Gordon and Okafor Earn
USA Basketball Invitations

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 15, 2003) Featuring 26 players who earned collegiate all-conference honors in 2002-03 and 15 college freshmen who were named to their conference all-freshman teams, USA Basketball officially announced today that 52 of the top men's basketball players from the high school and college ranks have accepted invitations to participate in the 2003 USA Basketball Men's National Team Trials. The Trials will be held May 30-June 1 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The player selections were made by the USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee which is chaired by Terry Holland, former University of Virginia athletics director.

The USA Collegiate Committee will select finalists from the Trials for two USA Basketball teams – 2003 USA Basketball Junior World Championship Team and 2003 USA Pan American Games Team. Of the 51 players, 28, because they are older than 19-years-old, will be eligible only for consideration for the Pan Am Games team. The other 24 players will be eligible for either the Pan American Games or Junior World Championship Teams. To be eligible for the USA Junior World Championship squad a player must be 19-years-old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1984).

The first Trials session will be held on Friday, May 30 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. (All times are MDT), with two sessions, 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m., scheduled for Saturday, May 31, and one final practice session to be conducted 8:30-10:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 1.

The Trials will be used to select finalists for the 2003 USA Basketball Men’s Junior World Championship Team. The official 12-member USA junior team, which will be finalized during the team’s June 24-July 6 training camp in Dallas, Texas, will compete July 10-20 in the 2003 FIBA Men’s Junior World Championship Tournament that is being held in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Featuring 16 junior teams that qualified last summer, the teams have been placed into four groups of four for preliminary round robin play. The top two teams from each group will advance to the medal quarterfinals, while the remainder of the field will compete for 9th - 16th place (see the enclosed tournament schedule for the complete schedule). The USA was placed in Group C, joining China, Nigeria and Slovenia.

University of Oregon mentor Ernie Kent, who was head coach of last summer’s junior qualifying team, will serve as head coach of the 2003 USA Basketball Men’s Junior World Championship Team, and will be assisted by Dennis Felton of the University of Georgia and Ray Harper of Kentucky Wesleyan College.

The Trials will also be relied on to determine finalists for the 2003 USA Men’s Pan American Games Team. The Pan American Games, held every four years in the year prior to the Olympics, will be held Aug. 1-17, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The men’s basketball competition is slated for Aug. 2-6. The field of teams in men’s basketball, which will include teams from eight nations, is not yet known. The United States will be directed by Michigan State University mentor Tom Izzo, and his assistants include college head coaches Lorenzo Romar of the University of Washington and Quin Snyder of the University of Missouri.

The 52 invitees accepting their invitation were:
Mohamed Abukar (Rancho Bernardo / Escondido, Calif.)
Maurice Ager (Michigan State / Detroit, Mich.)
DeAngelo Alexander (Oklahoma / Midwest City, Okla.)
James Augustine (Illinois / Mokena, Ill.)
Kelenna Azubuike (Kentucky / Tulsa, Okla.)
Kevin Bookout (Oklahoma / Stroud, Okla.)
Timmy Bowers (Mississippi State / Gulfport, Miss.)
Brandon Bowman (Georgetown / Santa Monica, Calif.)
Daniel Brown (Illinois / Maywood, Ill.)
Graham Brown (Michigan / Mio, Mich.)
Derrick Byars (Virginia / Memphis, Tenn.)
Josh Childress (Stanford / Los Angeles, Calif.)
Keydren Clark (St. Peters / New York, N.Y.)
Paul Davis (Michigan State / Rochester, Mich.)
Ike Diogu (Arizona State / Garland, Texas)
Chris Duhon (Duke / Slidell, La.)
Daniel Ewing (Duke / Missouri City, Texas)
Desmon Farmer (USC / Flint, Mich.)
Gerald Fitch (Kentucky / Macon, Ga.)
Torin Francis (Notre Dame / Roslindale, Mass.)
Tim Frost (Utah / Klamath Falls, Ore.)
Channing Frye (Arizona / Phoenix, Ariz.)
Daniel Gibson (Jessie H. Jones High School / Houston, Texas)
Ben Gordon (Connecticut / Mt. Vernon, N.Y.)
Ivan Harris (Oak Hill Academy, Va. / Springfield, Ohio)
David Harrison (Colorado / Nashville, Tenn.)
Chris Hill (Michigan State / Indianapolis, Ind.)
Julius Hodge (North Carolina State / New York, N.Y.)
Ryan Hollins (UCLA / Pasadena, Calif.)
Daniel Horton (Michigan / Cedar Hill, Texas)
Luke Jackson (Oregon / Creswell, Ore.)
Al Jefferson (Prentiss High School / Prentiss, Miss.)
Arthur Johnson (Missouri / Detroit, Mich.)
Brian Johnson (Bishop O’Connell HS, Va. / Glenarden, Md.)
Gerry McNamara (Syracuse / Scranton, Pa.)
Jonathan Modica (Arkansas / Smackover, Ark.)
Brandon Mouton (Texas / Lafayette, La.)
Matt Nelson (Colorado State / Chicago, Ill.)
Steve Novak (Marquette / Brown Deer, Wis.)
Emeka Okafor (Connecticut / Houston, Texas)
Ricky Paulding (Missouri / Detroit, Mich.)
Kevin Pittsnogle (West Virginia / Martinsburg, W.Va.)
J.J. Redick (Duke / Roanoke, Va.)
Lawrence Roberts (Baylor / Houston, Texas)
Craig Smith (Boston College / Los Angeles, Calif.)
Marcellus Sommerville (SW Illinois College / Peoria, Ill.)
Blake Stepp (Gonzaga / Eugene, Ore.)
Alando Tucker (Wisconsin / Lockport, Ill.)
C.J. Watson (Tennessee / Las Vegas, Nev.)
Deron Williams (Illinois / The Colony, Texas)
Shelden Williams (Duke / Forest Park, Okla.)
Kennedy Winston (Alabama / Prichard, Ala.).

