Purdue's Swanigan Makes USA U19 Team, Edwards Just Misses

USA Basketball has selected their final roster for a trip to the 2015 U19 FIBA World Championship on the island of Crete in Greece. Incoming Purdue freshman Caleb Swanigan is the only current Big Ten player to make the squad, although uncommitted 2016 recruits Josh Jackson and Harry Giles both have offers from conference teams and will also be making the trip to Europe. Barely missing out on making the team was Boilermaker sophomore Vince Edwards. Edwards made the initial cut from 24 camp invitees down to 16 players on Monday, but was announced to the final roster today.

Swanigan and Team USA will be coached by Arizona coach Sean Miller, a former Wisconsin graduate assistant. Former Ohio State assistant and current Dayton head coach Archie Miller will assist his brother along with Providence's Ed Cooley. The tournament starts with the group stage on June 27^th and will finish with the championship game on Sunday July 5^th. The USA will face Croatia, Iran and Egypt in the group stage and are favorites to repeat after winning in 2013. Swanigan should be a leader on this year's squad and will likely play at the center position for his country, even though he is expected to be utilized at the 4 spot by Matt Painter next season.

This will be Swanigan's second foray into international competition. He averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds during last year's U17 World Championship in Dubai. The USA won that competition by going 7-0 and beating Australia 99-92 in the final. Maryland's Diamond Stone was on that team and was named to the All-Tournament team along with teammate and Mississippi State recruit Malik Newman and Australians and 2016 recruits Isaac Humphries and Dejan Vasiljevic. Stone was one of the 24 invited to the U19 camp, but withdrew prior to the first cut and reportedly arrived on-campus at Maryland this week.