Michigan State Spartans sophomore point guard Keith Appling has accepted an invitation from the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee to attend the 2011 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team training camp.
The training camp, which will be held June 17-24 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., will be used to select the 12-member team that will represent the USA in international competition at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship.
The USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee, chaired by NCAA representative Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), is expected to announce on June 19 finalists for the 12-member USA U19 World Championship Team roster.
Other camp attendees include Melsahn Basabe (Iowa Hawkeyes), Brad Beal (Chaminade College Prep (St. Louis, Mo.)), Anthony Brown (Stanford), Trevor Cooney (Sanford School (Wilmington, Del.)), Allen Crabbe (California), Tim Hardaway, Jr. (Michigan Wolverines), Joe Jackson (Memphis), Jeremy Lamb (Connecticut), Meyers Leonard (Illinois Fighting Illini), Doug McDermott (Creighton), Travis McKie (Wake Forest), Tony Mitchell (North Texas), Richard Solomon (California), Josiah Turner (Quality Education Academy (Sacramento, Calif.)), and Patric Young (Florida).
Recently named George Mason University head coach Paul Hewitt is head coach of the USA U19 World Championship Team, and Randy Bennett of St. Mary’s College and Cliff Warren of Jacksonville University are assistant coaches.
In addition to Boeheim, the 2009-12 USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Committee includes NCAA appointees Lorenzo Romar (head coach, University of Washington), Bruce Weber (head coach, University of Illinois) and Roy Williams (head coach, University of North Carolina); and athlete representative Jay Williams, a member of the 2002 USA World Championship Team.
In other MSU hoops news, a former annoyance as an Indiana Hoosiers college basketball player is now a member of the coaching staff.
Dane Fife, who has served as head coach at IPFW for the last six seasons, has been named assistant coach at Michigan State, Tom Izzo announced Wednesday. He replaces Mark Montgomery, who was named head coach at Northern Illinois in March.
In six years at IPFW, Fife posted an 82-97 record, including a 34-27 mark over the last two seasons. In each of his six seasons, IPFW tied or broke its record for wins at the Division I level, as Fife guided the Mastodons from Independent status to membership in the Summit League.
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