Wisconsin men’s basketball: Jonathan Davis accepts invitation to USA Basketball U19 training camp

On June 20, 27 of the best young men’s basketball players in the country will head to Fort Worth, Texas to try and make the USA Basketball U19 team that will be playing in the 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup for Men. On Thursday afternoon, the players who accepted their invitations were announced and Wisconsin Badgers guard Jonathan Davis was among them.

Twelve players will make the team that will head to Riga, Latvia to defend the USA’s title. The tournament runs from July 3 to July 11 and will feature 16 teams from all over the world. Here are the players that will be trying out for head coach Jamie Dixon of TCU (with Stanford head coach Jerod Haase and Yale head coach James Jones rounding out the coaching staff as assistant coaches) and Team USA:

Devin Askew (Texas/Sacramento, Calif.)
Patrick Baldwin Jr. (Hamilton H.S./Sussex, Wis.)
Kendall Brown (Sunrise Christian Academy /Cottage Grove, Minn.)
Kennedy Chandler (Sunrise Christian Academy/Memphis, Tenn.)
Jonathan Davis (Wisconsin/La Crosse, Wis.)
Derek Fountain (Mississippi State/Holly Springs, Miss.)
Caleb Furst (Blackhawk Christian School/Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Jordan Hall (Texas A&M/Wildwood, N.J.)
Chet Holmgren (Minnehaha Academy/Minneapolis, Minn.)
Harrison Ingram (St. Mark’s School/Dallas, Texas)
Jaden Ivey (Purdue /South Bend, Ind.)
Dishon Jackson (Washington State/Vallejo, Calif.)
Meechie Johnson (Ohio State/Cleveland, Ohio)
Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton/St. Louis, Mo.)
Trey Kaufman-Renn (Silver Creek H.S. /Sellersburg, Ind.)
Zed Key (Ohio State/Bay Shore, N.Y.)
Kenneth Lofton Jr. (Louisiana Tech/Port Arthur, Texas)
Langston Love (Montverde Academy/Cibolo, Texas)
Mike Miles (TCU/Lancaster, Texas)
Adam Miller (Louisiana State/Chicago, Ill.)
Trey Patterson (Villanova /Somerset, N.J.)
Hunter Sallis (Millard North H.S./Omaha, Neb.)
Deivon Smith (Georgia Tech/Loganville, Ga.)
Dalen Terry (Arizona/Tempe, Ariz.)
Jabari Walker (Colorado/Inglewood, Calif.)
Peyton Watson (Long Beach Poly Tech H.S./Long Beach, Calif.)
Jaylin Williams (Arkansas/Fort Smith, Ark.)

If you follow Wisconsin basketball recruiting closely you’ll notice a number of familiar names like Hunter Sallis, Zed Key and Patrick Baldwin, Jr. along with a bunch of young, Big Ten talent too.

“Aside from the Olympics and World Cups, the FIBA U19 World Cup is the most challenging competition on the international calendar, and it will take a team of dedicated, selfless individuals to go to Latvia and try to win gold,” said Matt Painter, chair of the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee and Purdue University head coach. “The committee feels we have a strong group of players coming into camp in June in hopes of securing a spot on the U19 team, and I’m looking forward to watching them fight to be a part of this USA Basketball team.”

Wisconsin has a pretty decent history of players performing on an international stage. Per a UW release:

Davis becomes the latest in a line of recent Badgers to receive an opportunity to represent USA Basketball. Nigel Hayes accepted an invite from USA Basketball in 2015 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.

The USA was drawn into Group D, against Australia, Mali and Turkey for the opening round. The Americans will open the tournament against Turkey on July 3, followed by Mali on July 4 and close group play against Australia on July 6.