It is truly amazing how far sports can take an individual. It turns out that if you put a couple of local guys on a coaching staff, the sky really does become the limit.
A pair of local basketball coaches, Tommy Lloyd of Kelso and Rem Bakamus of Longview, were flown this month to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the AmeriCup, a city 6,868 miles from the Monticello Convention site, on the other side of the equator. and in the deepest part of the south. hemisphere where they led the USA men’s U18 basketball team to a gold medal on Sunday.
That was the goal when Lloyd, the University of Arizona men’s basketball head coach in his day job, accepted the task of leading the USA Basketball men’s U18 team this summer along with Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsbury and Grant McCasland of Texas Tech.
After all, that’s always the goal of US men’s basketball. The bar was set decades ago and it’s up to the next wave(s) of players to continue to surpass it.
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Lloyd, a former Kelso Hilander standout, was able to achieve that goal with his team on Sunday, leading the U18 team to a 110-70 victory over host country Argentina in the FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship.
Sunday’s championship match was no closer than the previous five matches for Team USA, which finished its weeklong run to the gold medal with an average margin of victory of 43 points in its six matches.
According to former Monarchs star Bakamus, the team relied on his elite athleticism and high basketball IQ to dominate the field in the AmeriCup. Just as he does with the Wildcats, Bakamus was present as an assistant coach on Lloyd’s top staff.
“This team has really high character and basketball IQ. “It’s an extremely athletic group that plays very hard,” Bakamus said. “When you have 12 guys playing very well together, the results will show. “We fell behind early (against Argentina), but the kids were able to exert their will for the 40 minutes.”
American guard Darius Acuff Jr. earned tournament MVP honors after averaging 7.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and four assists in 24.2 minutes per game.
Due to NCAA recruiting rules, the coaches were not able to talk about the players in detail. Any fan of the red, white and blue can rest assured that many on the roster played well and all are extremely talented. The 12 players who made up the team survived an extensive tryout process in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to earn their ticket. The final list of 12 can be considered the best 17 and 18 year olds the United States of America has to offer.
And who were those players?
Mikel Brown Jr., Jeremiah Fears, Jasper Johnson and Trey McKenney, 17, of Flint, Michigan, joined Acuff Jr. in the backcourt.
In the frontcourt, Team USA was led by forwards Nate Ament, Shelton Henderson, Morez Johnson Jr., Nikolas Khamenia, Derrion Reid, Patrick Ngongba II and 7-foot-3 center Daniel Jacobsen.
Every member of the team can now call themselves a gold medalist, including the two Arizona Wildcat coaches who come from humble beginnings in southwest Washington.
“It is a completely different experience than what we are used to. It’s been eye-opening to be around these players. “They’re as hungry as any group I’ve been around,” Bakamus said. “(Winning the gold medal) was special. We talked about winning gold this summer. The big goal is to win the world championship next year. “We did it in Argentina against the local team and with sold out tickets.”
And while they’re already dreaming of what’s next, the local dynamic duo also appreciates how far they’ve come.
“Basketball takes you a lot of places,” Bakamus said. “This is my first time in Buenos Aires. “It’s amazing to be able to represent America being from Longview, Tommy being from Kelso.”
This was Lloyd’s first stint as head coach of the USA program. Lloyd, a former Gonzaga assistant, previously worked as an on-court coach for the 2022 USA Men’s U18 team. He is a member of the basketball committee from USA