Prekevicius & Buckley playing top competition

[Papa_Bull]

USF’s Prekevicius, Buckley Playing Against Top Competition This Summer

(August 10, 2005) TAMPA, FLA. – As the University of South Florida men’s basketball program prepares for its inaugural season in the BIG EAST, two of its student-athletes are playing against some of the top competition the nation and the world have to offer.

Junior forward Marius Prekevicius is a member of the Lithuanian squad currently competing at the 2005 FIBA U21 World Championship in Argentina, while classmate Melvin Buckley is participating this month in the 2005 Michael Jordan Flight School.

Prekevicius, who also represented Lithuania in late July at the 2005 Global Games in Texas, owns a spot in the team’s starting lineup. In a pair of matchups against the USA U21 squad he totaled 11 points and eight assists. Through games of August 7, Lithuania owned an overall record of 2-1 with victories over Puerto Rico and Nigeria. The 12-team field will conclude play on August 14.

Prekevicius averaged 5.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 26 appearances last season with USF.

“Playing against some of the top competition in the world will obviously help to prepare Marius for the upcoming season,†USF head coach Robert McCullum said. “There isn’t a greater honor than the opportunity to represent your country at the international level.â€Â

Buckley, who redshirted with the Bulls in 2004-05 after transferring from Purdue, is serving as a counselor at the youth camp in California. In addition to working with some of the top young talent in the nation, Buckley is also able to scrimmage with current collegiate and National Basketball Association players. Other student-athletes taking part in the camp are Rashad Anderson (UConn), Shannon Brown (Michigan State), Joe Crawford (Kentucky), Hassan Adams (Arizona) and Mustafa Shakur (Arizona).

“It is a tremendous honor to be invited to this camp,†McCullum said. “With Melvin having missed the 2004-05 season as a transfer, the two weeks at the camp playing against top competition will give him a taste of the upcoming year.â€Â

http://gobulls.usf.edu/Sports/News.asp?i=1689&s=Basketball

Marius had 17 points against Lithuania yesterday.

Lith beat China today and is now 4-1 and will be heading into the Quarter finals on Friday.

http://www.u-21.com.ar/final/main.asp?wVarIdioma=2

[Papa_Bull]

http://mjflightschool.com/index.asp

[Velcro]

AWESOME!  I can't wait for the season to begin!

[bulls96go]

go mac!

[TripleB]

How's Cann doing?

[dabull80]

The guys at Dominoes say he is doing great TripleB

[Velcro]

Dominoes Fitness Center ?  

[Papa_Bull]

I'm also surprised we haven't heard anything about Zaronn this summer.

We know that Marius just locked up a Silver medal at the U-21 World Championships and could very well win the Gold medal tonight.

I wonder how Buckley performed at Jordan's Flight school. Perhaps, Greg or Brett can contact George Raveling and put it in an article:

Actually, the so-called counselors go to Nike camps to play as much as counsel. Pro scouts watch counselor games scheduled around the competition of campers. UK players Chuck Hayes and Rajon Rondo were counselors at the Nike All-American Camp in Indianapolis the last two summers.

The interesting twist to the Flight School counselor games is that the man himself, Jordan, often participated.

George Raveling, director of the Jordan Flight School, said Morris played well in the counselor games. But given Raveling's dismissive tone on the telephone, it was hard to tell if Morris truly played well or Raveling wanted to end the conversation with as few words as possible.

"He represented himself well," Raveling said of Morris. The director balked at a request to elaborate. "I'm not a talent evaluator," he said. "That's for NBA guys."However Morris played, he had to benefit from competing against standout players. After all, he missed summer pickup games against UK teammates and former Cats stars.

In an interview earlier in the week with the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Raveling cited Arron Afflalo of UCLA and Hassan Adams of Arizona as among standouts in the counselor games.

Other counselors at the Jordan Flight School included Joe Crawford of Kentucky, Malik Hairston of Oregon (Crawford's high school teammate), Steven Hill and Ronnie Brewer of Arkansas, Nik Caner-Medley of Maryland and Mustafa Shakur of Arizona.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/12379550.htm

Here is the other article focusing on "West Coast" counselors playing with MJ:

* The second of the two Michael Jordan Flight School camps held at UC Santa Barbara wrapped up Monday night.

Among the college players who either served as counselors or showed up for evening pick-up games (often involving The Man Himself, M.J.) in the back-to-back sessions were Arron Afflalo and Michael Fey (UCLA), Gabriel Pruitt and Nick Young (USC), Hassan Adams and Mustafa Shakur (Arizona) and Bryce Taylor and Malik Hairston (Oregon).

Afflalo and Adams were among the standouts during the pick-up games, according to George Raveling of Nike, who is also one of the directors of the MJFS.

http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~28809~3001406,00.html

Did Melvin also play against MJ? If so, his experiences there would make interesting reading.

[smazza]

we are lucky to have coach mac

i imagine he is signed for another 5 years to coach USF

[Guest BasketBull.]

we are lucky to have coach mac

i imagine he is signed for another 5 years to coach USF

Curious, were you ever a fan of other USF basketball coaches in the past? What about Terry's dad? I know there must be a million posts from you about the man... but did you like him in the beginning? And why so much love for Coach Mac?