UNC Basketball: Two Tar Heels will participate in USA Basketball U18 National Team training camp

Yesterday USA Basketball selected 27 athletes to participate in the 2022 Men’s U18 FIBA Americas Championship National Team training camp, which will take place from May 26th to June 2nd In Austin, TX. The participants will compete during that time for a spot on the 12-man USA Basketball U18 National Team roster, which will compete in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship in Tijuana, Mexico.

UNC players historically aren’t strangers when it comes to USA Basketball, and this year is no exception — incoming freshman Seth Trimble and 2023 commit G.G. Jackson were both invited to participate in the training camp and battle for their right to earn a spot on the roster. UNC joins schools like Villanova, Arkansas, Duke, and Oregon in having 2+ commits attend the minicamp. The U18 National Team coaching staff will be led by University of Colorado head coach Tad Boyle.

Trimble is a four-star 2022 signee from Menomonee Falls, WI. He is the 34th-best player in the country according to 247Sports, and is the fifth-best point guard. He will be joining a Carolina team that returns every member of the 2022 national runner-up team except Brady Manek, Kerwin Walton, and Dawson Garcia. Trimble will add needed depth at the point guard position when he arrives on campus, and he should see a solid amount of playing time right away due to his polished skillset and athleticism.

G.G. Jackson is a five-star power forward from Columbia, SC. He will be going into his senior season at Ridge View as the fourth-best player in the country, and the second best power forward. Jackson is the sixth-highest ranked UNC commit in the 247Sports composite era, and is the third-highest ranked power forward. Jackson committed to the Tar Heels on April 27th, passing up schools such as Auburn, Clemson, Duke, and South Carolina.

While this news is out of his control to a point, Hubert Davis has done an excellent job of putting the spotlight back on the Tar Heels in his first year as head coach. Everything seems to be trending up for the program: the team made it back to the national championship game, he led the team to a huge victory over Duke in the Final Four, he currently has the second-best 2023 recruiting class, and he did all of this while keeping his 2022-23 roster mostly intact from the previous season, which is a difficult task now that NIL and the transfer portal have made it tough for coaches to avoid roster turnover. Now he will have two of his best future Tar Heels competing to represent the school as well as the country, and one can only hope that both of them will make the roster. Life is good if you are a Tar Heel, but it’s even better if your name is Hubert Davis.