LeBron James Skills camp and averaged 18.1 points and. 11.2 rebounds for Spiece Indy Heat in 12 games on the high powered Nike ElBYL travel team circuit, was a surprise addition to this talented roster that returned the all of their big men from the U16. But he was too strong to pass on and was selected ahead of incumbents like 6-10 Daniel Giddens, who has committed to Ohio State and 6-9 Thomas Bryant.

     “Kids have to constantly improve if they want to make this roster,” Showalter said. “But because there are a lot of others out there just waiting to take their place on our roster.;”

     Not many of them perform like Charles Barkley on the court.

     “”Cam is kind of a quiet guy, but once he gets going, he’s a monster on the boards,” Showalter said. ‘

      Swanigan, whose nickname is “Biggs”, did his best imitation of the Round Mound Friday night when the Americans desperately needed to figure out how to deal with a Serbian team, which flummoxed Team USA with a 2-3 zone and hurt them by spreading the floor and taking volume threes. Make no mistake, this was a good Serbian team. Five members– including 6-7 Vanja Stojanovich, the MVP of a U18 Nike Junior International tournament when Serbia stunned powerful Real Madrid last season. Five players on that team, including Stojanovich played together with a young group on Red Star of Belgrade and point guard Stefan Peno, who led Serbia with 18 points, has been with Barcelona for the past three years.

     Serbia, which has become the U.S. biggest rival in youth development over the past two years, was the first team to challenge Team USA for most than 20 minutes. They were down just 37-34 at half before the Americans, who out rebounded Serbia,   59-38, simply overwhelmed them in the low box. No one had any answers for  Swanigan, who powered his way inside for seven points in a two minute stretch as the Americans opened a close game to a 65-50 lead in the fourth quarter.

      “We needed to put them away,” Swanigan said. “We couldn’t let them hang around, give them hope. You don’t ever want to put the outcome of an international game in the hands of a ref. So you want to create as wide a margin as possible.”

     This was the first time the Americans faced a defining moment in these games.

      “Serbia is really good team,” Showalter said. ‘They know how to win. Sometimes, they don’t always play the most orthodox way with their offensive sets. At times, they give you problems, especially when they go zone. I’ve said this for years, if i was coaching against our team I would flat out play zone and take my chances. Serbia gave us problems with everything we do but our kids did a good job communicating on defense.” 

     Basketball USA’s U17s have something no one else in this tournament can match– valuable depth. “It’s huge because teams get tired. And when we come in off the bench, we’ve got a team that is just as good as our starters

    “Cam is kind of a quiet guy,but once he gets going, he’s a monster on the boards,” Showater said. ‘

     Junior forward Harry Giles scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while 6-210 center Diamond Stone added 12 and 8. but this game belonged to the backups like Swanigan and junior guard Tyus Battle from Gill-St. Bernard in North Jersey, who had recevied limited playing time but came off the bench to make two huge second half jumpers.

      Swanigan has seen a huge up tick in his recruiting since he decided to reclassify to a 2015, making him eligible to graduate this year. He is being recruited by long time suitor Michigan State, which already has a verbal from his travel club teammate and 6-8 big Deyonta Davis; Kentucky and Kansas and almost every Big Ten school, among others.

      The U.S. will play Auistaila, which rallied from a 22 poont first half deficit to defeat Spain, 80-74, in overtime as 7-0 junior center Isaac Humphries rose up in the final five minutes, scoring on two flying break away dunks, in a repeat of the 2012 gold meal game in Luthuiana.  It’s two years in the making for us,” Australia coach Mark Watkins said. “It’s a chance for us, as a country, for a little bit of redemption.

  “For me, we haven’t played the US all tournament, so we want to have a crack at them.

  “Everyone else has had a crack and failed – well, big time finals can do certain things and things can happen in finals.”

   It should be interesting to see what kind of crowd the gold medal game draws as this converted 15,000 seat natatorium, located 20 miles from downtown in the desert. A crowd of less than 1,000 showed up for the semi-finals

   This was Dubai’s first real attempt at hositng an internatinal basketball tournament. Although FIBA president Yvan Mannini praised the organizers for the job they did on the junior level, he felt that a 32 team senior competition like the World Cup might be too big for the country to hold on its own at this time and Dubai would likely have to combine with another gulf state like Qatar, if it wants to bid in the future. ,