May 28, 2009

FIBA U19 World Championship Website

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - It has been a record setting year for LMU men's basketball forward Kevin Young. He just wrapped up his freshman season of collegiate basketball, setting all sorts of freshman records at LMU. His memorable year will continue as he has been named to the official roster for the Puerto Rico U19 Team and will play in the 2009 U19 World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand, July 2-12, 2009.

Young, whose mother is Puerto Rican, made the 12-man roster and left this week to play with the team. He will have 10 days of practice in Puerto Rico before playing exhibition games against other countries' national teams. The tournament then begins on July 2.

Im his first season of college basketball, Young established himself as one of the better young players in the West Coast Conference. He smashed the LMU freshman record for rebounds with 224, averaging 7.2 per game. He also set the freshman record for steals (51), blocks (34) and rebounds in a game (19). He also finished with 9.1 points per game. His scoring average and 283 total points also rank in the top-10 among freshman at LMU.

Sixteen teams from around the world will take part in 62 matches with up to 300 athletes and more than 60 officials expected to attend, along with numerous official FIBA delegates and around 100 player scouts. The group assignments for the 2009 U19 World Championships are:

Group A: Angola, Greece, Lithuania and Puerto Rico
Group B: Egypt, France, Iran and USA
Group C: Australia, Canada, Spain and Syria
Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Kazakhstan and New Zealand

Young and Team Puerto Rico will play Lithuania on July 2, Greece on July 3 and then rounding-out group play with Angola on July 4.

The ninth FIBA U19 World Championship for Men will be held at the North Shore Events Centre and ASB Stadium, Kohimarama. It is the third largest basketball event in the world - only the FIBA Men's and Women's World Championships are larger.

Around the globe the event is recognized as the breeding ground for future global basketball stars with many of today's well known players such as Vince Carter (United States), Luis Scola (Argentina), Pau Gasol (Spain), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia) and Australian Andrew Bogut having played in previous tournaments, showing all their skills and passion from an early age.

It is the first time New Zealand has hosted a Basketball World Championship and also the first time it has been held in the Southern Hemisphere. The Junior Tall Blacks (New Zealand U19 men's team) will be competing at the FIBA U19 World Championship for the first time

Live television coverage of three matches per day plus all New Zealand games and the quarters, semis and finals has been scheduled for Sky Television.

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