HOUSTON — And then were the final 12 players that will represent the Red, White and Blue at the 2021 FIBA Americas Men’s U16 Championship that will be played Aug. 23-29 in Xapala, Mexico.
Monday evening the USA men’s U16 roster was announced following four days of training camp at Strake Jesuit High School.
The roster (with high school and school location):
Kylan Boswell (Arizona Compass Prep, Chandler, Ariz.); David Castillo (Bartlesville, Okla.); Jaylen Curry (Vance, Charlotte, N.C.); Robert Dillingham (Combine Academy, Lincolnton, N.C.); Jeremy Fears (La Lumiere School, La Porte, Ind.); Ronald Holland (Duncanville, Texas); Ian Jackson (Cardinal Hayes, Bronx, N.Y.); Ryan “R.J.” Jones Jr. (The Rock School, Gainesville, Fla.); Jalen Lewis (Overtime Elite, Oakland, Calif.); Liam McNeeley (John Paul II, Plano, Texas); Justin McBride (Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va.) and Bryson Tucker (Mount St. Joseph, Baltimore).
The top four finishing teams at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship will qualify for the 2022 FIBA Men’s U17 World Cup.
“I think we got a great group of young men,” said USA U16 National Team head coach Sharman White (Pace Academy, Ga.). “Some of the things that stand out with this group is we’ve got an incredible group of guards; we’ve got a lot of versatile frontcourt players and we think we’ve got some guys that can really get after it. They possess a lot of athleticism but they also are very skilled and it allows us to be able to play the way we want to play as USA Basketball. So, we’re looking forward to working with this group, looking forward to all the things that this group is capable of doing and hopefully they’ll submit their legacy with every other U16 group that we’ve had at USA Basketball.
“We’ve got a lot a lot of things we got to try to get prepared for as we get ready to go to Mexico and these guys have shown they’re very coachable and they also take the coaching and learn from it. So, we feel comfortable knowing that we’ll be able to put a lot of the things we want to do in and we’ll just keep continue to develop this group and progress them in hopes of bringing home a gold medal,” he said.
The USA squad includes 11 players who attended the USA Men’s Junior National Team minicamp this past May and one athlete, Fears, who is playing in this first USA Basketball experience.
Assisting White with the 2021 USA U16 National Team are assistant coaches Eric Flannery of St. Edward (Lakewood, Ohio) and Steve Turner of Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.).
The USA will play in Group B meeting Puerto Rico on Aug. 23 (3:30 p.m. EDT), Dominican Republic on Aug. 24 (12:30 p.m. EDT) and Chile on Aug. 25. (12:30 p.m. EDT). Rounding out the field in Group A are Argentina, Brazil, Canada and host Mexico.
After playing each of the teams in its groups, all eight teams advance to the quarterfinals on Aug. 27.
The quarterfinal winners play in the semifinals on Aug. 28. On Aug. 29, the semifinal winners meet in the gold medal game, while the semifinal losers play in the bronze medal game.
A biennial event launched in 2009 and open to athletes 16 years old or younger, the FIBA Americas U16 Championship features eight national teams from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean. The USA Basketball men are 31-0 in FIBA Americas U16 Championship play and have won the gold medal in all six editions of the tournament since its debut in 2009.
— From USA Basketball Communications
