Long named to U.S. Pan American Men’s Basketball Team

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns basketball player and Morgan City native Shawn Long was one of 12 players named to the official roster for the 2015 U.S. Pan American Men’s Basketball Team announced today by USA Basketball.
The U.S. squad, which will compete at the Pan American Games July 21-25 in Toronto, Canada, was announced today following the 16 finalists’ last practice at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Long, who will be a senior for the Ragin’ Cajuns in 2015-16, became the second member of the Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team in the past two years to be named to Team USA, joining former Cajun Elfrid Payton, who started all nine games for Team USA at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship, helping the team to the gold medal.
“It’s a great honor for Shawn to represent our country, our university and our team with USA Basketball,” Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin said in a news release. “Just like Elfrid did two years ago with the U19 championship team, we’ll be supporting Shawn to make a difference on this team and to bring home a gold medal. He’s worked hard this summer and by not entering this year’s (NBA) draft and making the decision to return to our team, has put a sense of urgency on Shawn. And he’s responded.
“He’s worked hard in our workouts in June,” Marlin said. “I was able to be at Colorado Springs for the first three days, and he played well. I got great feedback from the coaches who were there. (Georgia State head coach) Ron Hunter, who was one of the training camp court coaches, was very complimentary of Shawn’s play. I had a good feeling when I left Colorado Springs that he would make the team. Of course, you never know until it’s final.”
Long, who was named to the all-Sun Belt Conference first team for the second straight season and was named a Lou Henson all-American, averaged 16.4 points and 10.2 rebounds last season for the Ragin’ Cajuns while shooting 54 percent from the floor.
He was the only player in the Sun Belt Conference to rank in the top five in both scoring and rebounding, and his 52 career double-doubles are the most by any active player in the country.
Long reached double figures in scoring in all 20 Sun Belt Conference games in 2014-15 and became just the third player in school history to reach 1,000 rebounds. He also ranks second all-time in program history in blocked shots.
The 12 USA players range in age from 20 to 35 years old and include one player who played in the NBA in 2014-15, four who played professionally overseas and seven current collegians.
Joining Long on the 2015 U.S. Pan American Men’s Basketball Team are: Ron Baker (Wichita State), Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia), Bobby Brown (Dongguan Leopards, China), Ryan Hollins (Sacramento Kings), Keith Langford (UNICS Kazan, Russia), Taurean Prince (Baylor), Anthony Randolph (Lokomotiv-Kuban, Russia), Kaleb Tarczewski (Arizona), Romelo Trimble (Maryland), Denzel Valentine (Michigan State) and Damien Wilkins (Indios de Mayagüez, Puerto Rico).
“It’s a group of hard-working guys who have done a great job in camp of really playing together and being unselfish,” USA and Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few said in a news release. “They came into camp with a great attitude and mindset to really work, and now we’ve got to start formulating and playing to our strengths. This is a group that’s got some versatility, and I think we should be able to play a couple different ways.
“I don’t think I’ve ever in my whole life been put in a situation where you’re choosing between 16 great guys,” Few added. “You could have made a call for any one of the guys on the list, and it would have made perfect sense. We labored and labored and labored over it for what we think we might need. That’s how we got down to these 12.”
“I would like our strength to be that we can defend in a variety of ways and at the same time attack you on the offensive end with a variety of different looks,” Few said. “I do think we’re going to be really balanced. I don’t think we’re really weighted in one position or one person really scoring the ball. I think we can hopefully get contributions from everybody in that regard.”
The U.S. team is scheduled to train today through Thursday in Chicago, Illinois, at the Chicago Bulls practice facility.
Assisting Few with the 2015 U.S. Pan American Men’s Basketball Team is University of Colorado’s Tad Boyle and longtime NBA coach Mike Brown.
The 2015 Pan American Games men’s basketball competition will take place July 21-25 in Toronto, Canada. The U.S. men have been placed into Group A and will play all three of its preliminary round games at 8 p.m., including Venezuela on July 21, Puerto Rico on July 22 and Brazil on July 23.
Competing in Group B will be Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico.
The top two teams from each preliminary-round group will advance to the medal-round semifinals on July 24, while the third and fourth-placed teams will play for fifth-eighth places. The semifinal winners will compete for the gold medal on July 25, and the semifinal losers will play for bronze.