KU’s Lucas, Mickelson to play for all-star teams in coming weeks

By J-W Staff Report     Jul 28, 2014

Kansas University forwards Landen Lucas and Hunter Mickelson will both be playing for all-star teams overseas in coming weeks prior to the start of first semester classes.

Mickelson, 6-10 from Jonesboro, Arkansas, will be part of Guy Rancourt’s USA East Coast Basketball Team that will compete in the Four Nations Cup in Estonia and Finland, Aug. 4-8. Lucas, 6-10 from Portland, Oregon, will represent Athletes in Action (AIA) in a Baltic Tour of Estonia and Latvia with games, Aug. 8-13.

South Carolina head coach Frank Martin will coach the USA East Coast team which will train for two days at Columbia University in New York, New York Thursday and Friday. The team will then travel to Tallinn, Estonia, and compete against national teams of Estonia, Slovakia and France, Aug. 4-5-6. From there, the team will head to Helsinki for an Aug. 8 game versus the Finland National Team.

“I’m looking forward to the experience,” said Mickelson, who will be a redshirt junior at KU in 2014-15 after playing two years at Arkansas and sat out last season because of transfer rules. “I haven’t played an official game in a while, so I’m going over there and brushing up a little bit.”

Others on the USA East Coast squad include: Damonte Dodd (Maryland), Mike Gesell (Iowa), Granville Gittens (Baruch), Dusty Hannahs (Arkansas), BJ Johnson (Syracuse), Tyrone Johnson (South Carolina), John Monkam (Lycoming), Tyler Roberson (Syracuse), Sindarius Thornwell (South Carolina) and Adam Woodbury (Iowa).

Lucas will leave Friday for Boulder, Colorado, where he and the other AIA team members will train for four days before departing for Tallinn, Estonia, on Aug. 6. The AIA tour will consist of six games with four in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, Aug. 8-10 and two more in Riga, Latvia, Aug. 12-13. The AIA team coaches are Colorado assistant Mike Rohn and Texas A&M assistant Mitch Vanya.

“Mike (Rohn) contacted me and said they needed a big for the team,” Lucas said. “To find out more, I talked to some of the past KU people that have gone (on AIA trips), like Jeff (Withey) and Christian (Garrett), and they all had great things to say about it. I talked to my family for a little bit and we decided that this was going to be a good opportunity that might help me this summer a lot.”

Joining Lucas on the roster: Brandon Bolden (Kansas State), Darius Carter (Wichita State), Justin Edwards (Kansas State), Tre Fletcher (Colorado), Ike Nwamu (Mercer), Royce O’Neale (Baylor), Kendall Smith (UNLV) Brian Sullivan (Davidson) and Ish Wainright (Baylor).

“I’m looking forward to just playing, being out there and getting the chance to play a lot,” Lucas said of his upcoming trip. “It’s been a couple years since I have played many minutes, so I think it will be good, especially for the upcoming season.”

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92467KU’s Lucas, Mickelson to play for all-star teams in coming weeks