Purdue, IU paths cross with USA Basketball

(WISH) — Just over a year ago, they faced off as rivals. Now, they put the past aside to represent their country.

Trayce Jackson-Davis, former Indiana basketball star, and Matt Painter, Purdue men’s basketball head coach, will both be headed out to Las Vegas with the USA Basketball Select Team.

The USA Basketball Select Team will train with the USA Basketball Men’s National team this upcoming weekend, July 6 through July 8. They will play against the team head-to-head for the first three days of practice. Then, there is typically a group of a few players from the USA Basketball Select Team that are chosen to stay with the Olympic team and continue to train with them in Abu Dhabi, where the Olympic team will have more practices and exhibitions before the Olympics start.

This is Matt Painter’s second straight year being with the USA Basketball Select Team. He was an assistant coach with last year’s group, and will have the same role this year. Painter also was a court coach with the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team at their training camp in Colorado Springs.

Jackson-Davis also has previous experience with USA Basketball. He played on Team USA at the 2018 FIBA Americas Championships in Canada, winning a gold medal there.

Jackson-Davis was victorious in the last two times that him and Painter faced off. But, Painter was more successful throughout, beating IU and Jackson-Davis in five of their eight games against each other while Jackson-Davis was in Bloomington.

Jackson-Davis was impressive in his rookie year in the NBA, scoring 7.9 points per game and pulled down 5.0 rebounds per game. He also was in the starting lineup for 16 of the 68 games he played.

He finished just one vote shy of making the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.

Painter will be joined by Pacers assistant coach Jim Boylen as the two assistants on the Select Team. The head coach is Jamahi Mosley, the Orlando Magic head coach.

The full roster for the USA Basketball Select Team can be seen here.