According to highschoolhoop.com and zagsblog.com, the Puerto Rico National Under 19 Squad defeated the 2K Sports 2009 US All-American Team 105-90 in the World Juniors Basketball Tournament Wednesday night out in France.
Rutgers U. guard Mike Rosario, who was featured in our Bounce “Puerto Rico Issue” #19, led all scorers with 33 points. He also had six rebounds, three assists, and five three-pointers. It was his first time ever representing his native island in international play. “When he first arrived on the island for practice recently, he was missing layups because he couldn’t get used to the FIBA official international ball,” Todd Washington, who consults Puerto Rico’s Basketball Federation, shared with www.bouncemag.com. “He’s obviously got a handle on it now!”
Center Jared Sullinger led the US with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Puerto Rico’s U-19 team will be traveling to New Zealand next month for the FIBA U-19 World Championships.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Peter Robert Casey says:
More proof that Team USA needs comprehensive reform and unification in youth basketball development. Kudos to Rosario for aptly exposing our flawed system.
June 12th, 2009 at 9:05 am
ali says:
big ups to my man todd washington, aka points on the package. and rosario is gonna be killin’ em at rutgers, bigger and better this year.
June 12th, 2009 at 9:06 am
ali says:
who are the other cats on the team usa roster?
June 12th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Trevor Kapp says:
i gotta say, i enjoyed the piece on rosario in the latest bounce but i think this guy is so overrated. yes he’s capable of doing what he did against the us, but he’s a gunner in every sense of the word and shoots terrible percentages (39% from the field last year and 30% from three). i realize he’s playing for rutgers and his st. anthony’s hs team prolly could’ve given the scarlet knights a run for their money, but the guy brings nothing else to the table (3.5 rebs, 2 assists and 3 turnovers per game last year).
June 12th, 2009 at 11:41 am
ali says:
wow trevor. gonna have to beg to differ. he led the team and every other conference rookie in scoring and i believe was the league’s best free throw shooter.
he avg’d about 20 against top ranked teams, double digit scorer 27 times, scored more than 20 ten times and did you see the bizness he gave the national champion tar heels and what he did to pitt?
Rosario posted double figures in 27 games, while pacing the Scarlet Knights in scoring on 20 occasions. He registered 20 points or more in 10 contests, including 26 at then No. 1-ranked North Carolina and 22 versus then No. 3 Pittsburgh.
great freshman year w/ a scrub team in the world’s best conference this year. he shined just as much, if not more than samardo at L’ville, kemba at uconn, monroe at g-town, gates at cincy and ebanks at w virginia.
nothing else to the table? that’s not correct. they needed him to score this year, but if you watched him in hs and alot this year, the kid can play all over the court.
gotta respectfully disagree on that one trev.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Trevor Kapp says:
ali- like i said he is capable of going off. but you didn’t mention the 4/20 against lehigh, or the 6/22 & 6/21 when he played syracuse, or the 2/13 against uconn, or the 5/17 against notre dame. and only once did he have 5 assists in a game.
as far as leading conference rookies in scoring, he was playing for rutgers. he didn’t have dajuan summers or chris wright on his team like greg monroe did, or ruoff and dasean butler ilke ebanks did, or t-will and earl clark like samardo did (i think samardo’s overrated too). i realize having these players would have increased his percentages but he wouldn’t have scored as much and we wouldn’t be giving him all this attention.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
ali says:
dude was a mcdonald’s all american! he’s nice, plain and simple.
would’ve been talking about him if he played for ‘nova, ucla, whomever. i just can’t call the kid overrated. the name of the game, get buckets! and he does that well.
and yeah, he had some off nights. if you were the lone offensive weapon on a team w/ nothing but scrubstitutions, playing a brutal schedule in the best conference in the country, best believe the defensive attention you’d receive would be somewhat overwhelming, especially for an 18 year old freshman.
i think you need to consider the inverse in that, the fact that he led the conference in scoring while AT RUTGERS was astounding, given the doubles and defensive attention paid to him.
June 12th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Trevor Kapp says:
he didn’t lead the conference in scoring. he was 11th. but i just don’t think he’s any better than his hs teammate tyshawn taylor, for example, and ty taylor’s a virtual unknown playing at kansas. if you put rosario on that team, yes his percentages go up but he’s not averaging 16 buckets and wouldn’t be nearly as well known. and he wouldn’t even been starting for nova this year. would you honestly take him over one of the corey’s or scottie reynolds? he’d be the 4th guard on that team.
June 12th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
ali says:
i meant to say he led all conference newcomers. and if anyone follows ball, they saw tyshawn do well w/ limited minutes. rosario would not have started for nova this year, but he would have been a major contributor. trevor, if you are overrated, you are not selected by USA Basketball to play in the world championships, unless bobby knight is the coach.