Of the 52 athletes who are expected to take part in the 2003 Trials, 18 have participated in previous USA Basketball competitions including five member of last summer’s Junior World Championship Qualifying Team that finished 4-1, earned the bronze medal and qualified the United States for the FIBA Junior World Championship. Members of the 2002 junior squad back are Abukar; Daniel Brown; Horton; Brian Johnson; Deron Williams. Other 2003 Trials participants who posses prior USA Basketball experience include: Alexander; Azubuike, Bookout; Byars; Childress; Davis; Duhon; Francis; Harris; Modica; Redick; Smith and Shelden Williams.

The invitees break down to include 27 players who completed their freshman season of collegiate eligibility in 2002-03, nine who were sophomores in 2002-03, and 11 who were college juniors, while two are high school seniors (Abukar and Harris) and three high school juniors (Gibson, Jefferson and Brian Johnson) are also involved.

Six of the trials selectees earned All-American honors in 2003. Diogu, Gordon, Arthur Johnson, Okafor and Stepp earned NCAA All-American honors, while Sommerville captured National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American first team honors.

The Trials roster lists involvement of players from 35 different colleges and five high schools, and includes players from 23 different states.

The USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee, in addition to chair Holland, consists of: NCAA appointees Jim Boeheim (head coach, Syracuse University, N.Y.); Rob Evans (head coach, Arizona State University); Jim O'Brien (head coach, Ohio State University) and Tubby Smith (head coach, University of Kentucky); NABC appointee Oliver Purnell (head coach, Clemson University, S.C.); NAIA appointee Ralph Turner (head coach, Union University, Tenn.); NJCAA appointee Dan Sparks (head coach, Vincennes University, Ind.), and athlete representatives Steve Wojciechowski (1995 Junior World Championship team / assistant coach, Duke University, N.C.) and A.J. Wynder (1995 Pan American Games team / head coach, Nassau Community College, N.Y.).

2003 USA Basketball Men's National Team Trials Schedule

Friday, May 30

Session #1 4:00-7:00 p.m. U.S. Olympic Training Center,

Sports Center II , Colorado Springs, Colorado

Saturday, May 31

Session #2 9:30-11:30 a.m. U.S. Olympic Training Center,

Sports Center II , Colorado Springs, Colorado

Session #3 5:30-7:30 p.m. U.S. Olympic Training Center,

Sports Center II , Colorado Springs, Colorado

Sunday, June 1

Session #4 8:30-10:00 a.m. U.S. Olympic Training Center,

Sports Center II , Colorado Springs, Colorado

Note: All Trials session times are MDT