The WCC on the World (Cup) Stage
The 2023 FIBA World Cup tips off next week, and with the tournament just around the corner and teams playing their final tune-up games we’ve started to get a clear picture of which players will be taking part in the event.
As you may expect from a league that includes international-recruiting trailblazers in Gonzaga and Down Under savants in Saint Mary’s, the West Coast Conference is well represented at the tournament. But it goes deeper than just those two programs.
Five current WCC programs, along with that one now-former one from Provo, will see their hoopers compete for a world championship.
Before getting into who to keep your eyes on in the coming weeks, humor me for a few stray thoughts on this event.
If you go to the Wikipedia page for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, you will see this image near the very top. Yes, that is David Stockton. He of six career NBA appearances was a mainstay in the USA squad during World Cup qualifiers. So was BYU’s Eric Mika, despite neither of them having the most microscopic of shots to make the final roster for the actual tournament.
Is it cool for those guys to be a part of the qualifiers for USA Basketball? Probably. Still, I find it really absurd that we roll out a D-team squad for qualifiers even if we don’t need our A or B teamers to make it into the tournament.
Eric, David, thanks for all the work you did, now let the real team go get the glory. It doesn’t sit right with me from a sporting perspective. The team that qualified is not the team that is participating, not even slightly.
More over, if we as a basketball country are going to be cool with our A teamers, and frankly even our B teamers, sitting out these events (a bunch of the guys on the roster aren’t even regular NBA starters), and we’re going to ask G-Leaguers to do the grunt work, why don’t we just saw F it and let them compete?
There have been two football World Cups in the past nine months, and they look nothing like what the basketball World Cup does. The only reason that game’s stars don’t take part is injury (still sad about Becky Sauerbrunn) or coming from a relatively weak country (Zlatan spent two decades with Sweden but made just two World Cups).
Meanwhile, the USA is sending 12 players who have combined for four all-star appearances, with none having multiple to their name. What a showcase!
Oh, and Rui isn’t playing for Japan either, which like… Japan is hosting the damn tournament man.
But it’s the basketball World Cup so the general reaction from the American sports world is, “it’s summer, let’s show clips of fly-outs to left field.”
ANYWAY let’s get to the good stuff.
Gonzaga
CANADA:
Kelly Olynyk
Kevin Pangos
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
Angel Nunez
SERBIA:
Filip Petrusev
USA: Mark Few (Assistant Coach)
As I mentioned above, Rui has chosen not to play for Japan (maybe the first thing he’s done I haven’t been a fan of, tbh). Joel Ayayi missed the cut for France. After a few years of being led by noted Zag hater and recently-fired former Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse, Team Canada is once again mining the Gonzaga alumni in its player pool. They’ve smartened up, eh? Also, shout out Angel Nunez, one of those weird multi-year and in-the-rotation Zags who you probably haven’t thought about in years. Biggest question I have about the Zags in the World Cup is with Few in an assistant role, how will he manage to go a full game without getting into his squat?
Saint Mary’s
AUSTRALIA:
Jock Landale
Patty Mills
LITHUANIA:
Augustas Marciulionis
NEW ZEALAND:
Dan Fotu
Notably, there’s no Delly. Only indications are that he was simply a victim of the final round of cuts, which is an unfamiliar place for those who have watched the world №3 ranked Boomers for the past decade-plus. As Basketball Australia said in its roster release, “Matthew Dellavedova [is] a three-time Olympian and two-time FIBA World Cup representative is a mainstay of the Boomers program and an integral leader on and off the court.” He was the team captain during portions of the qualifiers, so this move was one that I at least did not see coming. Another player who may not actually make the trip is current Gaels PG Augustas Marciulionis, who was initially listed on the FIBA roster page but has disappeared in the past day or so.
San Diego
GEORGIA:
Duda Sanadze
PUERTO RICO:
Isaiah Pineiro
You weren’t expecting to see USD on this list were you, or at the very least not with the third most representation. Duda Sanadze has bounced around making stops at 10 teams in Europe, and even made a stop for a team in Qatar, since graduating from San Diego in 2016. He’s been a regular part of the Georigan team since his college years. Similar can be said from a national team perspective for Isaiah Pineiro, who has been a mainstay and even starter for a quality Puerto Rico program for years now. Of the non-Gonzaga/SMC guys, he might have the best shot to impress both individually and with his team.
BYU
IVORY COAST:
Charles Abouo
He spent just one year with the Cougars during their time in the WCC (certainly more remembered for his contributions to those Jimmer teams of the final years of their MWC era), and yes now the Cougars are off to the Big 12, but he played in the WCC damn it so he’s on here and that’s right BYU fans, I’m still talking about your Cougars. Deal with it. Abouo has quietly put together an impressive professional resume over the past decade, having worked his way into a contributing role for top-flight French teams for the past three seasons.
Santa Clara
ITALY: Guglielmo Caruso
Like Marciulionis above, Caruso was initially listed on Italy’s final roster per the FIBA roster database, but has disappeared in the past day or so. I haven’t been able to find any explanation in the press, with the only news coming when he was originally named to the roster and praising him as a potentially impactful young player for the squad.
Portland
USA: Erik Spoelstra (Assistant Coach)
The former Pilots guard and longtime Miami Head head coach will be one of the three assistant coaches, alongside Ty Lue and Gonzaga’s Mark Few, helping Steve Kerr guide the young American roster. No disrespect to Kerr, but Spo’s the better coach here. Considering how Miami has built contenders from discarded and undrafted players in recent years, he looks to me like the better fit for head coach than Kerr, who has done very well but also been incredibly lucky with the rosters he’s had to work with at Golden State.
