Watch Abdul Gaddy Rep the Red, White and Blue This Weekend

by Craig Yamada – Staff Writer

Saturday, June 26^th will hopefully mark the turning of the corner for Abdul Gaddy. As previously noted by Percy Allen, Abdul Gaddy has been selected to the U18 roster for the USA Basketball team that’ll be playing this summer.

He will be representing his country as he competes in the FIBA Americas U18 Championship tournament in San Antonio, TX. For those wanting to witness Abdul aka “Young Gaddy” get his swagger back, all games will be streamed online at: http://www.fibaamericas.com/.

For those of you that followed recruiting with a microscope this year, this will be a great opportunity to watch some of the top 2010 commits and future 2011 commits show their stuff. Gaddy headlines this roster as the only player with NCAA experience. Joining him in San Antonio are some of the more prominent names in the 2010 class:

• Kyrie Irving (PG, Duke Commit)
• Vander Blue (SG, Marquette Commit)
• Josh Hairston (PF, Duke Commit)
• Patric Young (PF, Florida Commit)
• Tony Mitchell (PF. Missouri Commit)

The battle between Irving and Gaddy for the starting PG position will be a fun battle to watch this weekend. Irving is arguably the best PG in the 2010 class (Sorry Josh Selby) and is destined to be Coach K’s best weapon this year. I expect this battle to be key in Gaddy’s maturation process as he competes with one of the nation’s best.

Early reports coming out of San Antonio is that Gaddy is the most vocal player on the team. Given that he has been to the Sweet 16 with UW already, he has much leadership and experience to bring to the table. Playing under Oklahoma Coach Jeff Capel, Gaddy will have an opportunity to reclaim his McDonald’s All American swag this weekend.

And, having worked with Ryan Appleby this summer, his shot has vastly improved already. UW players have twittered that Gaddy was “shooting as well as Wilcox” in summer scrimmages this year. If that holds true, Gaddy will have a bright sophomore campaign and will look to fulfill his five-star advertisement.

The remaining roster showcases some of 2011’s top prospects:

• Austin Rivers (SG, Uncommitted)
• Quincy Miller (PF, Uncommitted)
• Trevor Cooney (SG, Syracuse Verbal Commit)
• LeBryan Nash (SF, Uncommitted)
• Amir Williams (C, Uncommitted)

The most notable name on this list that UW should be paying attention to is Austin Rivers. Rivers is the #2 rated player in the ESPN 2011 recruiting class. There have been rumblings that he may take a visit to UW this year. He is already being heavily recruited by Duke, Florida, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA. Although the son of Coach Doc Rivers may be a long shot for UW at this point, this is a player we should continue to keep our eyes on this year.  If Romar can pull a rabbit out of his hat with this kid, he would headline a potential top-10 recruiting class for UW in 2011. Here is Austin’s highlight reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upU9gZCzygM

On a side note, Desmond Simmons was also invited to the tryouts for this roster, but unfortunately did not make the cut. Gaddy said that Desmond “did well” and said Simmons could make an immediate contribution to UW’s defense this year. From the looks of things, we could have Justin Holiday’s successor in D-Simmons. Having been invited to try out for the USA team is an honor in itself. His offensive skills have been said to be a bit more on the raw side, but as we all know, Romar will turn him into a more complete player once his UW career is complete.

All for now. Enjoy the games.

Thanks for coming!