Trevor Cooney, SU’s next Great White Hope (ETA: Fall 2011), took the floor for Team USA against the mighty Canadians in the semifinals of the FIBA Americas U18 championships Tuesday night, looking to bounce back from a lackluster game against Argentina. Cooney got back on the right track against the Canucks, scoring eight points and going 2-3 from three in 16 minutes of action as the Americans cruised to a 122-89 victory in San Antonio.

It was a modest performance, he was just the undercard to the main event. The big story Tuesday night was the play of shooting guard Austin Rivers. Rivers played just 22 minutes against the Canadians, but scorched the nets by draining NINE straight threes before missing (he finished 9-12 from deep with 35 points total). It’s not yet known how many moneyballs he converted.

Rivers is currently the #2 prospect in ESPNU’s Top 100, with Duke, UNC, Florida, Kansas and UCLA all vying for his services. The USA will play Brazil for the gold on Wednesday night, and I sorely wish it was on ESPN instead of something called an “NBA Free Agency Summit.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 12:48 am by Brian G. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.