Combing to score 40 of the United States's 96 overall points, Gary Trent Jr. (team high 17 points), Wendell Carter (11 points), Kevin Knox (8 point), and Immanuel Quickley (4 points) helped the Red, White, and Blue to their fourth straight age-level gold medal today in Zaragoza, Spain.
The 40 point output, which coincidentally equaled the margin of victory (96-56) over Turkey in the World finals, was nothing new to this quartet as three of the four finished the 11-day-long tournament with double-digit points-per-game averages.
Trent, fresh off of a 15-point effort in U.S.'s semifinal win over Lithuania, finished the tournament as the high scorer among the four, averaging 12.7 points/game, to go along with 3.9 rebounds, and 2.3 steals...The #10 overall prospect in the 247 Sports class of 2017 rankings, darn near scored 10 or more in all seven games of the tournament, falling one point short in the team's opening round game against Taiwan...At present, the crystal ball lists him as a 100 percent Duke lean.
Knox, who sat out the team's final game of pool play against Egypt, finished with an average of 11.2 points per game, scoring in double-digits in four of the six contests (including three in a row) in which he participated....His best game of the tournament came in the quarterfinal round, as he recorded a 17-point, 6-rebound effort...Currently projecting at 91 percent likelihood of becoming a Blue Devil, the Tampa Catholic student-athlete, who sits in the #6 position among rising senior prospects, also averaged 4.5 board a game, and showed active hands on the defensive side of the ball, notching 2.1 steals/contest.
Carter, one of two Americans (the other being tournament MVP, Collin Sexton) named to the five-man All-Star All-Tournament squad, proved himself the most multi-faceted of the group, averaging 10.1 points/game and hitting the glass hard to emerge with a 7.4 rebound average...His near double-double averages came despite splitting time in the front court with a plethora of other blue chip big men...The pride of the Peach State did not have any one particular game where he padded his stat line. Instead, he was a consistent performer throughout, posting a point high of 14 against Taiwan, followed by a 14 board effort in the team's first match-up against Turkey...In fact, as noted above, there is little doubt that all of his numbers would be higher if not for the fact that he played only 11 minutes in the round of 16 against Argentina, 13 minutes in the quarterfinals over Korea, and 11 minutes in the semifinal round versus Lithuania...Like Trent Jr., the 6'10, 260-pounder is shown as a 100 percent lean to Durham.
Quickley, the only 2018 member (listed as a 60 percent lean to Duke), accepted more of a complementary role on Team USA, contributing 3.2 points and 3 rebounds per contest...He never quite found his shot during the festivities, but despite the ball not going down, he demonstrated a positive attitude and worked hard on D.
The 40 point output, which coincidentally equaled the margin of victory (96-56) over Turkey in the World finals, was nothing new to this quartet as three of the four finished the 11-day-long tournament with double-digit points-per-game averages.
Trent, fresh off of a 15-point effort in U.S.'s semifinal win over Lithuania, finished the tournament as the high scorer among the four, averaging 12.7 points/game, to go along with 3.9 rebounds, and 2.3 steals...The #10 overall prospect in the 247 Sports class of 2017 rankings, darn near scored 10 or more in all seven games of the tournament, falling one point short in the team's opening round game against Taiwan...At present, the crystal ball lists him as a 100 percent Duke lean.
Knox, who sat out the team's final game of pool play against Egypt, finished with an average of 11.2 points per game, scoring in double-digits in four of the six contests (including three in a row) in which he participated....His best game of the tournament came in the quarterfinal round, as he recorded a 17-point, 6-rebound effort...Currently projecting at 91 percent likelihood of becoming a Blue Devil, the Tampa Catholic student-athlete, who sits in the #6 position among rising senior prospects, also averaged 4.5 board a game, and showed active hands on the defensive side of the ball, notching 2.1 steals/contest.
Carter, one of two Americans (the other being tournament MVP, Collin Sexton) named to the five-man All-Star All-Tournament squad, proved himself the most multi-faceted of the group, averaging 10.1 points/game and hitting the glass hard to emerge with a 7.4 rebound average...His near double-double averages came despite splitting time in the front court with a plethora of other blue chip big men...The pride of the Peach State did not have any one particular game where he padded his stat line. Instead, he was a consistent performer throughout, posting a point high of 14 against Taiwan, followed by a 14 board effort in the team's first match-up against Turkey...In fact, as noted above, there is little doubt that all of his numbers would be higher if not for the fact that he played only 11 minutes in the round of 16 against Argentina, 13 minutes in the quarterfinals over Korea, and 11 minutes in the semifinal round versus Lithuania...Like Trent Jr., the 6'10, 260-pounder is shown as a 100 percent lean to Durham.
Quickley, the only 2018 member (listed as a 60 percent lean to Duke), accepted more of a complementary role on Team USA, contributing 3.2 points and 3 rebounds per contest...He never quite found his shot during the festivities, but despite the ball not going down, he demonstrated a positive attitude and worked hard on D.
