Arizona's Kylan Boswell headed for busy summer with likely spot on USA U19 team

For everything Kylan Boswell missed last summer, he’s making up for it now.

Maybe more.

Unable to take advantage of an invitation to try out for USA Basketball’s U17 team last summer because of a broken foot, Arizona’s sophomore point guard has instead become a leading contender to make USA’s U19 team this year — and possibly play a leading role during the U19 World Cup later this month in Hungary.

Boswell is expected to make the final 12-player roster that might be revealed Friday, meaning his spring will turn into a summer whirlwind. Boswell would be scheduled to leave Colorado, spend two weeks in Europe, then return to Arizona, go through a few weeks of practices with the Wildcats, then cross the Atlantic again on UA’s likely trip to Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

“It’s gonna be a rollercoaster, but I think I’ll be fine,” Boswell said by telephone this week from the USA Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

It’s the sort of soft-spoken confidence Boswell showed during his steady climb back from his foot injury last year. Having missed the entire summer and nearly all of UA’s preseason practices, Boswell was cleared to play entering last season but didn’t become a significant contributor until midseason.

By the end of the season, it was clear he was ready for more. Boswell combined for 28 points with 6-for-9 3-point shooting during UA’s final regular-season road swing, at USC and UCLA, then averaged 15.8 minutes over the Pac-12 Tournament and the Wildcats’ first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Princeton.

The early exit gave him time for only a quick breather. Boswell soon returned to the court, and before he reported to Colorado, he worked out in Southern California with players who were training for the NBA Draft.

“I took like two weeks off,” Boswell said. “That was pretty much it.”

Although Boswell is one of only five players in USA’s camp who played college basketball last season, he said the competition has been fierce this week. After all, USA Basketball training camps are known for sometimes notifying star youth players that they have been cut for the first time in their lives.

“It can be difficult,” Boswell said. “I really try not to put a lot of pressure on myself. Part of basketball is there’s gonna be times where good things happen and when bad things happen.”

As it was, Boswell said he packed light for Colorado and maybe Hungary. But not because he doubted he could make the team.

“I have high expectations for myself, so I kind of expected to get in position” to make the team, Boswell said. “But (packing) doesn’t really matter. Just pack whatever.”

During camp, Boswell and Villanova’s Mark Armstrong have been relied on heavily at point guard while five-star 2024 guard Dylan Harper has also been gaining reps there.

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The first three days of camp included two sessions each, with a lot of five-on-five scrimmages while USA’s junior national team committee evaluated the 30 initial camp invitees. The camp was then trimmed to 18 on Monday and 14 on Wednesday, when Boswell said more detailed work was held.

Boswell said it has helped him that Colorado coach Tad Boyle, who is serving as this year’s U19 head coach, has some similar philosophies as UA’s Tommy Lloyd.

“The stuff that we’re implementing now we’re gonna run over in Hungary,” Boswell said. “We’re doing a few simple defensive plays, and some zone offense just in case we run into that overseas. We’re mixing up some different stuff.”

While Boswell is among the nine players in camp with previous USA Basketball experience, having averaged 9.2 points and 4.5 assists during USA’s gold-medal finish in the 2021 FIBA U16 Americas championship, it’s a little different this time.

The U19 team is USA’s top youth club, carrying high expectations overseas, while NBA scouts and USA coaches alike are taking a close look at everything they do.

“I’d definitely say it’s a lot more intense than when I was playing U16,” Boswell said. “A lot of focus on the details. U19 might be one of the more important ones to go out there and win the gold.”

Also, that’s far from a guarantee.

Even with a boatload of five-star talent that included Chet Holmgren in 2019, USA beat France and Victor Wembanyama just 83-81 to win the U19 World Cup that year, when UA had three representatives playing for other countries: Oumar Ballo (Mali), Bennedict Mathurin (Canada) and Azuolas Tubelis (Lithuania).

Whatever happens, if Boswell makes the team as expected, it will be a chance to better prepare for a season in which he could also be leading the Wildcats at point guard, with Kerr Kriisa off to West Virginia.

Veteran transfers Caleb Love (North Carolina) and Jaden Bradley (Alabama) have already arrived in Tucson to join incoming freshman KJ Lewis in what could be a mostly new-look backcourt.

Boswell said he hasn’t had a chance to meet Love and Bradley yet but played briefly with San Diego State transfer forward Keshad Johnson and knew Lewis from his recruiting visits.

“I’m trying to make sure I maintain my health and trying to work on my leadership while I’m out here, (before) coming back with a new group of guys” Boswell said. “I feel like we can do something special if we come together.”

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