Just weeks after Pitt Panthers Will Jeffress and Nate Santos competed with a USA East Coast team in an overseas event in Greece, another Panther, John Hugley, has been chosen to compete overseas with a USA East Coast team.
Hugley, Pitt’s leading scorer last season, will head over to Spain to play for the East Coast All Star team. The team will train in New York City at Columbia University from August 1-2 and then head over to Barcelona to compete against players from Spain’s Liga ACB.
The 6-foot-9 forward is heading into his junior season at Pitt, coming off a stellar All-ACC year in which he averaged 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game for the Panthers.
“I am looking forward to building relationships with a group of new guys and going out there to showcase my talent and have fun,” Hugley said in a release. “Playing the international game will be good experience defending different actions, closing out to shooters even more and playing harder defense. I am also looking forward to learning more about the 1992 Dream Team and their time in Barcelona. I know they changed the game a lot on the international stage so I am excited to learn more about them.”
Hugley will be playing alongside former WPIAL star Ethan Morton (Purdue), as well as Logan Alters (California), Jaylen Blakes (Duke), Jaden Bobbett (Middlebury), Shamir Bogues (Tarleton), Allyn Breed (Providence), Raphael Castro (Providence), Jarrett Hensley (Cincinnati), JR Konieczny (Notre Dame), Brandon Newman (Purdue), KJ Simpson (Colorado), Cinque Stephens (NYU), and Bennie Williams (Syracuse).
Alex Jenson, an assistant coach for the Utah Jazz, will be the head coach for the USA East Coast squad. Assisting him will be Raphael Chillious (South Kent), Fred Hill (Compass Academy), Jason Alexander (Florida Memorial) and John Bauerfeld (Marist). Chillious is the head coach of current Pitt target Papa Kante, and previously coached alongside Pitt staffer Gilbert Brown at South Kent.
Since when is “Honorable Mention” equate to All ACC?