ESPN Men's Basketball

Updated: September 3, 2003, 6:10 PM ET

USA Basketball less than golden

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By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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Good vibes flowed out of Puerto Rico last week, as USA Basketball took home the gold medal at the Tournament of Americas.

But, as the NBA-stocked squad celebrated qualifying for the Olympic Games, similar success didn't trickle down to college kids wearing red, white and blue this summer. And the country's other U.S. squads suffering in places like Greece and the Dominican Republic can't be overlooked.

The junior national teams' failure to medal in July at the World Junior Championships and then again in last month's Pan-American Games means USA Basketball must not only react to these all-to-common results, but change its system to avoid future failure by those not being paid to play basketball.

Tom Izzo guided the U.S. to a fifth-place finish at the Pan American Games last month.

"The problem is there isn't an overwhelming desire to play," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who won the junior level's last gold medal in Japan in 2001. "The second thing is that other countries are getting better. We can't throw together untested college kids and expect to win. It's not going to happen. That's why we haven't won the event in years.

"It's unrealistic to think that we're going to win under the present set up. Players don't want to play. We got no one from North Carolina, Arizona, Kansas or Florida. We can't make players play."

USA Basketball didn't exactly embarrass itself at either the World Junior Championships or Pan Am Games. The U.S. went 7-1 at the Junior World Championships with a collection of college freshmen, sophomores and rising high school seniors. Oregon's Ernie Kent's squad just happened to lose its only game in the medal round. The Pan Am Games team, coached by Tom Izzo of Michigan State, was loaded with college upperclassmen and void of professional players for the first time. It lost to Brazil and then host Puerto Rico 76-70 in the bronze-medal game.

While NBA players made the commitment this summer after their inability to medal at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis spurred the renewed patriotism to play for the USA, it's simply not the case at the collegiate or high school level.

Based on conversations with high-profile college players this summer, ESPN.com found out that they aren't committing to USA Basketball because of the various other summer options. Injuries kept some stateside, as well as going to summer school. But the chance to work out with NBA coaches at places like the Nike and adidas camps, or the Jordan Camp in Santa Barbara and NBA assistant Tim Grgurich's camp in Las Vegas, simply led to apathy toward global traveling.

North Carolina's Sean May may have been still recovering from a foot injury, but teammates Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants chose summer school and the adidas and Nike camps, respectively, instead of USA hoops. Kansas' Wayne Simien was recovering from a shoulder injury, but fellow Jayhawks Aaron Miles and Keith Langford chose summer school and working out instead of playing on the Pan Am squad. Arizona's Channing Frye, Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala chose to work out on their own, while also going to the Nike camp instead of the U.S. trials -- although incoming Arizona freshman point Mustafa Shakur was on Kent's World Juniors team. Florida's David Lee, Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh decided to work out in Gainesville instead of trying out for the team.

"I don't know what the solution is," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "Adrian Moss (a reserve forward) wanted to go but they don't want him. They want Roberson, Walsh and Lee. Moss would have been great on that team.

"The lure of traveling isn't there for these guys anymore. They travel so much with AAU stuff and in college. We can't make them do this. They all want to do the Olympics, but they look at that as the NBA players."

Arizona associate head coach Jim Rosborough said the Wildcats don't take the commitment to show up at the Nike camp lightly. That's right, the Nike camp -- where the counselors (see: college players) work out with NBA coaches, and can get close to their school's possible recruits -- is more of a priority than USA Basketball.

"First, our guys always go to the first summer session and a lot of them go to the second summer session," Rosborough said. "But we like our guys to go to the Nike camp after that. Nike has been very, very good to us over the years. We feel allegiance to them. It's good for them to interact with the high school kids and get the NBA workouts in."

Pledging allegiance to the "swoosh" says all that's wrong with the current system.

"We need to be more flexible because the old-school model isn't working,'' said Jim Tooley, executive director of USA Basketball.

In response to this summer's less-than overwhelming response by shutouts, USA Basketball will entertain a few changes for 2004. The idea of a fulltime coach at the junior level has been discussed, as well as rescinding the rule that prevents players who declare for the NBA draft and return to college from playing on the teams. The organization may also move the U.S. trials to the summer instead of late May, with the hope that more players will attend.

Boeheim and Kent are both against the idea of USA Basketball hiring a national coach. But Arizona State's Rob Evans, a member of the USA Basketball committee, is pushing the concept. And a former college coach would be the ideal candidates. Tom Davis (Drake) and Dick Bennett (Washington State) both had the itch to get back into coaching and did this past offseason. Each, however, would have been qualified to coach a national team fulltime.

The thinking is that the national team coach could spend time surveying the country for the best players, as well as scout internationally. The tournaments over the summer are also usually spaced out enough for the same coach to work both events.

