Team USA Ready for Pan American Games Challenge
Lima, Peru -- The practices, which started 10 days ago in Providence, are about over. A few days of orientation in Lima have been completed. Now, it’s time for this group of BIG EAST players to don their USA jerseys and play for real at the 2019 Pan American Games.
The BIG EAST players become Team USA this week, the first time a Division I conference has represented the country in men’s basketball for the Pan American Games competition.
The opener is against Virgin Islands Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. ET. Twitter will carry game updates @BIGEAST.
After the team defeated the Dominican Republic 94-73 in a scrimmage on Monday afternoon, head coach Ed Cooley said he is proud of the way the team has bonded and improved as a group. “We had some defensive breakdowns, but I love our intensity, our preparation, and I love our attention to detail. The more we play, the better we get.”
The challenge here in Lima is significant. The USA team will be the youngest in the field by a big margin. They will be playing against older players who have been together as a group for much longer periods of time.
Another challenge is competing on consecutive days. After Virgin Islands, Team USA meets Venezuela on Thursday and Puerto Rico on Friday before the medal round which starts on Saturday. All 12 players are going to have to contribute.
“We have talked about what the daily grind will be,” Cooley said. “We hope to utilize our depth. That’s usually a trait of the American teams.”
Cooley said the unselfishness of the players has been critical to the team’s development. Seton Hall guard Myles Powell also sees that quality as extremely important to any success the team will achieve.
“If we keep sharing the ball, not really caring who scores, we can be successful,” said Powell, who was a unanimous All-BIG EAST First Team selection this past season. “We need to pick it up defensively a little. I like how fast we are, and hopefully that will help us. Offensively and defensively, we get a little better every day.”
Powell said the players have bonded quickly in just over a week. He added, “I’m just so thankful to have been chosen for this team.”