Wisconsin men’s basketball: Jonathan Davis makes USA U19 team

In what has been a trying week for the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team, a sliver of good news emerged on Thursday night. Sophomore Jonathan Davis, out of La Crosse, made the cut for the 2021 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team roster.

Davis is one of 12 players that will represent the United States on the international stage and one of two players from the state of Wisconsin. Here is the full roster:

Patrick Baldwin Jr. (Hamilton H.S./Sussex, Wis.)
Kennedy Chandler (Sunrise Christian Academy, Kan./Memphis, Tenn.)
Jonathan Davis (Wisconsin/La Crosse, Wis.)
Caleb Furst (Blackhawk Christian School/Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Chet Holmgren (Minnehaha Academy/Minneapolis, Minn.)
Harrison Ingram (St. Mark’s School/Dallas, Texas)
Jaden Ivey (Purdue/South Bend, Ind.)
Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton/St. Louis, Mo.)
Kenneth Lofton Jr. (Louisiana Tech/Port Arthur, Texas)
Mike Miles (TCU/Lancaster, Texas)
Adam Miller (Louisiana State/Chicago, Ill.)
Peyton Watson (Long Beach Poly Tech H.S./Long Beach, Calif).

“This week has been very fulfilling so far, and the process of selecting this 12-player group was really difficult given the amount of talent we have had at training camp,” said Jamie Dixon, USA and TCU head coach. “Everyone has been working hard, we are growing closer as a group, which is really important. I am excited about the team that the committee put together as we now prepare to head overseas to Latvia and compete for a gold medal.”

Davis becomes the latest in a line of recent Badgers to receive an opportunity to represent USA Basketball. Most recently in 2015, Nigel Hayes accepted an invite from USA Basketball for the Pan American Games. In the summer of 2012, Sam Dekker was a member of the USA Basketball U18 national team that defeated Brazil for the gold medal in the FIBA Americas Championship. In 2010, Jon Leuer earned a spot on the USA men’s select team that trained against the U.S. men’s national team as it prepared for the FIBA World Championships.

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Davis averaged 7.0 points, 4.1 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game as Wisconsin’s sixth man last season.

The USA was drawn into Group D, alongside Australia, Mali and Turkey for the July 3-6 FIBA U19 World Cup preliminary round. The USA will open play against Turkey on July 3 (10:30 a.m. EDT), followed by Mali on July 4 (1:30 p.m EDT) and close preliminary play against Australia on July 6 (1:30 p.m. EDT).

The Americans are the defending gold medal winners and Davis will be hoping to keep the title at home.