Big’s Highlight Team USA’s Quarter-Final Win over Ecuador

The U18 american team started their quest for yet another gold medal in FIBA play, dominating Ecuador 132-55 during the quarter-finals of the FIBA U18 Americas Championship. The defense and length of the US team dictated a majority of the game, forcing multiple shot clock violations for Ecuador and never allowing them to find a rhythm offensively. The front court dominated for the american’s, getting stand out performances from big men Matthew Hurt, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

Cole Anthony has garnered much of the headlines for this group and has seemingly become the leader for Bill Self’s roster, but Matthew Hurt for me has been Team USA’s best player so far through the tournament. Hurt once again showed off his offensive repertoire and versatility against Ecuador, scoring 19 points and knocking down four three point shots.

His form is beautiful, sporting textbook mechanics with a high and quick release, he’s been virtually automatic from beyond the arc, shooting 69.2 percent from downtown in tournament play. While it’s far from a perfect comparison and possibly even a very basic one, Hurt’s shooting ability reminds me of Dirk Nowitzki even if there is clear differences with their form. Hurt can shoot it from anywhere seamlessly, you’ll see him hit a elbow jumper off the dribble, showing tremendous fluidity and consistency already as a shooter.

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Hurt’s play-making ability was on full display in this game, he made plays out of the post and in transition. He’s got the habit of initiating fast breaks consistently, a trait that is valued enormously at the next level for big men. Not many center’s or forward in today’s modern NBA can start, let alone make positive plays out of fast breaks. You’ll see below one of the best plays of the game and passes Hurt’s made this tournament, was a late full court pass to Mark Watts for the easy lay-up in transition.

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From the post Hurt was as effective with his passing, mainly picking apart the Ecuador defense from the high post. Hurt had no problem firing passes out of double teams in timely fashion and had a nice chemistry going with Trayce Jackson-Davis, connecting multiple times with the Indiana big man. Hurt has blown me away as much as any player on this roster and looks every part of a future top ten, possibly even top five selection.

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As great as Hurt was, the best player in the win over Ecuador was probably forward Trayce Jackson-Davis. The currently ranked 24th player in ESPN’s Top 60 players of the class of 2019, had a personal dunking contest and dominated the offensive glass against the Ecuadorian team. Jackson-Davis finished with a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four assists, two steals and a block, oh he also didn’t miss a shot going 10-of-10 from the field. He finished with five offensive rebounds and I’m pretty sure he scored on them all, turning each one into a highlight putback dunk. Jackson-Davis has a nose for the ball, good hands, good motor and does a really nice job of rebounding outside of his area.

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Jackson-Davis showed off much more than just his athleticism and offensive rebounding though, his passing from the post was also phenomenal. Like Hurt, Jackson-Davis did most of his damage out of the high post against the Ecuadorian team. But he also made some great passes off second chances caused by his offensive rebounding, displaying some phenomenal ball placement on these passes to Kamaka Hepa.

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I was lastly really impressed by Jackson-Davis’ length and athleticism obviously, but it’s his potential as a shot blocker that excites me. His timing is pretty poor currently as a shot blocker, he missed way too many lay-up attempts in this game that should be freebies for him in terms of blocks. But he does have the motor and athleticism to protect the rim and has no problem defending in transition, possessing good speed for a big man and easily be able to run the floor.

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It was nice to see a player who’s averaging the second least minutes per game on the team at 13.5, have such a breakout performance. I hope to see Coach Self play Jackson-Davis more in this evening’s semi-final match-up against Argentina and see him hopefully build some confidence from this outing.

The last performance I wanted to touch on was Jeremiah Robinson-Earl’s, who’s versatility shined offensively in this one. Robinson-Earl is currently ranked 34th in the top 60 players of ESPN’s class of 2019 and I’d only imagine that ranking to rise with more performances like this. He can do it all really offensively and did such against Ecuador, knocking down jump shots, making passes out of the post and some fancy plays in transition.

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Robinson-Earl’s performance might be overlooked or was quieter than Hurt’s or Jackson-Davis’ but he was still as effective to me. The play below where he reads the defender, jumps the passing lane, gets the steal and finishes the break off with a fancy behind the back dribble was one of my favorite plays of the game. He’s rated as the number one player coming out of Kansas for the class of 2019 and I’d be shocked if Bill Self doesn’t do all he can to nab him, after coaching and seeing him play at this level firsthand.

The US team will now move on to play a talented Argentina team in the semi-finals, led by guard Marco Giordano Gnass and center Francisco Caffaro. For the American’s that have won every game in the tournament by an average of 60.5 points per game, expect a much tougher outing tonight from the Argentinians.

 

Tags: Basketball, Bill Self, Cole Anthony, ESPN, FIBA, FIBA Americas, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Matthew Hurt, NBA, NBA Draft, Trayce Jackson-Davis, USA Basketball