Taj Gray Invited to USA National Trials

NORMAN, Okla. Last summer, Oklahoma men's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson directed the USA U21 World Championship Qualifying Team to a 5-0 record and a gold medal. Now, OU senior Taj Gray will try out for a spot on the 2005 USA Basketball Men's U21 National Team that will attempt to defend the gold at the 2005 FIBA U21 World Championship in Argentina, Aug. 5-14. Gray and 20 others will participate in the trials July 21-23 in Dallas, Texas.

Joining Gray, who was a 2005 first-team All-Big 12 pick and the league's newcomer of the year, at the USA Basketball Men's U21 National Team Trials will be Josh Boone (Connecticut), Aaron Brooks (Oregon), Shannon Brown (Michigan State), Rodney Carney (Memphis), JamesOn Curry (Oklahoma State), Glen Davis (LSU), Jared Dudley (Boston College), Nick Fazekas (Nevada), Rudy Gay (Connecticut), C.J. Giles (Kansas), Justin Gray (Wake Forest), Malik Hairston (Oregon), Adam Morrison (Gonzaga), Allan Ray (Villanova), J.J. Redick (Duke), Terrence Roberts (Syracuse), Rajon Rondo (Kentucky), Darius Washington, Jr. (Memphis), Marcus Williams (Connecticut) and Curtis Withers (Charlotte).

Justin Gray, Morrison and Withers were members of the 2004 USA U21 World Championship Qualifying Team coached by Sampson that earned gold in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“First of all, it's a tremendous honor to represent the United States,” said Sampson. “I talked to Taj about that and he understands that. This is an opportunity for him to go play against great competition, get better and to represent his country and help it win a gold medal. I'm excited he has this opportunity and I think he'll help that team.”

Gray, who is 6-9 and weighs 238 pounds, averaged 14.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots per contest as a junior last season for the Big 12 regular season co-champion Sooners. He led the conference with his .557 field goal percentage and sported a league-high .599 figure in Big 12 games. Gray ranked second in the league with his 12 double-doubles and was named Big 12 Rookie of the Week a school-record four times.

The Wichita, Kan., native attended Redlands Community College in El Reno, Okla., as a freshman and sophomore and was runner up in national-junior-college-player-of-the-year voting in 2004.

Saint Joseph's University (Pa.) head coach Phil Martelli has been named as the USA team's head coach. Acting as his assistants will be collegiate head coaches James Bruiser' Flint from Drexel University (Pa.) and Dennis Felton from the University of Georgia.

Trials will be conducted at the Dallas Mavericks practice facility inside the American Airlines Center and the first Trials session will be held on Thursday, July 21 at 10 a.m. (all times local), followed by a 5 p.m. session that night. July 22 and 23 will again feature two-a-days with starting times at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Team finalists will remain in Dallas for the USA's July 24 - Aug. 1 training camp. The camp will conclude with a pair of daily practices at the Mavericks practice facility at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on July 25 and July 26. The U.S. squad will then compete in the July 27-31 Global Games at the Dr Pepper Star Center in Frisco, Texas. The eventual 12-member USA team will be announced during the training camp.

Following one more practice session on Aug. 1 (site and time TBD), the American team will travel to Argentina for its final practices before tipping off play at the 2005 FIBA U21 World Championship on Aug. 5.

Contested Aug. 5-14 in Cordoba and Mar del Plata, Argentina, the 2005 FIBA Men's U21 World Championship will consist of 12 national teams split into two groups for preliminary round-robin play. The top four teams in each group will advance to the medal quarterfinals, while the fifth and sixth place finishing teams in each group will compete for ninth-12th place.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Taj Gray Invited to USA National Trials

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