The downside, Coach Dixon will be directly in your ear through mid-July.
Ashton Gibbs made the U-19 roster while Dante Taylor will come back to Pittsburgh to get ready for the upcoming season and bond with his teammates while playing in the Pro-Am Summer League.
The 19-and-under team, coached by Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon, will consist of Washington State’s DeAngelo Casto and Klay Thompson, Duke’s Seth Curry, Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs, Butler’s Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack, Kentucky’s Darius Miller, UTEP’s Arnett Moultrie, Northwestern’s John Shurna, Kansas’ Tyshawn Taylor, Georgia’s Howard Thompkins and Ole Miss’ Terrico White. The team will compete in the FIBA U19 World Championships in New Zealand from July 2-12.
Four players were cut from U-19 trials: West Virginia’s Darryl “Truck” Bryant, Minnesota’s Ralph Sampson III, Florida-bound high schooler Kenny Boynton, and Pitt-bound high-schooler Dante Taylor. UCLA’s Drew Gordon had already withdrawn from the trials with a patella tendon in right knee.
Boynton and Taylor seem like minor surprises. Much like Gibbs making it. I am guessing Gibbs made the squad so that the team had some more reliable perimeter shooting threats.
As for the Pittsburgh summer league, it was in jeopardy but once word got out that it was at risk things changed.
The league has grown in popularity yearly, and a small group of fans that attend the games regularly are responsible for keeping the league going.
When word leaked out a couple of weeks ago that league director John Giammarco did not have the financing in place to run the league, donations began to stream in to help defray costs such as rent and payment to officials.
“I’m stunned that a summer basketball league would bring such a call to arms,” Giammarco said. “It’s been amazing.
“These fans love basketball and didn’t want to see it go away. It’s been a labor of love for me. It’s been so well-received by fans. I didn’t want to see it die, either. We wanted to make this work.”
Fans can check the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Web site (www.pittsburghbasketballclub.com) for a complete schedule and rosters. Giammarco was hoping to have such information posted by tomorrow.
The summer league, in my view, just did not realize the interest and support it could generate. If they had gotten word out sooner that sponsorship and support was drying up, there would not necessarily have been the last minute scramble.
The summer league is vital for Pitt. It provides a chance for the players to play over the summer in Pittsburgh with some good competition with some organization. It also keeps them in Pittsburgh where they can still be with their teammates (improve chemistry) and take some more classes and keep working out with some oversight.
Coach Dixon and Pitt cannot be directly involved per NCAA restrictions, but Dixon did what he could to encourage the formation.
