McCallum Named to USA Basketball World University Games Roster

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-- Detroit’s Ray McCallum has been named to the 12-member roster that will represent the U.S. in the 2011 World University Games men's basketball competition. McCallum is one of nine newcomers to the squad selected to the team after after six days of training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Listed on the roster are: Tim Abromaitis (Notre Dame/Unionville, Conn.); Marcus Denmon (Missouri/Kansas City, Mo.); Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh/Scotch Plains, N.J.); Draymond Green (Michigan State/Saginaw, Mich.); JaMychal Green (Alabama/Montgomery, Ala.); Scoop Jardine (Syracuse/ Philadelphia, Pa.); John Jenkins (Vanderbilt/ Hendersonville, Tenn.); Orlando Johnson (UC Santa Barbara/Seaside, Calif.); Greg Mangano (Yale/Orange, Conn.); Trevor Mbakwe (Minnesota/ St. Paul, Minn.); Ray McCallum(Detroit/Beverly Hills, Mich.); and Darius Miller (Kentucky/Maysville, Ky.).

McCallum was the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year in his freshman season with the Titans, averaging a team-best 13.5 points per game to go along with 4.9 assists per contest. This offseason, McCallum had participated in both the Deron Williams and LeBron James Skills Academies prior to his involvement with USA Basketball.

The rising sophomore is one of three players from non-Power 6 conferences to make the 12-man team.

"I think your strengths are going to come out in competition, and we have some very good players," said USA and Purdue University head mentor Matt Painter, who previously assisted the 2009 USA U19 World Championship Team to a gold medal. "I think we have some good point-guard play, some good, athletic wings that can shoot the basketball and then we have some good interior strength. So, I think we have balance. We do have some interchangeable parts, some guys at the three and four positions that can swing either way. We can play smaller and we can play bigger. It will depend on who we are playing against. I do think we can play a couple of different ways, and that's always a positive."

Cuonzo Martinof the University of Tennessee and Brad Stevens of Butler University are serving as assistant coaches for the 2011 USA Men's World University Games Team.

Training camp continues for the team members through, Aug. 7, with two practices each day at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and the team will depart for China on Aug. 8.

The USA will play an exhibition contest against New Century, a Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) professional team, in Huizho, China, on Aug. 11, before opening World University Games play on Aug. 13.

(Information from USA Basketball was used in the release; photo credit to Garrett Elwood/USA Basketball)