It's the Jayhawks against the world
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U.S. point guard Frank Mason, right, shoots a layup against the Turkish defense during a preliminary round group D match at the Dongkang College Gymnasium in Gwangju, Saturday. / Courtesy of GUOC
U.S. sends single team, Korea sends all stars to Gwangju
By Kwon Ji-youn
The Jayhawks are without a doubt one of the biggest attractions at this year’s Universiade.
The prestigious men’s basketball team that calls the University of Kansas (KU) home is representing the U.S. in Gwangju, and it is more than determined to improve upon its country’s bronze-medal finish at the 2009 Universiade in Serbia.
In fact, the U.S. has seen very little action in basketball at the Universiade since 2005. From 1959 through 2005, Team U.S.A. won a record 13 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronzes, but has since suffered from a gold drought that had the U.S. International University Sports Federation wondering whether it would be wiser to select a single program to represent the country in Gwangju. Kansas was chosen from a list of undisclosed candidates after yet another disappointing showing two years ago.
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity,” KU head coach Bill Self said, according to WUGUSA (World University Games USA). “It is a unique opportunity where a school will represent our country at the World University Games as opposed to a select team. I can’t see anything but positives.”
Craig Jonas, deputy head of the U.S. delegation, added, “The opportunity to have a top-ranked program like Kansas representing (the U.S.) on the global stage will be historic. Having a team that has played and practiced together from months leading into the games is an opportunity (U.S.) teams don’t normally get.”
Everything seems so far, so good. The Jayhawks, wearing KU uniforms, have won both their preliminaries against Turkey and Brazil, which, like most other countries, have put together all-star teams for the multi-sport event. But whether the U.S.’s strategy will get it a medal remains to be seen.
“The Jayhawks are organized and their defense is strong,” Korean coach Lee Min-hyung told the local media. “But whether they will end up the best of the best, we’ll need to wait and see.”
A Korea Basketball Association (KBA) official said, “There are pros and cons to sending a single team. The players will have competed together a lot, so its teamwork will be top-notch, but overall performance will likely suffer because not all the members are key players.”
This is the second time the U.S. has sent a college team to represent the country at the Universiade. The first came in 2007, when it sent the University of Northern Iowa’s basketball team to Bangkok, Thailand. That team finished ninth.
But the U.S. team hasn’t altogether excluded non-KU athletes from the Universiade squad. Its guard, Nicolas Moore, plays with the team at Southern Methodist University, and Julian Debose, at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Team Korea, on the other hand, will feature an all-star squad that includes three athletes currently with teams in the pro league _ Lee Seoung-hyun of the Goyang Orions, Heo Ung of the Wonju Dongbu Promy and Jeong Hyo-geun of the Incheon ET Land Elephants. The country’s best performance was in 2007, when it finished eighth.
“When we recruit athletes for the Universiade basketball team, we first and foremost consider the requirements, most importantly age,” the KBA official said. “Of the student-athletes participating in the domestic collegiate basketball league, we select 24, and then the coach narrows that number down to 12.”
He said that the KBA has yet to consider sending a single team to forthcoming Universiades.
The Universiade team is coming off a successful campaign at the Asia-Pacific University Basketball Challenge, where it edged the Universiade teams from Japan, Russia and the Philippines to take the cup. Its goal is to finish first or second in group A to make the upper bracket.
The Kansas Jayhawks have won the NCAA tournament three times, and for 11 years in a row topped the NCAA Big 12 Conference. The program has produced some of the game’s greatest professional players, including Wilt Chamberlain and Paul Pierce.
Other notable U.S. university teams competing at the Universiade include California State University in Fullerton’s baseball team, which has won the NCAA College World Series four times; Colorado University’s women’s football team, which has twice been runner-up at the NCAA Division I championships; the men’s water polo team at the University of California in Los Angeles, which has won the NCAA championship nine times; and the women’s water polo team at Stanford University, a five-time winner of the NCAA women’s championship.