Morgan City alum in 8 p.m. Pan American game July 21

University of Louisiana at Lafayette standout Shawn Long will represent the United States beginning today in the Pan American games in Toronto as a member of the U.S. hoops team that will begin play at 8 o’clock tonight against Venezuela.
Long, a Morgan City High alum, and the U.S. squad will compete in Group A and will face Puerto Rico Wednesday and Brazil Thursday, both at 8 p.m.
The top two teams from Group A as well as Group B, which consists of Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico, will continue play in the medal round semifinals Friday with the winners playing in the title game Saturday for a gold medal. The semifinal losers will meet for the bronze medal.
The third- and fourth-place teams in each group will continue play after pool play, meeting to determine fifth through eighth places.
Regarding this opportunity he has been presented, Long said he was “humbled and blessed for the opportunity to be able to represent my country and my school as well as my family, most importantly.”
He and his teammates were selected a little more than a week ago after going through training camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado, earlier this month. The 12-man roster was selected from 22 players invited to the camp.
The team is coached by Gonzaga University coach Mark Few, who is assisted by Tad Boyle of the University of Colorado and ex-NBA coach Mike Brown.
The team consists of players, ages 20-35. One player was on a NBA team this past season, while four others played professionally overseas. Seven more play college basketball.
Long said he has had to make an adjustment in this setting with the different offense that is being run.
“It’s not too difficult for me to adjust because of the guys that I’m surrounded by, all those pros … they’re helping me and helping the younger guys … get the plays down pat and just try to put ourselves in the best position to get the gold,” he said Thursday, the team’s last day in Chicago where they have been practicing at the Chicago Bulls’ practice facility.
The team departed Friday for Toronto, Canada, where the games will be held.
While initially the team went through practices twice a day, Long said now they practice once a day as the Pan American Games are approaching.
Asked how this experience will help him when he returns to school as a senior and then pursues basketball beyond college, Long said it’s “just another opportunity to get better.”
He said that anytime he can learn from professionals and compete against the country’s best college basketball players, “you got no choice but to get better.”
The Pan American experience wasn’t the only event this summer that Long was able to learn from ex-standouts and compete against other talented players.
Long attended the Nike Academy where he faced players such as Ben Simmons, an incoming freshman at LSU who has been rated one of the country’s top recruits in the Class of 2015, while he also competed against Gary Payton Jr. and others.
Those he learned from at the event included Payton, Scottie Pippen and Ron Harper.
--By GEOFF STOUTE
gstoute@daily-review.com