Orlando Johnson has become the first UCSB basketball player to be selected to a U.S. national team since Brian Shaw in 1986.
Johnson made the final cut and was selected to the 12-man roster that will represent the U.S. at the World University Games in China later this month.
Shaw played on the U.S. national team that won the gold medal at the FIBA World Championships in Spain.
Johnson, who is entering his senior season at UCSB, was picked to the U.S. team after six days of training camp at the U.S. Oympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, USA Basketball announced Wednesday night.
“This is one of the greatest honors of my life,” Johnson said. “I can’t remember being happier than this. I am so proud to have the opportunity to represent this great country and I will do everything I can to help bring home the gold.”
He will be joined by Tim Abromaitis (Notre Dame/Unionville, Conn.); Marcus Denmon (Missouri/Kansas City, Mo.); Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh/Scotch Plains, N.J.); Draymond Green (Michigan State/Saginaw, Mich.); JaMychal Green (Alabama/Montgomery, Ala.); Scoop Jardine (Syracuse/ Philadelphia, Pa.); John Jenkins (Vanderbilt/ Hendersonville, Tenn.); Greg Mangano (Yale/Orange, Conn.); Trevor Mbakwe (Minnesota/ St. Paul, Minn.); Ray McCallum (Detroit Mercy/Beverly Hills, Mich.) and Darius Miller (Kentucky/Maysville, Ky.).
“I think your strengths are going to come out in competition, and we have some very good players,” said USA and Purdue University head mentor Matt Painter, who previously assisted the 2009 USA U19 World Championship Team to a gold medal. “I think we have some good point-guard play, some good, athletic wings that can shoot the basketball and then we have some good interior strength. So, I think we have balance. We do have some interchangeable parts, some guys at the three and four positions that can swing either way. We can play smaller and we can play bigger. It will depend on who we are playing against. I do think we can play a couple of different ways, and that’s always a positive.”
Cuonzo Martin of the University of Tennessee and Brad Stevens of Butler University are serving as assistant coaches for the 2011 USA Men’s World University Games Team.
Training camp continues for the team members through, Aug. 7, with two practices each day at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and the team will depart for China on Aug. 8.
The USA will play an exhibition contest against New Century, a Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) professional team, in Huizho, China, on Aug. 11, before opening World University Games play on Aug. 13.
In all, 24 countries will compete in the international competition. The USA has been slotted into Pool D, along with Finland, Hungary, Israel, Mexico and South Korea. The red, white and blue will open play against Mexico on Aug. 13.
