Honolulu, Hawaii - September 2, 2000

Hand-picking the coaches and players for the USA Men's Select Team, the USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee, chaired by University of Virginia Athletic Director Terry Holland, selected many of college basketball's top returning players to make up the 2000 USA Select Team that trained and then competed against the USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team in a NBC nationally televised game on Sept. 2 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

2000 USA Men's Select Team

The 2000 USA Men's Select Team was coached by St. John's University (N.Y.) head mentor Mike Jarvis and assisted by University of Cincinnati (Ohio) head coach Bob Huggins.

Arriving in Maui on the evening of Aug. 27, the USA Select Team trained Aug. 28 -Sept. 1, and conducted several scrimmages against the USA Senior National Team prior to facing the eventual 2000 Olympic team in the Sept. 2 exhibition game.

The USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team handed the USA Select Team a 111-74 loss in an action filled NBC nationally televised contest at the University of Hawaii Stan Sheriff Center (Honolulu, Hawaii) in front of 8,980 fans. Leading by only 10 points at the half after the Select Team's Jason Richardson poured in 19 first half points, the USA Senior National Team behind a game high 24 points (10-10 FGs) from Vince Carter dominated the second half with its high octane running game and posted a 111-74 victory.

'It was a very competitive game,' commented USA Men's Senior National Team head coach Rudy Tomjanovich. 'We had some miscues on our press and Richardson wound up with some great shots. But we really picked it up on the defensive end in the second half and I thought that was the difference.'

The Men's Senior National Team scored the game's first four points and opened up a 12-3 lead at the 17:45 mark on the strength of five consecutive points from Tim Hardaway. But the USA Select Team, behind eight points from Richardson, outscored the USA Senior Team 16-9 over the game's next 5:03 and trailed by only two, 21-19, at the 12:42 mark. The Senior squad managed to pull away and led 30-21 with 9:44 remaining, but the Select Team answered again and cut the lead to four, 32-28, on a basket by Jason Williams at the 7:10 mark. The USA Senior National Team closed out the half by outscoring the collegians 17-11 and went into the locker room with a 49-39 halftime advantage.

'I told my guys after the game that they probably played against what, in my eyes, is one of the best teams that the U.S. will ever send to the Olympics,' said USA and St. John's University (N.Y.) head coach Mike Jarvis. 'They are just a great, great basketball team and they're only going to get better and better.'

Making a sizzling 24-of-39 shots (80.0 percent) in the second half, the Senior National Team quickly made the first half a faded memory as they outscored the collegians 62-35 in the second stanza. The USA Men's Senior National Team continued its fastbreak game until the final horn and in the process earned the 111-74 win.

Joining Carter in double figures for the U.S. were Ray Allen (Milwaukee Bucks) with 17 points; Shareef Abdur-Rahim with 11 points; Antonio McDyess with 11 points and Vin Baker with 10 points. McDyess was also the game's leading rebounder with nine boards.
Shooting 63.6 percent (42-66 FGs) overall from the floor, including 9-of-17 from three-point (52.9 percent), the USA Senior National Team limited the U.S. collegians to just 36.3 percent shooting overall. Also outrebounding the Select Team 47-30, the U.S. defensive pressure forced the Select squad into committing 22 turnovers.

For the Select Team, Williams tallied 15 points and Terence Morris added 11 to join Richardson in the double figures scoring column.

USA Men's Senior National Team 111,
USA Men's Select Team 74