Colorado Springs, CO – With three skills sessions down and one trails game competition completed over the course of 1.25 days it was important to get the Blue Star Basketball Report evaluations done cause the cuts are coming shortly, Each player who attends the four day USA Basketball u16 trails knows it’s either play well or get cut. The flip side is that the USA Youth Committee also has to put together the best team to represent our country in the FIBA Zone championships this summer in Mexico. To do that means watching a lot of talent, some invited, some not and pick the best and cut the rest. Good luck this year.
After watching at least four various USAB-FIBA cycles of u16 Zone team to u17 Worlds teams you sort of know the process and the talent. We have gone through the Breanna Stewart (Connecticut) cycle, the Diamond DeShields (Tennessee) cycle and now this past Katie Lou Samuelson cycle. Who is this cycle going to be built around? I couldn’t find who that person was coming into the event. These trials will set the rankings, evaluations and rep for many a player after this weekend – including who the leaders are in this class.
There are a few candidates but unlike previous cycles you knew who the best were walking in the door. This year, it’s an open house of opportunity to grab one of the 15 spots, 12 team, three alternate. When the event started on Thursday afternoon the start list was 158. By the middle of Friday it was down to 149 attendees due to failure to show up or other issues. Regardless it meant more opportunity to be here Monday morning.
The consensus among the various talent evaluators and basketball know-it-all types was the three skill sessions (Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon) and one trials session on Friday evening) was plenty to get ready for the cuts coming on Saturday afternoon. There were a number of player who should not have been here but were willing to test themselves and learn where they stand.
The selection will come down to 15 players: point guard, shooters, forwards and centers. This group broke down to 36 point guards, 68 wing-type players, 30 forwards and 23 post. The second compounded issue was many of these players outside of the true point guards could be playing a position now that does not fit International or college-level competition. And, if you’re picking now, you’re also picking for the future.
After all these sessions, before the next trial session 4 (Saturday morning) I came up with a list of players who could make the cuts, 60 yes and 22 maybe. This is not science, just opinion no matter who does it.
POINTGUARD: (yes) 148 Roach, 149 Mims, 151 Robinson. (maybe) 101 Lawson, 106 Nguyen, 107 Isbel, 112 Banner, 147 Brady, 153 Morris, 156,Connally, 160 Meadows, 161 Smith.
WINGS: (yes) 117 Ogbula, 118 Satterwhite, 119 Lee, 121 Barcello, 123 Brown, 124 Moore, 127 Harjo, 128 Cookie, 129 Batie, 131 Davis, 133 Ross, 134 Henderson, 137 Chapman, 138 Hall, 139 Knight, 141 Clouden, 145 Gonzales, 154 Caldwell, 191 Powell, 193 Brown, 196 Robinson, 199 Haywood, 201 Young, 203 Begay, 204 Taylor, 208 Blackwell, 209 E-Hunter, 220 S-Grayson, 222 Swartz, 223, Haire 224, 227 Brown. (maybe) 125 Kelly, 132 Lopez, 143 People’s, 144 VanAllen, 192 Weber, 195 Simmons, 226 Adams.
FORWARDS: (yes) 176 Brown, 177 Gordon, 181 Kenol, 183 Odell, 214 Titus, 215 Gilbert, 230 Carr, 235 Dargan, 272 Parks, 273 Clark, 275 DeCosta, 277 Corodale, 278 Dodson. (maybe) 185 Wiggins, 186 Snipes, 187 Curran, 211 Adams, 227 Brown.
POST: (yes) 172 Miller, 229 Green, 255 Prince, 256 Norris, 257 Kushituah, 259 Carter, 260 Collier, 261 Jaroinski, 262 Bailey, 263 Boothe, 265 Thompson, 267 Henry, 269 Collins, 270 Williams, 271 Lawson, 285 Lee. (maybe) 173 Byrne.
Later on Saturday afternoon the USA Youth Committee which was working late into the night to decipher the same visual information of opinion will choose who officially makes the 50 cut. Let’s see how good this opinion was. The official list is at usabasketball.com web site.
Making the cut are: 116 118 126 127 137 138 139 142 151 154 158 168 170 171 175 177 178 182 183 184 185 191 192 197 203 211 215 217 219 223 229 235 256 257 259 263 264 266 267 268 274 277 285 / 103 115 117 129 132 134 141 143 145 148 149 153 157 161 162 174 176 187 189 193 194 196 201 204 207 208 209 212 213 214 216 220 224 226 227 230 255 258 260 261 262 265 269 270.
