21-07-2007
Jul 21, 2007 at 7:24 am |
lebron-james •
usa-basketballUSA Basketball announced today training plans for its Men’s Senior National Team that will see the USA squad in 2007 conduct a mini-training camp July 20-22 in Las Vegas, culminating with the 2007 State Farm USA Basketball Challenge on Sunday, July 22. The July mini-camp will be utilized to determine finalists for the USA squad that will compete Aug. 22-Sept. 2 in the FIBA Americas Championship 2007, which is also being staged in Las Vegas. In the 2007 State Farm USA Basketball Challenge, the USA Senior National Team will be divided for a Blue-White game. The game will be held at Thomas & Mack Center on July 22. The selected USA finalists, following a three-week break, will reconvene in Las Vegas on Aug. 13 for the start of the final phase of the team’s 2007 training. The USA team will train daily Aug. 13-21 in preparation for the FIBA Americas Championship 2007.
The FIBA Americas Championship 2007, featuring 10 men’s national teams, is one of five FIBA Olympic qualifying zone tournaments and will determine the two men’s teams from the Americas zone who will earn a qualification spot for the 2008 Olympic Games that are being held Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, China. The third, fourth and fifth place finishers will qualify for the 12-team 2008 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, July 7-13, 2008, site TBD, that will qualify the final three teams for the 2008 Olympics. The USA was placed in the FIBA Americas Championship Group B and will open play against Venezuela on Aug. 22, followed by games against the U.S. Virgin Islands on Aug. 23, Canada on Aug. 25 and Brazil on Aug. 26. Placed into Group A were Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Panama and Puerto Rico.