Tooley said USA Basketball combated this issue with Larry Brown making a commitment to coach the Olympic team for 2003 qualifying and the '04 Games. Kent and Boeheim coached their teams in consecutive summers, too. Tooley said the financial aspect of hiring a Team USA coach is a concern, but this issue will be broached over the next nine months.

"If you had a guy like Dean Smith, someone respected like that, that wants to coach, more players may want to do it," Evans said. "The idea that a coach can bring 17 players in for a camp, get the team down in two or three days, and have good chemistry in a tournament is tough. If you have a national coach, you could have a coach who knows the international game and who you're playing. There wouldn't be any hidden agendas, either."

Izzo stressed over the cuts made for the Pan Am team. He was admittedly distraught after he was criticized for cutting Syracuse's Hakim Warrick and N.C. State's Julius Hodge.

"The whole thing bummed me out," Izzo said. "We need continuity. You've got to get guys who want to be there, who fit in and it's hard to do that in two days."

Izzo tried going with more of "his type of players," with the gritty Chuck Hayes (Kentucky) making the team over the slender Warrick.

"We've got to make a decision on getting the best players there or not," Izzo said. "Somehow."

The politics also have to change. The National Association of Basketball Coaches associate director Reggie Minton said he would support looking at coaches who are under NCAA investigation not be allowed to coach the teams. Tooley agrees that USA Basketball is conscious of its image on this issue. Washington's Lorenzo Romar and Missouri's Quin Snyder were the two chosen assistants for Izzo by the committee. Romar's program is on probation and Snyder is being investigated.

Oh, and coaches like Maryland's Gary Williams (winner of the 2002 national championship) need to be extended an invitation to participate.

"The stuff with Quin came up after he was selected and Lorenzo's situation was done, but we are sensitive to all of that and look for programs that are in good standing,'' Tooley said. "We sent out a questionnaire to programs about who to invite and about 80 percent of the Division I programs don't respond.''

As important as choosing the right coach is the process of selecting the players. There is a growing sentiment among college coaches that the committee isn't doing their job in selecting the players -- starting with who gets invited to the trials.

The Pan Am Games are unique because the other teams in the tournament use professionals. As a response, Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said USA Basketball should open up the Pan Am Games to any players -- especially the teenagers in the NBA. Tooley said that is being discussed.

Providence coach Tim Welsh was extremely upset that Ryan Gomes, who averaged 18 points a game for the Friars in 2002-03, didn't get an invitation to the trials. Boeheim, who is the Big East representative, said he couldn't speak on behalf of Gomes because the USA Basketball meeting was during the Final Four and the Orangemen were playing for the national championship. Tooley doesn't see that as a reason for why Gomes wouldn't receive an invitation.

Evans said the committee simply hadn't seen Gomes play and couldn't speak to his ability. But Martelli offered up a simple solution: anyone who is returning to college who was a first or second team selection in either every conference, or at least the top seven or eight conferences, should receive an invitation to the trials in Colorado Springs.

Players like Marquette's Travis Diener and Saint Joseph's Delonte West were also snubbed by the committee.

But the one rule that has to be changed, and Tooley said it likely would, is the NBA draft rule. Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson and Notre Dame's Chris Thomas weren't allowed to play for their country this summer because they declared for the draft and withdrew by June 19 -- nearly one month before the Pan Am Games team got together in Orlando for training camp.

"That certainly can change," Tooley said.

Izzo said he would have gladly taken either point guard. Instead, he had to recruit Andre Barrett of Seton Hall, who wasn't originally invited, to be the team's lone true point guard.

"If the kids don't try out and make themselves available it won't change anything," Kent said. "The team that beat us in Greece from Australia was together for three years. That was our only bad game. The problem isn't a permanent coach, but we need a broader base of talent. We had 140 players invited, but only 23 showed up at the trials. There isn't a large talent pool. We were scrounging around for talent. If we could get the players to come to Colorado Springs then maybe we could change that."

Tooley said Izzo suggested butting the trials next to the training camps of the junior team. Next year's junior competition is the World Championships for Young Men qualifying tournament at a site to be determined. That's the same team Boeheim coached to the gold medal in 2001.

That gold medal team consisted of eventual NBA first-round picks Michael Sweetney (Georgetown), Troy Bell (Boston College), Dahntay Jones (Duke), Nick Collison (Kansas), Brian Cook (Illinois) and Caron Butler (Connecticut); second-round picks Carlos Boozer (Duke), Jason Kapono (UCLA) and Marcus Taylor (Michigan State); undrafted but NBA starter Reggie Evans (Iowa), and potential first-round pick Jameer Nelson (Saint Joseph's) and possible second-round pick Chris Duhon (Duke).

"That kind of team isn't being put together anymore," said Martelli, who along with Kent were assistants to Boeheim. "And that was only two years ago."

It seems longer, doesn't it?

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.