USA Basketball Announces Team for FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup in China
USA Basketball today announced the four athletes who will represent the United States at the 20-nation 2019 FIBA Men’s 3x3 U23 World Cup from Oct. 2-6 in Lanzhou, China. The USA team includes Ronald Fairrow III (Point Park University/Pickerington, Ohio), David Payne (Cleveland State University/Chicago, Ill.), Mark Shehady (Point Park University/Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Juwan Willis (Point Park University/Swissvale, Pa.).
Three athletes are from the current Point Park University basketball roster, including incoming junior forward Fairrow, junior guard Shehady and sophomore guard Willis.
Payne played basketball at Cleveland State University in 2017-18 and 2018-19, after starting at Lewis & Clark Community College in 2015-16 and Malcolm X College in 2016-17.
Traveling as the team advisor will be Joe Lewandowski, the head men’s basketball coach at Park Point University and a USA Basketball 3x3 regional coordinator.
The USA will play in Pool B, and will open play on Oct. 3 versus Romania at 6:55 a.m. (all times listed are EDT) and Latvia at 8:05 a.m. EDT, followed by games on Oct. 5 against Kazakhstan at 6:35 a.m. and China at 8:45 a.m.
Pool A includes Argentina, New Zealand, defending champion Russia, Slovenia and Turkey; Pool C features Brazil, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar and Ukraine; and Pool D lists Lithuania, Mongolia, Netherlands, Serbia and South Korea.
The top two finishing teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals on Oct. 6, in which A1 will play C2, D1 will meet B2, B1 will face D2 and C1 will take on A2.
The semifinals and championship game also will be played on Oct. 6.
The complete game schedule is available online.
One previous FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup was held in 2018, however, the USA did not participate. Russia claimed the 2018 FIBA Men’s 3x3 World Cup title with a 7-0 record, Latvia finished second and Hungary placed third.