June 12th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
ali says:
my bad, he was playing for puerto rico.
June 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Trevor Kapp says:
i just think we at bounce have such a ny/nj bias and rosario is another example of it. ny/nj players can do no wrong in our eyes (particularly kemba & corey fisher, who i like a lot but people make them out to be the next magic and stockton).
you never see mention of someone like chi-town’s jerome randle, who averaged 18 and 5 dimes this past year at cal. if he was from nyc, people would be hyping this kid up like no other. and yeah i realize most of us are from the east coast and tend to follow players from our area closer, but we gotta be more objective. if rosario’s from a place like seattle, we wouldn’t care.
June 12th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
illest says:
i still have vivid memories of arroyo killing marbury during those trials.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
ali says:
trevor,
at bounce we’ve given chicago, detroit, LA, seattle and a number of other cities props.
and whoever made those cats out to be the next magic and stockton need to stop smoking that leak-leak. i’m not saying rosario is the greatest. but the kid’s got skills, and seeing him carry that team through the rugged big east, i gotta give him props.
willie warren was a freshman beast, along w/ al farouq, tyreke, demar derozan, ed davis at unc, isiah thomas at washington and greg monroe, not to mention lesser known cats like babbit at nevada, fortson at arkansas, gordon hayward at butler, terrico white at ole miss, kevin foster at santa clara, seth curry at liberty, afam muojeke at wyoming, nicholson at st bonaventure,none of whom are from the ny/nj area.
game recognize game, so regardless of where those dudes are from, they’ve got my eye.
we are guilty of getting excited about our talent, but you don’t hear us getting all dick vitale on rosario or sylven landsberg, who got busy this year at UVA. we’re just saying the kid can get it in. and he played well this year.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Trevor Kapp says:
i wouldn’t exactly say he carried them through the big east- they won 2 games, but i get what you’re saying. landesberg is actually one of those people i’m surprised hasn’t received more hype. he’s the real deal but isn’t much of a playground tournament player so he doesn’t get a whole lot of recognition on the site.
as for rosario, i just can’t say a mcdonald’s all-american coming out of hs had a good season when he did little else but score and shot horrible percentages, regardless of what conference he was in.
June 12th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
ali says:
well the proof is in the pudding, so let’s see how he fares this upcoming season and revisit the discussion.
June 13th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
trevor-
as a site we don’t follow college ball, we only care about what cats do on the playground, adn that’s why players like a corey fisher and kemba will get love here cuz they kill outdoors here in the Mecca, even if they wind up dudding in college and pros. we are the alternative news source.
rosario scoring 33 for puerto rico to lead them past a US squad was note worthy. mike rocked jersey city’s parks. if he was only an indoor school player, we wouldn’t have included him in our Puerto Rico issue, or I wouldn’t have posted his feat this week. he could’ve been the last player on the bench at rutgers his freshman year, so long as he made a name on the playground and has done something since, i’m down to show him love.
as for him being overrated, i’ve never seen him play so i can’t speak on it, but i get the sense that he can go from people who have watched him who i trust. i only expect great things from him, i’m trusting my intuition on it. coach hurley loooves him. that’s gotta mean something.
June 13th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Trevor Kapp says:
bob- you made some really good points. and i know you’re not a huge college fan but my thing is that it seemed like all of brooklyn was posting on this site when levance fields hit a game winner in the ncaa tournament- we haven’t heard of him playing in any summer tournaments here in recent years though. same thing with a.j. price from uconn. and i think sean couch is real knowledgeable about the game but this playground draft is ridiculous and exactly the type of thing i’m referring too. 5 of the 10 players on it are from this area and you can’t tell me these are 10 best “all-surface” players. it’s the ny bias. ali, i hope you see what i’m getting at with this ’cause i know you’re a big college fan too who would know all these players.
http://www.bouncemag.com/2008/11/19/the-grime-mock-playground-draft-10-guards/.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
A BrEezyY says:
Rosario is the real deal. Fisher is the real deal. Kemba is the real deal. No need to debate those things.
I won’t call Rosario overrated because I don’t think anyone has made him out to be that great. Seems as if the media attention he gets is well deserved. He doesn’t do everything well, but he does put up numbers. He’ll get better as time goes on, just as Corey did and just as Kemba will.
June 14th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Red says:
Bob,
Mike Rosario is a bad mother-shut your mouth! I saw him at St. Anthony’s as a sophomore; this kid has game. Top it off, he’s a GREAT kid off the court. Good looking out!
bueno trabajo
June 14th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
jaysmoove says:
Mike rosario is nice i gotta give it up to him he reps Ricans and jersey to the fullest. i wish the best for him in his career at rutgers they got a good recruting class so that will give him great new impact players to work with. i believe he’s gonna kill this upcoming season