After four sessions of USA Basketball’s U19 training camp, Arizona’s Kylan Boswell not only was named a finalist Monday but appeared to emerge as a strong candidate to make the team.
Boswell, 19, was one of only three point guards left in camp, along with Villanova’s Mark Armstrong and Michigan State signee Jeremy Fears, although USA also has a handful of combo guards.
Boswell finished last season strongly at Arizona after suffering a broken foot during the 2022 offseason. Armstrong was named to the Big East’s all-freshman team, averaging 5.3 points and 1.0 assist per game, while Fears is a four-star prospect in the high school class of 2024.
Overall, USA Basketball kept five players with college basketball experience plus five high school class of 2023 players and six 2024 players among its 18 finalists. It also included a 2022 Oklahoma State commit, wing Eric Dailey, Jr., who completed a post-graduate year last season, and Freddie Dillione, a 2023 combo guard who enrolled early at Tennessee last season but redshirted.
USA is expected to cut down to the final roster of 12 players on Wednesday, then travel to Hungary next week to participate in the U19 World Cup from June 24 to July 2.
Other than Boswell and Armstrong, finalists who have completed a year of college basketball include Tennessee forward Tobe Awaka, Vanderbilt center Ven-Allen Lubin and TCU center Ernest Udeh.
Colorado-bound forward Cody Williams of Gilbert Perry High School was among the class of 2023 players on the list of finalists, along with Iowa State forward Omaha Billiew, Purdue guard Myles Colvin, Oklahoma State wing Eric Dailey Jr., and Louisville wing Trentyn Flowers.
The class of 2024 players still in camp include forward Asa Newell, wing Cameron Scott, wing Kanon Catchings, guard Dylan Harper, guard Ian Jackson and guard Tre Johnson.
Arizona guard Kylan Boswell brings the ball up court against ASU during the first half of the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament in March.
Colorado coach Tad Boyle is serving as head coach of the U19 team, though cuts were made by USA Basketball’s Junior National Team Committee. Boyle’s assistants are Mike Boynton Jr. of Oklahoma State University and Leon Rice of Boise State.
Purdue’s Matt Painter is chair of the Junior National Team Committee, which also includes Mark Fox, James Jones, Jamie Dixon, Keith Langford, and Damien Wilkins.
The United States will open against Madagascar on June 24 during Group B play in Hungary.
UA freshman guard Filip Borovicanin is a candidate to make Serbia’s U19 team, but Serbia is scheduled to open in a different group for pool play games than USA.
Purdue series finalized
Arizona and Purdue have finalized a two-year series that will begin on Dec. 16 in Indianapolis and is expected to continue in 2024-25 at Las Vegas.
The opening game will be part of a two-game doubleheader at Gainbridge Fieldhouse known as the Indy Classic in which Ball State will face Indiana State in the other game. UA said its game with Purdue is the first in a potential series of neutral site games to be held in the future.
Adding Purdue gives the Wildcats a fifth high-major nonconference opponent next season and a second consensus top-five preseason opponent after Duke. Arizona is scheduled to play at Duke (Nov. 10), against Michigan State in the Palm Springs area (Nov. 23), against Wisconsin at McKale Center (Dec. 9) and against Alabama in Phoenix (Dec. 20).
Arizona hasn’t played Purdue since losing 89-64 to the Boilermakers in the 2017-18 Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. The Wildcats met Purdue at Gainbridge Fieldhouse (then Conseco Fieldhouse) in 2000-01, losing 72-69 to the Boilermakers in a game that was played just three days after the Wildcats’ championship run through the Maui Invitational.
Section 7 to include UA commits
UA commits Carter Bryant and Jamari Phillips are both scheduled to play in the Section 7 high school showcase from June 23-25 at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium.
While the Section 7 event did not include prep schools during the past two seasons, which would have kept out Phillips and his AZ Compass Prep teammates, a new “non-National Association of High Schools” division was created this year that Compass will compete in.
Bryant is scheduled to play for Corona (Calif.) Centennial, where Boswell spent his sophomore season of high school, after transferring from Newport Beach’s Sage Hill School this spring.
Among Arizona’s top 2025 targets scheduled to play at Section 7 are Benin forward Tounde Yessoufou of Santa Maria (Calif.) St. Joseph and Koa Peat of Gilbert Perry.
A 6-7 forward, Peat will arrive on a roll after leading USA Basketball through a six-game romp to the gold medal in the U16 Americas Championship at Merida, Mexico, last week. Peat led USA with 17.2 points and was second on the team in rebounding at 8.3.
In USA’s 118-36 win over Canada in the gold medal game Sunday, Peat was asked to play just 16 minutes but still collected 11 points and six rebounds.
Chicago Bulls legend, Scottie Pippen, said that his former teammate, Michael Jordan “was horrible to play with."
