Roselle (N.J.) Catholic guard Isaiah Briscoe made the USA U18 team and will compete in the FIBA Americas U18 Championship beginning Friday in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“We couldn’t be happier for Isaiah that he made the U18 National Team and has the opportunity to represent his country,” RC coach Dave Boff told SNY.tv. “I know how hard he worked to achieve this goal. It’s a great honor for him and also for Roselle Catholic to have one of our players playing for USA Basketball.”
“It feels good just knowing that all the hard work I put in is showing,” the 6-foot-3 Briscoe told SNY.tv by text after the first cuts were made. “It’s still one more cut to be made of three but I’m just still trying to play my game and hope to represent my country.”
As reported here earlier this month, Briscoe plans to cut his list to eight colleges sometime later this month. Because he made the U18 team, he won’t participate in this week’s NBA Top 100 Camp or the Kyrie Irving Point Guard Academy that runs June 23-25 at Kean University.
“It will be after USA Basketball,” George Briscoe told SNY.tv of when his son would announce his list.
Some of the schools recruiting Briscoe the hardest of late include Louisville, Arizona, UConn, Rutgers, Seton Hall, and St. John’s.
Arizona coach Sean Miller is an assistant on the U18 team, and the Wildcats are now in the market for another 2015 guard after Tyler Dorsey decommitted. It’s possible they could ramp up their interest in Briscoe, who has always been close to Arizona assistant Book Richardson.
Meantime, incoming Arizona freshman Stanley Johnson told SNY.tv that Briscoe was learning the subtleties of the point guard position from incoming Duke freshman Tyus Jones.
“Briscoe, he’s good,” Johnson said. “He’s a young guy. He’s trying to learn the point guard position and Tyus is helping him out with that and he’s just learning from everybody around him .”
Asked if was recruiting Briscoe to Arizona, Johnson said, “He’s my friend, I’m trying to help him out with everything he does.”
