Josiah Turner
It was a surprising decision when Arizona-bound point guard Josiah Turner decided to pull out of last week’s tryout camp for the USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team, citing scheduling conflicts.
Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller said Wednesday it was a personal decision for Turner, and that he was not disappointed that Turner missed out on the potential experience of playing for Team USA.
Turner, who left his Sacramento (Calif.) High School team and was eventually dismissed in January, finished the school year at Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, N.C. Miller said Turner decided to spending time home in California before starting classes at Arizona for the second summer school session on July 11.
“He could have gone to the camp, but he has already been away from home for the past five months,” Miller said.
“He would have basically gone from Winston-Salem to Colorado Springs to Europe and then straight to Arizona. I think he was making a good decision for the right reasons.”
Miller said six of his players are here for the first summer school session, and that everyone will be on campus for the second session. That includes junior center Kyryl Natyazhko, who had been invited to try out for the Ukraine team — coached by Mike Fratello — for this summer’s EuroBasket competition.
Miller said his team’s five seniors — Alex Jacobson, Kyle Fogg, Brendon Lavender, Jesse Perry and Dondre Wise (who will be a walk-on this season) — are in good shape to graduate next spring or summer.