HERAKLION, Crete– Jalen Brunson was not sure what role he would assume when Team USA finally finished up tryouts for the U19 World Championships two weeks ago in Colorado Springs.
The day before the team was scheduled to fly here June 21, Isaiah Briscoe, a Kentucky recruit and McDonald’s All American and a member of the TEAm USA U18 2014 gold medal team, suffered a serious concussion in practice and was not cleared to practice.
The 6-3 Briscoe, who led Roselle Catholic to New Jersey Tournament of championship title, had penciled in as the starting point guard on this young team that was defending its 2013 championship team. Now that responsibility fell to Brunson, a 6-1 1/2 scoring one guard who had averaged 41.6 points for Lincolnshire Stevenson High’s Ilinois state champions.
I thought we might split the point guard duties or even play together at the one or two,” Brunson said. “When he went down, I knew I would play mostly at the point and had to concentrate on my leadership skills.”
Brunson, who signed with Villanova, is showing he is equally adept at playing both guard positions, has sacrificed his scoring and has put up some eye popping statistics as Team USA swept though its first four games, blowing by once powerful South American power Argentina, 93-45, in a Round of 16 game Wednesday night. The U.S. will play Italy in Friday’s 11:15 a.m. quarterfinals at the Sports Arena in the Industrial section of the city.
Brunson, whose father Rick played for Philadelphia Big Five rival Temple and was a nine year veteran of the NBA, has been a revelation. His assist to turnover ratio is 234 and his plus minus for the tournament has been a plus 62.
Brunson may not be an elite athlete and his size may not translate immediately to the pros, but his IQ is as good as any one in the Class of 2015. “A lot of that comes from watching tapes of my dad when he played.”
Rick Brunson was one of a long string of great guards to come though John Chaney’s program and there were constant rumors Brunson and his father would windup at his father’s alma mater as part of a practice deal with Rick becoming an assistant coach. But the deal fall though and Temple hired another alum Aaron McKie, leaving Brunson to choose between Villanova and Illinois.
Brunson eventually opted for the guard oriented Main Line Wildcats, who won the Big East for a second straight year and were ranked second in the final AP poll.
Judging from what he’s done here, he may be to good to sit and could wind up playing n the same backcourt as Big East co-Player of the Year Ryan Arcidiacono.
Brunson shot 3 for 5, scored 9 points, had six assists and two steals, in 19 minutes, directing a lightning fast offense that kept pedal for the entire game.
“I think we played a lot better today,” he said. “We got Argentina to quit early, but we couldn’t lose focus and we had to keep playing hard and focus on the task at hand. We’ve been together for a long time now, so we’re really starting to play more together as a team. We’re just playing so well together, it’s really beautiful to watch.”
The left handed Brunson has been playing with a sprained right wrist for almost two weeks and had an ice pack on it after the game. But it didn’t affect his handling, ability to finish, perimeter defense or ability to find the open man.
Team USA made it look easy, shooting 36 for 62. Forwards Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum — two of the teams four elite U17s– continued to improve. The 6-10 Giles, my favorite player in this particular team, finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds on 7 for 10 shooting in just 17 minutes. Tatum shot 6 for 8 and finished with 14. Five players scored in double figures and the three bigs Sean Miller decided to keep– 6-9 Caleb Swanigan, 6-10 Chinanu Onauka and 7-0 Thomas Welsh– combined for 18 points and 12 rebounds. No one on Team USA played more than 20 minutes.
Millers’ ability to constantly sub in active bodies has really paid dividends on defense. The Americans had 15 steals, constantly frustrating Argentina. with constant pressure that simply wear their South American opponent down. “I think it’s fun for us to play this way especially because we haven’t been together as long as these other teams, so we can’t let them run their sets at all.,” Brunson said. ” It’s pretty obvious that’s what we want to do, and we just have to keep playing hard and playing the style coach wants us to play.”
The U.S. road to the gold got a little easier when Australia pulled off the only surprise in the Round of 16, beating Serbia, 69-56. Australia used a 13-2 run in the second quarter to take a double digit lead and never gave it up. Jack McVeigh collected 18 points and 12 rebounds as Australia moved into the Final Eight for the eighth straight time in the competition.
