Gophers forward Quincy Lewis and Connecticut guard Khalid El-Amin of Minneapolis were among the 12 players named Thursday to the USA Basketball Goodwill Games team.
Lewis is one of four Big Ten players named to the team, which will begin play Sunday against defending gold medalist Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“We’re going to compete extremely hard,” said Gophers coach Clem Haskins, who is also at the helm of the Goodwill Games squad. “This team has the heart, the confidence and the determination that it will take to succeed.”
For Haskins and Lewis, the trip to New York marks a return to Madison Square Garden, where the Gophers made an impromptu run to the National Invitational Tournament championship in March.
The team opened camp July 6 at Williams Arena with 17 players before cutting down to 14 finalists after a week of practice. That group then traveled to Chicago for more practice and a scrimmage against the finalists for the USA Basketball Men’s squad, which is preparing for the World Championships in Greece.
Rounding out the Goodwill Games roster are Calvin Booth (Penn State), Elton Brand (Duke), Brian Cardinal (Purdue), Keith Carter (Mississippi), Dion Glover (Georgia Tech), A.J. Guyton (Indiana), Jumame Jones (Georgia), James Posey (Xavier) and Wally Szczerbiak (Miami of Ohio).
In three previous Goodwill Games appearances, the United States has three medals — winning gold in 1986, silver in 1990 and bronze in 1994 — and a 15-5 overall record.