USA Basketball announced that University of Arizona head coach Sean Miller has been named head coach of the 2015 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team. Billy Donovan was originally named head coach before departing the University of Florida for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.
As an assistant to Donovan and working alongside Ed Cooley of Providence, Sean Miller helped lead the 2014 USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team to a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship last summer to qualify for the upcoming FIBA U19 World Championship.
“I am honored to be named head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team,” Sean Miller said. “It is exciting to be coaching such a talented group of young players, as well as working alongside a great coaching staff. I look forward to the responsibility and challenges that lie ahead in our journey to win the gold medal at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship.”
Defending U19 gold medalists, the USA squad will attempt to replicate that feat when the tournament is held in Crete, Greece, from June 27-July 5, 2015. The U.S. has captured a record five U19 gold medals and earned three silver medals in the 11 editions of the FIBA U19 World Championship, which was first held in 1979.
Miller’s coaching staff for the FIBA U19 World Championship will feature Cooley, as well as his brother, Archie Miller, currently the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Dayton following a stint as an assistant at UA.
“It’s very exciting to be working with this coaching staff,” Sean Miller said. “Ed Cooley and I were assistants together under Billy Donovan on the U18 National Team that won gold last year in Colorado Springs. We were familiarized with the international game and we both enjoyed being part of a style of play that Billy brought to last year’s team. We look forward to continuing that style this summer.
“Additionally, rejoining my brother Archie as part of this staff is special. We worked together for two seasons at the University of Arizona before he left to become the head coach at Dayton. Obviously, we have great familiarity with each other and share a similar philosophy with the game. The familiarity that Archie, Ed and I share should be an asset toward our success with the Men’s U19 World Championship Team.”
Arizona men’s basketball athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie has also been selected to serve in the same position for the U.S. team this summer. Kokoskie, who has worked at UA since 2000, will oversee and coordinate the health care of the Men’s U19 World Championship Team while in training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and will also accompany the team to Greece for the FIBA U19 World Championship.
Sean Miller owns two gold medals as a member of the USA Basketball program, adding the 2014 FIBA Americas U18 Championship medal to the gold medal he claimed as a player at the 1991 World University Games.
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