Aug. 4, 2011
Vanderbilt junior John Jenkins was selected to the final 12-man roster for the World University Games August 13-23 in China. Jenkins and his USA Basketball teammates will continue training in Colorado Springs, Colo., until August 7, and then travel to China on August 8.
Listed on the roster are: Tim Abromaitis (Notre Dame/Unionville, Conn.); Marcus Denmon (Missouri/Kansas City, Mo.); Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh/Scotch Plains, N.J.); Draymond Green (Michigan State/Saginaw, Mich.); JaMychal Green (Alabama/Montgomery, Ala.); Scoop Jardine (Syracuse/ Philadelphia, Pa.); John Jenkins (Vanderbilt/ Hendersonville, Tenn.); Orlando Johnson (UC Santa Barbara/Seaside, Calif.); Greg Mangano (Yale/Orange, Conn.); Trevor Mbakwe (Minnesota/ St. Paul, Minn.); Ray McCallum (Detroit Mercy/Beverly Hills, Mich.); and Darius Miller (Kentucky/Maysville, Ky.).
“I think your strengths are going to come out in competition, and we have some very good players,” said USA and Purdue University head mentor Matt Painter , who previously assisted the 2009 USA U19 World Championship Team to a gold medal. “I think we have some good point-guard play, some good, athletic wings that can shoot the basketball and then we have some good interior strength. So, I think we have balance. We do have some interchangeable parts, some guys at the three and four positions that can swing either way. We can play smaller and we can play bigger. It will depend on who we are playing against. I do think we can play a couple of different ways, and that’s always a positive.”
Cuonzo Martin of the University of Tennessee and Brad Stevens of Butler University are serving as assistant coaches for the 2011 USA Men’s World University Games Team.
The USA will play an exhibition contest against New Century, a Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) professional team, in Huizho, China, on Aug. 11, before opening World University Games play on Aug. 13.
