Colorado Springs, CO ? Kansas University’s men’s basketball team will be well-represented at USA Basketball’s World Championship for Young Men qualifying team trials.
KU sophomores-to-be Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and Drew Gooden were three of 30 players invited to attend the trials, May 26-28 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
The trials are for players aged 20 and under.
The 2000 USA Young Men’s Team will compete July 19-23 in Riberao Preto, near Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the 2000 COPABA World Championship for Young Men Qualifying Tournament. The finalists for the USA team, which will compete against seven other teams from the Americas for one of the three Americas Zone qualifying berths for the 2001 FIBA World Championship for Young Men, will be announced following the final Trials session on May 28.
Any male athlete who is a U.S. citizen and is 20-years-old or younger (born on or after January 1, 1980) is eligible for the 2000 USA Basketball World Championship for Young Men Qualifying Team.
Held every four years, the U.S. qualified for the previous competition which was initiated in 1993 as the FIBA 22 And Under World Championship and originally designed for men 22-years-old or younger. FIBA lowered the age eligibility to 21-years-old or younger in December 1998 and changed the competition name to the World Championship for Young Men. Featuring 12 teams, the next FIBA World Championship for Young Men is scheduled for 2001 in Japan.
Syracuse University (N.Y.) head coach Jim Boeheim will serve as head coach of the 2000 U.S. squad, and he will be assisted by University of Houston (Texas) head coach Ray McCallum and Hofstra University (N.Y.) head coach Jay Wright. The final 12-member team will be named during the July 10-17 training camp which will be held at a site to be determined.
Headlining the Trials invitees are 15 players who have had prior experience with USA Basketball, including Kansas standouts
Collison and Hinrich have each competed on three U.S. squads. The Jayhawk duo were both members of the 1999 USA Men’s Junior National Select Team that claimed a 107-95 victory over an International Select Team in the fifth annual Nike Hoop Summit, while Collison aided the 1998 USA Men’s Junior World Championship Qualifying Team to a gold medal and the 1999 USA Junior World Championship Team to a silver medal finish; and Hinrich was a member of the 1998 gold medal winning USA World Youth Games Team, the 1998 USA Basketball Men’s Youth Development Festival North Team, and participated in the 1999 USA Men’s Junior National Team Trials. List in scoreboard.
