NU’s Shurna headed to World Games camp
Northwestern senior forward John Shurna has accepted an invitation to attend the 2011 USA Basketball Men’s World University Games Team training camp.
Shurna, a 6-foot-9 forward from Glen Ellyn and Glenbard West, is one of 22 invitees who will attend the camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., from July 29-Aug. 7. The camp will be used to select the 12-member team that will represent the USA at the 2011 World University Games men’s basketball competition Aug. 13-23 in Shenzhen, China.
Shurna is one of four players from the Big Ten Conference invited to the tryouts, joining Michigan State’s Draymond Green, Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe and Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor.
This is the third straight year that Shurna has competed for USA Basketball. He is one of three players at this year’s camp (Pittsburgh’s Aston Gibbs, Kentucky’s Darius Miller) who helped the USA to a gold medal and a 9-0 record at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship. Shurna and Syracuse’s Scoop Jardine are the two individuals invited who were members of the USA Select Team that trained against the USA Men’s National Team in 2010 in Las Vegas.
Shurna battled through injuries last season but averaged a team-best 16.6 points per game to help lead Northwestern to a school-record 20 wins for the second consecutive season and also a berth in the quarterfinal round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Purdue University head coach Matt Painter, who previously assisted the 2009 USA U19 World Championship Team to a gold medal, has been selected as head coach of the 2011 USA Men’s World University Games Team, while collegiate head coaches Cuonzo Martin of the University of Tennessee and Brad Stevens of Butler University were named as assistant coaches.
USA Men’s World University Games training camp roster
Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame
Bradford Burgess, VCU
Marcus Denmon, Missouri
Kim English, Missouri
Yancy Gates, Cincinnati
Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh
Draymond Green, Michigan State
JaMychal Green, Alabama
Tu Holloway, Xavier
Scoop Jardine, Syracuse
John Jenkins, Vanderbilt
Orlando Johnson, UC-Santa Barbara
Greg Mangano, Yale
Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota
C.J. McCollum, Lehigh
Khris Middleton, Texas A&M
Darius Miller, Kentucky
Tony Mitchell, Alabama
Aaric Murray, West Virginia
Alex Oriakhi, Connecticut
John Shurna, Northwestern
Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin
Head Coach: Matt Painter, Purdue
Assistant Coaches: Cuonzo Martin, Tennessee; Brad Stevens, Butler