USA Basketball recently announced its official 12-man roster for the November USA World Cup Qualifying Team, and it includes VFL Scotty Hopson (2008-11).
Hopson—an All-SEC performers and 1,000-point scorer during his career on Rocky Top—boasts NBA experience and was in training camp with the Oklahoma City Thunder prior to this season. Hopson now plays for the Thunder’s NBA G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.
Joining Hopson on the USA’s November roster are: Joel Berry II, Reggie Hearn, John Jenkins, DeAndre Liggins, Eric Moreland, Chasson Randle, Cameron Reynolds, Richard Solomon, Travis Trice, Julian Washburn and Tyler Zeller.
Former NBA head coach Jeff Van Gundy, who has led the USA to a 7-1 record in FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifying action and directed the USA to a 5-0 record and the gold medal at the 2017 FIBA AmeriCup Championship, again is head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team. Former Georgia head coach Mark Fox and former Georgetown coach John Thompson III are serving as USA assistant coaches.
The USA squad trained this weekend at the Houston Rockets’ practice facility and will continue second-round action of FIBA World Cup Qualifying play with a pair of road games, Thursday vs. Argentina in La Rioja, Argentina, and Dec. 2 vs. Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay.
With a total of seven 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifying berths going to the top three finishing teams in each of the Americas second-round groups and to the best fourth-place team, Argentina (7-1) and the USA (7-1) sit atop of the second-round Group E standings, followed by Puerto Rico (5-3) and Uruguay (5-3), with Mexico (3-5) and Panama (3-5) in fifth place. In Group F standings, Canada (7-1) and Venezuela (7-1) are tied for first, followed by Brazil (6-2), Dominican Republic (5-3), U.S. Virgin Islands (2-6) and Chile (1-7).
The FIBA World Cup Qualifying games are being used to qualify 31 of the 32 nations that will compete in the 2019 FIBA World Cup. China automatically qualified as the host nation of the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Five teams will qualify from Africa, seven teams from the Americas, seven teams from Asia and 12 teams from Europe.
The current two-time defending World Cup champion USA men have participated in 17 FIBA World Cups and have collected 12 medals—five gold medals (1954, 1986, 1994, 2010 and 2014), three silver medals (1950, 1959 and 1982) and four bronze medals (1974, 1990, 1998 and 2006). USA teams own an overall record of 123-27.
Results from the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will qualify seven teams for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Additionally, Olympic host, Japan, automatically qualified, and the final four nations will qualify through four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments that will be held in 2020 in advance of the Olympics.
UT Athletics
